This rainforest has around 80,000 species of plants and contains 10% of the planet’s known species (WWF 2023). “Ethnobotanists from the New York Botanical Garden have recorded uses for more than 1,500 of Ecuador's lowland plant species, approximately half the known species. If 50% of the plants are used by its inhabitants, then the Amazon Basin may contain 25,000 useful plant species” (Bennet 1992). Additionally, 25% of Western medicines are derived from the Amazon and 70% of anti-cancer plants exist only in the Amazon (Holland 2021). How has the Amazon come to play a major role in medicine? Around two-thirds of pharmaceuticals come directly or indirectly from indigenous knowledge. The Amazon is home to over 1.6 million indigenous people, and around 400 distinct cultures, who pass down knowledge between generations, and exchange information with other groups, regarding traditional uses for plants (Williams 1961). These indigenous people use plants for medicine, ornamental decoration, cosmetics, diagnosis, insecticide and insect repellant, as well as fertility management. Indigenous people have been utilizing the natural healing abilities of the forest for thousands of years. Scientists should continue to learn from this indigenous knowledge as pharmacologists combine traditional practices with modern medicine.

Thousands of medicinal compounds in Western medicine are derived from plants. Some chemical components found in wild species may serve as templates to synthesize highly efficacious pharmaceuticals. For example, aspirin is derived from willow tree bark. Quinine was first discovered by the Quechua. The group would mix pulverized bark of cinchona tree with sweetened water to help with shivering. The British combined this tonic water with gin for drinks. Quinine is now used as an anti-malarial drug. The root of cola de raton (Peperomia caperata) treats bloating, acid reflux, diarrhea, burns, and bruises. Additionally, the root of cat’s claw vine (Dolichandra unguis-cati), a slow climbing perennial, treats rheumatism, toothaches, cuts, and bruises. Currently, scientists are researching its anticancer properties that might treat HIV and AIDS. A few Amazonian plants help fight cancer. Lapacho, a pink trumpet tree, (Handroanthus impetiginosus) is used in modern medicine to treat cancer, alleviate pain, and fight infection. Tawari tree bark (Tabebuia incana) also has anti-cancer properties by shrinking cancer cells and tumors as well as reducing inflammation. The leaves of cordoncillo (Piper aduncum) are used as an anesthetic and help with respiratory illness, gallstones, and hemorrhages. Jaborandi (Pilocarpus microphyllus) also helps with gallstones, as well as diarrhea and staving off colds. Shapumvilla and sangre de drago, from the tree Croton lechleri, are coagulants that stop blood flow. Sangre de drago is also used in modern medicine as an anti-diarrheal medication. Over 4,000 plants offer contraceptive possibilities and the Shuar use “around seven species as fertility regulators” (Bennet 1992). Canelilla (Aniba canellila) treats ovarian cysts and increases conception likelihood. Healing plants are not the only medicinal helpers: poisons are also beneficial. In the clinical setting, fer-de-lance snake venom saves people from high blood pressure. Curare, or similar compounds, are traditionally applied to blowgun darts to immobilize birds and monkeys, and now is an anesthetic in heart operations. Additionally, it is used to treat MS, Parkinson’s, and muscular disorders. However, excessive amounts cause paralysis.

Plants have many non-medical uses. Indigenous people use the forest for cosmetics and pesticides. Fig latex is used similarly to hairspray and fruits of pokeweed are used for soap. Women also use cosmetic fragrances from Asplundia and Perebea. Many plants are used as insecticides—wood from Spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata), cubé roots, and Santa Maria (Parthenium hysterophorus). Western medicine should turn to the Amazon to combat insects—“Approximately 1,200 different species of plants are reputed to contain alkaloids toxic to insects, and the majority of these are of tropical origin” (Williams 1961). There are special uses of plants for children: “Shuar mothers put juice from Capsicum annuum (chili pepper) fruits on their breasts to wean their children” and children make rattles from dried Crotalaria nitens (Bennet). Children are also punished by brushing leaves of a stinging nettle against their skin.

Shamans in Indigenous communities serve to diagnose diseases and solve maladies. However, the shaman practice is dying out and is not being honored by younger generations. Global markets and modern technology have made it difficult for traditional medicine to thrive. Shamans occasionally use hallucinogens to diagnose patients. Shamans make a tincture with the hallucinogenic plant, which the Shuar call Natem and the Quichua call Ayahuasca, meaning soul vine. Ayahuasca was used to communicate with the spirit world, to see into the future, to physically transform into forest animals to acquire their powers, and to reduce depression and anxiety. This boiled mixture of Ayahuasca, combined with other plants, allows the Shaman to “see the Devil,” who tells the Shaman what the illness is. Some individuals frequently use this vine at night to communicate with the spirit world.

The Amazon is the world’s biggest medicine cabinet and holds the solutions to many modern ailments. Ethnobotanists are looking to the Amazon for medicine—The National Cancer Institute is searching for antitumor plants. However, “‘Even if they prove useful, the plants we collect today won't be on our shelves for at least five years,’ Balick says; it takes that long for drug companies to test, develop and get approval to market them” (Bennet 1992). Indigenous communities have begun to incorporate modern medicine into their traditional practices: “I watched a Shuar shaman, after carefully combining five plants to make an antipyretic medicine, reach into a small bag and select the last ingredient—an aspirin. We saw another Shuar healer add a Valium tablet to a snake bite remedy before giving it to his patient” (Bennet 1992). The exchange of medical ideas between Western and indigenous populations is helpful to both groups of people.

The Amazon wildlife is subject to destruction due to oil drilling and land exploitation. Government agencies and foundations have attempted to protect the rainforest’s natural resources. In 2002, Brazil established the Amazon Region Protective Areas program to permanently protect 150 million acres of forest. The World Wildlife Fund has helped raise money to finance these conservation projects. Additionally, the Peruvian government’s National Parks: Peru’s National Legacy initiative protects around 41 million acres of the Amazon rainforest. However, not all countries are successful in protecting the rainforest. In 2007, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa proposed the Yasuní-ITT initiative that would keep over a billion barrels of oil underground in return for $3.6 billion from international countries.

However, this plan was abandoned in 2013 due to the lack of countries financially supporting this initiative. Indigenous groups in Ecuador, including the Woarani community, have been embroiled in lawsuits with the Ecuadorian government and oil companies for decades. The constant battle choosing between saving the environment and promoting economic growth leaves the future of the Amazon rainforest, its inhabitants, and its valuable plants, unclear.