Economic Botanist Research Articles

The continuing evolution of weeds

Distinguished Economic Botanists’ address delivered 12 June 1990 at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, University of Wisconsin, Madison (delayed publication resulting from illness of the author).

The distinguished economic botanist award 1990

The distinguished economic botanist award 1990

One man’s quest for plant constituents of therapeutic value

I feel most honored to be selected the Distinquished Economic Botanist for 1989. I am well aware of those who have been chosen before me, many of whom I know personally and hold in great respect, and thus feel proud to have my name included on this roster of Distinquished Economic Botanists. While I feel honored to be selected for your award, I feel very humble about it for I know that many of you sitting in the audience are more worthy of such an award than I. I am reminded of the story of the man invited to give a talk in Texas. Soon after the man got into his talk, he noticed a Texan in the front row take a gun out of a holster and examine the bullet cylinder. The speaker stopped his talk and said to the Texan, "Sir, I can stop this talk anytime you want me to; you only need to let me know when you want me to stop." The Texan said, "You go right ahead and talk as long as you desire. You are a guest here and we want to treat you well. The guy I want to see is the person who invited you here." So, If you are wondering why I was chosen for this award, the guys you are looking for are, I suspect, some of my friends from the University of Illinois. I have titled this talk, "One Man's Quest for Plant Constituents of Therapeutic Value." It could have been titled "One Man's Frustration in Seeking Plant Constituents of Therapeutic Value." It could also be titled "Through the Years," for to some extent it gives a perspective on the development of some aspects of research in pharmacognosy. It is my story along with some undergraduate students, my graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and a few colleagues with whom I collaborated through the years. It begins in academic year 1946-1947 when I was in the junior class of the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy. I carried out a study in competition for the Kilmer Prize, an award given to an undergraduate student in pharmacy judged to have done the most significant research problem in pharmacognosy for the year. At that time the flavonoid glycoside named rutin was popular for treatment of capillary fragility. The major source at that time was the aboveground portion of the buckwheat plant, Fagopyrum esculentum. There was a need for a better source of the glycoside so, for my research problem, I set about trying to find a better source of rutin in plants growing in Kansas. I examined a large number of plants that had a yellow or yellowish-orange color in some plant part; I even investigated wheat straw. The best source of rutin I could find was in several species of goldenrod, Solidago. However, this was not a better source than F. esculentum. Mind you, in 1947 it was considerably more difficult to identify a plant constitutent than it is today for NMR and mass spectra were not known in those days. Our school did not have an I.R. spectrophotometer, nor did I have access to one. Chromatography was not used at that time either. The only way I

1989 Distinguished economic botanist

1989 Distinguished economic botanist

1988 The distinguished economic Botanist

1988 The distinguished economic Botanist

1987 Distinguished economic botanist

1987 Distinguished economic botanist

1986 Distinguished economic botanist

1986 Distinguished economic botanist

The Distinguished economic botanist award 1985

The Distinguished economic botanist award 1985

Ethnobotany of the Naranjilla (Solanum quitoense) and its relatives

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.

Charles B. Heiser, Jr., Ph.D 1984 The distinguished Economic Botanist Award

Charles B. Heiser, Jr., Ph.D 1984 The distinguished Economic Botanist Award

Development policy, forests, and peasant farms: Reflections on Huastec-managed forests’ contributions to commercial production and resource conservation

The Huastec Indians of northeastern Mexico manage their forests in an indigenous system that integrates commercial and subsistence production. Elements of primary and secondary forest coexist with introduced species in this diverse silvicultural structure which complements the swidden and permanent agriculture fields of the Huastec farmstead. The forest’s direct production of the food, timber, and fuel resources discussed here buffers the Huastec peasant family against market fluctuations and the failed harvest of a single crop. The Huastec system of forest management offers an alternative pattern to the agroforestry and plantation schemes now being suggested for development in the tropics. It is an alternative that provides protection for wild genetic resources while it contributes to the combination of commercial and subsistence agriculture so important for the successful modernization of peasant agriculture. The documentation of this system demonstrates that ethnobotanists and economic botanists have an important but unrealized role to play in the protection of biotic resources and in the development of sustained yield agroecosystems for peasants. The contributions of ethnobotanists are particularly valuable because they can find where and why useful wild species persist in agroecosystems. A greater effort to direct the attentions of policy makers to the value of ethnobotanical knowledge is needed.

How can the well be dry when it is filled with water?

A review of the text of lectures presented by colleagues previously honored as the Distinguished Economic Botanist, reveals that several different approaches seem to have been taken. Some have given an account of new and as yet unpublished personal research. Others selected important aspects of their published research and presented them in a concise review. This led me to do some soulsearching to identify what my research efforts related to economic botany have produced over the past 25 or more years. Certainly, in terms of sheer weight of paper, the work of my group has been most productive in the area of isolation, identification or structure-elucidation of cytotoxic and/or antitumor agents from plants. We have isolated hundreds of compounds from plants, determined about 200 novel structures and found about 150 of them to be biologically active. This does not leave me much to talk about since these studies can be found in readily available journals. I might describe our efforts to locate biologically-active compounds in plants, other than those in the antitumor area, but since central nervous system stimulants have not contributed much to our total effort, I would run the risk of sedating the audience. Such a risk most likely would be statistically significant at the P < 0.001 level.

Call for nominations for Distinguished Economic Botanist, 1984

Call for nominations for Distinguished Economic Botanist, 1984

Call for nominations for distinguished economic botanist, 1984

Call for nominations for distinguished economic botanist, 1984

1982 distinguished economic botanist

1982 distinguished economic botanist

1981 Distinguished economic botanist

1981 Distinguished economic botanist

The role of botany in the development of the Republic of South Africa with special emphasis on the contributions of the Botanical Research Institute

Five papers cover different aspects of the contributions to and role of botany in the development of the Republic of South Africa. Two papers sum up the contributions for the non-agricultural and agricultural sectors. The introductory paper by D. J. B. Killick provides a short historical account of the Botanical Research Institute, followed by a discussion of the contributions of the Institute to botany in South Africa through its National Herbarium and identification service as well as researches in taxonomy, plant anatomy, cyto-genetics, ecology, economic botany and data processing. B. de Winter emphasizes the fundamental role of taxonomy and bio-systematics for planning and the optimal use of the natural plant resources. The current support for taxonomy and biosystematics is examined and proposals made for improving progress in the Flora of Southern Africa series. For plant physiology, N. Grobbelaar discusses, firstly, the ways whereby the productivity of a plant species with its characteristic genetic constitution can be raised by determining and modifying for optimal response the effects of environmental factors such as spacing, mineral nutrition, water provision, etc.; and, secondly, usually when the first means has been achieved, of improving plant productivity by altering the genetic constitution of the plant so that it can perform better than its ancestors under the prevailing conditions. After discussing and illustrating the applications and roles of plant ecology, D. Edwards concludes that basic plant ecological research is required, firstly, at the regional level through regional plant ecological studies to supply the essential local knowledge needed by researchers, planners and users of the land; and, secondly, at the more detailed level where knowledge is needed of the processes and factors that govern the behaviour of vegetation so that it can be properly used, managed and manipulated. M. J. Wells discusses the role of economic botanists for priority research assessment, and for research on problem plants, such as weeds, and on plants for food and other useful products, especially from the rich and untapped South African flora of over 17 000 species. The needs for an adequate base of primary botanical data are stressed, and for ethnobotanical work to assist exploration of plant uses. S. A. Hulme, in his summing up for the agricultural sector, points out that despite the emergence of the specialist agricultural disciplines, botanical research remains fundamental to the understanding of the plant. Following on the important contributions that botany has made to agriculture, there remain many important contributions to agriculture for the future through physiological and other botanical studies. In his summing up for the non-agricultural sector, D. M. Joubert illustrates the ways whereby the influence of the Botanical Research Institute and its co-operation with other institutes and organizations extends beyond the purely agricultural field to other national programmes involving terrestrial and inland water ecosystems, in plant alkaloid research, in nature conservation, etc.

1978 Distinguished economic botanist award

1978 Distinguished economic botanist award

Sources of information about botanic gardens and herbaria

Botany is the study of living plants in the garden and the wild and of dead plants in the herbarium and laboratory. The value of a botanic garden for teaching purposes became evident in the 16th century with the founding between 1543 and 1600 of botanic gardens at Pisa, Padua, Florence, Bologna, Leyden, Leipzig, Paris, Montpellier and Heidelberg: indeed most of the major European botanic gardens were founded during this and the next two centuries. Associated with the study of living plants in botanic gardens was the invention of the herbarium by Luca Ghini (1490-1556) and the subsequent making of many private herbaria, out of which have developed the large institutional herbaria, mostly in the 18th and 19th centuries. The continuous enrichment of European gardens by the introduction of new plants resulting from European exploration and colonization created many problems of classification and naming, and so led to the development of taxonomic methods and the adoption of consistent binomial nomenclature for species, following Linnaeus, during the 18th century. The fashion for collecting in the 17th and 18th centuries resulted in the amassing of big private collections which later became the basis of institutional collections. The increase of such public collections by making available material for study from all over the world has, in turn, increased the publications relating to this. Thus the botanic garden and the herbarium, with their associated libraries, have become complementary repositories of botanical information invaluable to the taxonomist, the plant geographer, the economic botanist and the student of evolution. Some useful publications relating to botanic gardens, herbaria and botanical and horticultural collectors are listed.

Breadstuff from fir (Abies balsamea)

While many a professor has undertaken a study or written a book to fill the needs of his students, my work has grown out of the popular interest of families, most of them transplanted into a near-wilderness from urban centres of Canada and abroad. Thus, while so many economic botanists are concentrating on explorations of new territories and resources, I have really worked in reverse, resurrecting the use, for foodstuff, of our native plants. It is not my aim, however, to promote the feeding of large populations with native wildgrowing plants. Our native plants at Chalk River, green early in the spring when home grown vegetables are not yet available and the imported ones are arriving a bit "tired" in the grocery stores, are welcomed at our table. I realize, nevertheless, that it is difficult to envision resorting to trees for our breadstuff, when both the Canadian and United States governments are presently concerned with a world market for surplus wheat. My local audience is a very sophisticated one, for most of them are members of the atomic community working at Chalk River, the Canadian equivalent of Oak Ridge. They are concerned with native plants for survival in the bush and as a subject of general interest. I have found that they are, for the most part, acutely aware of their surroundings and like to use wilderness provender which is often mentioned in writings about early settlers, usually without details as to preparation. These people often question me about the plants eaten by natives and early explorers. In turning to the literature, I find that Fernald's instructions for the use of acorn flour (9) are simple enough to follow with small modifications. On the other hand