Spasmolytic activity of medicinal plants used to treat gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases in the Highland of Chiapas.

Methanolic extracts of 141 different botanical species, used in traditional medicine in the Highland of Chiapas for the treatment of gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases, were submitted to pharmacological testing in order to evaluate the spasmolytic action on electrically-stimulated guinea pig ileum. Of these species, 33.3% showed an inhibition of reflex greater than 80% at a bath concentration of 250 µg/ml. Of the active species, 40.4% belong to the Asteraceae family. Of the active samples, 59.5% were obtained from leaves. The results identify a group of interesting plants, that could be considered for future experimental investigation.

Anthropological issues in medical ethnobotany.

While ethnobotany has emerged as an important discipline in the search for new drugs, this economic impetus should in no way distract from a more ethnobiological and equally critical goal--the codification and promotion of indigenous medical systems as a major factor in the conservation of biocultural diversity. Codification of indigenous medical systems requires a holistic view which entails (1) in-depth understanding of the recognized health conditions in the native system and how they might be described in terms of Western biomedicine; (2) comprehensive inventories of medicinal species employed in the native system, descriptions of their modes of preparation and administration and giving priority to those species most likely to merit pharmacological testing; and (3) identification of the pharmacological properties of these species with the goal of discovering how they might be effective in the treatment of the health conditions for which they are employed. Promotion of indigenous medical systems requires the development of local training programmes aimed at the active conservation and enhancement of traditional herbal medicinal therapies that have been shown to be pharmacologically effective in the treatment of symptoms of recognized health conditions. The establishment of such programmes is critical at a time when traditional medical systems are often disparaged as worthless by the national societies in which indigenous peoples live, as well as by younger members of the native populations themselves.

Rabies Vaccine Adsorbed: neutralizing antibody titers after three-dose pre-exposure vaccination.

Field trials at several schools of veterinary medicine showed that three-dose pre-exposure rabies vaccination with Rabies Vaccine Adsorbed developed by the Michigan Department of Health elicited neutralization antibody in practically all recipients two to three weeks after immunization. Titers declined during the first six months after vaccination. However, by 18 to 24 months, 98 percent of recipients still had titers equal or greater than a 1:5 dilution of serum.

The origins of taxonomy.

There are approximately 10 million kinds of olganisms in the world, of which we have described some 15 percent. The rapid growth of the human population will cause most of the remainder to disappear from the earth before they are seen by a taxonomist. These facts suggest a more rigorous application of priorities in systematic biology as well as a careful review of the principles upon which our taxonomic system is based. Folk taxonomies all over the world are shallow hierarchically and comprise a strictly limited number of generic taxa ranging from about 250 to 800 forms applied to plants and a similar number applied to animals. These numbers are consistent, regardless of the richness of the environment in which the particular people live. Very few specific and varietal taxa are recognized in folk taxonomic systems. Until the invention of movable type in the mid-l5th century, written taxonomies were simply records of the folk taxonomies of particular regions. Subsequently, with the possibility for the wide distribution of books, it began to seem worth while to attempt to describe and name all species of plants and animals in the world. By the year 1700, 698 genera of plants were recognized; and by the year 1778, some 1350 genera, including tens of thousands of species. In 1789 de Jussieu interpolated the family as a higher level taxonomic category in an attempt to reduce the number of important units in the system to a memorable number. The family is still the focal point in systems of angiosperm classification at present, several hundred families being recognized. Problems with the taxonomic system stem largely from the fact that it is not designed as an information retrieval device. In folk taxonomies, names are given to organisms and these are used to communicate about the organisms with others who already know the culturally significant properties of the organisms being discussed. In dealing with the vast numbers of organisms that exist, we tend to overemphasize the process of classification and the decisions it involves at the expense of the information about the organisms that we are supposedly accumulating. Frequent changes in names exacerbate the difficulties of the system and render it still less useful for information retrieval. With modern electronic data processing equipment, it has become possible to record information about organisms, to retain this information in a data bank, and to utilize it for various purposes, including the construction of various taxonomic systems. The invention of high-speed electronic data processing equipment is seen as analogous to but more important than the invention of movable type in the history of systematic biology. By using such equipment to its full potentialities, we should be able to achieve a qualitative improvement in our perception of the living world.

Folk taxonomies and biological classification.

A sample of 200 native plant names from the Tzeltal-speaking municipio of Tenejapa, Chiapas, Mexico, was found to consist of 41 percent that comprised more than one botanical species, 34 percent with a one-to-one correspondence, and 25 percent that referred to only a part of a botanical species. Cultural significance was least for the plants in the first group, greatest for those in the last group. Over half (60 percent) of the names for which there was one-to-one correspondence were plants associated with Hispanic culture, introduced as named entities following the Spanish conquest.