Skip to main content
Log in

The use of medicinal plants by the Yanomami Indians of Brazil

Uso de plantas medicinais pelos Índios Yanomami do Brasil

  • Published:
Economic Botany Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The results of the first detailed study of the use of medicinal plants by a group of Yanomami Indians are presented. Contrary to previous assumptions, they are shown to possess a substantial pharmacopoeia, including at least 113 species of plants and fungi. The changes in their use and knowledge of plant medicine are discussed in the context of the past and present influences on the Yanomami by the outside world.

Resumen

O presente trabalho apresenta os resultados obtidos através do primeiro estudo detalhado a respeito do uso de plantas medicinais por um grupo de índios Yanomami. Ao contrário do que se acreditava anteriormente, estes índios possuem uma farmacopéia considerável, na qual incluem-se, pelo menos, 113 espécies de plantas e fungos. As mudanças ocorridas no uso e no conhecimento das plantas medicinais são discutidas no contexto das influências que os Yanomami vêm sofrendo através do contato com o mundo exterior, tanto no passado como no presente.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Literature Cited

  • Albert, B. 1985. Temps du sang, temps des cendres. Représentation de la maladie, système rituel et espace politique chez les Yanomami du sud-est. Doctoral thesis, Université de Paris X-Nanterre.

  • Albert, B.. 1994. Gold miners and Yanomami Indians in the Brazilian Amazon. Pages 47–55in B. R. Johnston, ed., Who pays the price? The sociocultural context of environmental crisis. Island Press, Washington.

    Google Scholar 

  • Altschul, S.von R. 1973. Drugs and foods from little-known plants. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, A. B. 1978. The names and uses of palms among a tribe of Yanomama Indians. Principes 22: 30–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balée, W. L. 1994. Footprints of the forest. Ka’apor ethnobotany—the historical ecology of plant utilization by an Amazon people. Columbia University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biocca, E. 1979a. Sciamanismo, allucinogeni e meloterapia: relazione introduttiva. Pages 445–53in Simposio internazionale sulla medicina indigena e populare dell’ America Latina, IILA-CISO Rome 12-16 December 1977. IILA, Rome.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. 1979b.Piante medicinali degli Yanomami. Pages 421–425in Simposio internazionale sulla medicina indigena e populare dell’ America Latina, IILA-CISO Rome 12-16 December 1977.IILA, Rome.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boom, B. M. 1987. Ethnobotany of the Chácobo Indians, Beni, Bolivia. Advances in Economic Botany 4:1–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Branch, L. C., andM. F daSilva. 1983. Folk medicine of Alter do Chão, Pará, Brasil. Acta Amazonica 13(5–6):737–797.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brandão, M. G. L., T. S. M. Grandi, E. M. M. Rocha, D. R. Sawyer, andA. U. Krettli. 1992. Survey of medicinal plants used as antimalarials in the Amazon. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 36:175–182.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brewer-Carias, C., andJ. A. Steyermark. 1976. Hallucinogenic snuff drugs of the Yanomamö Caburiwe-Teri in the Cauaburi River, Brazil. Economic Botany 30(l):57–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavalcante, P. B., andP. Frikel. 1973. A farmacopeia Tiriyó. MPEG, Belém, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chagnon, N. A. 1968. Yanomamö: the fierce people. Case studies in current anthropology, 1st Edition. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • —,P. Le Quesne, andJ. Cook. 1970. Algunos aspectos de uso de drogas, comercio y domesticatión de plantas entre los indígenas yanomamö de Venezuela y Brasil. Acta Científica Venezolana 21: 186–193.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • —, —, and —. 1971. Yanomamö hallucinogens: anthropological, botanical, and chemical findings. Current Anthropology 12(l):72–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook, S. F. 1946. The incidence and significance of disease among the Aztecs and related tribes. Hispanic American Historical Review 26:320–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, E. W., andJ. A. Yost. 1983. The ethnobotany of the Waorani of Eastern Ecuador. Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University 29(3):273–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dharma, A. P. 1987. Indonesian medicinal plants. Balai Pustaka, Jakarta.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duke, J. A., andR. Vasquez. 1994. Amazonian ethnobotanical dictionary. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freise, F. W. 1933. Plantas medicinais brasileiras. Boletim de Agriculture, São Paulo (1933):252–494.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuentes, E. 1980. Los Yanomami y las plantas silvestres. Antropológica 54:3–138.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grenand, P., C. Moretti, andH. Jacquemin. 1987. Pharmacopées traditionelles en Guyane. ORSTOM, Paris, France.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heckel, E.. 1897. Les plantes médicinales et toxiques de la Guyane Française. Protat Frères, Maçon, France.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larrick, J. W., J. A. Yost, J. Kaplan, G. King, andJ. Maykall. 1979. Patterns of health and disease among the Waorani Indians of Eastern Ecuador. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 72(5):147–191.

    Google Scholar 

  • La Rotta, C. 1988. Espécies utilizadas por la comunidad Miraña. Estudio Etnobotánico.FEN, Colombia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lescure, J.-P., H. Balslev, and R. Alarcon. n.d. Plantas utiles de la Amazonia Ecuatoriana. Pronareg Ed., Quito.

  • Lizot, J. 1984. Les Yanõmami centraux. Cahiers de l’Homme, Editions de L’EHESS, Paris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milliken, W., R. P. Miller, S. R. Pollard, andE. V. Wandelli. 1992. Ethnobotany of the Waimiri Atroari Indians of Brazil. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morton, J. F. 1981. Atlas of medicinal plants of Middle America. C. Thomas, Springfield, IL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman, M. T. 1976. Aboriginal New World epidemiology and medical care, and the impact of Old World disease imports. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 45:667–672.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Prance, G. T. 1970. Notes on the use of plant hallucinogens in Amazonian Brazil. Economic Botany 24:62–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. 1972. An ethnobotanical comparison of four tribes of Amazonian Indians. Acta Amazonica 2(2): 7–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. 1984. The use of edible fungi by Amazonian Indians. Advances in Economic Botany 1:127–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schuttes, R. E., andB. Holmstedt. 1968. The vegetal ingredients of the Myristicaceous snuffs of the northwest Amazon. Rhodora 70:113–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • —, andR. F. Raffauf. 1990. The healing forest—medicinal and toxic plants of the northwest Amazonia. Historical, ethno-and economic botany series, Vol. 2. Dioscorides Press, Portland, OR.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seitz, G. J. 1967. Epene, the intoxicating snuff powder of the Waika Indians and the Tucano medicine man, Agostino. Pages 315–338in D. H. Efron, B. Holmstedt, and N. Kline, eds., Ethnopharmacologic search for psychoactive drugs. U.S. Public Health Publication no. 1645.

  • Vickers, W. T., andT. Plowman. 1984. Useful plants of the Siona and Secoya Indians of eastern Ecuador. Fieldiana Botany 15:1–63.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Milliken, W., Albert, B. The use of medicinal plants by the Yanomami Indians of Brazil. Econ Bot 50, 10–25 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02862108

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02862108

Key Words

Navigation