Lending Support for Brazilian Medicinal Plants

From Plant Press, Vol. 4, No. 1 from January 2001.

Medicinal Plants of Brazil¹, by Walter Mors, Carlos Rizzini and Nuno Pereira, is a synthesis of information on the medicinal and pharmacological utilization of approximately 1,500 species and varieties of plants in 148 families ranging from lichens, ferns and fern allies to gymnosperms and flowering plants. They represent the diverse botanical heritage of an immense nation where, for economic reasons, many of the people cannot fully afford the benefits of healing systems based on Western medicine and expensive pharmaceuticals. Locally available medicinal plants are the answer to immediate health problems in many cases. This volume is part of a series on Medicinal Plants of the World that now includes treatments for West Africa, West Indies, North Africa, China and India.

A cooperative effort by three Brazilians, Mors (a natural products chemist), Rizzini (a plant taxonomist) and Pereira (a pharmacologist), this book distills their decades of experience and research, evidence of which is especially manifested by the inclusion of abundant references to the active chemical constituents and pharmacology of the plants. This “hard core” data is particularly welcomed in books of this nature, and in many instances is derived from literature sources not generally accessible outside of Brazil. References are given in the text at the end of each family write-up, where, for example, one may find 117 articles cited for Asteraceae, 36 for Apocynaceae, 48 for Fabaceae and 23 for Solanaceae. Evidence of the many uses to which locally available plant-derived medicines are put by traditional herbal practitioners may be ascertained by the huge swatches of species listed in the comprehensive Medicinal Index, which was computer-generated as a useful cross-reference for various related illnesses.

Department staff who participated in the preparation of the book include volume editor R. DeFilipps who also contributed the Foreword; W. J. Kress who supplied the dust jacket photo of Heliconia angusta; and staff authorities on various plant groups who checked the taxonomy and nomenclature of plants in their areas of specialization: P. Acevedo (Sapindaceae), L. Dorr (Malvaceae, Sterculiaceae), C. Feuillet (Aristolochiaceae), W. J. Kress (Costaceae, Heliconiaceae), D. Lellinger (Ferns, Fern Allies), D. Nicolson (Araceae), J. Pruski (Asteraceae), H. Robinson (Asteraceae), L. Skog (Gesneriaceae) and D. Wasshausen (Acanthaceae).

Two illustrators from the Smithsonian Behind-the-Scenes Volunteer Program made significant contributions. For the Foreword, Anna DiCarlo provided drawings of Amerindians of the Bororo, Botocudos, Coeruna, Juri, Jurupixuna, Karaja, Maua, Mauhe, Mayoruna, Mongoyo and Mura tribes. Of the 88 botanical plates, 19 are originals by volunteer Rufus Toomey, and are interspersed among those from other sources including Cecilia Rizzini.

¹Mors, W.B., Rizzini, C.T. and N.A. Pereira. 2000. Medicinal Plants of Brazil. 501 pp. Algonac, Michigan: Reference Publications, Inc.

[by R. DeFilipps]