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

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 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

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

Richard Schultes, Kiowa Roadman Belo Kozad, and Weston La Barre – 1936, Oklahoma

Lophophora williamsii – peyote cactus

Richard Schultes – Amazonia, late 1940’s

Tagetes lucida – Mexican hallucinogenic marigold

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 recording 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.

Origin of Domesticated Plants Wheat

Most domesticated food plants have been selected for: large plant parts soft edible tissue thick flesh with intense color fruits attached to tough stems

How much domestication? About 5000 species have been grown for human food – less than 1% of all plant species Today about 150 species are commercially grown for food (not including spices) About 50 very productive species supply almost all of our caloric needs

Benefits of Domestication 10,000 years ago, before agriculture began, the world’s total human population was about 5 million. There was one person for every 25 square kilometers. Today we have more than 6.6 billion people, with a density of just over 25 people per square kilometer

As agriculture developed humans selected for: 1. Plants that provide enough calories to meet our basic energy needs. This usually comes from cereal grain or root carbohydrates. 2. We also selected for a balanced nutritional intake - this tends to develop in any system where the cultivator eats and depends upon on what he/she grows.

Vavilov centers – centers of plant diversity and areas of origin for agriculture

Plants from Near East – Fertile Crescent barley (Hordeum vulgare) wheat (Triticum) lentils (Lens culinaris) peas Pisum sativum chickpeas or garbanzos (Cicer arietinum) olives (Olea europaea) dates (Phoenix dactylifera) grapes (Vitis vinifera) - Wine began to be made from the grapes and beer from the grains flax (Linum usitatissimum) – food and fiber

Barley

Lentils

Chickpeas

Date Palm

Flax

Plants from China, Far East Rice (Oryza sativa) Soybeans (Glycine max) Mango (Mangifera indica) Various kinds of citrus fruits (Citrus sp.) Taro (Colocasia esculenta) Bananas (Musa x paradisiaca)

Rice

Mango

Taro

Plants from Africa sorghum (Sorghum sp.) millet grains (several species) okra (Hibiscus esculentus) yams (Dioscrorea sp.) cotton (Gossypium sp.) Coffee (Coffea arabica)

Sorghum and Millet

Okra

Yams

Coffee

Plants from Mexico corn (Zea mays), kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) lima beans (P. lunatus) peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) cotton (developed independently from Africa) chili peppers (Capiscum sp.) tomatoes (Lycopersicon sp.) tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) cacao (Theobroma cacao) pineapple (Ananas comosus) Pumpkins, squashes (Cucurbita sp.) avocados (Persea americana)

Kidney Beans

Peanut

Chili Peppers – Capiscum sp.

Pumpkins and Squashes

Plants from Peru potato (Solanum tuberosum and many related species) quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) tomatoes and peanuts may have really originated in Peru and then been taken to Mexico

Potato

Quinoa