Page 36 - Demo

36Richard Evans Schultes (January 12, 1915 %u2013 April 10, 2001) was an American biologist, considered to be the father of modern ethnobotany. He is known for his studies of the uses of plants by indigenous peoples, especially the indigenous peoples of the Americas. His book: The Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers (1979), co-authored with chemist Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, is considered his greatest popular work.In 1943, Schultes travelled through the heart of Carijona territory, he realised that he was in a race against time. He strived to record important ethnobotanical information from some of the last members of the disappearing tribe before they might cease to exist as an intact cultural entity altogether.Among the most bioactive of the plants the Carijona shared with Schultes included a ferocious arrow poison, a powerful anti-intestinal-parasitic, as well as medicines to treat fevers, fungal skin infections, ringworm, and to relieve the symptoms of malaria.SCHULTES%u2019 RACE AGAINST TIMECarijona healers told Schultes of how they travelled to the Chiribiquete highlands to gather the pungent leaves and stems of a particular species (later named in honour of Schultes). They soaked these plants parts in water or fermented them to treat elderly patients with dementia %u201cwho sit without talking all day%u201d. The leaves were also used to make a tea that was used to relieve coughs and chest infections, especially tuberculosis.