From: Cool Earth
Plants which grow in the world's rainforests have long been used to treat illnesses among indigenous people, it has been noted.
Monga Bay reported that ethnobotanists have "long documented" the many ways in which medicinal plants are put to use by indigenous shamans, or healers.
The website noted that Shamamism "is a product of accumulated knowledge of past generations as well as deep ties - spiritual and physical - to the natural environment".
Talking to the source, the author of a report into how indigenous people treat themselves using the natural resources of the forest Christopher Herndon said that while nations should be "justifiably proud" of the "western" medical system, people should remember that much of its base knowledge was only discovered fairly recently.
Meanwhile, it was recently found that an uncontacted and endangered Amazon tribe has been struck by swine flu after the virus was passed to them by those who work in the rainforest, with seven deaths reported so far.