Table 3. Citation percentage of the criteria used by the Carão community, northeastern Brazil, that justify the overlapping use of modern medicine and medicinal plants in the same treatment.

Criteria	Criteria meaning based on the information provided by the participants in the research	Number of citations	%
Ensure healing	The combination ensures the expected effect, because if one of the treatments fails, the other can work.	164	54
Synergistic effect	The addition of treatments accelerates healing.	38	12
Availability	Any of the treatments can be used, either together or separately, depending only on the availability of the plant and/or the modern medicines during the disease event.	25	8
Local indication	The use of the medicinal plant is advised by someone in the community, but the participant continues to use modern medicine because he or she considers it more effective.	25	8
Use of modern medicines at critical times	The plant is the most used treatment for the disease; however, in the worst cases, modern medicine is used in combination.	16	5
Experimentation	The combination of treatments is considered an efficiency test of the treatments to choose the best one to use in a future disease event.	14	5
Plant as a prophylactic	The plant is used to prevent disease. When a participant is affected by the disease, he or she begins to use modern medicine but continues to use the plant.	12	4
Medical indication	The use of modern medicine follows a doctor appointment, but the participant continues to use the plant because the medicinal plant is considered more effective.	9	3
Use of medicinal plants at critical times	Modern medicine is the most used treatment for the disease; however, in the worst cases, a medicinal plant is used in combination.	2	1
Total		305	100

Criteria: were generated by the researcher interpretations of the information provided by the participants during the interviews.