Richard Evans Schultes

thumb|Dr. Richard Evan Schultes and two indigenous people in the Amazon, c. 1940. Richard Evans Schultes (January 12, 1915 – April 10, 2001) was an American Ethnobotany ethnobotanist, curator of Harvard's Oakes Ames (botanist) Oakes Ames Orchid Herbarium, and professor of biology at Harvard University. Quotes A very recent survey of natural hallucinogens has pointed out that more than 200 species of higher plants comprise the study, that they are widely distributed in the plant kingdom (146 genera in more than 50 families) and that the active principles are known for only about 45 species (Schultes and Norman Farnsworth Farnsworth 1980) Harvard Papers in Botany Bot. Mus. Leaft., Harvard Univ. 28 (186–190). This survey attributes the lack of chemical knowledge of these plants to two causes: (i) the lack of good animal models which the chemist can utilize in monitoring his isolation work; and (ii) the paucity of field work of scientific trustworthiness in fast disappearing aboriginal societies. The survey ends with the statement that the “… Plant kingdom remains a fertile and almost virgin territory for those interested in the discovery of new psychoactive drugs, not to mention other types of biologically active compounds waiting in silent hiding.” 10.1007/BF03053083 Psychoactive plants in need of chemical and pharmacological study 1984 Proceedings / Indian Academy of Sciences 93 3 281–304 There have long been two strongly divergent poles in our evaluation of ethnobotany. Some students are carried away in an enthusiastic assumption that native peoples everywhere have a special intuition in unlocking the secrets of the Plant Kingdom. Others cast aside or at least denigrate all aboriginal folk lore as not worthy of serious scientific consideration. Both viewpoints, of course, are unwarranted.The accomplishments of native peoples in understanding plant properties so thoroughly must be simply a result of a long and intimate association with their floras and their utter dependence on them. Consequently — and especially since so much aboriginal knowledge is based on experimentation — it warrants careful and criticai attention on the part of modern scientific efforts. It behooves us to take advantage now of this extensive knowledge that still exists in many parts of the world, lest it be lost with the inexorable onrush of civilization and the resulting extinction of one primitive culture after another. This experimentally acquired knowledge may not much longer be avaílable. 1988 Ethnopharmacological conservation: a key to progress in medicine Acta Amazonica 18 suppl 1-2 393-406 https://www.scielo.br/j/aa/a/NhShhk6wfWq4s8kBYnkv5Tf/?format=pdf&lang=en Amazonia has given the world some of its most important plants: the Pará Rubber-tree (Hevea brasiliensis), the Pineapple (Ananas colossus), Cacao (Theobroma cacao), the Tapioca Plant or Cassava (Manihot esculenta), Coca (Erythroxylon coca var. ipadu), the Brazil-nut Tree (Bertholletia excelsa), paradise nuts (Lecythis spp.), the Curare liana (Chondrodendron tomentosum), and yet others. Each of these species has local ecotypes and wild relatives that may be of inestimable value in future genetic projects that may be oriented towareds various aspects of improving cultivated forms for greater yield, disease resistance, adaptation to different soil and climatic conditions, and sundry other characteristics. 10.1017/S037689290003054X Guest Editorial: Ethnobotany, Biological Diversity, and the Amazonian Indians 1992 Environmental Conservation 19 2 97–100 1992EnvCo..19...97S External links Category:1915 births Category:2001 deaths Category:Academics from the United States Category:Biologists from the United States Category:Botanists from the United States Category:Curators Category:Environmentalists from the United States Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Harvard University faculty