BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS VoL. 26, No. 6 
JUNE 30, 1978 
DE PLANTIS TOXICARITS E MUNDO NOVO 
TROPICALE COMMENTATIONES XXIII 
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL NOTES FROM 
NORTHERN SOUTH AMERICA 
RICHARD EVANS SCHULTES 
Increasing evidence indicates that the indigenous population 
of the northwesternmost part of the Amazon Valley possesses 
an almost unsurpassed wealth of knowledge of biodynamic 
plants. There are few parts of the world where native people 
display such a basic understanding of plants of use as poisons, 
narcotics or medicines. 
Until recently, this corner of the great hylea has not been in 
danger from penetration by outside civilization. How long this 
happy state of affairs will continue is open to doubt. 
In order to preserve some of this native folk lore, | have been 
publishing a series of articles summarizing some of the ethno- 
pharmacological information which my students and I have 
collected in field work from 1941 to the present. 
Most of the following notes pertain to the wealth of ethno- 
pharmacological knowledge of Indians of the northwestern 
Amazon — primarily in Colombian territory, but occasionally 
from adjacent parts of Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. 
Voucher specimens cited are preserved in several herbaria: 
the Economic Herbarium of Oakes Ames and the Gray Her- 
barium of Harvard University, the New York Botanical Gar- 
den, the Herbario Nacional de Colombia (Bogota) and the 
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia (Manaos). 
The families are arranged in accordance with the Engler and 
Prantl system, and the genera are alphabetically enumerated 
under their respective families. 
LYCOPODIACEAE 
Lycopodium cernuum Linnaeus, Sp.Pl. (1753)1103. 
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