VOICES FOR THE AMAZON
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Among the diverse array of plants that exist in the Amazon, many are used for traditional medicinal purposes. Malaria, one of the most lethal diseases in the tropics, can be addressed by no less than 41 different species of plants in the Brazilian Amazon in some capacity. [1] In three cities near Sao Paolo, Brazil, interviews were conducted to determine the number of herbal plant remedies used for traditional medicine.

Over 114 different remedies were recorded by the study. [2] Across the Amazon, thousands of plant species are used to alleviate medical issues by local peoples. Often medicinal plants serve as the most cost-effective means for addressing a medical problem compared to pharmaceutical solutions. Ethnobotanists are currently studying traditional methods of using endemic plants for medical solutions in the Amazon, yet as deforestation and the alteration of traditional indigenous life continues, these scientists find it harder to obtain this information.

 

References:
1.) Brandao MGL, Grandi TSM, Rocha EMM, Sawyer DR, Krettli AU (1992) Survey of medicinal plants used as antimalarials in the Amazon. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 36, 175-182.
2.) Di Stasi LC, Oliveira GP, Carvalhaes MA, Queiroz-Junior M, Tien OS, Kakinami SH, Reis MS (2001) Medicinal plants popularly used in the Brazilian Tropical Atlantic Forest. Fitoterapia, 73, 69-91.