Ethnobotany

I

Introduction

Ethnobotany, the study of the interaction between plants and people, with a particular emphasis on traditional tribal cultures. Ethnobotany is a branch of botany, the study of plants, and is closely related to cultural anthropology, the study of human societies. An important branch of ethnobotany called economic botany focuses on the commercial use of plants, especially in industrialized societies.

The botanical wisdom of tribal shamans, healers, and plant experts often plays a decisive role in demonstrating which plants might be developed as sources of food or medicine. Ethnobotanists focus their studies on the plant lore of tribal peoples for several reasons. These groups are often both highly dependent on and extraordinarily knowledgeable about local plants. They also tend to live in ecosystems, such as tropical rain forests or subtropical deserts, which the outside world poorly understands. Because rapid economic and cultural change increasingly threaten the traditional lifestyles of these peoples, ethnobotanists seek to record and preserve orally transmitted knowledge in danger of being forgotten. They also seek to work with tribal elders to transmit their knowledge to younger members of their tribe.

Ethnobotanical study of traditional plant lore has resulted in many valuable discoveries, ranging from new methods for cultivating crops on arid lands to new medicines for the treatment of disease. Ethnobotanical research has led to the development of many commercial plant-derived drugs. These include quinine for malaria from the South American cinchona tree, podophyllotoxin for cancer from the North American mayapple, and physostigmine for glaucoma from the African Strophanthus vine.

II

Ethnobotany in History

Ethnobotany is part of an ancient tradition of seeking information about beneficial plants from other cultures. The rulers of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome encouraged ethnobotanical exploration. In ad 77 Roman physician Pedanius Dioscorides published De Materia Medica, a compilation of botanical information gathered on his travels with the Roman armies. This book was used as a medical text until the Middle Ages.

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In the 18th century, Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish biologist who invented the modern system of botanical classification, traveled to Saamiland to study the Saami people. He lived with the people as a member of their tribe, wearing their clothes, sharing their food, and studying the plants they used. In the 19th century, British explorer and ethnobotanist Richard Spruce spent 17 years in the Amazon and Andes regions of South America. He discovered hundreds of new plant species and conducted important research on plants used as hallucinogens for religious purposes by Amazonian tribes. Spruce also collected specimens of the cinchona tree that were later used to establish quinine plantations in Southeast Asia.

Richard Evans Schultes, former director emeritus of the Harvard Botanical Museum, was the dominant figure in ethnobotany in the latter half of the 20th century. Schultes was an authority on such useful plants as coca, palms, orchids, and rubber. Beginning in the 1930s Schultes conducted research among Native American tribes in North, Central, and South America. His studies of the mushroom used by the Mazatec peoples of southern Mexico led to the development of the heart drug Visken.

III

Contemporary Trends

Today ethnobotany is in the midst of a renaissance. This revival reflects increasing concern about the disappearance of the rain forests and the tribal cultures inhabiting them. Facing new diseases for which there is no known cure and ancient diseases that have grown resistant to drugs, scientists have broadened the quest for new medicines. This search includes the development of synthetic drugs in the laboratory as well as the discovery of new plant-based medicines. Bristol-Myers Squibb, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, has launched ethnobotanically oriented drug development projects in both Africa and South America. Other large drug manufacturers are expected to follow suit.

However, the fact that indigenous people have seldom shared in the profits gained from ethnobotanically derived drugs has made them leery of sharing information with researchers. Protecting the intellectual property rights (IPR) of indigenous people, as well as determining how they can and should be compensated, is of growing concern. These complicated issues have also led to an increased focus on the study of noncommercial aspects of indigenous wisdom regarding the plant world.

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