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Naturopathy The medicine from the rainforest
The tropical rainforests are the world's most biodiverse ecosystems, and presumably these species also provide the most healing substances. Native Americans in the Amazon, Congo, or in the dwindling tropical forests of Borneo have passed on a variety of well-known medicinal plants, and most drugs are likely to be undiscovered by science; In Costa Rica alone, researchers have discovered 400 new plant species with promising potential in the last 25 years.
contents
- coca
- curare
- Healing animals
- New exploitation?
"Plants produce, directly or indirectly, all our food, most of our medicines, our clothes. They not only nourish our bodies, but also our soul. With colors and scents. And what do we do? We eradicate it. If we continue as before, we will have eradicated one-third of all known species by the middle of the 21st century. Are we crazy? "" P.H. Raven, Director of St. Louis Botanic Garden a.D.
The natural medicine from the rainforest. Image: Stefan Körber - fotolia Biologist Andrea Flemmer says more than 7,000 drugs have been developed from tropical rainforest plants; Scientists had examined only 2% of the local Pflnazenarten. Even today, rainforest plants are already helping against cancer, tuberculosis and malaria, acting as a laxative and against coughing or causing beautiful dreams like ayahuasca. Every fourth drug of plant origin comes from tropical forests.
The Madagascar Periwinkle Catharantus roseus contains viblastin and vincristine, and thus anti-Hodgkin's disease and lymphocytic leukemia. Periwinkle increases the chance of recovery from 20% to 80% in both cancers. Five other evergreen species on Madagascar have not been studied yet.
The cat's claw from Peru contains an active ingredient against rheumatism, the Jaborandi shrub from Brazil helps with the substance pilocarpine against the green star; The flowers of the Philippine ylang-ylang tree relieve depression, insomnia, stress and nervousness. In the Andes, an edelweiss grows, Wira Wira: It cures cough, runny nose and hoarseness in the form of teas and ointments. Ginger from the tropical forest of Southeast Asia helps against digestive problems and relaxes the mucous membranes.
Dragon's blood resin on a tree in South America helps against injuries, germs and infections as well as against herpes. Caihu, a Bolivian pumpkin, keeps the blood pressure in balance, lowers the blood fat and thus helps against arteriosclerosis. The flowers of the passionflower from the rainforests of Mesoamerica are effective against headaches, nervousness and panic attacks; The Manayupa flower from Belize helps against cross and nerve pain.
The Yams root contains an active ingredient for birth control pills; The muscle relaxant tubocuranin is found in the South American curare, and the cinchona bark of Amazonia contains quinine, the antimalarial drug.
Scientists at the University of Bonn found in Mexico more than a hundred plants that affect the blood sugar. The guarumbo tree provides substances that could cure diabetes. Thai palm and pea family contain saponins and ditterpenoids that work against cancer. African Affodil plants apparently help against leukemia.
The neem tree from tropical India is regarded as a panacea: it has defenses against bacteria, viruses, fungi and infections; he is anti-diabetic, he lowers blood pressure and cholesterol, he is preventive, because he paralyzes Spain. The locals use its bark, leaves, flowers and seeds in the form of tea, powder, juice and oil. Doctors treat leprosy, hives, digestive problems and thyroid disorders.
1300 species of rhododendrons bloom from Turkey to the far east of China. To date, 600 substances have been extracted from rhododendrons, which have a healing effect: some paralyze, others block cancer.
In Brazil, indigenous people know the Marapuana root, which promotes potency, the Jabuti bark that fights hemorrhoids, the Saratodo wood that heals wounds, the Crujirú, which works against infections, and Uxi-Amarelo, the disease of the menopause relieves.
coca
Cocaine falls in the West among the illegal and demonized drugs. Compared to the leaves of the coca bush, it behaves approximately like 70% straw compared to a glass of Federweisser. The natives of Peru, Bolivia and Colombia have been using coca for thousands of years: they put the leaves under their tongues - they alleviate hunger, make it easier to breathe and keep awake. They help against toothache, abdominal pain, depression and rheumatism. Without coca, the mountain farmers would hardly be able to do their work in the Andes at a height of several thousand meters.
Coca leaves are for natives a healing and pain-relieving medicine. Most are chewed or brewed as tea. Image: RioPatuca Images - fotolia The coca bush grows in the Andes of Peru, Bolivia and Colombia at altitudes between 300 and 2000 m. Today, however, it is also widespread in India, Sri Lanka, Java and Africa. Coca needs a high humidity, lots of rain and clay soil with lots of humus.
Cocaine is highly dependent on mental factors, coca leaves are not at risk when used like the natives: they chew the leaves together with lime ash. The transform cocaine into ecgonine, a substance that does not make you dependent.
In the countries of origin, coca is not just a drug but an indispensable remedy. Although dried leaves contain alkaloids, especially cocaine, they also contain carbohydrates, calcium, proteins, iron, vitamin A and vitamin B 2. For the indigenous people, coca is one of the few ways to provide themselves with calcium. Coca helps against hunger, fatigue and cold. Above all, it relieves altitude sickness. This arises because in the mountains the oxygen content in the air decreases; Coca leaves, however, improve the absorption of oxygen. They contain: alkaloids, except cocaine, also cinnamoylcocaine, and truxillins, hygrin and cuskygrin, as well as tannins and essential oil with methyl salicylate.
Evo Morales in Bolivia is committed to legalizing coca. His slogan is "Coca si, cocaine no." Tees, shampoos, toothpaste, the possibilities for coca products are immense. This is counteracted by the "War on drugs", which is mainly run by the USA. Colombian soldiers, supported by the CIA, destroyed countless coca fields.
The industrialized nations are thus preventing tropical countries from using a resource, while Western pharmaceutical companies are simultaneously pursuing biopiracy by marketing hemp-derived medicines without involving the natives. Rationally, the war against coca can not be explained: in the industrialized countries, alcohol claims countless deaths, destroys families and personalities, makes not only psychic but physically dependent, as opposed to cocaine, but is also legal in the US, without the coca smoke to have positive characteristics.
"Mate de Coca", the coca tea, is widespread in the Andean countries and is sold in teabags. Each bag contains about one gram of coca leaves. He helps against stomach ailments and is easily stimulating. Physical side effects are not known, at least not more than black tea.
The war against coca has no medical but historical and political reasons. The Spanish conquistadors used the properties of the plant to exploit the indigenous people. Gonzalo d Zárate wrote: "The Indians in the mines can stay under the sun for 36 hours without sleeping or eating.".
In 1946, the Soviet embassy in Lima was jealous of the "drug slavery" of American corporations. US politicians swarmed before the United Nations on the benefits of coca enjoyment. Under George Bush the Elder and his successors, however, the US government pushed ahead with the war on coca, primarily because left-wing guerrillas took part in the deal, and the cartels of Kali and Medellin became serious power factors. Evo Morales in Bolivia and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela logically saw the legalization of coca as a liberation of the national heritage from US imperialism.
curare
"For their arrows, they prepare curare by making a brew out of the red skin of certain strychnos roots, which they allow to conquer over the fire until the mixture has reached a doughy consistency." Claude Levi-Strauss
Curare refers to various poisons that Indians of the South American rainforest use to hunt animals. They rub their arrows with these poisons and make them from the extracts of lianas.
Native Guayanas make curare from moonseed plants, which they store in bamboo tubes. The contained turbocarin was a proven narcotic in western medicine.
Indians in Venezuela and Colombia gain their curare from crispy nuts: it contains strychno alkaloids, including Alcoferin and Toxiferin.
Curare paralyzes the muscles and causes death because it paralyzes the respiratory muscles. The effect makes the poison, and Tubocarin can be used as a muscle relaxant. However, it also releases histamine, affects the bronchi and lowers blood pressure. Today, therefore, other narcotics are used that do not have these side effects, such as atracurium, mivacurium, pancuronium, vecuronium or rocuronium.
The effect of curare is similar to coniine of hemlock, nicotine in tobacco, cytisine in laburnum, epibatidine of dendrobates and betel nut arecoline.
Healing animals
Not only the plants but also the animals of the rainforest produce medically interesting substances. Cone snails have innumerable poisons that attack the nervous system and may therefore be important to treat neurological disorders.
Pumilitoxin, the poison of the poison dart frog Dendrobates pumilio strengthens the heart muscle, the poison of one of his relatives from Ecuador is usable for analgesics. The mucus of an Australian tree frog acts against various types of bacteria. What is special about him is that he also kills multi-resistant germs, against which the normal antibiotics are powerless.
The frog secretions have a devastating effect on bacteria: they cause the germs to burst. Conventional antibiotics can not do anything anymore if the bacterium is altering a protein. The frog poisons, however, destroy these bacteria as they mutate.
Healing animals in the jungle. Picture: mbridger68 - fotolia A Mexican frog produces a substance that lowers blood pressure to prevent a heart attack. A frog from the north of the continent stops blood cancer cells.
The Kambofrosch amazazones produces a poison that relieves stomach ailments as well as migraine. It contains demorphin, a narcotic that works better than morphine. In addition, it could be used against malaria.
But many of these "healing frogs" may have died out before their benefits are recognized. The amphibians disappear the fastest from all groups of animals; The reason is a fungus that spreads across the continents and has already extinguished several species, and against which there is no antidote.
New exploitation?
Ethnomedicans are researching medicinal plants in the Amazon, and pharmaceutical companies expect millions in profits. Biopiracy on a large scale, is to be feared: The indigenous people have the knowledge; Western companies are now snatching their patents?
In addition, the traditional medicine of the indigenous people itself sank; they are losing their land to agricultural corporations, proving themselves as pariahs in sprawling megacities; The tropical forest is shrinking annually by 13 million hectares. With the rainforest, the remedies disappear - which are not even discovered. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)