by Claire Connolly

Created on: April 05, 2007   Last Updated: May 18, 2007

Ethnobotany is the study of how individual cultures and places use indigenous plants. Civilizations have always used plants to create medicines and food and an ethnobotanist's job is to explore how plants have been involved in the use of shelter, religious ceremonies, hunting, food and medicines over the years. The term, ethnobotany was only conceived in 1895 but the field of work has consisted for a very long time. Plants have always played a major role in the lives of humans and ethnobotany tries to discover why.

In the past, plants were closely involved in the discovery of medicines and remedies but in time, as research improved, plants were replaced with drugs. But since the 1990's, a renewed interest in plants has grown and the medicinal industry is now concerned with the exploration of diverse plant species around the world. Just like the cultures of old, modern medicine now considers a huge number of plants to be extremely worthwhile for medicinal purposes. Ethnobotany is a huge help in this industry as the study of native cultures and local plantlife in certain areas of the planet is now essential to garner the true strength behind the ancient beliefs.

Ethnobotany deals with the study of plants and the cultures that used them in order to fully unleash the potential of these plants to provide a function in a modern world. Particularly in rainforests, there are many undiscovered plant species and ethnobotany helps us to understand not only the uses of plants but also their importance in the local cultures. Ethnobotany covers many areas biology, botany, history and sociology amongst others. Ethnobotanists are opening eyes to the detrimental effects occurring from the loss of rainforests as well as the potential losses of information that happens when native cultures and traditions are lost. Ethnobotanists must spend a great deal of time studying ancient cultures and tribes that are still in existence, cataloguing their use of plants in every day life in order for the rest of the world to experience the same benefits. Learning from the past to help our future. This study sets out to preserve the knowledge of the past so that it can be beneficial once again.

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