The poisons and narcotics of the Amazonian Indians

The indigenous tribes of the Amazonian rainforest have discovered a vast ar ray of poisons and narcotics from the plant species which surround them. Ex amples are given from the author's personal experience of a variety of arro w poisons, fish poisons and narcotics used by six different tribes. There i s a great variety of different plant species used for each category and no two tribes studied employ exactly the same array of plant species. This mak es it important to survey a wide range of tribes and to document this infor mation before it is too late as these people are fast losing their traditio nal culture. Several of the substances used by Amazonian Indians, such as c urare and coca, have entered into western medicine and others such as roten one, an ingredient of their fish poison, has become a useful insecticide. F urther useful chemicals are likely to be discovered from ethnobotanical wor k among indigenous peoples and it is vital that any commercial gain from th eir knowledge be of direct benefit to these people in accordance with the r ules of the Convention on Biological Diversity.