Medicinal_Plants_Of_The_Rainforest

Medicinal Plants Of The Rainforest Medicinal Plants of the Rainforest Of the 265,000 species of flowering plants that have been identified on this planet, only 0.5% of them have been studied in detail for chemical composition and medicinal value. In fact, modern scientists only know the chemical composition of less than 5% of the flora in the rainforest. However, indigenous peoples who live in the rainforest can identify specific uses for 49-82% of the trees in their local environment. In fact, 75% of the world population still use plants and plant extracts for their medicinal needs. Indigenous people of the rainforest provide priceless resources in the form of knowledge about the potential usefulness of medicinal plants. It can even be argued that the knowledge of tropical plants as medicinal resources is more in danger of extinction that the actual plants themselves. When the Europeans first came to Amazonia, the estimated population of indigenous peoples was 6.8 million, but by the early 1970's the population was estimated at about 500,000. The use of medicinal plants can be traced back to ancient China, India, Greece and Persia. As early as 1552, the Aztecs that were conquered by the Spaniards used medicinal plants as “peace offerings” to the king of plants, medicinal, rainforest, species, plant, over, scientists, population, indigenous, discovered, wiped, value, usage, two, today, strong, rosy, resources, remission, provide, periwinkle, peoples, people, out, one, leukemia, knowledge, jungle, home, fact, extinction, exotic, estimated, early, disease, conquered