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Ethnobotany Old and New. Ginseng root – Panax pseudoginseng. Foxglove – Digitalis purpurea. Foxglove may be useful as a way to cure people of “grosse and slimie flegme and naughtie humors” – from Gerard’s Herbal - 1597. Foxglove. William Withering - holding a foxglove.
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Foxglove –Digitalis purpurea • Foxglove may be useful as a way to cure people of “grosse and slimie flegme and naughtie humors” – from Gerard’s Herbal - 1597
William Withering - holding a foxglove
Withering’s work on Foxglove • Began experiments with foxglove in 1775 - Withering had heard about an old family cure for dropsy – from “an old woman from Shropshire” • 156 tests conducted over 9 years • Reported his findings in a paper published in 1785, “An Account of the Foxglove and Some of its Medical Uses” • Powdered foxglove leaf is still prescribed in tablets or capsules to treat congestive heart failure • The somewhat crude powdered drug is called Digitalis after the plant • Foxglove produces more than 30 different cardiac glycosides - two in particular - Digoxin and Digitoxin are produced from foxglove and prescribed to heart patients around the world today
Linneaus in Sami clothing
Pinguicula – insectivorous plant, enzyme used to curdle milk
Linneaus pioneered techniques that are basic to ethnobotanists practicing today 1. He traveled alone or with only a few companions to distant lands with a minimum of gear 2. In the field Linneaus ate indigenous foods and learned to use plants as the indigenous people used them 3. Linneaus developed a deep rapport with the people he lived with and studied
After Linneaus – great age of botanical exploration • Linneaus’s students • Peter Kalm explored North America • Frederick Hasselquist – the Middle East • Pehr Osbeck – China • Daniel Solander – around the world with Captain Cook
Other botanical explorers – 19th century • Alexander van Humboldt – the Amazon • Aime Bonpland – Mexico, Columbia, Orinoco and Amazon Rivers, Paraguay, Argentina • Alfred Russell Wallace – 4 years in Amazonia, 8 years in Malay Archipelago • Joseph Hooker – Ceylon, Himalayas, Antarctica, Palestine, Morocco, directed Royal Botanic Gardens Kew • Richard Spruce – 17 years Amazon and Andes
Richard Schultes, Kiowa Roadman Belo Kozad, and Weston La Barre – 1936, Oklahoma
Two Great Challenges for Ethnobotanists Today 1. We still must catalog what is known about plants, document which plants are and are not important to a society, and record the vast amount of folk beliefs about different plant species.
Two Great Challenges for Ethnobotanists Today 2. An even more difficult task is to understand not just how a particular group uses plants but how that group perceives plants, how it interprets those perceptions, how those perceptions influence the behavior of that society, and how those activities and behaviors influence the plants and ecosystem upon which the society depends.
Ethnobotanical Methods Researchers and Informants in Bolivia
William Withering and foxglove as a modern medicine
Basic Working Method in Ethnobotany • Folk knowledge of a plant’s possible benefit to humans accumulates. • Indigenous people use that plant to benefit themselves • The folk knowledge is then related to a scientist • The scientist collects and identifies the plant • The scientist tests the plant to determine if it really is beneficial to humans. The form of the scientific test can vary significantly depending upon the potential use of the plant – whether as food, fiber, a dye, medicine, etc. • The scientist will attempt to determine what exactly makes the plant beneficial - what substance or aspect of the plant is beneficial. • The scientist determines the structure of the pure substance
Rhubarb – Rheum x. cultorum Edible stems, deadly toxic leaves
Rhubarb toxicity • The leaves contain calcium oxalate and oxalic acid • Both compounds are nephrotoxic and corrosive
Basic Working Method in Ethnobotany • Folk knowledge of a plant’s possible benefit to humans accumulates. • Indigenous people use that plant to benefit themselves • The folk knowledge is then related to a scientist • The scientist collects and identifies the plant • The scientist tests the plant to determine if it really is beneficial to humans. The form of the scientific test can vary significantly depending upon the potential use of the plant – whether as food, fiber, a dye, medicine, etc. • The scientist will attempt to determine what exactly makes the plant beneficial - what substance or aspect of the plant is beneficial. • The scientist determines the structure of the pure substance
Study of the on-going process of domestication 1. Informant interviews – especially about desired traits, planting methods, methods of selection for breeding or seed stock. 2. Participant observation 3. Collection of native texts 4. Field observations – grain, fruit, or vegetable measurements; altitude, temperature, varietal flowering and maturation rates; mapping locations and distances to fields from farm or village; soil and vegetative analysis of sample fields at various stages of crop-fallow cycle.
Phytoanthropology • Phytoanthropology examines the extent of similarities and differences in the responses of various human communities to their plant neighbors, and the reasons for these human responses.
