Ciba Found Symp. 1994 ; 185(): 60-72; discussion 72-6.

Basic, quantitative and experimental research phases of future ethnobotany with reference to the medicinal plants of South America.

Lewis WH, Elvin-Lewis MP.

Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899.

Ethnobotany of the future will encompass what we perceive as three interrelated research phases. Basic ethnobotany includes the compilation and organization of information about biota obtained from indigenous and other peoples, such as obtaining data about useful plants and animals, understanding how peoples manage their environments and learning about their lexicons and classifications. This is what we try to do in the best possible way, directly in the field from original sources. These results can then be organized in many ways once species determinations are completed. They may also be organized using other types of information, the most obvious being chemical, medical and linguistic. Quantitative ethnobotany develops methods to allow quantitative description and to evaluate and analyse primary data sets. Original field research must be sufficiently structured and consistent, for example in relation to forest habitat and composition or to oral exchanges between informant and listener, so that statistical techniques may be used to test proposed hypotheses rigorously. This aspect of ethnobotany is in its infancy, yet it can be broadly utilized to comprehend more meaningfully and usefully ethnobotanically valued plants, particularly in the exceedingly diversified environments of tropical regions where because of community isolation practitioners are still most knowledgeable. Experimental ethnobotany involves the use of biota in search of products for industrial, medical and other purposes. Plant ethnomedicinal findings may set the stage for targeting materials which can be meaningfully analysed for chemical activity using appropriate biodirected assays. This approach in search of new pharmaceuticals is woefully underutilized today to the detriment of human health and a number of new strategies should be considered for future advancements in drug discovery. These aspects of ethnobotany will be evaluated largely in relation to current and future research in South America.