BOTANKAI. Ml SFIM LEAFLETS Voi.. 29, No. 3 



SlMMFR 1983 



DE PLANUS TOXICARIIS E 

 MUNDO NOVO TROPICALE 

 COMMENTATIONES XXXII 



NOTES, PRIMARILY OF FIELD TESTS 



AND NATIVE NOMENCLATURE, ON 



BIODYNAMIC PLANTS OF THE 



NORTHWEST AMAZON 



Richard Evans Sciultf.s 



Field work to salvage ethnobotanical knowledge in the north- 

 west Amazon has not been commensurable with the rapidity of 

 the disappearance of this folklore as a result of growing accultura- 

 tion. Many native languages of the region are becoming extinct, 

 and the natives, knowing no Spanish names for their plants, are 

 losing even their acquaintance with the local flora. This paper, a 

 continuation of numerous ethnobotanical contributions on the 

 plants of the northwest Amazon, offers a number of native names 



of plants of this rich flora. 



During several of my trips to the Amazon area, spot field tests 

 were made on plants for alkaloids. Most of these plants have 

 never been chemically studied; in fact, many of the genera and 

 even families of these plants are phytochemically unknown. 

 While spot tests, especially those conducted under field condi- 

 tions, are initial, exploratory and often crudely carried out, they 

 do offer— especially with the paucity of phytochemical knowl- 

 edge of such a rich, yet poorly known, flora leads which maybe 

 of help to investigators interested in the chemical constituents of 

 plants and their possible biodynamic significance. 



The voucher specimens cited below arc preserved in one or 

 more of the following institutions: the Economic Herbarium of 

 Oakes Ames or the Gray Herbarium, both of Harvard University; 

 in the Herbario Nacional de Colombia in Bogota; or in the New 

 York Botanical Garden. 



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