BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS VOL. 26, No. 8 
OcTOBER 31, 1978 
DE PLANTIS TOXICARIS E MUNDO 
NOVO TROPICALE COMMENTATIONES XXV 
BIODYNAMIC ACANTHACEOUS PLANTS 
OF THE NORTHWEST AMAZON 
RICHARD EVANS SCHULTES 
Continuing a series of articles to call attention to ethnophar- 
macologically important plants of the northwest Amazon, I 
herewith present notes on uses of several acanthaceous species 
which, during my field work in Colombia from 1941 through 
1954, I encountered in the local native pharmacopoeias. 
Most of the collections were identified by the late Dr. Emery 
C. Leonard of the Smithsonian Institution and have been cited 
in his The Acanthaceae of Colombia in Contributions of the 
United States National Herbarium 31. pt. 3 (1953). 
Little is known of the phytochemistry of the Acanthaceae. 
Traces of an alkaloid have been found in Justicia gendarussa 
L. (Hegnauer, R.: Chemotaxonomie der Pflanzen 3(1964)46). 
Saponines have been reported from Aphelandra, Justicia, 
Mendoncia and Sanchezia; tannins from Aphelandra and San- 
chezia: and cyanogenesis from Aphelandra aurantiaca, Fit- 
tonia Verschaffeltii, Justicia carnea and Sanchezia nobilis. 
(Gibbs, R.D.: Chemotaxonomy of Flowering Plants 3(1974) 
1774-1775). 
Specimens of the collections cited are preserved in the 
United States National Herbarium; the Gray Herbarium or the 
Economic Herbarium of Oakes Ames at Harvard University; 
and the Herbario Nacional de Colombia in Bogota. 
Aphelandra aurantiaca (Schiedw.) Lindley in Bot Reg. 31 
(1845) t.12. 
COLOMBIA: Comisaria del Amazonas, Trapecio Amazonico, Rio Loreto- 
yacu *‘Herb. Flowers vermillion’’. October 20-30, 1945. R.E. Schultes 6630. 
267 
