Transcript holding a foxglove

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