Ethnobotany of the Naranjilla (Solanum quitoense) and its relatives

Abstract

One of my former students, who happens to be here tonight, some time ago suggested that instead of giving one of my interesting, humorous and entertaining talks I should use the occasion to say something significant, if not profound. That was a difficult assignment, but I did give it some consideration. I thought of speaking on the food problems of the world, but I decided against it for two reasons. First, I think that as economic botanists you should be well aware of the problems and that you also realize that we are in a position to offer some solutions. Maybe a single individual can do very little, but collectively I think we could have an impact. The second reason is that I feel that after eating the way we have tonight, it would be embarrassing to say more than I already have on this subject. So I am going to compromise. I hope the subject is neither too light nor too ponderous and hence suitable for the occasion. I thought that I would try to convey to you, by using some of my own research, why I find ethnobotanic research so fascinating and how it may at times take some unusual turns. I used the word ethnobotany in my title although I realize that this is an economic botany meeting. Perhaps I should try to distinguish between ethnobotany and economic botany. Ethnobotany may be defined as the study of plants in relation to people. Obviously it is a very broad field, including many, if not all, aspects of botany, and many other disciplines as well. Economic botany, on the other hand, usually concerns such subjects as the production, distribution and consumption of plants useful to people. Some (for example, Maheshwari, 1983) would limit ethnobotany to the use of plants by "primitive" human societies; economic botany, therefore, would concern plants and modern human societies. I, however, would prefer to think of ethnobotany as comprising both fields, and that perhaps economic botany is then a subdivision of ethnobotany that is involved where money becomes an important consideration. At the same time I feel we might also think of it as botany in the service of humankind today.