The Ethnobotany of Amazon Indians: a Rapidly Disappearing Source of botanical Knowledge for Human Welfare

The Amazon Indians are a rich source of botanical information. Some 200 tribes each have their own unique botany with many different plant recipes for their common needs e.g. arrow poisons, narcotics, food and fibers. Examples from several tribes are given of the variety of arrow poisons, fish poisons and hallucinogenic drugs which arc used in Amazonia. The Indians have had thousands of years of management of the Amazon ecosystem. However, the rate of acculturation and extinction of tribes is accelerating-even faster than the 90 tribes which have gone extinct in the 20th Century. Information of great potential use to human welfare about unexploited plants and management of the forest ecosystem is rapidly becoming lost. A review is given of this destruction of the Indians and their forest and habitat and it is suggested that there is an urgent need to study these people and for biologists to be active in the efforts which are being made to protect the Amazon Indians.