1. Ethnopharmacology Nina Etkin, Ph.D. collecting medicinal plants

2. Ethnobotanists at work in the field Usually the ethnobotanist must obtain permits to conduct the research from a national government - certain international protocols must be observed - if the nation in which the research is to be done was a signatory of the Rio Treaty on Biodiversity, then that nation has sovereignty over all the biodiversity within its boundaries - no plant sample that may have pharmacological properties may be removed from the nation without permission of the country

3. Charles Ledger – Hero or Thief?

4. Quinine

5. Cinchona officinalis – source of quinine

6. Ethnobotanists at work in the field Then the ethnobotanist must obtain permission from a village’s elders to carry out the research - because of issues of intellectual property rights, the ethnobotanist should negotiate a fair and equitable return to the local people for any commercial development of a plant used in their traditional medicine The ethnobotanist must meet and establish rapport with the village healers - securing and maintaining the healer’s trust is the single most important skill the ethnobotanist can have Ethnobotanists must develop their own personal ethnography - an understanding of the culture they are studying

7. Participant Observer living with the people under study, observing their daily life and customs, and learning about their lifestyle, foods, disease systems, and myths and legends Jaguar Shaman and Mark Plotkin

8. Immersion Ethnobotany The extreme of involvement is immersion ethnobotany in which the researcher becomes a patient of traditional healers – e.g. seeking cure from Ayurvedic medicine

9. Complexities of Indigenous Healing Indigenous healing systems can be very complex because they often incorporate at least three basic components: 1. a cosmological view of the universe that can help explain the cause, diagnosis, and treatment of disease 2. a cultural context within which health care is given 3. a repertoire of pharmaceutical substances

10. Traditional Chinese Medicine

12. Arrow Poisons

13. Documented use of arrow poisons around the world

14. Monkshood – Aconitum ferox – source of Acontine

15. Monkshood – Aconitum ferox in the wild

16. First Ethnobotanical Chemical Isolation - Strychine 1805 – Leschenault describes the preparation of the Javanese dart poison Upas Tieute. 1809 – Magendie and Delile publish accounts of experiments on mechanism of action of the poison. 1819 – Pelletier and Caventou isolate strychine from other sources. Magendie uses strychine in clinical medicine. 1824 – Pelletier and Caventou isolate strychine from upas tieute 1963 – total synthesis of strychine by Woodward et al.

17. Strychnos nux-vomica - source of Strychine

18. Strychnos nux-vomica leaves and seeds

19. Early Report on African Arrow Poisons “The arrow making no noise, the herd is followed until the poison takes effect and the animal falls out. It is then patiently watched til it drops – a portion of meat round the wound is cut away, and the rest eaten. … It is possible that the Kombe may turn out a valuable remedy.” - David Livingstone, 1861

20. Sir John Kirk (1832-1922) – companion of David Livingstone

21. Strophanthus hispidus - West African species of Kombe tree – source of strophanthin

22. Strophanthus flowers and seeds

23. Curares

24. Calabash curare from Strychnos guianensis – carried in gourd Crescentia cujete – source of calabash gourd

25. Tube Curares – made from members of Chondrodendron and other moonseeds - Menispermaceae Chondrodendron tomentosum leaves and vine

26. Bark being scraped to start preparation of curare

27. Liquid dripped through shavings to extract Curare

28. Curare added to arrow/dart tips Waorani man

29. Sandbox tree –Hura crepitans – source of huratoxin

30. Devil wood tree – Hura crepitans

31. Toxicities of several arrow poisons

32. Anti-tumor medicines from Arrow Poisons? There is a possibility that plants producing arrow poisons may also have value in producing anti- tumor medicines. Spjut and Perdue (1976) surveyed 76 species from 63 genera in 29 families and found that 46 of the species had been screened for anti-tumor activity. Of these 52% of the species and 75% of the genera had been found to have anti-tumor activity. This high anti-tumor activity probably comes from the fact that arrow poison plants almost all produce cardenolide glycosides that are cytotoxic (kill cells).