Amazonian medicinal plants botanical garden of takiwasi center in Peru; a case report of 25 years’ hands-on experience

The Takiwasi Center, a 25-year-old NGO in the Amazon, combines modern psychotherapy and biomedical approaches with herbal Traditional Amazonian Medicine (TAM) to treat drug addiction and mental health disorders. Its Medicinal Plants Botanical Garden contains over 80 medicinal plant species used for depurative, relaxing, and visionary purposes. The garden supplies herbs for the Center's treatment protocol and seedlings for reforestation in the nearby Cordillera Escalera Conservation Area, and serves as an educational resource for visitors about TAM. A spin-off laboratory manufactures herbal medicines for the public, following fair-trade and eco-sustainability principles and respecting indigenous knowledge protection regulations.

Study at a glance

Abstract

I The Center for Drug Addiction Treatment and Research on Traditional Medicines -Takiwasi, is a 25 years' Non-Governmental-Organization (NGO) specialized in the treatment of drug addiction and mental health disorders based on modern psychotherapy and biomedical approach, as well as the use of herbal Traditional Amazonian Medicine (TAM). Part of this latter therapeutic resources are obtained directly from the Medicinal Plants Botanical Garden of the Center, which represents therefore one of the core activity of Takiwasi. This garden currently counts more than 80 medicinal plant species representative of local medical traditions, holding different indication of use including depurative, relaxing and visionary ones. During its 25 years' lifetime, Takiwasi Center has also developed a spin-off natural product pharmaceutical laboratory which is manufacturing herbal medicines for the general public based on the ancestral Amazonian herbal knowledge, following the principles of fair-trade and eco-sustainability and in accord with the national regulation concerning indigenous knowledge protection. The Medicinal Plants Botanical Garden of Takiwasi provide multidisciplinary outputs which include the supply of herbal medicines used in the treatment protocol of the Center, as well as a series of seedlings used within the reforestation programs performed in the Conservation Area named "Cordillera Escalera" located near-by the Center. The garden also serves as an ecological interface, useful to introduce generic or specialized visitors to the fundamentals of TAM. It represents therefore a successful experience of living resource of Amazonian medicinal plant materials and related therapeutic know-how, which merits further attention and support in order to widespread its beneficial effects for the health of humans and nature.