SCOPE OF THE MONOGRAPHS

Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology

Volumes 1 and 2 reflect studies in ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology that focus on relationships between plants and man, and investigate and evaluate the use of drugs in their cultural settings. However, there is some debate over what to document about current usage of traditional drugs in order to make a record that will satisfy a range of interests. Many past accounts are of uncertain value because they give long lists of uses for each plant without attempting to indicate whether the data are hearsay, commonplace, or firmly based. This is perhaps unavoidable when information is taken from published reports, but many recent field studies are equally elusive.

It has been suggested that an ideal account, or "monograph," of a medicinal plant should include (1) the plant (common and scientific names, infraspecific variation, habitat, availability of voucher specimen); (2) preparation of the medicine (plant part, collection, storage, preparation); (3) therapy (general and adjunct, disorder treated, kinds of practitioners, dosage regimen, route of administration, response to therapy, status of use); and (4) the patient (medical beliefs, community attitudes).

The monographs in this guide generally cover, first, Mr. Bass's verbatim information, compiled from many meetings with him; and, second, commentaries focusing, where relevant, on plant taxonomy, past uses and whether Bass's knowledge has historical precedence, occasional comparisons with uses elsewhere and with related plants, and assessments of Bass's knowledge in the light of phytochemistry, pharmacology, and the historical record. Where the monographs do not directly address such points as patients' attitudes and the role of the placebo, relevant information has been summarized in the introductory sections or in volume 1.

Unfortunately, space does not allow comparisons with usages elsewhere, even though it is generally felt that detailed comparisons—including of closely related plants— in different locations would reveal activities based on pharmacological actions rather than on cultural factors. There is much to be said for this view, but careful and detailed attention has to be given to transmission of information and to theoretical ideas which are common to more than one culture.

Limited space also allows only occasional references to nonmedical uses. However, we hope enough is said—in the context of Bass's intimate knowledge of nature—to emphasize that medicinal uses of plants are commonly just one aspect of a plant's economic value to man, and hence man's attitude to the plant. As seen in various monographs on "medicinal" plants used as foods, Bass appreciates that many plants, particularly vegetables, can serve as both food and medicine. His recollections suggest how he developed sympathy with the view that "while a garden feeds people, it also heals them." The close association of foods and medicines merits comment not only because it contributed to Bass's recent enthusiasm for selling some herbs as "foods," but also because it illustrates scientific and cultural forces affecting the ways plants are used, and why some people believe that foods and medicines are inseparable.

The opinion that many foods have real therapeutic value (curing as well as preventing disease) was a conspicuous feature of regular medicine until the early twentieth century. Until around 1800, a physician's armamentarium for treatment was always viewed as diet, medicine, and surgery. The reputations of various plants we consider —like chamomile, chicory, five-finger, and plantain—at times rested partly on usage as a medicine or beverage, including as "diet drinks" to accompany medicines.

During the nineteenth century, attitudes toward food plants changed, at least among the educated. Developments in chemistry that captured public imagination characterized food in terms of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. This, with public sanction, tended to move consideration of food more and more into the realm of science: out of materia medica and clinical medicine and into physiological chemistry (especially the topic of digestion). By the early twentieth century, nutrition had become a specialist's area of knowledge outside the mainline interest of physicians. Knowledge of the importance of vitamins in health and disease only partly returned the subject of nutrition and varied diets into the arena of clinical medicine, a return—which has accelerated in recent years—to what people often say is "common sense"; namely, that food and health go together.

The story of the common ground between food and medicine embraces theoretical concepts and empirically based knowledge that are often difficult to disentangle. Considerations, for instance, of "aliments," or "nutrients," have long been embodied in health advice and rules for maintaining health. While explanations for the rules sometimes embraced theories that foods alter blood in the same ways that many medicines do, it is often thought that the rules arose from empirical observations undertaken over a long period of time. Deciding on the respective roles of empiricism and theory is not easy; for instance, it is difficult to say whether sensory properties—once considered important in ascertaining therapeutic actions (see volume 1, chapter 1)—helped to determine that only the young shoots of poke should be eaten as a vegetable and the root taken as a medicine, or whether this was merely the result of experience with toxic effects. Bass knows, too, that the reputation of a plant as a food can depend on the mode of preparation; he considers that lightly cooked cabbage produces too much stomach acid or flatulence.

Although Bass has a fund of information and ideas on the healthfulness of vegetables and fruits—apart from their specific value for certain medical complaints—he has only recently begun to emphasize nutrition to his visitors; earlier, he had assumed that most had a good diet as long as they did not overcook greens. Nowadays, he wishes to share his knowledge—what he calls common sense—because of what he has heard about "junk food" and because he believes that his knowledge contains much Indian lore. He is attracted to Indian concepts that "medicine" or treatment, as a pervasive power, can be mediated in different ways which avoid absolute distinctions between food and medicine. Throughout the monographs, whose main sections we next outline, many other illustrations of man's attitudes toward and relationships with plants can be found.

The herbalist's verbatim comments.

Most studies on traditional medicine comprise information assembled, often indiscriminately, from diverse informants. A single source like Bass, with his unusually acute memory, is therefore of special interest. In many ways he has garnered and synthesized an entire community's knowledge— certainly that of the "old-timers"—and he has subjected much of that...