3. Amazon Medicines
The Amazon Rainforest is the home of many plants and flowers that provide us with medicines,
vaccines, and other pharmaceuticals. given the rainforests teeming biological diversity, its value
to humanity as a laboratory of natural phenomena and as a medical storehouse is priceless.
Medical researchers claim that if the Amazon Rainforest disappears, the plants that provide
medical miracles will be lost forever.
4. Traveling through the Amazon on river highways without billboards and signs, only
knowing what waits ahead by arriving and experiencing gives rise to many
adventures both exciting and intriguing. When on one such trip, a small medical
clinic appeared with a staff of doctors and nurses treating the local inhabitants.
One patient, a young boy of about ten years suffering from a brain tumor was being
treated. visiting with the doctor he explained after traversing the rivers for almost
thirty years gathering medicinal plants and indigenous remedies, he had become
one of the foremost authorities on medicine for the Amazon. Receiving both medical
and pharmacological degrees enabled him to assimilate this diverse knowledge into
a variety of medical treatments that are highly successful not withstanding a
treatment for cancer of which this young boy was successfully being treated.
On the return trip finding the young boy completely healthy and cured, I made
further inquiry into this medical doctors treatment process where upon he
explained, the treatment only required several weeks at the clinic and continued
administration of the medicine for about a year. As 70% of the plants found active
against cancer come from the rainforest, like the Rosemary Periwinkle (now extinct
in the wild) produces a drug known to increase the survival rate of children suffering
with leukemia from 20% to 80%. How many more lives can be saved by other
rainforest plants? Less than 1% of the Amazon's 300,000 plants have ever been
studied, we are destroying these life saving plants faster than we can discover their
benefits.
5. The Amazon rainforest has many different
plants that can be used as herbal
medicines. Some of the most important
medicines come from the Amazon. They
have been used for hundreds and
hundreds of years. These plants can be
deadly if taken in large doses, but in small
doses they can be very helpful. They can
be used to cure headaches, skin irritation,
high blood pressures, and many other
diseases. Here are some of them.
6. The white trillium has three
petals, three sepals, and three
leaves. If the leaves are chewed, it
can help cure snake bites. If the
plant’s petals are chewed, they
can help ease childbirth, and the
sepals if chewed are used to help
cure fevers.
7. The bark of this tree is used to make
Quinine, a medicine that helps treat
Malaria, a serious disease. A number
of various other chemicals can also be
made from Cinchona, and these
chemicals include cinchonine,
cinchonidine and quinidine. However,
quinine has been replaced by other
drugs such as chloroquine and
mefloquine, and now quinine is rarely
used to treat malaria.
8. The leaves of this plant contain digitalis, a substance
used to treat heart problems. When taken in large
doses it can produce palpitations and dizziness, but
when taken in smaller doses it can help the heart beat
more slowly. This medicine had many effects, and
sometimes it cured in miraculous ways, but it mostly
produced violent reactions, occasionally killing because
it was taken in very large doses. The foxglove tea is
used as a morning tea to aid in birth control.
9. The opium poppy is used to make
Morphine and Codeine, two drugs
that are used as painkillers. The
opium gum may be crudely refined
and smoked, or converted to
morphine and heroin.
10. Coca has been used in folk medicine in South America
for thousands of years both as a general stimulant and
other medical purposes. The Coca plant’s leaves are
used, while being chewed, to treat headaches, and
prevent tiredness. It is also used to relieve altitude
sickness, hunger, fatigue, and aches and pains.
11. Buttercups are used to help mask or
relieve pain and treat skin irritations, but
too much can cause big skin irritations.
The smell of the leaves or juice from the
leaves, applied to the nostrils, is said to
cure headaches.
12. Castor Beans (Ricinus communis)
Castor Beans yield Castor oil, oil that if you
drink it, can help relieve constipation;
however they are extremely poisonous, so
they were replaced with safer drugs. It is a
very effective cathartic or purgative and is
still used to this day, however, there are
milder, less drastic methods of inducing
regularity. Castor oil is also used as a
lubricant. It is sometimes applied as a
soothing lotion for dry skin, dermatitis, other
skin diseases, sunburn, open sores, and it is
the primary ingredient of several brand name
medications.
13. Curare is a large poisonous vine
rich in alkaloids. The alkaloids
relax muscles and are used as an
arrow poison. In South America, it
is used to treat bruises, fever,
edema, and kidney stones. It is
also used as an anesthesia.
14. Suma (Pfaffia paniculata) is a large ground
vine with an extensive root system. Today,
it is considered a tonic and an adaptogen.
An adaptogen is a plant that helps the body
resists adverse influences by a wide range
of factors. In Brazil, suma root is taken to
stimulate appetite and circulation, balance
blood sugar levels, and enhance the
immune system, muscular system, and
memory. Suma root has very high saponin
content (up to 11%). Saponins have a
variety of effects, including lowering blood
cholesterol.
15. Clavillia is a perennial herb mainly
used to kill viruses, bacteria,
fungi, and parasites. This plant
has many active compounds like
triterpenes, proteins, flavonoids,
alkaloids, and steroids. A group of
amino acid-based proteins called
MAPs protect against plant
viruses.
16. Trumpet tree is widely used in traditional medicine in Central and
South America. Every part of the tree is used. The plant treats a
diversity of conditions, including respiratory illnesses and
rheumatism.
17. Annatto/Lipstick tree has a wide variety of uses. For centuries,
rainforest peoples have used the plant for things from insect
repellant to lowering blood pressure to love potions. Its traditional
uses are backed by recent research. Colombians have used extracts
from the plant to treat snakebites. A study in 2000 confirmed this use
in mice. Oil from the plant contains carotenoids (plant pigments), one
of which, Bixin, protects against UV rays. Annatto is still used today
in South America to treat heartburn.
18. The cocoa tree produces more than 150 chemicals in its
leaves, seeds, fruit, and bark. The Olmecs, Mayans, and
Aztecs used parts from the tree to treat anxiety, fever,
fatigue, and coughs. Five hundred years ago the plant
was brought to Europe, where it was used to treat
kidney stones and cuts and burns, among other things.
Recent research shows that chocolate contains
polyphenols, which prevent heart disease.