Memory Elvin-Lewis

Medical botany : plants affecting man's health

Proprietary Registered and Trademark Names and Owners. Preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Introduction. 2. Complementary and Alternative Medicine. PART I: INJURIOUS PLANTS. 3. Internal Poisons. 4. Immune System and Cell Modifiers. 5. Allergies. PART II: REMEDIAL PLANTS. 6. Cancer. 7. Musculoskeletal System. 8. Peripheral Nervous System. 9. Heart and Circulation. 10. Metabolism. 11. Sensory Organs: Eye and Ear. 12. Oral Hygiene. 13. Gastrointestinal Tract. 14. Respiratory System. 15. Urogenital System. 16. Skin. 17. Deterrents: Antibiotics, Antiseptics, Pesticides, and Herbicides. 18. Panaceas, Adaptogens, and Tonics. PART III: PSYCHOACTIVE PLANTS. 19. Central Nervous System and Psychiatry. 20. Stimulants. 21. Hallucinogens. 22. Depressants. Appendix A: Outline Classification of Plants. Appendix B: Bibliography of Traditional and Herbal Medicine and Ethnobotany. Glossary. Index.

Indigenous people incorporated? Culture as politics, culture as property in pharmaceutical bioprospecting. Commentaries. Author's reply

The ongoing debate over indigenous claims to intellectual and cultural property reveals a series of indigenous strategies of mobilization that both appropriate from and work against the logic of the market. Of particular significance in this regard are the various indigenous strategies used in contemporary pharmaceutical bioprospecting activities to address claims to traditional medical knowledge as cultural property. This article presents field data on a controversial ethnopharmaceutical project among the Aguaruna of Perus high forest and offers a comparative analysis of the outcomes with attention to several other cases in and beyond South America. In particular, questions are raised about the forms of legitimating authority in the burgeoning international indigenous movement, the role of NGOs, researchers, bureaucracies, and corporations in this process, and the dilemmas that emerge from the politicization and privatization of indigenous culture and identity.The ongoing debate over indigenous claims to intellectual and cultural property reveals a series of indigenous strategies of mobilization that both appropriate from and work against the logic of the market. Of particular significance in this regard are the various indigenous strategies used in contemporary pharmaceutical bioprospecting activities to address claims to traditional medical knowledge as cultural property. This article presents field data on a controversial ethnopharmaceutical project among the Aguaruna of Perus high forest and offers a comparative analysis of the outcomes with attention to several other cases in and beyond South America. In particular, questions are raised about the forms of legitimating authority in the burgeoning international indigenous movement, the role of NGOs, researchers, bureaucracies, and corporations in this process, and the dilemmas that emerge from the politicization and privatization of indigenous culture and identity.

Chewing Stick Usage in Southern Ghana

Results are presented from a survey in which a sample of 887 people living in southern Ghana were questioned as to the chewing sticks they use, reasons for choice, and whether sticks are collected or bought. It appears that four kinds of sticks account for more than 85% of the total usage. Differences were recorded in preferred species and in diversity of species used, reason for choice and source of supply, according to age, sex, ethnic origin, size of settlement and educational background.

Ritualistic use of the holly Ilex guayusa by Amazonian Jivaro Indians

In Amazonian Peru and Ecuador leaf decoctions of the rainforest holly Ilex guayusa with high caffeine concentrations are used as a morning stimulant. After daily ingestion, ritualistic vomiting by male Achuar Indians, better known as Jívaros, reduces excessive caffeine intake, so that blood levels of caffeine and biotransformed dimethylxanthines do not cause undesirable CNS and other effects. Emesis is learned and apparently not due to emetic compounds.

Safety issues associated with herbal ingredients.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the safety issues associated with herbal ingredients. A wide range of conventional policies controls the availability of herbal products to the general public. The accomplishment of this depends on their derivation and their categorization as medicinals, drugs, botanicals, or dietary supplements. Herbal remedies used as medicines may be traditionally or serendipitously derived, varying in formulation, preparation and standardization, sometimes unreliable as to plant identification or to chemical composition, and depending on their cultural source, infrequently validated in conventional ways, as to efficacy or safety. The detection of adulterated or contaminated herbal products is not easy, because many policies prevent these events to be fully implemented and ways to identify the problems are not easy to achieve. The potential danger of using certain botanicals or their compounds is recognized. Use of herbal remedies by pregnant or nursing mothers can result in the transmission of certain phytochemicals to the fetus or infant. The capacity of children to absorb, distribute, metabolize, and excrete certain substances differs from that of adults. Herbal effects on absorption can also affect the bioavailability of antibiotics.

Neem (Azadirachta indica) cultivated in Haiti

So that valuable products from the neem tree (Azadirachta indica) will be readily available in the future, countries in the neotropics should emulate Haiti and grow the species where it thrives even in eroded, semiarid, depauperate areas suitable for few other trees.

Cinchonicine-derived alkaloids from the bark of the Peruvian Ladenbergia oblongifolia

The isolation of cinchonicine-derived alkaloids epicinchonicinol (1), cinchonidicinol (2) and a mixture of dihydrocinchonicinol and dihydrocinchonidicinol (3) from the dried bark of Ladenbergia oblongifolia, is reported along with (1)H and (13)C-NMR data.

Part two: Empirical rationale for teeth cleaning plant selection 1

Abstract Various types of ethnobotanical surveys have served to identify those plants throughout the world that are important in teeth cleaning. The empirical selection of several cultures has indicated that many of these species are selected because of the good dental hygiene they promote and other medicinal properties they possess. When pharmacological studies have been correlated with these data, many have been shown to possess substances of an antibiotic, analgesic, anticariogenic, or otherwise healing nature. Preliminary results from clinical trials with several chewing‐stick extract dentifrices are showing that the development of more efficacious and healing toothpastes from these sources is possible.

Towards a logic of ethnodentistry at Antongobe, Southwestern Madagascar

Mahafaly uses of plants to treat toothache in the Antongobe region are consistent with those from other countries where related species grow. We identify eight wild plants used in herbal dentistry, describe their manner of preparation and medicinal uses, and discuss their pharmacological properties. We also indicate briefly where dental problems belong in the larger ethnomedical system.RésuméNy fampiasan’ny Mahafaly zavamaniry itsaboana areti-nify any amin’ny faritanin’ Antongobe dia mitovitovy amin’ireo any amin’ny tany hafa izay anirian’ny karazan-javamaniry fahita any Antongobe. Manao ny famantarana ny zavamaniry dia valo ampiasaina amin’ny fitsaboanify izahay, dia mampiseho ny fanomanana sy ny fampiasana azy ireo ary manadihady ny toetoetr’izy ireo amin’ny mahafanafody azy. Mampiseho koa izahay ny toerana misy ny raharaha momba ny nify eo anivon’ny tontolon’ny fitsaboana ara-fombapokonolona.