BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, MaRrcH 1980 VoL. 28, No. 1 
DE PLANTIS TOXICARIIS E MUNDO NOVO 
TROPICALE 
COMMENTATIONES XXVI 
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL NOTES ON THE 
FLORA OF NORTHWESTERN SOUTH AMERICA 
RICHARD EVANS SCHULTES 
This series of papers has been offered in an attempt to stimulate 
interest on the part of pharmaceutical researchers in investigation 
of the wealth of ethnopharmacological knowledge of the 
incredibly rich flora of the northwesternmost part of South 
America, especially of the Amazonian sector of this region. 
Botanical and ethnobotanical studies of the flora of this part of 
South America have been under way now for at least a century 
and a half. Yet it is only during the last few decades that 
ethnobotanical exploration and laboratory studies of the plants 
have been carried out from pharmacological and chemical points 
of view. With the highly sophisticated chemical techniques now 
available, it is even more imperative to take advantage of 
ethnobotanical knowledge of peoples who, for many millenia, 
have lived in close association with their ambient vegetation. 
We should realize that the Plant Kingdom is vastly more 
complex and extensive than it was once thought to be —even as 
recently, for example, as in the 1920s. Some investigators now 
believe that there are at least half a million plant species to be 
investigated. Only a relatively few species of this assemblage of 
different chemical factories have ever been examined —and that 
only superficially and for specific compounds, such as alkaloids. 
Botanical Museum Leaflets (USPS 404-990). Published quarterly by the Botanical Museum, Harvard 
University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. Subscription: $30.00 a year, net, postpaid. Orders 
should be directed to Secretary of Publications at the above address. Second-Class Postage Paid at 
Boston, Massachusetts. 
