Medical Ethnobotany

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Medical Ethnobotany

• The Study of Indigenous Materia Medica

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Medical Ethnobotany is

• The study of the medicinal plants used by a group
  of people
• How are they selected?
• How are they prepared?
• How are they administered?
• What would this tell us about testing them for
  pharmaceutical application?

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• It is context dependent on the structures and
  beliefs in the ethnomedical system
• Ethnomedicine the recognized health conditions
  known to a group of people
• Ethnomedical systems are often divided into two
  frameworks Naturalistic and Personalistic

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Personalistic

• Caused by supernatural forces, either spirits or
  malicious intent (witches, conjurers, shamans)
• Must be addressed by specialists in spiritual
  healing
• Mooneys stressed the personalistic aspect in his
  renditions of Cherokee medicine, even though the
  naturalistic was evident

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According to Mooney

• Most Cherokee diseases were considered caused by
  supernatural forces or human agents. Disease and
  death were considered unnatural and caused by
  animal (or other) spirits, ghosts, or types of
  witches.

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Naturalistic

• Based on observation of apparent signs and
  symptoms and predominantly approached by
  self-treatment
• Knowledge of ethnophysiology, ethnoanatomy, and
  traditional diagnosis is essential

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Doctrine of SignaturesNatures Madison Avenue

• Homeopathic Medicine Like cures like

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• D of S An observable quality in a medicinal
  remedy is indicative of which symptoms it will
  alleviate.

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• Color
• Yellow gallbladder and jaundice dandelion,
  yellowroot, barberry
• Red Cardinal flower bloody noses, blood in
  urine, heart issues
• Where it grows
• Mucky soils mucous secretions lotus root
• Wet areas kidneys Hydrangea, Sycamore
• Sunny side bark harvested will heal tree
  faster, thus is better for wounds

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• Form (shape, habit)
• Vines nerves or blood vessels mints calm
  nerves, roots of ladys slipper resemble nerves
• Pubescent leaves mullein and comfrey
  resembles lining (cilia) of lungs
• Aroma
• Strong smells drive away evil spirits cedar,
  sage, thyme (thymol) powerful antiseptic

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Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis

• Tsaliyusti gigagei (red)
• Used to counter the effects of conditions caused
  by ghosts and conjurers (they have made it like
  it)
• Also for conditions involving blood (urinating
  blood, bloody noses)

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Prophylaxis

• Evidence of a naturalistic aspect to Cherokee
  medicine exists with the use of prophylactic
  agents to guard against the transmission of
  disease

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Orontium aquaticum golden club

• Babies would be bathed in a decoction of golden
  club on every new moon to keep disease away. It
  was observed that no dew stayed on the leaves,
  symbolizing the shedding of disease. (very scarce)

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Chinese Anatomy
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Cherokee Ethnoanatomy

• The heart and lungs were intimately related a
  heart attack was caused by the lungs wrapping
  around the heart
• The gallbladder was thought to be a vein located
  below the navel filled with yellow fluid

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Polystichum acrostichoides Christmas fern

• All ferns were considered good medicine for
  heart attacks. The unfurling of the fern was
  symbolic of the lungs unwrapping from around the
  heart.

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Clethra acuminata sweet pepperbush

• Mixed with other shrubs and drunk as an emetic to
  dislodge stagnant bile in cases of daloni
• Olbrechts claimed that the inner bark was yellow,
  but I havent observed this

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Cherokee Humoral Medicine
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Humoral Medicine

• Based on qualities associated with humors
  bodily fluids of the body
• In humoral systems, Hot, Cold, Wet, and Dry are
  metaphorical principles, not measurable qualities
• Allopathic medicine (Hippocratic) the
  principle of opposition (opposite action cures
  symptoms) - based on restoring balance

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Humors stem from the interplay of the elements
(phases)

• Greek Elemental Theory
• Air (cold)
• Fire (hot)
• Water (moist)
• Earth (dry)

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Greek Humors

• Blood hot and moist
• Phlegm cold and moist
• Yellow Bile hot and dry
• Black Bile cold and dry

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Was There a 4 or 7 Element Theory in Cherokee
Medicine?

• Water sacred place in ceremony and healing
• Fire evoked for healing, associated with a
  direction (south)
• Air in the body?
• Earth not a disease causer, used in treatment,
  pre-Christian concept of its place in the body
  (dust)?

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Cherokee Four Soul Concept

• Four souls reside in different parts of the body
  and depart from the body at different rates at
  the time of death
• The first soul is the soul of consciousness, the
  seat of personality, memory, and continuity after
  death
• Located in the head and throat, associated with
  saliva, phlegm, and lymph (scalping)
• Leaves the body immediately at death

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• Life force of the second soul is seated in the
  liver
• The fluid associated with the second soul is bile
  (yellow, black, gastric juices)
• Liver soul may be attacked by witches and is the
  means by which they extend their life
  (quantitative may be exhausted)
• It take one week for the liver soul to depart the
  body (body protected the first night)

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• The third soul is located in the heart
• The fluid associated with this soul is blood
• Diffuses over a month after death
• Of little interest to witches after death, but
  can be attacked during life

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• The fourth soul is located in the bones
• The bodily fluid associated with this soul is
  sperm (liquid bones)
• Departs the body one year after death, after
  which mourning ends and the grave is no longer
  tended (nothing was left in the grave)

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Hot/Cold Wet/Dry

• Spirit of Fire invoked to counter disease of cold
  blooded animals
• Avoid wet, fleshy vegetables when one has
  blisters caused by the sun
• Appear to be more the exception than the rule

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Spoiled Saliva

• Saliva was a primary diagnostic tool, the primary
  condition being spoiled saliva
• Spoiled saliva tended to taste different, be
  thicker, and have a white or yellow color
• One with spoiled saliva would become,
  despondent, whither away, and die
• Saliva could be spoiled by dreaming of snake
  bites, the dead, and ghosts or mourning the death
  of a loved one

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Lobelia inflata Indian tobacco

• Primary emetic used to deal with spoiled saliva
  caused by a conjurer

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Bile

• Primary condition associated with bile was daloni
  (yellow), so named due to the color of the bile
  that was present in a patients vomit
• Explained as due to the revenge of animal
  spirits, especially the terrapin and the turtle

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Xanthorhiza simplicissima yellow root

• The distinctly yellow root is very bitter, the
  best known of the daloni remedies

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Blood

• Almost as powerful as saliva, as demonstrated by
  the influence of menstruating women
• They were isolated and ate food prepared by
  non-menstruating women
• Interfered with growing crops, fish harvests, and
  eating food prepared by a woman in this state
  would cause illness

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Urine

• Has no spiritual connection like other fluids, no
  mystery connected to it (frequently encountered)
• Mostly associated with broken taboos (urinating
  in the wrong place causing itching or
  incontinence)
• Possibly an act of desecration
• My research indicated a surprising number of
  remedies associated with the urinary tract

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Diagnosis of Urine

• Two types of conditions involving urine
• Observable state of the urine
• Milky
• Yellow
• Bloody
• Act of urination
• Stopped
• Profuse
• Painful

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Therapy

• Little is known about what the observable state
  of the meant in the Cherokee system
• Conditions that involved the act of urination
  tended to involve remedies that brought the
  mechanisms into balance

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Oxydendron arborea sour wood

• The straight twigs of sourwood (used for arrows)
  were included in formulas for stopped urination
• It was thought that the straightness of the twigs
  would take out the twist in the urinary tract

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Why Be Concerned With Indigenous Medical Systems?

• The search for new drugs is focused on problems
  of the Western world (i.e. cancer) and a
  de-emphasis on problems of the developing world
  (i.e. diarrhea, respiratory diseases, skin
  infections, malaria, etc.)
• Such problems are life-threatening in small-scale
  societies and are most likely treated by local
  practitioners

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• Upper Respiratory Infections are the leading
  cause of death in children in non-industrial
  countries (15 M/year)
• Diarrhea is the second leading cause of death (5
  M/year)
• Blindness caused by Vitamin A deficiency is the
  leading cause of blindness in children worldwide

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• Pharmaceutical companies search for new drugs for
  financial reasons
• Indigenous medical systems represent an
  irreplaceable human resource, using local
  knowledge to deal with local problems