BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CambBrincr, Massacuuserrs, June 29, 1970 VoL. 22, No. 
ETHNOGYNECOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY HERBARIA 
BY 
Srri von Reis ALTSCHUL 
PLANts used by primitive societies for the maintenance 
or restoration of health have drawn the attention of 
medical researchers in modern times. Those species 
which, however vaguely, have offered hope for relief 
from cancer, heart disease, mental illness and diverse 
metabolic disorders have aroused probably greatest in- 
terest up to the present. Among the plants which remain 
for the most part unexplored as to their pharmacological 
potentials are species which have been employed in con- 
nection with the functions and diseases of the reproduc- 
tive tract of the human female. Asa branch of ethno- 
medicine, this field might be called ethnogynecology. 
I use the term here to include, as well, ethnoobstetrics, 
embracing the practices surrounding pregnancy, labor 
and the puerperium in primitive cultures. 
A number of species of plants previously little known 
for their involvement in ethnogynecology recently has 
been brought to light as the result of a large-scale search 
carried out during the last decade at Harvard University. 
This paper is one among several which have dealt with 
medicinal folklore in general,’ with psychopharmacolo- 
ey,’ with unusual food plants’ and with plants used to 
treat children’s diseases,* all based on data retrieved 
from the survey. 
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