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Plants and Human Cosmologies
Areas where special plants are used to enter another world
Coca plant – Erythroxylum coca
Growing coca plant
Use of Coca Plant
• Coca was domesticated in Pre-Columbian
times - it may have been domesticated as
long ago as 7000 years ago
• The first Spanish explorers reported the
natives of the Andes chewing coca leaves
with mineral lime, a substance that helps
the mucous membranes of the mouth absorb
the alkaloids from the leaves
• This practice probably dates back at least
5000 years and is still done today
Clay vessel depicting Coca chewer –
from Peru – 400-600 AD
Medicinal and Dietary Properties of Coca
• Chewing coca leaf helps relieve the headache,
nausea, and weakness of altitude sickness and
helps relieve the general fatigue of travel
• Coca leaves also contain an assortment of vitamins
and minerals that make a valuable contribution to
the often impoverished Andean diet
• One hundred grams of coca leaves contains more
calcium, iron, phosphorus, vitamin A, vitamin B2,
and vitamin E than called for by the US
recommended daily allowance
Coca leaves for sale in market in
La Paz, Bolivia
John Styth Pemberton and Coca Cola
Cola acuminata and cola nuts
Advertisement for French “Tonic” Wine
made of red bordeaux and coca leaves
Columbia ends spraying of coca plants
• http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/world/
americas/colombia-halts-us-backedspraying-of-illegal-coca-crops.html
Plants for Dyes and Decorations
Woad – Isatis tinctoria
Woad Dyes
• Woad produces a substance in its leaves
called isatan B which, when exposed to the
air, forms the blue compound indigo.
• This compound can easily be removed from
the leaves by boiling them in water and an
alkaline solution, a process used by home
dyers today to make indigo today
Woad Dye and Woad Dyed Wool
Woad Body Decoration
Source of Henna – Lawsonia inermis
Henna Dye
• Henna, Lawsonia inermis, produces a red-orange
dye molecule lawsone. This molecule has an
affinity for bonding with protein, and thus has
been used to dye skin, hair, fingernails, leather,
silk and wool.
• Henna body art is made by applying henna paste
to the skin: the lawsone in the paste migrates into
the outermost layer of the skin and makes a redbrown stain.
• Products sold as "black henna" or "neutral henna"
are not made from henna, but may be derived from
indigo (in the plant Indigofera tinctoria) or Cassia
obovata
Henna Preparation
• Dried ground, sifted henna leaves are easily
worked into a paste that can used to make intricate
body art.
• Commercially available henna powder is made by
drying the henna leaves and milling them to
powder, then the powder is sifted.
• This powder is mixed with lemon juice, strong tea,
or other mildly acidic liquids. Essential oils with
high levels of monoterpene alcohols such as tea
tree, eucalyptus, cajeput, or lavender will improve
skin staining characteristics.
Mehndi – traditional Indian bridal
henna art
Modern body art with Henna
Traditional tattoo on
resident of Nuka
Hiva- late 1700’s
Otzi the Iceman and his tatoos
Candlenut tree – Aleurites moluccana
Traditional Samoan Tattooing
• The pigments used in traditional Samoan
tattooing comes from the nuts of the
candlenut tree Aleurites moluccana
(Euphorbiaceae) - called lama in Samoan
• The seeds are burned to produce soot which
is collected on banana leaves and stored in
coconut shells
Candlenut seeds ready to be burned
to produce soot
Samoan Tattooing Technique
• Tattooing is done by grinding the soot with
a mortar and pestle
• A serrated comb of pig bone is used to
penetrate the skin, and a mallet pounds the
comb and pigment into the skin
• A towel of bark cloth is used to wipe away
the blood
Traditional Samoan tattoo process
as done today
Completed modern
version of traditional
Samoan tattoo
Ethnobotany and Conservation
Rattan harvest Southeast Asia
Reserves and the Padaung People
Extractive Reserves – First
Established in Brazil
Rubber Tappers and Chico Mendes
Chico Mendes
1944-1988
Establishment of Extractive
Reserves in Peru and Ecuador
Use of Plants for Food Medicine in
Amazonia
• The Chacabo use 78.7% of the tree species
• The Ka’apor in Brazil use 76.8% of the tree
species
• The Tembe in Brazil use 61.3% of the tree
species
• The Panare in Venezuela use 48.6% of the
tree species
Use of Plants for Food Medicine in
Amazonia
• The Chacabo were first contacted by the
Summer Institute of Linguistics in 1955.
• The Ka’apor were “pacified” in 1928.
• The Tembe were “pacified” in the 1850’s.
• The Panare have been in contact with nonIndians since the Spanish explored the
middle Orinoco region in the 1600’s.
Families of Special Conservation
Concern
• Palm family Areaceae (food, fiber, shelter)
• Brazil nut family Lecythidaceae (food)
• Chrysobalanaceae (related to roses - food,
medicine),
• The hallucinogenic caapi vine family
Malpighiaceae (medicines)
Breadth of plant species and their
uses by healers
• Oliver Phillips and Alwyn Gentry worked
in the Tambopata, Peru area with mestizo
people and healers - they examined several
plots and worked with 29 different mestizo
guides to the plants - they identified 1885
uses for 605 species in their plots
• Most interestingly they found that older
people had the most knowledge of plant
uses
Economic Valuation
Alwyn Gentry and Colleagues
Calculations
• $6330 – value of fruit and latex harvested per
hectare per year in Peru
• $490 – sustainable harvest of timber – so total
value of $6820 per year
• $3184 – tree farming in Brazil per hectare per year
• $2690 – price per hectare of cattle ranching land
in Brazil
• $148 per year profit from cattle ranching per
hectare in Brazil
• $564 worth of medicine per hectare from 30 year
old forest in Belize
• $3054 worth of medicine per hectare from 50 year
old forest in Belize