Was Mayan medicine as good as their calendars were? Researchers are looking at the plants shown in Mayan art so they can identify them and find out why that civilization thought of them as sacred.
Were they hallucinogens or something that we could use in our own pharmacies? Many so-called modern medicines have their origins in healing plants used by indigenous people, especially those living in the rainforests of the world.
In BBC News, Matt Walker natural historian and archeologist Charles Zidar as saying, “The Maya have lived and used rainforest plants to heal themselves for thousands of years. We are just beginning to understand some of their secrets.By determining what plants were of importance to the ancient Maya, it is my hope that identified plants can be further studied for pharmaceutical, culinary, economic and ceremonial uses. More should be done to conserve large tracts of forest in order to properly study theses plants for their value to mankind,” he continues. This research has already been of interest to pharmaceutical companies that are looking to extract alkaloids from plants that were important to the ancient Maya.”
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Art credit: Dreamstime.com
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