What is Ethnobotany?
Ethnobotany is a term coined in 1895 to encompass the study of the applications and economic potential of plants used by native peoples. Ethnobotany is a field of study that focuses on studying a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of local culture and people. This is primarily seen in a region native or indigenous abundance of plants.
Why is Ethnobotany Important?
Ethnobotany provides the traditional uses of a plant and it gives information about certain unknown and known useful plants. Ethnobotany accounts for the study of relationships between people and plants; thus, giving it the multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary name. Meaning that botany and anthropology fields of study meet and It is interdisciplinary between plant science and ethnology.
Different Branches of Ethnobotany
Ethno-algology
The study of Algae
Ethno-mycology
The study of the historical uses and sociological impact of fungi
Ethno-bryology
the scientific study of the way living things are treated or used by different human cultures
Ethno-pteridology
Deals with ethnobotanical study of pteridophytes (a type of plant that disperses spores)
The Domestication of crops and plants- the beginning of recorded Ethnobotany
Adoption of agriculture led to hunting and gathering bands adopting a more sedentary lifestyle, living in one spot for at least the growing season. Curiously, agriculture could have also triggered an increase in interaction between Native American groups who settled down. The English colonists saw Algonquians tribes in the Chesapeake Bay planting corns, beans, and squash, but all three were probably imported into Virginia after 1,000 A.D. Several of the American tribes also made great use of sauna-like sweat houses. As they believed that mixing herbs and crops that they grew from findings would help heal any ailments they had. For Indigenous people, the sweat lodge has spiritual, cultural, and practical purposes. It is a place to connect with themselves and to nature and restore order and balance in life.
The sweat house
In the sauna-like sweat houses of the Native Americans, the ill person was encouraged to perspire(sweat) to rid the body of toxins and bacteria.
Ethnobotany uses in the past and how much it has grown
In 1775, Dr. William Withering was treating a patient with severe dropsy (heart failure.) He was unable to bring about any improvement with traditional medicines. The patient’s family administered an herbal brew based on an old family recipe and the patient started to recover. Dr. Withering experimented with the herbs contained in the recipe and identified foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) as the most significant. Withering then wrote how 200 other cases where foxglove had successfully been used to treat dropsy and heart failure called "William Withering and the Foxglove". Through trial and error, Withering learned that foxglove in high doses was able to cause side effects and soon be toxic; therefore, it was reduced in usage.
In 1852, scientists were able to synthesize salicin, an active ingredient in willow bark, for the first time. By 1899, the drug company Bayer, modified salicin into a milder form of acetylsalicylic acid and launched asprin into our modern world. Soon, the synthetic age was born in the following years. Plant extracts have filled pharmacy shelves. Although many medicines have been produced from plant extracts, chemists sometimes find that the synthetic versions do not carry the same therapeutic effects or may have negative side effects not found when using the whole plant source.
