OCORRÊNCIA DE ENDOPARASITAS EM ALFACE (LACTUCA SATIVA L.) COMERCIALIZADA NO BRASIL: UMA REVISÃO DA LITERATURA

Introduction: Vegetables are one of the main means of contamination by endoparasites, both in urban and rural areas, as they represent a serious public health problem due to precarious sanitary conditions. To the detriment of the high incidence of ingestion of raw vegetables (in natura), adequate hygiene is necessary to reduce the risk of exposing a large portion of the population to contamination by pathogenic microorganisms and endoparasites, since the main source of contamination is due to poor sanitary conditions since the propagation medium points to the poor hygienic-sanitary conditions in the irrigation of vegetables, in the planting in contaminated soil and in the inadequate handling of these leafy vegetables. This study aimed to review the literature regarding the occurrence of intestinal parasites in lettuce sold in Brazilian territory, in addition to the most effective methods for the cleaning. A review was carried out bibliographic review, where the qualitative theme "Parasitological analysis of Lactuca Sativa L" was considered, in which a description of the context of studies in scientific databases such as SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online), Google Scholar, Central BioMed, and PubMed was considered. (US National Library of medicine). A high positivity of helminths and protozoa was verified in the lettuce samples analyzed in the articles the most frequent being the group of Entamoebas spp., followed by Ascaris, Ancilostomídeo, Gardia lamblia, Strongyloides and Toxocara spp respectively.