Introduction to South American Medicinal Plants

Abstract

As this book will be of use for experts of very different branches of science, such as plant anatomists, taxonomists, ecologists, forestry engineers, pharmacists, medical doctors, ethnologists, teachers and the like, it seemed advantageous to the authors to give some introductory explanations as to the effects of phytopharmaceuticals as well as of the basic knowledge concerning therapy and toxicity. We also mention the possibilities of finding new promising and already known plant species and the difficulties of their identification, as the tropical forest is not a Botanical Garden in which plants are labelled. Even experts can easily be perplexed, when flowers are not available which is very often the case. Nor may all specialists be familiar with the anatomy of tropical plants and particularly of tropical barks, product of waste in the utilization of valuable tropical timber which can and should be applied in manifold ways. Besides a number of doctors are not yet aware of the importance of a vegetable diet in medicine. As the large pharmaceutical companies of the USA are now earnestly interested in the search for new vegetable drugs to combat AIDS, cancer, heart and infectious diseases, we also include instructions, on how to find new plant species which may supply important drugs.