nds of hours are spent doing patient observation and experimentation, cataloging useful plants and poisonous ones, and searching and identifying plants. The most time is spent pressing and dying plants. This could take more time depending on the weather. Complications can occur from monsoons or heat (King and Veilleux WWW).In the field, a team is present. This team consists of one or more ethnobotanists, researchers, and a physician. The ethnobotanist works to collect and identify plants. The researchers supply the information that they gathered before the trip to help the ethnobotanist. The physician has a very important job. The physician works with the shaman or traditional healer to find common diseases. He or she must be trained in anthropology, botany, public health, or any other relevant social sciences. They have to be open to different views of indigenous people and able to work with the other ethnobotanists (King and Veilleux WWW).During the interview process, the physician gives a brief description, including pictures, of diseases to the shaman. The cases are presented without medical terms so that the shaman can understand. A translator is usually used in this process. Once the shaman has recognized the disease, the team records the botanical treatment. If several shamans recommend the same treatment then the plant will be collected (King and Veilleux WWW).Twenty-five percent of pharmaceutical drugs in the United States are based on chemicals from over forty plant species (Gerber and Marandino WWW), but now few pharmaceutical companies are willing to go through the process of developing a drug found in the rainforest. Jiselle Tamayo, technical coordinator for the bioprospecting program at the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad reports that “Today we are working with two pharmaceutical companies, but in 1991 there were five.” (O’Connor WWW).Before 1992, profit sharing and privileges had neve...
