Ethnobotany | What is Ethnobotany

 Ethnobotany

Define Ethnobotany

The word ethnobotany has been derived from ethnology, We mean the Study of culture. Thus literally ethnobotany means scientific study of the relationships that exist between people and plants.

Training of Ethnobotanists

Ethnobotanists are usually botanists with additional training in areas such as anthropology, sociology, ecology, pharmacology, religion, and mythology. With the knowledge of such a wide range of subjects, present-day ethnobotanists are quite different in their approach from those of previous generations who were trained in botany alone. Botanists with anthropological and ecological training look at plants as an integral part of human culture. They not only study the plants of thick forests but also work. respectfully with the people living in these forests and also examine their culture and concepts of diseases.

Today, ethnobotanists as well as physicians work with traditional healers. While physicians work with healers to identify the specific diseases common to both the indigenous people and the rest of the world, ethnobotanists work with natives to identify and collect plants utilized in the treatment of these diseases. Following the work of ethnobotanists and physicians, the information is passed on to pharmaceutical companies to develop the product. That is how ethnomedicine functions today.

Preparation for Field Trip 

The first step in the ethnobotanical expedition is the collection of detailed information about the local and indigenous people. Researchers prepare a regional study on epidemiology, traditional medicine, culture, and ecology of the people and their environment. In order to prioritize plant collections, a number of international databases are searched to obtain all the relevant ethnobotanical, biological, and chemical information about the plants being used in that region.

With this detailed information about the people and plants of a region, ethnobotanists spend several days in remote areas with the natives, observing meticulously the indigenous plants people use. They also prepare a herbarium of the-useful plants for future reference. Ethnomedicine-trained persons also accompany ethnobotanists to these areas; they prepare brief case descriptions of individual diseases and present them to the local healers. The interviewing process is conducted very carefully, without using medicinal terminology. The help of a translator may often be required to make the local healers understand the disease's symptoms. Once the healer has understood the disease symptoms of the same or similar disease state, they are asked about the types of plants used to treat the disease. These plants are then collected for further analysis.

During this entire process, ethnobotanists have to establish their creditability in the community. Their relationship with the indigenous community is based on trust. In fact, ethnobotanists, are in a privileged position and may sometimes obtain information that may even be kept from the rest of the native community. This brings up some ethical issues regarding the ownership of such information. Anthropologist Darrell Posey is of the view that indigenous people who provide information must be financially compensated. This is necessary because indigenous cultures themselves are in danger of extinction, they are in urgent need of financial help to keep themselves going. To address such issues some pharmaceutical companies have made it a policy to provide financial compensation to the indigenous people.

Ethnobotanical Drug Development

Plants of ethnobotanical interest are analyzed in- the laboratory. The objective is to screen the plant metabolites for their relevance to the therapeutic areas of interest. The most promising initial plant compounds are fractionated and compared for their efficacy by in vitro testing. If the initial tests are successful, the compound is structurally, characterized and is subjected to a confirmatory biological test. The effective metabolites are subjected to repeated efficacy and safety tests and their suitability for human consumption, is determined. After passing through a series the selected compound is eventually developed into a marketable drug.

Ethnobotany Overview( History)

Ethnobotany was a term first suggested by John Harshberger in 1896 to circumscribe a specific field of botany and describe factory uses. It was defined as a discipline concerned with the relations between people and shops.

Ethnobotany

The main tasks of applied ethnobotany are:

John Harshberger in 1896 to circumscribe a specific field of botany and describe factory uses. It was defined as a discipline concerned with the relations between people and shops.

Conservation of factory species including kinds of crops and other forms of natural diversity." Botanical supplies and assessments of the conservation status of species. Sustainability in inventories of wild factory coffers, including non-timber products.

Enhanced food security, nutrition, and healthcare.

Preservation, recovery, and prolixity of original botanical knowledge and wisdom.

Identification and development of new profitable products from shops, for case crafts, and foods. herbal drugs and horticultural shops. Benefactions to new medicine development among others.

The idea of Ethnobotanical studies.

points and objects of Ethnobotany-

1. To advance and verbose indigenous knowledge of shops for the conservation of our public heritage.

2. To establish a skeleton of well- a trained labor force that will make lesser benefactions to the application and conservation of factory inheritable coffers.

3. To enhance mindfulness of the part played by ethnobotany in the profitable, artistic, social, recreational, and health of the maturity of the people in developing countries.

4. To develop ethnobotany a multidisciplinary subject.

5. To promote appreciation of the extreme uproariousness and value of indigenous foliage.

6. To produce mindfulness of the legal counteraccusations regarding the exploitation of natural coffers.

-- Ethnobotany Importance --

Ethnobotany is considered a branch of ethnobiology, the study of history and present non-intercourses between mortal societies and the shops, creatures, and other organisms in their terrain. Like its parent field, ethnobotany makes apparent the connection between mortal artistic practices and the sub-disciplines of biology.

Ethnobotanical studies range across space and time, from archaeological examinations of the part of shops in ancient societies to the bioengineering of new crops. likewise, ethnobotany isn't limited to" industrialized or nonurbanized societies. In fact, the adaptation of shops and mortal societies has changed and maybe boosted the environment of urbanization and globalization in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. nevertheless, indigenous,non-Westernized societies play a pivotal part in ethnobotany, as they retain a preliminarily underrated knowledge of original ecology gained through centuries or indeed glories of commerce with their biotic( living) terrain.

The significance of ethnobotany is multifarious. The study of indigenous food products and original medicinal knowledge may have practical counteraccusations for developing sustainable husbandry and discovering new drugs. Ethnobotany also encourages mindfulness of the link between biodiversity and artistic diversity, as well as a sophisticated understanding of the collective influence( both salutary and destructive) of shops and humans.

As we've seen, ethnobotany is a multidisciplinary wisdom and its compass isn't confined to one area but it covers a broad range of study areas, which are connected to each other in one sense or the other.

So, there's a great occasion to explore the ethnobotanical approach toward ultramodern civilization and give them a firm task, which should include

- Conservation of factory species including kinds of crops and other forms of natural diversity.

- Botanical supplies and assessment of the conservation status of the species.

- Sustainability in inventories of wild factory coffers. Enhanced food security, nutrition, and healthcare.

- Preservation, recovery, and prolixity of original botanical knowledge and wisdom. underpinning of ethical and public identity.

- Identification and development of new profitable products from shops, for case, food, crafts, herbal phrasings, horticultural shops, etc.

AREAS OF ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDIES

morning in the twentieth century, the field of ethnobotany endured a shift from the raw compendium of data to a lesser methodological and abstract reorientation. moment, the practice of ethnobotany requires a variety of chops

1. Botanical training for the identification and preservation of factory samples.

2. Anthropological training to understand the artistic generalities around the perception of shops.

3. verbal training to transcribe original terms and understand native morphology, syntax, and semantics. Ethnobotanists engage in a broad array of exploration questions and practices, which don't advance. themselves to easy categorization.

To know other topics on Ethnobotany :

Methods of Ethnobotany studies. Click here

Ethnobotany in India. (Food plants, medicinal plants, incense.)

Ethnobotany plants of Rajasthan. Click here