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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

medicinal plants, ethnobotanical, desert plants, bark, liquid nitrogen

College

Life Sciences

Department

Plant and Wildlife Sciences

Abstract

There are many approaches to collecting medicinal plants. I compared results from two plant collection approaches, the ethnobotanical-based collection and ecologically-based collection. The ethnobotanical approach is based on plant use by native people. The ecological approach is based on plant life history principles i.e.; 1) plants living in stressed environments are rich in secondary metabolites, and 2) more predictable tissues and plants (i.e. evergreen perennials, mature tissues) have a diverse set of chemical defenses.1 Most medicinally active properties are from secondary chemicals.2 Plants from the Sonoran Desert typify these principles.

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