Originally published September 19 2005
Indigenous groups rely on plants and herbs for their medicine
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
While many modern medicines in the Western world are plant-derived, indigenous peoples in the world's forests have long relied on the medicinal properties of plants, and many of those plants are now at risk as the rain forests disappear.
The use of plants for medicinal purposes is especially prevalent among indigenous peoples -- the people of Southeast Asian forests used 6,500 species, while Northwest Amazonian forest dwellers used 1300 species for health purposes.
The yield from these efforts can be quite good -- a study in Samoa found that 86% of the plants used by local healers yielded biological activity in humans -- and the potential from such collaboration is huge with approximately one half of the anti-cancer drugs developed since the 1960s having been derived from plants.
Through the rigorous process of natural selection, plant species have been perfecting various chemical defenses to ensure survival over millions of years of evolution, and are proving to be an increasingly valuable reservoir of compounds and extracts of substantial medicinal merit.
Seventy percent of the plants identified as having anti-cancer characteristics by the National Cancer Institute in the United States are found in tropical rainforests and 25 percent of the drugs used by Western medicine are derived from rainforest plants.
Whatever the mechanism, evidence from Amazonian natives suggests that indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants can develop over a relatively short period of time.
One River touches on the history of ethnobotany in the Amazon along with a plethora of other topics, while Light at the Edge of the World: A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures presents photographs and stories from his 30 years of exploring the planet's most remote regions.
With all this promise surrounding plants, if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area you can't miss the "Nature's Pharmacy: The Healing Power of Plants" exhibit at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.
Upon entering the Conservatory you are immediately met with a the warm humidity of the lowland tropics exhibit.
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