Rainforest Remedies

The work of Rosita Arvigo and Michael Balick to bring the knowledge of the Mayan healers to the Western reader deserves due credit. This revised and enlarged second edition includes much additional information about the major herbs in the Mayan pharmacopoeia. Their work proves that the rainforest has more value to mankind alive than cut down

Rainforest Healing from Your Home and Garden Find alternatives to chemical anti-depressants and painkillers in your spice rack. Learn about natural anti-itch salves for insect bites. Soothe and relieve envy, grief, sadness, and fear the Maya way. Rid your house of negative energy with a Maya cleansing ritual. Try the easy-to-make bronchitis remedy.

Rainforest Healing from Your Home and Garden Find alternatives to chemical anti-depressants and painkillers in your spice rack. Learn about natural anti-itch salves for insect bites. Soothe and relieve envy, grief, sadness, and fear the Maya way. Rid your house of negative energy with a Maya cleansing ritual. Try the easy-to-make bronchitis remedy.

Chronicling the practices, legends, and wisdom of the vanishing traditions of the upper Amazon, this book reveals the area's indigenous peoples' approach to living in harmony with the natural world. Rainforest Medicine features in-depth essays on plant-based medicine and indigenous science from four distinct Amazonian societies: deep forest and urban, lowland rainforest and mountain. The book is illustrated with unique botanical and cultural drawings by Secoya elder and traditional healer Agustin Payaguaje and horticulturalist Thomas Y. Wang as well as by the author himself. Payaguaje shares his sincere imaginal view into the spiritual life of the Secoya; plates of petroglyphs from the sacred valley of Cotundo relate to an ancient language, and other illustrations show traditional Secoya ayahuasca symbols and indigenous origin myths. Two color sections showcase photos of the plants and people of the region, and include plates of previously unpublished full-color paintings by Pablo Cesar Amaringo (1938-2009), an acclaimed Peruvian artist renowned for his intricate, colorful depictions of his visions from drinking the entheogenic plant brew, ayahuasca ("vine of the soul" in Quechua languages). Today the once-dense mysterious rainforest realms are under assault as the indiscriminate colonial frontier of resource extraction moves across the region; as the forest disappears, the traditional human legacy of sustainable utilization of this rich ecosystem is also being buried under modern realities. With over 20 years experience of ground-level environmental and cultural conservation, author Jonathon Miller Weisberger's commitment to preserving the fascinating, unfathomably precious relics of the indigenous legacy shines through. Chief among these treasures is the "shimmering" "golden" plant-medicine science of ayahuasca or yajé, a rainforest vine that was popularized in the 1950s by Western travelers such as William Burroughs and Alan Ginsberg. It has been sampled, reviled, and celebrated by outsiders ever since. Currently sought after by many in the industrialized West for its powerful psychotropic and life-transforming effects, this sacred brew is often imbibed by visitors to the upper Amazon and curious seekers in faraway venues, sometimes with little to no working knowledge of its principles and precepts. Perceiving that there is an evident need for in-depth information on ayahuasca if it is to be used beyond its traditional context for healing and spiritual illumination in the future, Miller Weisberger focuses on the fundamental knowledge and practices that guide the use of ayahuasca in indigenous cultures. Weaving first-person narrative with anthropological and ethnobotanical information, Rainforest Medicine aims to preserve both the record and ongoing reality of ayahuasca's unique tradition and, of course, the priceless forest that gave birth to these sacred vines. Featuring words from Amazonian shamans--the living torchbearers of these sophisticated spiritual practices--the book stands as testimony to this sacred plant medicine's power in shaping and healing individuals, communities, and nature alike.

Rainforests contain an amazing abundance of plant life. What's most exciting is that scientists and researchers have only just begun to uncover the medicinal qualities of these plants, which offer new approaches to health and healing. "The Healing Power of Rainforest Herbs is a valuable guide to these herbs and their uses. Detailing more than fifty rainforest botanicals, this book provides preparation instructions, presents the history of the herbs' uses by indigenous peoples, and describes current usage by natural health practitioners throughout the world. Helpful tables provide a quick guide for choosing the most appropriate botanicals for specific ailments. Here is a unique book that offers a blend of ancient and modern knowledge in an accessible reference format.

The value of the Amazon rainforest to human life has never been more deeply understood. Here, author Leslie Taylor provides the latest information on natural treatments for more than 150 common conditions and symptoms using the healing powers of over 50 rainforest herbs.

A doctor's astounding story of promising new treatments from the rainforests of Brazil for diseases that compromise the immune system. During a working visit to Brazil, Dr. Thomas David was given a packet of leaves and bark by a native patient as thanks for his work, and a shaman gave him a recipe for a tea used by the rainforest people to treat a variety of ailments. Dr. David began using these plants in his clinical research in Europe and soon discovered that they were producing amazing results among patients suffering from cancer, AIDS, and other diseases that compromise the immune system. Preliminary studies performed at Stanford and Harvard have substantiated his findings, bringing Dr. David international attention for his groundbreaking work. Dr. David's story is significant not only for its account of research that may herald a major breakthrough in curing diseases that have been the scourge of the modern world, but also for its emphasis on the vast and largely unrecognized pharmacopoeia of the rainforest that is in imminent danger of being lost forever.

The fascinating account of a pioneering ethnobotanist’s travels in the Amazon—at once a gripping adventure story, a passionate argument for conservationism, and an investigation into the healing power of plants, by the author of The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know For thousands of years, healers have used plants to cure illness. Aspirin, the world's most widely used drug, is based on compounds originally extracted from the bark of a willow tree, and more than a quarter of medicines found on pharmacy shelves contain plant compounds. Now Western medicine, faced with health crises such as AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer, has begun to look to the healing plants used by indigenous peoples to develop powerful new medicines. Nowhere is the search more promising than in the Amazon, the world's largest tropical forest, home to a quarter of all botanical species on this planet—as well as hundreds of Indian tribes whose medicinal plants have never been studied by Western scientists. In Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice, ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin recounts his travels and studies with some of the most powerful Amazonian shamans, who taught him the plant lore their tribes have spent thousands of years gleaning from the rain forest. For more than a decade, Dr. Plotkin raced against time to harvest and record new plants before the rain forests' fragile ecosystems succumb to overdevelopment—and before the Indians abandon their own culture and learning for the seductive appeal of Western material culture. Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice relates nine of the author's quests, taking the reader along on a wild odyssey as he participates in healing rituals; discovers the secret of curare, the lethal arrow poison that kills in minutes; tries the hallucinogenic snuff epena that enables the Indians to speak with their spirit world; and earns the respect and fellowship of the mysterious shamans as he proves that he shares both their endurance and their reverence for the rain forest.