Lewis W H, Elvin-Lewis M P
Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899.
Ciba Found Symp. 1994;185:60-72; discussion 72-6. doi: 10.1002/9780470514634.ch5.
Ethnobotany of the future will encompass what we perceive as three interrelated research phases. Basic ethnobotany includes the compilation and organization of information about biota obtained from indigenous and other peoples, such as obtaining data about useful plants and animals, understanding how peoples manage their environments and learning about their lexicons and classifications. This is what we try to do in the best possible way, directly in the field from original sources. These results can then be organized in many ways once species determinations are completed. They may also be organized using other types of information, the most obvious being chemical, medical and linguistic. Quantitative ethnobotany develops methods to allow quantitative description and to evaluate and analyse primary data sets. Original field research must be sufficiently structured and consistent, for example in relation to forest habitat and composition or to oral exchanges between informant and listener, so that statistical techniques may be used to test proposed hypotheses rigorously. This aspect of ethnobotany is in its infancy, yet it can be broadly utilized to comprehend more meaningfully and usefully ethnobotanically valued plants, particularly in the exceedingly diversified environments of tropical regions where because of community isolation practitioners are still most knowledgeable. Experimental ethnobotany involves the use of biota in search of products for industrial, medical and other purposes. Plant ethnomedicinal findings may set the stage for targeting materials which can be meaningfully analysed for chemical activity using appropriate biodirected assays. This approach in search of new pharmaceuticals is woefully underutilized today to the detriment of human health and a number of new strategies should be considered for future advancements in drug discovery. These aspects of ethnobotany will be evaluated largely in relation to current and future research in South America.
未来的民族植物学将涵盖我们认为相互关联的三个研究阶段。基础民族植物学包括汇编和整理从原住民及其他群体获取的关于生物群的信息，例如获取有关有用植物和动物的数据，了解人们如何管理其环境以及了解他们的词汇和分类。这就是我们尽可能直接在实地从原始资料中努力去做的事情。一旦完成物种鉴定，这些结果就可以通过多种方式进行整理。它们也可以利用其他类型的信息来整理，最明显的是化学、医学和语言方面的信息。定量民族植物学开发方法以进行定量描述，并评估和分析原始数据集。原始实地研究必须具有足够的结构性和一致性，例如在森林栖息地和组成方面，或者在信息提供者与倾听者之间的口头交流方面，以便能够使用统计技术严格检验所提出的假设。民族植物学的这一方面尚处于起步阶段，但它可以广泛用于更有意义和有效地理解具有民族植物学价值的植物，特别是在热带地区极其多样化的环境中，由于社区隔离，当地从业者仍然最具知识。实验民族植物学涉及利用生物群寻找用于工业、医学和其他目的的产品。植物民族医学的研究结果可能为确定目标物质奠定基础，这些物质可以使用适当的生物定向分析方法对其化学活性进行有意义的分析。如今，这种寻找新药物的方法未得到充分利用，对人类健康造成了损害，因此应该考虑一些新策略以推动未来药物发现方面的进展。民族植物学的这些方面将主要根据南美洲当前和未来的研究进行评估。
