How Does a Plant Medicine Become Popularly Used?
Historic use: based upon the traditions of Europeans, Chinese, Egyptians, American Indians, and other cultures. Information on plant medicines handed down over the centuries. Currently anthropologists and other scientists are investigating newly-discovered cultures (visits with shamans in Amazonia and Belize, for example), to determine what plants are being used – this “ethnobotany” has introduced a number of new compounds into pharmaceutical research.
