Under the dense canopy of an Amazon rain forest, a medicine man crushes a vine between his fingers. Its sap will cool a child’s fever. In a research lab in Colorado, a scientist extracts an anti-cancer drug from the bark of a Pacific Yew tree. The healing power of plants plays an integral part in people’s lives throughout the world.
As civilizations encroach on natural habitats, many valuable medicinal plants—and the cultures that understand their use—are disappearing. It is essential that we protect these habitats and the plants upon which life depends. This exhibit highlights several healing traditions that use medicinal plants. Practitioner stories and Western medicine's use of plants and plant derivatives to treat common ailments provide illuminating perspectives. Also included is a discussion on dissipating the impact of accelerating encroachment upon the habitat of these often small flora populations. |
