Ethnobotany

[Michaelangelica]

Ethnobotany covers almost all of the forums here

Chemistry, Earth science, History, Biology Archeology, Psychology, Religion, Horticulture, Medicine, Law, Politics, Sociology, Antropology, Earth-sciences/environment

I need an "All of the Above" Forum to post this

 

This article saddened me

Post subject:

Ethnobotanist Richard Schultes - a eulogy

I didn't know he died.

 

Such a Great Man

 

Harvard is doing such great work in this area.

 

We (OZ)are doing nothing by comparison.

 

Sad on both counts

m

 

 

He Took It One Day At A Time

 

 

His Innovations Shed Light On Incandescence

 

 

Ethnobotanist Richard Schultes

 

BY CURT SCHLEIER

 

FOR INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

 

Posted 8/28/2006

 

Richard E. Schultes made respect his most important tool.

 

As an ethnobotanist, Schultes (1915-2001) explored the world of primitive cultures and how they use plants. He was considered the father of ethnobotany and helped isolate hundreds of natural compounds for use in modern medicine and industry.

To carry out his fieldwork, Schultes spent more than a decade — from 1941 to 1954 — in the Colombian Amazon. During that time, he collected more than 24,000 plant specimens and documented the use of more than 2,000 medicinal plants. He lived among more than a dozen tribes; for many, he was the first white man they'd seen.

 

It was respect — his for his hosts and theirs for him — that enabled Schultes to delve into their world. He forged close ties with these tribes and their shamans. "The hallmark of his work was his sympathy and sensitivity to the ways of life he encountered," Britain's Daily Telegraph noted in his obituary.

 

Schultes tells the story of an American missionary who contended that the Indians had no religion. He told her, "I differ with you," and went on to argue that their legends are as valid as those of Western society. "She wouldn't speak to me for the rest of the day," Schultes said.

 

The missionary was largely unsuccessful. His native hosts, however, received Schultes warmly.

 

"I do not believe in hostile Indians," Schultes told E.J. Kahn in The New Yorker. "All that is required to bring out their gentlemanliness is reciprocal gentlemanliness."

 

Up Close And Personal

 

To gain Indians' trust, Schultes lived with them. He brought few supplies — a change of clothing, camera, film, a hammock, blanket, machete and clippers for collecting plants. He also carried instant decaffeinated coffee and baked beans.

 

For food he preferred to rely on what his hosts offered. "This included the ground manioc roots that were their staple, fish, wild game, insect grubs, fruit and chica, a drink made from fruits chewed and fermented by spittle," said his obituary in The New York Times.

 

Because they respected him in return, the shamans were eager to share their medicinal secrets.

 

Schultes was born in Boston. He long had an interest in collecting plants, fostered by summers on an uncle's farm. Moreover, a digestive problem kept him from school when he was about 5 years old, and he listened, "enraptured," according to The New York Times, to excerpts of "Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and the Andes," a travel diary kept by 19th century British naturalist Richard Spruce.

 

Though he initially majored in pre-med at Harvard College, he took some botany courses and soon changed his major.

He first traveled to the Amazon in 1941 on a research grant to study curare. Used by Indians as a poison, it soon proved effective as a muscle relaxant during major surgery.

Schultes soon identified more than 70 plants from which the Indians extracted curare.

 

He was deep in the jungles when he heard about Pearl Harbor, and journeyed to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, expecting to be drafted.

But the government asked him to stay in the Amazon to research natural rubber because the Japanese had taken control of the Malaysian plantations that provided much of the world's supply at the time.

 

Schultes applied himself wholeheartedly to this new task. According to The New York Times, he "soon became the leading expert in the field, collecting and studying 3,500 specimens of hevea, the tree family that produces the latex from which rubber is made."

 

He was able to make the transition quickly because he refused to confine himself to a narrow specialty.

He crossed several disciplines, including botany, biology, chemistry and anthropology.

 

After the war, Schultes returned to ethnobotany and once again faced the enormity of his chosen task. There are at least 80,000 plant species in the Amazon, compared with only 1,900 in his native New England. When he arrived he had no idea where to begin.

 

"I never expected to see such a tangle of roots, vines, lianas going up to the tops of 100-foot trees," he told the Academy of Achievement. "It took me maybe six months to a year to get used to it."

 

At first it was difficult to resist the impulse to take everything. But he realized that would be counterproductive.

Sometimes a plant's just a plant. So he decided to prioritize. "What we should do is concentrate on those plants that people in these societies have found have some effect on the human body," he said.

 

Firsthand Info Gathering

 

To gather the best information, he talked to natives and their shamans and traveled from tribe to tribe.

Then he compared their responses. "If a plant is used over a wide area by people who have no contact with each other for the same or similar purpose, that is a plant that should be investigated chemically," he told the academy.

 

He looked beyond the obvious. Natives used bark containing rotenone to stun fish in the water. Schultes studied it and found it could be used safely as an insecticide because it was biodegradable — and broke down a few days after being applied.

 

Months at a time in the jungle kept him from the comforts of civilization and also exposed him to diseases — everything from conjunctivitis, which is common in the tropics, to malaria. He also suffered severe blood poisoning, and penicillin was not generally available. Because he loved his work, though, Schultes was undaunted by discomfort.

 

"I would consider being a bank teller behind a glass cage all day long would be far more difficult day after day after day than to be free in the jungle of the Amazon," he said. "Every day I might be able to find a species new to science . . . and this is one reason why it is an invigorating job. It's not a difficult job."

 

He took on the added role of environmentalist when he saw the impact of deforestation. "I think (the planet) is in great danger from the disruption of the forest," he told the academy. "The amount of pollution that our big cities in Europe and the United States put out cannot be purified by the temperate forests. . . . We need the dense tropical forests with many more trees per acre (that are working photosynthetically) 12 months a year."

 

He returned to Harvard in 1953 to teach biology. To ensure students' attention, he used artifacts from the Amazon, including opium pipes, demon masks and native costumes as teaching aids.

 

Then there were the pictures. One showed masked dancers in odd poses. "The one on the left has a Harvard degree," he said, quickly adding, "Next slide, please."

 

 

Investor's Business Daily: Register for FREE Research

[Ganoderma]

i didnt know he died...that is truely sad. i always liked to read his stuf fon plants. there is a book, you probably heard of, called One River which talks about Wade Davis explorations but also talks about Shultz.

[Michaelangelica]

i didnt know he died...that is truely sad. i always liked to read his stuf fon plants. there is a book, you probably heard of, called One River which talks about Wade Davis explorations but also talks about Shultz.

I don't know that one

I was introdced to him by one of his students who wrote

"The Shaman's Apprentice" a cross between a 007 novel and a gardening book!

 

I will look out for "One River" (Who wrote it?)

[Ganoderma]

Wade Davis. its a book about plant exploration in south america especially in respect to daturas. it has almost a full chapter on the peyote ritual shults took part in in southern usa. i really like the book, worth the. i also bought "serpent and the rainbow" by the same author but forgot it in canada :confused:

 

the library will have both.

[Michaelangelica]

Thanks to maikeru for this excellent article.

Review of antiviral and immunomodulating properties of plants of the peruvian rainforest with a particular emphasis on una de gato and sangre de grado Alternative Medicine Review - Find Articles

 

I know of Richard Schultes, James Duke (7) and Mark Plotkin. (8) all great ethnobotanists.

Duke has a great phytochemical on-line FREE data base; and has written many very technical books on herbs (and some wonderfully lousy poetry/songs).

He has written one popular herbal which is very sane and well worth having in your library.

For lucky people in the N. Hemisphere he runs enthnobotanical tours of the Amazon which would be wonderful (but take your own music).

 

Plotkin, from Harvard, is the youngest and I loved his book "The Shaman's Apprentice" about plant hunting in the Amazon. It reads like a cross between a gardening book and a 007!

Harvard Uni is trying to set up a scheme where the indigenous knowledge of the Shaman is passed down; as this is not happening in the modern world.

Plotkin, a highly trained botanist himself, says that when one of these old Shaman die it is like a medieval library going up in flames.:)

Amazonian Ethnobotany

 

The Amazonian region of northwestern Peru is among the earth's richest zones of biodiversity. It includes plants, animals, insects, as well as microbial organisms, and is one of nature's perfect evolutionary laboratories for plant biology.

Ethnobotany has a long and distinguished history throughout the Amazon basin and its tributaries. Richard Evans Schultes (1915-2001), a tireless supporter of Amazonian ethnobotany, (5) began his investigation in the northwestern Amazon in 1941. (6)

In previous centuries much of our knowledge of Amazonian flora is credited to Alexander von Humboldt of Germany (1769-1859) and Richard Spruce of England (1849-1863), as well as to Henry Hurd Rusby of Columbia University (1885-1928). Contemporary authorities on Amazonian ethnobotany include James Duke (7) and Mark Plotkin. (8)

 

Natural Product Selection

 

There are two ways natural products are selected for investigation.

The classical method is laboratory based and relies on previous taxonomic findings, phytochemical factors, immunopharmacological studies, and random screening methods.

The other, which is gaining popularity among investigators, is searching traditional texts and herbal medicine usage, including oral interviews with traditional indigenous healers -- the ethnobotanical route. (9,10)

 

In one study, researchers found that an ethnobotanically driven approach led to a higher percentage of active compounds isolated than the standard high volume random screening method, reporting a 125-630 times more effective yield depending on the type of virus, (11) In another screening, 207 plants were tested for antiviral activity with 64 percent showing in vitro activity, 42 percent with strong activity. (12)

 

PS

. . . after 250 or so years of cataloguing and describing the plant kingdom we do not yet have a reasonably accurate estimate of the total number of flowering plant species, threatened or not, on Earth.

We just do not know how large the world’s flora is!

We do not even have a list of plant species.

How many plant species are there?

[Michaelangelica]

What a great opportunity!

Internships

 

Internships lasting three months are available in the Centre for Economic Botany (CEB).

 

We are currently involved in a wide range of research topics relating to useful plants, focusing on the United Kingdom and on the world's tropical arid and semi-arid regions. An internship here offers the opportunity to gain experience in aspects of economic botany and ethnobotany relating to collections, taxonomy and information retrieval and dissemination.

BioJobs: Internships

[Michaelangelica]

This is a big issue in ethnobotany. Should the traditional users of the plants get something from their knowledge

or

should the USA firm who isolated the active ingredient/gene get the patent and all the profits.

 

Peruvian Root in Bioprospecting Dispute

 

[January 7, 2007, 1:22 pm]

"(AP) Peruvian Root in Bioprospecting Dispute"

 

By RICK VECCHIO

Associated Press Writer

JUNIN, Peru

 

In a small storefront on a bleak, wind-swept Andean plateau, Timotea Cordova offers an oxygen-deprived visitor a traditional elixir to ward off the breathless effect of the high altitude.

 

Dropping a few shriveled tuber roots into a blender, the 80-year-old, Quechua Indian shopkeeper promises with a playful glance that the concoction will also provide a leg up later in the bedroom.

 

For hundreds of years, Quechua Indians have grown maca, the frost-resistant root that thrives in these frigid Andean highlands,...

...to boost stamina and sex drive. The root, they believe, is nature's bounty and belongs to everyone and to no one in particular.

 

Maca growers and indigenous organizations were outraged when, in 2001, a New Jersey-based company, PureWorld Botanicals, received a U.S. patent for exclusive commercial distribution of an extract of maca's active libido-enhancing compounds that it branded as MacaPure.

 

Peruvian officials called the patent an "emblematic case" of biopiracy and are preparing to challenge it in U.S. courts.

 

The maca dispute is just the latest collision between indigenous peopleand commercial interests over so-called biological prospecting, the growing practice of scouring the globe for exotic plants, microbes and other living things ripe for commercial exploitation.

 

Bioprospecting has huge potential for good, say researchers who go to sea, climb mountains and trek to obscure corners of the world in search of exotic and undiscovered life.

 

A 2005 U.N. University report concluded that 62 percent of all cancer drugs were created from bioprospecting discoveries.

 

The venom of a deadly sea snail found off the coast of the Philippines led Elan Pharmaceuticals Inc.to develop the painkiller Prialt, which U.S. regulators approved in 2004. The key ingredient in the breast cancer drug Taxol owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is taken from the bark of the yew tree, and Wyeth's kidney transplant drug Rapamune comes from Easter Island soil.

 

But bioprospecting is mostly unregulated and there are mounting calls to establish legal frameworks for such work.

 

The Convention on Biological Diversity produced at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro entitled nations to a share of the profits from substances yielded by their flora and fauna. It was ratified by 188countries _ but not the United States, which argues that such a requirement stifles innovation and would undermine the patent system.

. . .

The specter of biopiracy in Peru dates back to the 1630s, when Jesuit priests took bark from the Peruvian cinchona tree _ the original source of quinine _ back to Europe, where it was hailed as a miracle cure for malaria.

 

Peru never got wealthy from the discovery.

 

Cinchona seeds were smuggled by the Dutch from Peru in the 19th century and planted in Java. Indonesia became the world's primary source of quinine.

 

The image of the cinchona tree was put on the Peruvian flag _ a constant reminder of Peru's unrewarded contribution to one of the most important breakthroughs in medical history.

(AP)

Peruvian Root in Bioprospecting Dispute | WKRN.COM

 

Maca growers and indigenous organizations were outraged when, in 2001, a New Jersey-based company, PureWorld Botanicals, received a US patent for exclusive commercial distribution of an extract of maca's active libido-enhancing compounds that it branded as MacaPure.

 

Peruvian officials called the patent an "emblematic case" of biopiracy and are preparing to challenge it in US courts.

 

The maca dispute is just the latest collision between indigenous people and commercial interests over so-called biological prospecting, the growing practice of scouring the globe for exotic plants, microbes, and other living things ripe for commercial exploitation.

Dowbrigade News: Dowbrigade News

[Michaelangelica]

Interesting article on consciousness and how plants can give insight into this concept/state.

Alto das Estrelas

Summary of Benny Shanon´s book on Ayahuasca

The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience

Oxford University Press (2002)

 

Summary

 

Practically all the scientific research on Ayahuasca falls into two categories. The first is that of the natural sciences - botany and ethnobotany, pharmacology, biochemistry and brain physiology; the second is that of the social sciences - notably cultural anthropology. The disciplines of the first category set themselves to determine the identity of the plants of which Ayahuasca is made, analyze the active chemical constituents in them, and discover the pharmacological action these generate and the physiological effects they produce in human beings. Anthropologists, in their turn, study how Ayahuasca is used in various societies and groups. They record the rituals--religious or medicinal--in which the brew is consumed and the behavior of the people who participate in them. They also study how Ayahuasca and its rituals are related to various other facets of the cultures at hand - their social structure, mythologies, music, religious beliefs, art and artifacts.

 

The research presented in this book is grounded in the assessment that the real puzzles associated with Ayahuasca pertain neither to the brain nor to culture but rather to the human psyche. It seems to me that the reason this brew is so intriguing has to do with the extraordinary subjective experiences it generates in people's minds. As such, the study of Ayahuasca belongs first and foremost to the domain of psychology, and more specifically cognitive psychology - that is, with that scientific discipline which is engaged in the empirical and theoretical study of the mental life of human beings.

[Michaelangelica]

Don't know why this old article popped up on my google alert

http://www.herbalgram.org/new-chapter/herbalgram/articleview.asp?a=316

Conservation and Tropical Medicinal Plant Research.

 

 

HerbalGram. 1992;27:28-35 � American Botanical Council

 

Introduction/Summary

 

People in the tropical forests of the world have utilized plants as part of their primary health care systems for millennia. In the New World tropics, archaeological remains of plants utilized as medicine have been dated to 8,000 B.C. This human/plant/medical interdependence continues today for at least 80% of the world's population.

 

Systems of medicinal plant knowledge and tropical forest ecosystems are being erased at an unprecedented and unacceptable rate. The loss of this biocultural diversity is producing the greatest immediate impact on the people of the tropical forest and this will have a negative effect on the entire global population as we search for treatments for new disease such as AIDS (Schultes, 1991).

 

Plants used as medicine are often the most accessible and the clergy appropriate therapy for a wide variety of health problems. Plant-derived medicines are commonly employed to treat fevers, fungal infections, burns, gastrointestinal problems, pain, respiratory problems, wounds, as antidotes to toxic organism, and for many other health problems. Indigenous and local people often cultivate and transplant wild medicinal plants in and around their homes and villages.

 

A significant proportion of the urban populations in tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America depend on plants as therapeutic agents on a daily basis. Increasing numbers of people in rural and urban tropical areas are educating visiting researchers about the spiritual value, to both individuals and communities, of tropical forest biosystems and plants (Balick, 1990).

 

One of the primary causes of tropical forest loss is poverty. People seeking to feed, clothe, and care for their families often have few viable alternatives, except clearing new areas of forests every 2-3 years, or clearing land for large landowners. Without reasonable economic alternatives both protected areas such as national parks and unprotected tropical forests will continue to be destroyed.

:bouquet:

Today I got my copy of the American Herb Society's "The Herbarist"

(A 'herbarist' is someone interested in ALL aspects of herbs-like me)

As usual, a beautifully produced and informative (annual) magazine.

 

The Herbarist has an article on Harvard's Glass Flowers which I mentioned before (somewhere)

It sounds even more remarkable than I thought

There are 4,300 botanical glass models representing 840 species and 170 plant families !

It must be quite a show.

I would love to see it.

:bouquet:

[InfiniteNow]

The Herbarist has an article on Harvard's Glass Flowers which I mentioned before (somewhere)

It sounds even more remarkable than I thought

There are 4,300 botanical glass models representing 840 species and 170 plant families !

It must be quite a show.

I would love to see it[/b].

:bouquet:

Well, here's a little teaser for you and the rest of our members:

 

HMNH Exhibitions

Harvard Museum of Natural History -- Special Exhibition: Modeling Nature

 

:bouquet:

[Michaelangelica]

 

"Long before it's in the papers"

March 19, 200

 

Traditional plant knowledge gives health boost: study7

 

March 19, 2007

Courtesy PNAS

and World Science staff

sorry can't be posted too many *s

 

Send us a comment on this story, or send it to a friend

Traditional plant knowledge gives health boost: study

[Michaelangelica]

Ethnoecologist awarded Killam Research Fellowship

 

by Valerie Shore

Turner

 

Turner at Hartley Bay showing some crab apples.

 

What patterns of ecological knowledge lie buried in the traditional ways that Indigenous Peoples perceive, use and care for the natural resources around them?

 

Dr. Nancy Turner (environmental studies) will spend the next two years finding out. She’s one of 10 Canadian researchers recently awarded a prestigious Killam Research Fellowship for 2007

The Ring: March 2007 - Ethnoecologist awarded Killam Research Fellowship

 

 

I want to have a deeper scientific knowledge of the properties of plants and how they can be utilized. Ethnobotany is really fascinating to me, but I almost want to put that knowledge towards a non research application. This has brought me to....med school.

Who What When Where Why: new twist

 

water_mage: Have I mention how much I love ethnobota

Have I mention how much I love ethnobotany?

 

Monday, March 12, 2007

Cactus Species for Herbal Remedy

 

Opuntia ficus-indica (Indian Fig Opuntia) is a species of cactus and a long-domesticated crop plant important in agricultural economies throughout arid and semiarid parts of the world. Opuntia ficus-indica is a crop species that figures prominently in the modern folklore of ethnobotany. Opuntia ficus-indica, one of several long-domesticated cactus species, is the most widespread and economically important of these cactus crops, as important as corn and tequila agave in the agricultural economy of modern Mexico.

 

Opuntia ficus-indica is used in numerous ways. In modern times, first and foremost, O. ficus-indica is grown for the large, sweet fruits, called tunas, which are available in local and commercial markets worldwide. Opuntia ficus-indica (along with other Opuntia and Nopalea species) has been grown from pre-Columbian times as a host plant for cochineal insects (Dactylopius coccus) for the production of valuable, vivid red and purple dyes.

HERBAL MEDICINE: Cactus Species for Herbal Remedy

If this is "Prickly pear" it is a noxious weed in Oz after taking over half of WA

I have seen the fruit in some shops but don't see the point to them.

Though This was interesting

Opuntia ficus indica, a type of prickly pear cactus reduces hangover symptoms

]Opuntia ficus indica, a type of prickly pear cactus reduces hangover symptoms[/b]

Medical Research News

Published: Tuesday, 29-Jun-2004

Print - Opuntia ficus indica, a type of prickly pear cactus reduces hangover symptoms Printer Friendly Email - Opuntia ficus indica, a type of prickly pear cactus reduces hangover symptoms

 

Individuals who took a dietary supplement containing extracts of Opuntia ficus indica, a type of prickly pear cactus, before consuming alcohol, had reduced symptoms of alcohol hangover compared to individuals who drank but took placebo, according to an article in the June 28 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Wild and Rare Fruit Trees as New Crops for Desert Areas

New Crop Studies in Israel/Australian New Crops Newsletter

 

 

http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/Ethnobotany/index.html

Ethnobotany

 

General Background Material

 

* What is Ethnobotany?

 

* Classification of Plants

 

Central and South American Articles

 

* Medicines

 

* Foods

 

* Tubers

 

Classroom Activities

 

* Ethnobotanicals

[Ganoderma]

i have heard that about opuntia as a hangover paltn as well...but not sure how true it is...some people swear by it. i grow it for a grafting stock for other cacti personally.

 

All i gotta say about australia is, if you dont want a pest species stop introducing so many damned pests ;) i mean, really! (joking :D)

[Michaelangelica]

i have heard that about opuntia as a hangover paltn as well...but not sure how true it is...some people swear by it. i grow it for a grafting stock for other cacti personally.

 

All i gotta say about australia is, if you dont want a pest species stop introducing so many damned pests :eek: i mean, really! (joking :))

The worst are those bloody thin Afghanis and others of "Middle Eastern Appearance" who drift in in their leaky, rotting boats!

But now we put them in attractive detention centers on other pacific islands for a long holiday so even if they got here they haven't really because they are not here so they can't apply to stay. Develisly clever really!

The bludgers should know that any real refugee comes by plane and preferably under the Business Migration Scheme!:)

[Michaelangelica]

Traditional plant knowledge gives health boost: study

Traditional plant knowledge gives health boost: study

 

March 19, 2007

[Ganoderma]

HAHA, i was thinking more laong the lines of insescts, amphibians, mammals etc..not people :D then again it was "your" people who wanted the cain toad in the first place. people always messin with nature, look where it got us. The opuntia introductin was a good move as well :) i shouldn't talk though. the introduction of chinese to taiwan has led to an island city that is far beyond repair.

[Michaelangelica]

the introduction of chinese to taiwan has led to an island city that is far beyond repair.

One day it could be a 'beautiful island' again.

It just takes someone to start.

 

Look at some of the Australian "land care" groups and "Clean Up Australia day" to see what one person can do.

 

We sell the stuffed cane toads, in tasteful poses (playing golf etc), to Taiwanese tourists.