|
Medicinal Plant Knowledge
One of the most amazing aspects of tribal peoples is their boundless knowledge of medicinal plants, but even more
remarkable is how they could have acquired such knowledge. There are more than 100,000 plant species in tropical rainforests
around the globe, how did indigenous peoples know what plants to use and combine, especially when so many are either
poisonous or have no effect when ingested. Many treatments combine a wide variety of completely unrelated innocuous
plant ingredients to produce a dramatic effect. Some like curare of the Amazon are orally inactive, but when administered
to muscle tissue are lethal.
No one knows how this knowledge was derived. Most say trial and error. Indians say the knowledge was bestowed upon
them by spirits of the rainforest. Whatever the mechanism, evidence from Amazonian natives suggests that indigenous
knowledge of medicinal plants can develop over a relatively short period of time.
Ethnobotanists studying medicinal plant use by recently contacted tribes like the Waorani of Ecuador and the Yanomani
of Brazil and Venezuela reported a relatively limited and highly selective use of medicinal plants. They had plants
for treating fungal infections, insect and snake bites, dental ailments, parasites, pains, and traumatic injuries.
Their repertoire did not include plants to treat any Western diseases. In contrast, indigenous groups that have
had a history of continuing contact with the outside world have hundreds of medicinal plants used for a wide range
of conditions. It seems that after contact, in response to the introduction of Western diseases, these tribes accelerated
their experimentation with medicinal plants. This notion contradicts the idea that indigenous knowledge of medicinal
plants was accumulated slowly, over hundreds of years.
More on medicinal drugs derived from rainforest plants.
Recent news on medicinal plants
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Continued: People of the Rainforest
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|
|
