[MPWG] ABC Announces Peruvian Amazon and Andes Ethnobotany Ecotour

[Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov]

Patricia S. De Angelis, Ph.D.
Botanist - Division of Scientific Authority
Chair - Plant Conservation Alliance - Medicinal Plant Working Group
US Fish & Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Suite 110
Arlington, VA  22203
703-358-1708 x1753
FAX: 703-358-2276
Working for the conservation and sustainable use of our green natural 
resources.
<www.nps.gov/plants/medicinal>

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AMERICAN BOTANICAL COUNCIL
P.O. Box 144345, Austin, TX 78714-4345
Phone: 512-926-4900 x119; Fax: 512-926-2345
Contact: Jeremy Pigg
Web site: http://www.herbalgram.org/

Editor’s Note: Mark Blumenthal is available for interviews. Please contact 
Jeremy Pigg per above. 

For Immediate Release

ABC Announces Peruvian Amazon and Andes Ethnobotany Ecotour

(Austin, TX, April 10, 2008). Two nonprofit educational organizations, the 
American Botanical Council (ABC) and the Amazon Center for Environmental 
Education and Research (ACEER), have announced their 2008 annual Botanical 
Medicines from the Amazon and the Andes workshop tour. This year’s trip 
will take place September 26th through October 5th, 2008, in various 
locations in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest and the Andes mountains, 
including the famous, ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu. Continuing 
education credit is available for certain healthcare providers.

Amazon activities will focus on the edible and medicinal plants of the 
Peruvian Amazon, including visits to markets where local herbs are sold, 
explorations of the Inkaterra Field Reserve, the Useful Plants Trail, and 
the Garden of Medicinal Plants. A highpoint of the Amazon portion of the 
trip includes traversing the Inkaterra Canopy Walkway that soars 100 feet 
above the forest floor, allowing people to view plants and animals that 
dwell in the upper treetop canopy.

Andean activities include a workshop by a traditional Incan shaman in the 
sacred Urubamba Valley, the Pisac traditional crafts market, and the 
inspiring “lost” mountaintop ruins of Machu Picchu. Each stop of this trip 
will focus on the native ethnobotany of the area and ways the indigenous 
Inca people traditionally used and still currently use local medicinal 
plants.

Tour leaders include internationally-known author, photographer and 
lecturer, Steven Foster; neuropsychopharmacologist, author and educator, 
Jerry Cott, Ph.D.; and ecologist and educator, Joseph Bishop, Ph.D. 
Presentations include History of Herbs in Medicine and Pharmacy, Medicinal 
Plants of the Amazon, Plants of Economic and Health Value, Amazonian Food 
Farmacy Diet, Herb-Drug Interactions, and Herbs and Aging.

“We are incredibly passionate about helping people live healthier lives 
worldwide through the responsible and sustainable use of herbs and 
medicinal plants,” emphasized Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive 
director of the ABC. 

“For twenty years, the American Botanical Council has dedicated itself to 
providing accurate and reliable information and education about the use of 
herbs and medicinal plants," added Blumenthal. “Onsite educational 
programs such as our Amazon and Andes Ethnobotany Ecotour provide 
compelling information through applied education and a hands-on 
opportunity to immerse oneself in the actual environment with leading 
herbal and environmental experts. It is often a life-changing experience!”

ABC and ACEER Foundation have been co-sponsoring and conducting continuing 
education-accredited ethnobotany ecotours to the Peruvian Amazon and Andes 
regions since 1994. They have also co-sponsored continuing education tours 
to Belize, Costa Rica, Kenya and South Africa as part of ABC's core 
mission to provide education using science-based and traditional 
information to promote the responsible use of herbal medicine.

“This will be a fabulous trip, particularly the amazing Andean city of 
Machu Picchu,” said veteran ethnobotanical expert and tourleader Steven 
Foster. “The greatest culture shock I’ve ever experienced is going from 
the primary rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon up to the ancient Inca 
capital, Cusco, on the way to Machu Picchu. Believe me, it doesn’t get 
better than this!” 

Space for the Peru tour is limited. Full itinerary and registration forms 
can be found online at the ABC website.

ABC published a short article by former ABC pharmacy intern, Codi 
Scarbrough Triesch, sharing her experiences on the trip to Peru a few 
years ago. The article can be found here.  Links to photos from last 
year’s ecotour can be seen on Steven Foster's website.

About the American Botanical Council

Established in 1988, the American Botanical Council (ABC) is the leading 
nonprofit, member-based international organization working to educate 
consumers, healthcare professionals, researchers, educators, industry, and 
the media on the safe and effective use of herbs and medicinal plants 
products. ABC is located on a 2.5 acre site in Austin, Texas, where it 
publishes HerbalGram, a peer-reviewed quarterly journal; HerbClipTM, a 
twice-monthly scientific literature review service; and HerbalEGram, a 
monthly electronic publication. ABC is also the publisher of The ABC 
Clinical Guide to Herbs, a continuing education and reference book, which 
contains extensive monographs on the safety and efficacy of 29 popular 
herbs, and the recent The Identification of Medicinal Plants: A Handbook 
of Morphology of Botanicals in Commerce, a guide to the macroscopic 
identification of botanical materials for industry quality control 
laboratories that ABC published in cooperation with the Missouri Botanical 
Garden. More information is available at http://www.herbalgram.org/. 



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