Rainforest Medicine: Preserving Indigenous Science and Biodiversity in the Upper Amazon

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 Patricia Escobar and San Francisco Botanical Garden curator Thomas Y. Wang as well as by the author himself. Two color sections showcase photos of the plants and people of the region, and include plates of previously unpublished full-color paintings by Pablo Cesar Amaringo (1938-2009), an acclaimed Peruvian artist renowned for his intricate, colourful depictions of his visions from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 utiliz