long as recorded history. As far back as 2,500 BC, the Chinese were effectively using chaulmoogra oil from Hydnocarpus trees to cure incipient cases of leprosy (1). The field of ethnobotany has been around since the 1930s, at which time specimens had to be collected and shipped back to laboratories for testing. Early studies involved the ayahuasca, or "vision vine," which contains peyote alkaloids. Now peyote alkaloids have been shown to have efficacy against penicillin-resistant organisms, and ayahuasca is being used to treat cocaine addiction and alcoholism (4).
Dr. Mark Plotkin, Executive Director of the Ethnobiology and Conservation Team in Arlington, Virginia is one of the primary experts in this field. His book, "Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice" (8) is widely used as a teaching resource in primary and secondary level science courses, as well as in college courses. He works with Shaman Pharmaceuticals, which pays the natives for use of their land and agrees to pay royalties to them from drugs that go to market. The company has two products in clinical trials: Provir, an oral antiviral drug derived from a plant of the Croton genus, and a topical formulation called Virend, under clinical investigation for use against the herpes simplex virus (9).
According to Plotkin, one of the problems of identifying the alkaloids in some plants which are useful medically is that the plant contains many alkaloids, and the local peoples often mix other things with the plants, such as insects, or may only pick them at certain hours of the day, or times of the year, and these other factors may have actual biochemical effects on the plant and how it works. Plotkin can take portable test kits into the jungle with him and do preliminary analyses right in the rain forest. Working with local scientists, he can set up laboratories in the rain forest, instead of having to dry samples, ship them back to the U. S., and wait months for resul...