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Jungle Medicine...from
medicine to magic
by Connie Grauds
My study and use of plant medicines and healing took me out of the dispensing pharmacy
and into the rainforest where I joined an ethnobotanical expedition into the jungles
of the Amazon many miles up the Napo River, north of Iquitos, Peru. We participated
in an intensive course about the medicinal bounty of nature and how indigenous societies
are able to identify and use many plants of which we Westerners are unaware.
The rainforest's overpowering size and expanse had a depth and density that I had
never seen before. The realization that this vastness held an undiscovered store
of medicinal knowledge, which indigenous peoples have long tapped into, gave me a
sense of wonderment -- and a new sense of purpose. Besides being rich with an overpowering
verdant fecundity and colorful wildlife, the rainforest holds secrets that could
change the course of medicine as we know it.
I had worked with plant medicines for years, but was really unprepared for the magnitude
and layered richness of the Amazon rainforest. The Garden of Eden does exist -- and
I was in the middle of it. I was at the site of natural creation, watching the ultimate
masterpiece unfold before me. The rainforest's pure aliveness is uncluttered by our
civilized neatness and what we consider to be the necessities of life.
Changed my life
That first trip into the Amazon jungles, nearly a decade ago, changed my life. Returning
home, I enfolded the ethnobotanical knowledge and experiences into my work as a teacher,
lecturer and writer by founding the Association of Natural Medicine Pharmacists.
As I worked with plant medicines, I knew in the back of my mind that I would return
to this magical and sacred place of the Amazon rainforest. The opportunity came when
I heard that the shaman I had met during my first visit there needed volunteers to
help him set up a medicinal plant garden. I jumped at what I saw as a legitimate
reason to return, as my mind swung into euphoric recall. The magic of the rainforest
had left an imprint on me and it drew me again.
Recalling my last trip, I limited my expectations with an attitude of "How ya
gonna top that?" as I made preparation to return again. I would soak up the
splendor and learn more about healing plants by tending the gardens. My friendship
with curandero don Antonio, the native shaman and garden keeper, would be renewed.
Having been in challenging jungle conditions before, I packed proper clothing and
protective footwear. As a meticulous pharmacist, I also included a more than adequate
first-aid kit. We would be many hours by high speed boat from the nearest medical
facilities.
Unfortunately, within a week I contracted a jungle-induced malady. Even with my good
shoes and hygiene, my left big toe became badly infected by some unknown microbe.
As the toe throbbed and enlarged, the nail began to float and ooze a nasty fluid.
The pain became unbearable, and my shoes did not fit. My pharmaceutical antibiotics
and creams didn't help.
The oozing toe
Don Antonio, the village's native healer, was my only source of on-site health care.
He examined the oozing toe and said his primary concern was avoiding a blood infection
that could travel up my leg and infect the groin lymph area. He would prepare a foot
bath of medicinal plants to use for a couple of days, and if that failed, he suggested
using a machete to slice open the toe-nail and relieve the pressure. Needless to
say, I welcomed an herbal foot bath over the prospect of a two-foot long machete
blade performing first aid.
With me hobbling behind him, don Antonio gathered seven plants from nature's outdoor
pharmacy for his medicinal brew. Experiencing no change from antibiotics, I decided
to trust the traditional jungle medicine process. Don Antonio made the foot soak
from the leaves of the Casho, Pinon blanco, Arnica, Paico, Papaya macho (only the
yellow leaves would work, he said), Camote and Sangre de grado. To this concoction
don Antonio added some ordinary table salt. I understood the rationale for the salt;
the rest I just trusted. I felt like the pharmacists of history who grew and harvested
the plants, concocted the plant mixture and compounded the final medicine. I was
dying of pain and living a moment of original pharmacy.
As water was heating on the fire and don Antonio made preparations, I referenced
the plants in an ethnobotanical dictionary to see if science had catalogued anything
about their uses. From the book and don Antonio, I learned that Casho, Pinon blanco,
Paico and Sangre de grado are used for infections; Papaya macho and Camote treat
fungus; and Arnica is used as an antiseptic and anti-inflammatory. We would soon
find out.
For the next few days, we repeatedly soaked the foot in freshly prepared plant baths,
and the infection slowly resolved itself. The swelling went down, discoloration abated,
and thankfully, the pain went away. The oozing under the toe nail dried up, and the
toe-nail did not turn black and fall off as don Antonio had originally anticipated.
I was amazed at how quickly it healed and was delighted that the first aid machete
was not going to be used.
Medicine and the magic
The most amazing thing about the treatment was the unquantifiable ingredient of don
Antonio's ministrations. He paid attention and showed care for my discomfort and
condition. He blew sacred tobacco smoke on my legs. He sang and hummed shamanic plant-spirit
healing songs as my foot was being washed and soaked in the fresh green aromatic
bath. The "medicine and the magic" I call it. Who's to say whether it was
the invisible medicine of the spirit, the physical medicine of the plants themselves
or the tender care pouring forth from the shaman's heart that was doing the healing.
That kind of attention had never been lavished on me in a Western medical setting,
regardless of the severity of my condition. It reminded me of our medicine's term
"attending physician" or one who "attends" the patient and how
frequently that promise is not delivered.
Trained in modern high-tech pharmacy, I sometimes find it difficult to believe that
"those little green leaves" can cure "a big problem." And certainly
something as elusive as the invisible medicine of the spirit was never taught in
pharmacy school at the University of Minnesota, from which I graduated. As pharmacists
we're taught to single out the pharmacologically active ingredients. Modern Western
medicine will probably discount my foot healing as anecdotal. Some will propose that
until laboratory analysis is made on the seven plants used, we only had a subjective
native cure.
In the scramble for progress through chemistry, we have forgotten how much our lives
depend on potent plant medicines, such as digitalis, curare and taxol. The curative
power of plants is far broader than our current research has catalogued. Medicinal
plants from the rainforests used by traditional societies may prove to be an important
source of potentially therapeutic drugs today, as in the past. Deep in rainforests
lie yet-to-be-discovered secrets that may cure today's devastating diseases.
Until the 1950s, pharmaceutical research relied heavily on plants as sources of medicines.
Today, with the millions of prescriptions issued in the U.S., 25 percent of the drugs
are still isolated from plants. Many were discovered through the ethnobotanical technique
of studying indigenous uses of plants.
Traditional Uses and Healers
There are an estimated 265,000 flowering species of plants on earth, and less than
half of 1 percent have been studied for their chemical composition and medicinal
properties. Because the costs and time requirements of one-by-one study for biological
activity are prohibitive, a movement is on to refocus on traditional uses and healers.
The hope is that native healers will give researchers a direction in which to concentrate
their drug discovery efforts.
Rainforest healers have a remarkably extensive knowledge of plant medicines. It is
transmitted from generation to generation, usually through on-the-job training apprenticeships.
Don Antonio is passing on his knowledge to his son, who works beside him in the jungles,
and to me, his only non-family apprentice. Unfortunately for our future and the preservation
of this knowledge, few native young people are following in the curandero's footsteps.
As ethnobotanist Dr. Mark Plotkin sadly observed, "Every time a shaman dies,
it is as if a library burned down."
Not only are the native healers declining in number, but the rainforests themselves
are being destroyed at an alarming rate with little thought of preservation or conservation.
Tropical forests cover approximately 7.75 billion acres worldwide and provide habitat
for about 125,000 species of flowering plants. And less than 1 percent of these plants
have been studied for their active components. Many species that potentially hold
the key to life-saving new medicines are facing extinction daily.
The danger of losing this untapped knowledge and the native practices is the impetus
prompting medicinal scientists throughout the world to endorse rainforest conservancy.
Realizing my part in this conservancy effort, I've founded the Center for Spirited
Medicine. It is dedicated to conserving rainforest habitats by promoting knowledge,
awareness and proper stewardship of these precious resources, as well as preserving
the ancient healing art of shamans, the keepers of the knowledge of medicinal plants
and spirited plant medicines.
Experiencing the healing power of the rainforest and partaking in original pharmacy
was life-changing for me. It was exciting to be part of nature's medicines, picked
fresh from plants and put to immediate use to relieve human maladies. The green medicine
of nature has renewed the fascination I felt for pharmacy when I entered the profession
long ago. The spirited medicine of the shaman has opened my heart as a healer. I
am truly grateful.
Travel and study in the exotic Amazon, the primal depths of the Peruvian rainforest,
amidst the dramatic peaks of the sacred Andes. A travel abroad course offers a chance
to work alongside and learn traditional healing methods of local shamans, including
shaman don Antonio. Explore the role of spirituality in healing and how global healing
traditions have greatly impacted the world of medicine today. Connie Grauds, R.Ph.,
will lead this 2-credit course May 23-June 10. Continuing education credits are available.
University of Minnesota students, health care professionals and other interested
students or adults may apply. Register with the University of Minnesota, Center for
Spirituality and Healing. Contact Nancy Feinthel at (612) 624-5166 or e-mail feinthel@umn.edu
Connie Grauds, R.Ph., is president of the Association of Natural Medicine Pharmacists
(www.anmp.org), and Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of
California, San Francisco. Grauds is also author of the book Jungle Medicine...from
Medicine to Magic, which recounts spirited tales of her apprenticeship in Amazonian
jungle shamanism. Grauds is founder and director of the Center for Spirited Medicine
(www.spiritedmedicine.com), dedicated to the conservation of rainforest medicines
and indigenous healing practices. Her passion and life's work is the integration
of the healing aspects of plants as medicine into today's modern medicine.
Copyright © Connie Grauds. All rights reserved. |
| February 2005 |
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