The ACEER Useful Plant Trail Video Guide: Discover the Useful Plant Trail of the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research (ACEER) with your guide, Shaman Don Antonio Montero, vetted by Dr. James Duke, internationally recognized ethnobotanist. On the trail you will see and have described 45 trees and plants, not only useful to the people of Amazonia, but some that provide chemicals or products used in countries around the world.
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Ethnomedical Field Research in the Amazon: Gain insight into the current methodology of ethnomedical field research as related to the fundamental success of programs associated with the search for new medicines from phytopharmaceuticals. Share the challenges of drug discovery strategies e.g., isolation techniques, efficacy to toxicity margins) as related to research among the Jivaro Amerindians of the western Amazon. Some examples of the promising uses of medicinal plants include obstetrical use of plants by Amazonian Jivaro women, as well as the use of plant alkaloids in treating wounds.
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Nutrition and the Amazon Food Pharmacy Discover the foods in our diet that are derived from tropical sources and provide us with multiple health benefits. Dr.Duke traces the origins of introduced and native tropical “food farmaceuticals” that can be and have been utilized in preventive pharmacy as well as an adjunct to therapeutic drug pharmacology. Visit the local aguardiente factory and see the process of making sugar cane rum, the popular food solvent of choice in traditional medicine.
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Pharmacology and Therapeutic Application of Plant DrugsDr.Varro E.Tyler explores five significant categories of plant drugs including antineoplastic agents, antiprotozoal drugs, cardiovascular drugs, chemotherapeutic, and possible immunostimulants. These and other natural products have served as prototypes for synthetic and semi-synthetic medicinals. Join Dr. Tyler on a field excursion to an Amazonian village and herb garden to explore the native culture as it exists today, and learn the uses of local plants and herbs that may lead to new drug treatments.
Plant Drugs, Healing Herbs, and Phytomedicinals Dr. Varo E. Tyler gives an opening presentation at the first conference bringing traditional medicinal plant healers and Western pharmaceutical professionals together to explore the use of medicinal plants from the tropical rain forest of Peru.
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Tropical Medicine in the Rain Forest: Dr. Linnea Smith takes you to her clinic located on the bank of the Amazon River 50 miles from Iquitos, Peru. Dr. Smith shares her experiences and insights into healthcare in the Amazon area where Western medicine is usually unavailable.Learn how the cultural and religious needs of the people bring a new dimension to treatment and preventive care. See the adaptive approaches of a medical practice in the Amazon as well as the problems, advantages, and revelations of bringing Western-style healthcare to a remote region.
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A Walk in the Rain Forest with Dr. Jim Duke Filmed along the Amazon and Napo rivers near Iquitos, Peru, A Walk in the Rain Forest with Dr. Jim Duke offers an introduction to the sustainable use of rain forest plants. The program is hosted by Dr. James A. Duke, coauthor of the Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and economic botanist with the US Department of Agriculture. In the program we learn about "extractivism," the renewable harvesting of economically useful products from natural ecosystems, and its potential for saving the rain forest.
The program was produced during an educators' workshop arranged by International Expeditions, a company based in Helena, Alabama, that has established the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research (ACEER) Foundation.
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