Ethnobotany Essay Research Paper Ethnobotany is the

Ethnobotany Essay, Research Paper

Ethnobotany is the study of how people of a particular culture and region make use of indigenous plants. Cultures have been using the environment around them for thousands of years. The use of plants were mentioned in the Code of Hammurabi in Babylon circa 1770 BC. The ancient Egyptians believed that plants had medicinal powers in the afterlife of the pharaohs (King and Veilleux WWW). Indigenous cultures of the rainforests and other areas still use plants today in their everyday lives. If plants work to help these cultures, should not they be researched to help the rest of the world.

Many jungles and rainforests contain unexplored species of plants that could contain medicinal uses. Ethnobotanists explore how plants are used for things, such as food, shelter, clothing, hunting, and religious ceremonies. These scientists spend long hours of hard time in the field doing research of these plants (King and Veilleux WWW).

Ethnobotanists are usually biologists that have had additional graduate training. They may have had training in things such as archeology, chemistry, ecology, anthropology, linguistics, history, pharmacology, sociology, religion, or mythology. With these skills, they can look at more than just the plant. They look at the culture and the resource of it (King and Veilleux WWW).

There are many ethnobotanists that have helped to bring ethnomedicine to the United States. Each Ethnobotanist has their own unique way of researching cultures and plant species. The following Ethnobotanists are prominent figures in their field of research.

Paul Alan Cox took his first trip in to the jungle in 1973, on a mission as a Mormon. He later got his Ph.D. at Harvard and taught at Brigham Young University. In 1984, Cox’s mother died and he became determined to find a cure for cancer. So later that year, he returned to Samoa with his family in order to continue his research. His research has led to the development of five drugs, now in different levels of development. The one closest to approval is a drug called Prostratin, which inhibits the growth of HIV. Besides working in the field, Cox is the Director of National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii, where he studies and preserves endangered plant species. He is also King Carl XVI Gustaf Professor of Environmental Science in Sweden, where he researches and records Swedish healing plants (Gerber and Marandino WWW).

Michael Balick received his Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University. His fieldwork there inspired him to go into ethnobotany. “I was absolutely fascinated by the diversity, the magnitude, the splendor, and the way in which the indigenous people related to their environment.” Balick is currently Director of the Institute at the New York Botanical Garden and he teaches graduate courses and co-directs a woman’s health program at Columbia University (Gerber and Marandino WWW).

Four months out of every year Balick leaves home to go to Brazil, Belize, the South Pacific, and Southeast Asia to learn from the local people. He would like to set up a facility in Micronesia to gain the knowledge of traditional healing. A team of botanists, physicians, and healers would collect plant samples and then analyze them for healing properties. Balick has already established a facility like this in Central America (Gerber and Marandino WWW).

Rosita Arvigo and her husband worked as naprapaths and had their own healing practice in Belize, but in 1985 she met with Maya Shaman, Don Elijio Panti and changed the course of her career. When Arvigo met Don Elijio Panti he was over 90 years old and did not have an apprentice. Without an apprentice, all of his knowledge would be lost forever. Arvigo begged Elijio to take her on as his apprentice for over a year before he finally agreed, but told her that she must stay indefinitely. She studied with him for the next 10 years. They spent days at a time in the rainforest and he taught her about the plants and the Maya belief of spiritual healing. Together they treated the Shaman’s large list of clients, many of them living with Elijio for months (Gerber and Marandino WWW).

One day in 1991 Don Elijio Panti was telling Arvigo how the forest used to be ten minutes from his hut, and now it was a two hour hike to get there because of the destruction of the forest. Arvigo came up with an idea to keep the plants safe from destruction. The plants would be harvested and made in to medicical tinctures. The tinctures last seven times longer than dried herbs because of the humidity. From this plan resulted a company called Rainforest Remedies. Rainforest Remedies produces a collection of nine different formulas based on the knowledge and research of Don Elijio Panti and Arvigo. The remedies treat ailments such as back pain, PMS symptoms, stomachache, colds, and flu. Half of the profits from Rainforest Remedies go to the Belize Traditional Healers Foundation to fund local healers (Gerber and Marandino WWW).

Besides running the business of Rainforest Remedies, Arvigo and her husband have established a six thousand acres plant sanctuary, where visitors can see the healing plants up close. She likes to share her knowledge as much as possible. Arvigo has seminars in both Belize and the United States about herbs and shares the teachings of Don Elijio Panti with the local healers (Gerber and Marandino WWW).