Botanical Museum Leaflets 

 Fall 1986 



Vol. 30, No. 4 



DE PLANUS TOXICARIIS E MUNDO 



NOVO TROPICALE 

 COMMENTATIONES XXVIII 



ETHNOBOTANICAL NOTES ON CUCURBITS 



OF THE NORTHWEST AMAZON 



Richard Evans Schultes 



Recent ethnobotanical field studies in the northwestern 

 Amazon, especially in Colombia, have revealed a series of inter- 

 esting uses of cucurbitaceous species, especially as medicines. 

 These uses serve to support the growing belief that the Cucurbi- 



more intensive phytochemical 



mic 



Many of the following notes on uses of Amazonian cucurbits 



were made during my 14 years of ethnobotanical studies in the 



northwest Amazon from 1941 to 1954 or on subsequent annual 



trips to the region. I have drawn upon the field observations of 



my former student, Dr. H. V. Pinkley, and upon notes published 



by P. Le Cointe in his A Amazonia Brasilerira III. Arvores e 



Plantas Uteis (Livraria Classica, Belem do Para, 1934) and 



upon the collections of several other botanists who have worked 

 in the area. 



am 



most 



Most of the specimens are preserved in one or more 



mic Herbarium of Oakes Ames 



Herbarium 



Herbario Nacional de Colombia in Bogota. 



Cayaponia glandulosa (P. et E.) Cogniaux in A. et C. DeCan- 



dolle, Monogr. Phan. 3 (1881) 755. 



Colombia: Comisaria del Amazonas, Rio Loretoyacu, "Vine up to 20 m long, 

 forming great tangles along river bank. Calyx tube green; petals fleshy, green. 



239 



