HerbalGram 1999

Students Study Herbs in Belize Rainforests
by Daniel T. Wagner

For the fourth consecutive year, students from pharmacy and pre-medical schools at Duquesne University and the University of Pittsburgh traveled to the rainforests of Belize, Central America, to study plant medicine and Mayan healing with world-renowned herbalist, Dr. Rosita Arvigo. The 26 students on the May 1999 expedition traveled with the non-profit, educational organization, the Student Rainforest Fund (SRF).

Natural Pharmacist Dan Wagner exploring Terra Nova Forest Preserve with traditional healer and snakemaster Polo Romero. Photo copyright 1999 Dan Wagner.

This writer founded the SRF in 1995. He has traveled with the American Botanical Council on ethnobotany trips to Peru, Costa Rica, Belize, and Kenya. Vice-president of the SRF is Norbert Pilewski, Ph.D., professor of pharmacognosy at Duquesne, who also accompanies the student group each year to Belize.

This year the students spent three days with Dr. Arvigo at Ix Chel Tropical Research Centre in the forests of western Belize. They took classes in Mayan medicine and a lab practicum on preparing herbal tinctures and other preparations. An ethnobotanical workshop was set up so the students could work with local traditional healers and midwives skilled in the knowledge and use of local plant medicines. They also walked the famous Panti Medicine Trail, named in honor of Mayan shaman, Eligio Panti, who died three years ago at the age of 103.

Some of the pharmacy and pre-med students on the 1999 Student Rainforest Fund expedition to Belize, Central America. Photo copyright 1999 Dan Wagner.

The group visited Rio Frio Falls, canoed the Macal River, explored the Chaa Creek Nature Reserve on horseback, and visited the ancient Mayan ruins of Xanuatunich, Cabal Pech, and the greatest Mayan city of all -- Tikal, located in Guatemala.

One of the highlights of the 8-day field study and expedition was collecting herbarium samples with traditional healers at the Terra Nova medicinal plant reserve. Terra Nova ("new earth") is a 6,000acre protected area of diverse topography and subtropical rainforest that is home to a wide range of important medicinal flora.

At Terra Nova the students worked closely with Dr. Arvigo, her husband, Dr. Greg Shropshire, local midwife and healer, Mrs. Beatrice Waight, and Polo Romero, a noted bushmaster. Herbarium samples of various plants were collected, numbered, and prepared. Later in the week the students got to work with some of the plant samples in the laboratory at Ix Chel Farm.

Both Dr. Arvigo and Mrs. Waight are members of the SRF Distinguished Board of Advisors. Three other SRF board members accompanied the students to Belize this year. Vice-president Dr. Norbert Pilewski has made the trek to Belize for four straight years. Attending for the first time were Steve Morris, N.D., an herbalist and naturopath from Seattle, and Harlan Lahti, R.Ph., chairman of SISU Enterprises, Vancouver, B.C. SISU is a primary sponsor of the SRF program. SRF board members not attending this year include Mark Plotkin, Ph.D., Jim Duke, Ph.D., and Douglas Kay, Ph.D.

The philosophy of SRF is based on the belief that the greatest value of taking student healthcare professionals to the rainforest is to expose them to a more holistic approach to medicine and healing. As tomorrow's doctors and pharmacists, SRF maintains that it is imperative they learn that healing involves much more than drugs and surgery. Undertanding the importance of natural products natural therapies, prayer, massage, and herbal bathing can do wonders in making them better health practitioners. SRF believes that the environmental consciousness the students gain is an invaluable experience. SRF recognizes that the rainforest is the world's greatest classroom, and exposing them to ethnobotany can give them a greater appreciation of the power and magnificence of plants and the human connection to them.

Donations to the Student Rainforest Fund help support continued travels to the world's remaining rainforests, and further exposure and advanced studies in ethnobotany for many American college students. SRF, P.O. Box 238, Wildwood, PA. 15091. Phone: 412/486-4588, or check out the SRF page on this website. - Dan Wagner

Dan Wagner has been a natural pharmacist for three years and has done research on plant medicines in seven countries that harbor rainforests. He was recognized as the "Pennsylvania Pharmacist of the Year" in 1996 by the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association. He received the U.S. Pharmacist/Searle "Service to the Community Award" in 1997 for volunteer medical service done in Nigeria and Cuba. In November 1998, Dan was recognized by American Druggist magazine as one of the "Fifty Most Influential Pharmacists in America," for work he has done in complementary medicine.




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