South american medicinal plants: botany, remedial properties and general use

498 Pages·2010·104.679 MB·English

by  Roth, I

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I. ROTH H. LINDORF
South American Medicinal Plants
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH

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I. Roth H. Lindorf
South American
Medicinal Plants
Botany, Remedial Properties
and General Use
With 313 Figures and 9 Tables
' Springer
..
Professor Dr. INGRID RoTH
Moosweg 2
79244 Miinstertal
Germany
Professor Dr. HELGA LINDORF
Universidad Central de Venezuela
Biologia Tropical
Aptdo. 21201
Caracas 1020
Venezuela
ISBN 978-3-642-07544-5 ISBN 978-3-662-04698-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-04698-2
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data South American medicinal plants: botany,
remedial properties and general use/Ingrid Roth, Helga Lindorf (eds). p .; em
1. Medicinal plants--South America--Encyclopedias. Roth, Ingrid, 1920- II. Lindorf, Helga.
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Originally published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York in 2002
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Motto
A herb is growing for every sort of disease
Gegen jede Krankheit ist ein Kraut gewachsen
Dedications
Dedicated to my dear friend Stefan Fankhauser
INGRID RoTH
Dedicated to my parents, and my brothers Willie,
Carlos and his family
HELGA LINDORF
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I
Preface
Books dealing with medicinal herbs have been forests by man. Furthermore, the knowledge of use
much in demand in the last decade, since interest in ful and medicinal plants is lost as soon as tradition
the use of 'healing plants' instead of chemistry vanishes through the import of new products from
wrapped up in the form of pills has gradually in industrialized countries. Already in 1926, PITTIER
creased. Interest in natural methods of healing by regreted that the use as well as the production of
medicinal plants advanced with the ecological con indigenous medicinal-herbal products, foodstuffs
science of man. European officinal plants are well and other local industrial vegetable products, such
known and have already been applied for hundreds as special oils, waxes, fibers, tannic substances, cork
of years or even more. However, as the tropical etc., diminished alarmingly, as importation of arti
forests attracted more attention, the great wealth of ficial or foreign products from the USA and Europe
useful plants stored in tropical regions became ob increased. This decrease in natural indigenous pro
vious. India is probably a leading country in the duction continues up to the present day such that
knowledge of indigenous tropical medicinal plants, also the knowledge of these useful plants is being
some of which are also known or are even common gradually forgotten. As local industries disap
in Europe. Further useful and medicinal plants peared, unemployment consequently increased.
come from China and other countries of the Far However, there is an enormous variety of actu
East (e g. Ginkgo, Ginseng) or from Africa. ally and possibly useful officinal plants in South
Although Latin America has supplied the world America and particularly in Venezuela with its
with quite a few very important useful plant prod very variable geographic and climatic conditions
ucts, such as quinine and rubber, the majority of and biotops that have never been studied exhaus
useful plants has remained unknown to the rest of tively. It would be easy for the authors to enumer
the world. Only very recently, North American ate a thousand of them. But how can we get to
pharmaceutical companies have invaded the tropi know these plants and their uses? First of all it is
cal forests, principally of Central America, explor necessary to study the native bibliography. Most of
ing useful, mainly medicinal plants (see also the the South American countries have their own spe
preface in RoTH 1992 'Coastal vegetation and man cial books dealing with medicinal or useful plants.
groves of Venezuela'). These companies send The collection of SECAB is one of the most valu
science-brokers to the forests in search of the still able compilations of this kind and includes the
unknown chemical compounds. Within a few years flora of Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Pan
- they promise - a pharmaceutical preparation will ama, Peru, and Venezuela. PITTIER (1926) contrib
appear on the market. uted a great deal to the knowledge of the useful
However, thousands of years ago, the Indians of Venezuelan plants. GuPTA (1995) studied 270
South and Central America had collected, named !hero-American medicinal plants. ScHULTES &
and used many of those plants and had also culti RAFFAUF (1990) dealt with the 'healing forest' of
vated quite a few of them (BRUCHER 1989). Their the northwest Amazon region. BRUCHER (1989)
knowledge has partly been transmitted to the pre covered the genetics of neotropical useful plants.
sent population and local books on popular indige More recently, the interest in useful tropical plants
nous medicinal plants are available in most of the has grown steadily such that several books dealing
South and Central American counties, but are ap with taxonomic description, chemical contents,
parently little known or seldom used by the rest of pharmacology, medicinal use (including recipes),
the world (see the series SECAB and the bibliogra ecological requirements and cultivation of medici
phy in this book). nal plants have already appeared, written by native
This book has mainly been written to show what botanists, pharmacists, experts on human nutri
an enormous wealth of useful and medicinal plants tion, chemists etc. Experiments were carried out
is hidden in the Neotropics which, however, will and quite a few neotropical herbs and trees are
soon be lost by constant destruction of the tropical already recognized as officinal medicinal plants. A
~ Preface
good survey of useful and medicinal plants up to have to be used, the methods to prepare the drug,
1968 is given by UPHOF. the way of administrating the medicine; they also
However, there are numerous possibilities of are informed whether the plant has been collected
utilization of tropical plants. There are not only wild or whether it was cultivated and they know the
remedies against the common sicknesses, but there vernacular and local name of the plant. As far as the
is also hope to cure cancer and AIDS with the help local name ist concerned it is very important to
of plants. Time is thus growing short to get to know know the site where the plant comes from because
the plants, to recognize them in the field and to vernacular names may change from site to site and
maintain and cultivate them. To identify a certain the same names may signify different species in dif
species in the great wealth of tropical plants, one ferent places.
must know their structure. Although taxonomy, The final - and perhaps most authenic - infor
morphology and anatomy have long since been de mation is found among the living Indian tribes who
valuated as old-fashioned disciplines, they now ac not only know healing plants, but also nacrotics
quire a new meaning, when the tropical flora is con (SCHULTES & RAFFAUF 1990). However, there are
cerned. As a consequence of the depreciation of de only few Indian tribes still living in Venezuela.
scriptive botany and because of the overestimation The reader may, however, take into account that
of the Northern flora, there is great need of taxono the knowledge accumulated by the Indians is em
mists, morphologists and anatomists and their ex piric, it does not proceed from exact scientific in
perience in the tropical flora. Many of the plant spe vestigation. Some information about sicknesses or
cies collected cannot be identified at present or recipes may therefore appear unusual, e. g. when a
have to wait for identification for many years, as medicine is used for good luck or when recipes are
there are not enough specialists to identify them. inaccurate, e. g. 'a handful leaves'.
There are also certain plant families such as the In most cases, healing substances are only found
Myrtaceae or the Sapotaceae, for example, which in one or the other organ, or are enriched in deter
are difficult to identify because the species are simi mined organs. When buying drugs at the 'pharma
lar. Other species flower very seldomly and can only cological' stalls, only plant parts or organs are
be identified by outstanding features of the vegeta handed to the buyer, who then has to find out
tive organs. This was the main reason why we which plant species is the 'donor' and which taxo
started to study the microscopic structure of useful nomic name lies behind it as plants are usually sold
and medicinal tropical plants. by their vernacular names. In many cases it is con
The European medicinal plants are usually sequently impossible to discover the botanic iden
called officinal herbs. Historically, medicine was tity of the drug, particularly when only roots are
born in Europe with the use of biologically active presented. A good anatomical description may be
herbs. We must emphasize, however, that a larger very helpful in this situation! It should therefore be
part of the useful and medicinal tropical plants con attempted to compose an entire pharmacognostic
sists of shrubs, trees or Hanas. This is another dif work of South American (Venezuelan) officinal
ference between the northern and the tropical flora. plants based on the thorough study of plant anat
Herbs often represent adaptations to the adverse omy. Up to the present, the inner structure of the
northern climate, while trees can better develop in organs, shape and size of starch grains, type of la
the more favourable tropical environment. ticifers, formation of secretory canals or glands,
Only angiospermous plants are considered in shape of fibers and stone cells, form of crystals and
this volume. Gymnosperms are however almost ab of other inclusions etc. have been studied only of
sent from tropical America - besides a few species very well known plants. But with these anatomical
of Pinus, Podocarpus, Ephedra, and Gnetum. But the data it would be possible to identify plant species.
healing properties of the enormous diversity of We therefore noted - at the end of each plant de
cryptogams: ferns, mosses, fungi, lichens and algae, scription - a few characteristics which facilitate the
still remain to be investigated. determination of species. Only a few species are
The next step in finding information on promis easily identified when only a few anatomical prop
ing plants would be to visit the so-called 'herbola erties are known: The venation pattern of the leaves
rios', open stands where healing plants are offered. of Touroulia guianensis which is sufficient to iden
They are scattered all over the country along high tify the species (RoTH 1996), is a unique case.
ways or on local markets and are provided by native Each species is studied in the following way:
experts of healing plants. These people still main First a short characterization of the family is given.
tain the knowledge of useful plants that has been The vernacular name or names of each species are
transmitted to them by their ancestors. They know mentioned. The taxonomic description is followed
exactly the right plant species, the organs which by indicating the probable species origin, the his-
""££Il
Preface
torical background and the actual occurrence of the can possibly lead to 'over-therapy'; furthermore,
species in the country. In the anatomical description other active substances are eliminated in this way.
we either mention all parts of the plant or only the Legislation of medicines is very different in the
useful organs. As far as possible, economical utiliza various countries. In Europe, quality, safety, effi
tion of the species, the names of the drugs, the cacy and standardization are most important. In
method of use, the healing properties, the chemical the USA, on the contrary, many phytopharmaca are
contents (as far as studied), toxicity, varieties and considered 'nutriceuticals', as for example, chips
related species, possible cultivation, special charac impregnated with Ginkgo extract.
teristics which facilitate identification are referred As to the chemical contents of already (partly or
to. It is obvious that the above mentioned informa completely) studied medicinal plants, we could not
tion was not available for ALL species studied and mention all the secondary compounds found in
that certain information is missing here and there. each species, so we only mentioned the most com
We gave weight to the study of only little known mon ones. Readers who are interested to know all
plants of medicinal or economical use, but we also the results in detail are referred to the cited bibliog
included some better known species. We laid em raphy and/or may consult the series of SECAB and
phasis on the South American or Venezuelan origin GUPTA (1995).
of plants. But also we thought that some plants not In this volume we are dealing explicitly with
indigenous to South America, though cultivated in useful and medicinal plans at the same time be
this region, should be added. cause the majority of the plants studied have only
Most specimens were recently collected and rarely a single use, but serve several purposes at the
studied, some were however adopted from our ear same time. They may have edible organs (fruits,
lier publications. seeds, leaves) or may contain oil, fibers, resin etc,
The recently studied plants that were collected on the one hand, but on the other may still have
at different sites, are all preserved in the form of a medicinal properties. Even the medicinal applica
professional herbarium which will be incorporated tions may be diverse and manifold. Healing proper
in the National Herbarium of the University of Ca ties of a sinlge plant species may encompass sick
racas, lnstituto Botanico, Venezuela. nesses as different as diarrhoea, cough, dysentery,
The recipes for the preparation of drugs were rheumatism, allergies, and menstrual problems.
adopted from other books, but no guarantee is These applications which are transmitted verbally
given that the mentioned drug has the desired ef by the indigenous people or by special books which
fects nor that all undesired secondary effects are in originally are also based on tradition have to be
cluded. Our contribution must be understood as an proved first chemically and experimentally. In quite
attempt to show the many possibilities of applying a few cases these requirements have already been
neotropical plants medicinally or economically. It is met. In most examples, however, these investiga
suggested that their chemical structure should first tions are still lacking and will require many years of
be explored thoroughly and that healing effects, work. For this reason and possibly because certain
possible toxicity and side effects should thereafter healing properties ascribed to determined plant
be studied experimentally. Certainly, Indians car species are unrealistic, we considerd it inadequate
ried out experiments on themselves for possibly to present a list of sicknesses in alphabetical order
hundreds of years, but they may have already been coordinated with plant species that could possibly
accustomed to certain poisonous substances or may cure these diseases. Furthermore, we do not recom
have been or still are more resistant to drugs than mend the application of the recipes mentioned in
the so-called civilized people. our text, because a plant is not a verified pharma
Nevertheless, the experimental and standardiz ceutical product: chemical contents in plants not
ing in-vitro and in-vivo methods to prove the effec only vary in the distinct organs (leaf, stem, root
tiveness of phytopharmaceuticals and of medicines etc), but also according to the sub-species and to
in general depend both on objective and subjective the environmental conditions of the individual
factors, such as the state of health, psychical dispo plants. Moreover, native people may be accustomed
sition, spiritual state and social competence of the to certain chemical compounds in plants which
test persons or patients, and consequently their they use repeatedly, while the same compounds
value is limited. Most effectiveness must probably may be harmful to other persons. Chemical com
be ascribed to 'multi-purpose' phytochemicals pounds have to become standardized before the use
which contain a mixture of numerous active sub of the corresponding healing plants may be consid
stances. When the active substance or substances ered safe.
are isolated, a modified and perhaps improved At present, Venezuela can be considered a lead
medicine can be developed. But monotherapeutica ing country in the investigation of medicinal and
.. Preface
useful plants in South America. The ethnobotanical cal Botany, Central University of Venezuela, Cara
congress in Caracas (1999) evidenced a number of cas. Our particular thanks go to Carlos Blanco,
new activities in this respect. PILAR RODRIGUEZ, a Aura Castillo, Mercedes Castro, Alexandria Jime
former student of the senior author, gave a great nez, Silvia Llamozas, and Silvia Perez.
impulse to the investigation of medicinal plants in Habitus photographs were in part made at the
Venezuela (1983). The senior author spent 21 years collection site by Bruno Manara who also collected
at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Cara part of the plants and to whom we express our sin
cas in research and teaching. The junior author, cere thanks.
Helga Lindorf, a native Venezuelan, is a former stu Most of the scanning microscope photographs
dent and collaborator of the senior author, Ingrid were made by Prof. Helga Lindorf at the University
Roth. of Caracas.
In writing this book, the collaboration with the Most of the microscopic photographs are taken
Central University of Venezuela in Caracas was with a Leitz light microscope ('Das Mikroskop'), a
most important. Prof. Helga Lindorf, has accom loan of the DFG in Bonn, an organization we owe
plished the most important part. She collected and our gratitude.
identified the plants with the help of her assistants. Drawings are originals made by the senior au
Herbarium specimens were prepared and can be thor Ingrid Roth, if not otherwise indicated.
consulted in the National herbarium of the Botani We are grateful to Dipl. Interpreter Assia Bouts
cal Institute of the Central University of Caracas. A koy for the correction of the English text.
large part of the bibliography used was provided by Our sincere thanks are due to the European
Prof. Helga Lindorf who directed the scientific ac Commission for Science, Research and Develop
tivities in Venezuela. ment (Cooperation with Emerging Countries and
The microscopic slides were prepared by the as International Organizations) in Brussels, for the
sistants of Prof. Lindorf at the Laboratory of Tropi- generous financial support of our research.