Message #111698

[Bianca]

               

               Highland Andean girl in Quito, Ecuador,
               selling medicinal plants.

 
               Photo by Steven R. King,
               1996.










                                            MEDICINES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD






Steven R. King, Ph.D.,
Shaman Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,
South S.F., CA
Adapted from Pacific Discovery,
Vol.45, No. 1, pp.23-31,
Winter, 1992.
 
By the time the first European explorers arrived, the native people of the Americas had developed com-
plex medical systems complete with diagnosis and treatment of physical as well as spiritual illnesses.

Indigenous peoples derived medicines and poisons from thousands of plants. Over the last 500 years, others, including those of us in North America, have profited from the medicinal knowledge and healing plants of this vast region. And yet, the Americas still contain an untapped wealth of healing gifts. Let's look at some of the plants that originated from Central and South America and how they affected history.