Exploring Ethnobotany: Medicinal Discoveries from Nature

1. Medicine quest Mark Plotkin PhD President Amazon Conservation Team Arlington, VA

2. What is ethnobotany? Ethnobotany the study of how people of a particular culture and region make of use of indigenous plants the exploration of how plants are used for such things as food, shelter, medicine, clothing, hunting, and religious ceremonies Ethnobotanists record indigenous peoples’ knowledge of plants and apply scientific methods to determine how useful and accurate the information is identify and determine how to protect and sustainably harvest useful plants aim to preserve both the plant species and the knowledge that native people have about them for continued benefits to humanity

3. Medicine and botany Pharmacologists researching drugs were at one time required to understand the natural plant world, and physicians were schooled in plant-derived remedies. As modern medicine and drug research advanced, chemically synthesized drugs replaced plants as the source of most medicinal agents in industrialized countries. Research in plant sources continued and plants were still used as the basis for some drug development, but the dominant interest (and resulting research funding) shifted to the laboratory.

4. Drugs of natural sources Many of today's drugs have been derived from natural sources ancrod aspirin cylcosporin curare digitalis hirudin lipirudan morphine quinidine tirofiban ACE inhibitors

5. Medicine for malaria Quinine, from the dried bark of the cinchona tree (Cinchona officinalis), has been used for hundreds of years as a treatment for malaria. In the 1950s, physicians noticed that patients with malaria lost their cardiac arrhythmias when treated with quinine bark. A different alkaloid, quinidine, was found to induce this effect.

6. Medicine and wisdom With the incredible new biotechnology tools we now have, we are going to find new medicines from species we don't even have names for yet, and we can go back and find new compounds even from species that have been studied. Cordyceps fungus, the source of cyclosporin, makes transplant surgery possible. Cordyceps fungus has been extensively studied in terms of new compounds with potential for very different applications, and is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

7. Drug company interests Captopril had it's origin in snake venom. Until it went off patent recently, captopril was Bristol-Myers Squibb's most valuable drug — $1.6 billion a year. New chemicals can inspire the creation of chemicals or semi-synthetic chemicals that can lead to new medicines for things that can't be cured or for which the cure has nasty side effects.

8. Snake venom and ACE Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors were developed from a component of the venom from the Brazilian arrowhead viper Bothrops jaracusa. ACE converts an inactive precursor into the locally active hormone angiotensin, which causes blood vessels to constrict and hence raises blood pressure. Small peptides in the venom were found to prolong the action of the local hormone, bradykinin, which also dilates blood vessels. By pharmacologically blocking the activity of ACE, blood pressure can be reduced. The venom components block the ACE that inactivates bradykinin and activates angiotensin's precursor.

9. A case of type 2 diabetes The blood sugar level of a woman diagnosed by a physician as having adult-onset type 2 diabetes dropped from 536 to 136 mg/dL (29.8 to 7.5 mmol/L) after ingesting a shaman’s potion of 4 plants. The potion was administered 3 times a day for a week, once a month. The physician measured her blood sugar levels after treatment, which was clearly effective in this case. Laboratory study of the 4 component plants showed little or no ability to lower blood sugar in a significant way, but the 4 plants working together did lower blood sugar.

10. Bioprospecting Profit sharing vs profiteering Many of the large pharmaceutical companies have programs that involve seeking out plants. The history of this practice — rape and run — is no longer an accepted way of doing business. The new business model Compensation as a standard cost of doing business. Compensation is given not only to the natives, but to the host government, national government, and state government. Compensation is also given if a product is brought to market.

11. Rainforest destruction Rainforests are the richest, oldest, most productive and most complex ecosystems on Earth. Rainforests cover less than 2% of the Earth's surface. Global rates of rainforest destruction 2.4 acres (1 hectare) per second 149acres (60 hectares) per minute 214000 acres (86000 hectares) per day 78 million acres (31 million hectares) per year Myers N. Deforestation rates in tropical forests and their climatic implications. London UK: Friends of the Earth; 1989.

12. Loss of species diversity Rainforests are home to 40%–50% of all life forms on Earth — as many as 30 million species of plants, animals and insects. Species extinction It is estimated that an average of 137 species of life forms are driven into extinction every day, or 50 000 each year. Wilson EO. The diversity of life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1992.

13. 3 programs The Amazon Conservation Team The Ethnoecology Initiative works with indigenous peoples of Latin America to integrate traditional ecological knowledge and practices into local conservation strategies. The Indigenous Resource Conservation Initiative facilitates international exchange of ideas, experiences, and conservation and development alternatives among local peoples. The Shamans and Apprentices Program fosters partnerships between shamans and younger tribe members to develop the next generation of healers and environmental guardians by honoring the past and preparing them for the future.

14. The Yurayaco Declaration The Inganos of the Columbian Amazon were on the verge of extinction; their land had been degraded to a large degree, if not destroyed, by western intervention. The youth were not interested in the old ways and were entering the cocoa trade In June 1999, the Amazon Conservation Team sponsored the first-ever medicine man meeting — 42 of the most ancient and powerful Ingano shaman from 7 tribes got together to discuss the fate of their cultures and forests The result was the Yurayaco Declaration; 14 resolutions the concerning themedicinal plants of their territories and their culture

15. The best of both worlds Shamanistic medicine does not have all the answers. Western scienceallows usto understand shamanistic cultures, take the medicines out of these cultures and put them in a format that will work in the developed world. The goal is to take the best of western technology with the best of traditional medicine, and to preserve the native culture and ecosystem.

16. Pilot projects needed www.ethnobotany.org Pilot projects are needed to bring western technology and traditional medicine together. Physicians need to begin talking about the importance of biological and cultural diversity; environmentalists don't have the influence the medical community has to make this happen.