lowland forest, is managed to accomplish the following:
cultivation and documentation of medicinally useful
plants; protection of the plants from overharvesting;
conducting of ethnobotanical and ecological research;
and encouragement of ecotourism, with walks and
seminars designed to teach about the uses of the plants.
Schultes and Robert Raffauf, in their book The Healing
Forest (1990), discuss approximately 1,500 species and
variants of plants from 596 genera and 145 families, all
of which have medicinal or toxic uses by indigenous
peoples in northwestern Amazonia. It is fascinating to
see the range of symptoms that are treated as well as the
diversity of plants that are applied to certain common
ailments or conditions. For example, there are 38
plants that can be used for diarrhea, 25 for headache,
18 for muscular aches and pains, and 38 for toothache.
There are many plants that can be used to treat various
insect bites (including 16 for ant bites), 36 for intestinal
parasites, and 29 for snakebites. Twenty- six plants are
listed for use as contraceptives. In addition, there are
plants alleged to have use in treating such conditions
as sinusitis, stiff neck, bleeding gums, stomach ulcers,
cataracts, asthma, swollen breasts, epilepsy, testicular
swelling, tumors, boils, blisters, mange, and baldness,
a selection that is by no means comprehensive. It is
necessary to bear in mind that the degree to which
these diverse applications achieve success is debatable.
Besides medicinal uses, many plants are used to
extract various poisons for hunting and many other
plants are used for hallucinogenic or narcotic purposes.
I will close this chapter with a brief look at some of the
better known of these.
Curare
Charles Waterton, whose first journey to Amazonia
was in 1812, was undoubtedly a wonderfully
entertaining dinner guest. What stories he must
have told. This aristocratic, eccentric explorer of the
Amazon demonstrated uncommon skill at taxidermy
as well as intrepid drive for exploration and discovery.
One of his discoveries was that indigenous people had
found a very powerful drug, one now called curare.
Waterton (1825) describes a vine, called wourali,
which supplies the primary ingredient for arrow
poison, and the “gloomy and mysterious operation”
in which the poison is extracted and prepared, only
by certain skilled individuals. He details how a large
ox, estimated to weigh nearly 450 kg (1,000 lb), died
within 25 minutes after being shot in the thigh with
three poisoned arrows. The poison, said Waterton,
produced “death resembling sleep.”
Curare has such a powerful effect of relaxing muscles
that it induces paralysis. And that’s the basic idea.
Curare is added to the tips of arrows and darts and then
used by skilled hunters to bring down various species
of mammals and birds. If you look at the small darts
that are the ammunition of blowguns, you will see
immediately that these weapons would do little more
than make a pinprick in their intended prey were it not
for the presence of the poison. The arrow or dart doesn’t
bring the creature down— the curare does. Curare
and its derivatives are well known by practitioners of
Western medicine, as they are commonly employed
during certain surgical procedures.
Curare takes its name from the plant genus Curarea
(sometimes known as Chondrodendron). Curarea
plants are lianas, beginning as rooted shrubs that
eventually become climbers. Curarea toxicofera is a
species that is widely used by many tribes. The curare
is extracted from the bark and wood of the stem and
is often mixed with other species, particularly those in
the genus Strychnos.
Curares are extracted from many different kinds
of plants from an array of different families. Indeed,
over 75 plant species are utilized for this purpose in
Amazonia. Most curares are mixtures of several plant
species (often prepared specifically for the kind of
animal sought), made with much variation, not only
from tribe to tribe but from one shaman to another.
The art of preparing curare requires careful attention
to detail. It is a dangerous substance.Cocaine
Cocaine is an addictive and powerful narcotic, a
powerful alkaloid extracted principally from a small,
unpretentious shrub, Erythroxylum coca, var. ipadu,
from western Amazonia. The substance extracted
is commonly called coca. A second species, E.
novogranatense, is cultivated along the eastern slopes
of the Andes. Neither species is cultivated in lowland
areas because alkaloid content is higher if cultivated at
higher elevations. Coca contains numerous alkaloids,
but cocaine is the one in greatest concentration. Though
cocaine is considered a scourge of society in North
American culture, it has important traditional uses by
South American indigenous peoples: as medicine, in374 chapter 17 human ecology in the tropics