[The Madrid Royal Academy of Medicine and botanical expeditions during the Enlightenment. A pharmacological-therapeutical connection].

We studied the repercussions of Enlightenment botanical expeditions on pharmacological controversies that arose within the Royal Academy of Medicine in Madrid. The main contributors to the knowledge of pharmacological and therapeutic properties of American flora were José Pavón, and especially Hipólito Ruiz, of the Oficina de la Flora Americana. Contributions by other participants in expeditions were rare, and are limited to the writings of Vicente Cervantes, Martín Sessé and José Mariano Mociño, botanists who traveled to New Spain.