Understanding Nature Around the World

The world is full of different cultures, peoples, and ways of doing things. Each culture has its own special way of making sense of the world: of observing it, learning from it, and passing that knowledge on. This is what scientists call knowledge systems. And there are many different knowledge systems around the world. For example, in Western knowledge systems, scientists try to understand things by doing special tests called experiments. They start with a question that they want to know the answer to, called a hypothesis. Then, they use experiments or other scientific methods to see if their hypothesis is right or wrong. When they learn something new, they share it with others around them—sometimes in schools, magazines, or scientific journals like this one! Another example is what we call Traditional knowledge systems. This way of learning is all about keeping information alive using the power of nature, storytelling, and listening to what your elders have to say. Families and communities pass down information by speaking, doing, and showing—things like teaching forgotten languages, celebrating special moments, sharing family recipes, and telling stories about the land and those that live on it [1].

This is where ethnopharmacology (pronounced “ETH-no-FAR- ma-KOL-uh-jee”) enters the picture. Ethnopharmacology is a science where researchers, like detectives, learn about medicine by exploring both the Traditional and Western ways of explaining the world. These scientists learn from traditional knowledge—for example, which medicinal plants can be used to treat different diseases—and then test them in science labs to see if they actually work. Ethnopharmacology is mainly focused on creating a bridge between Traditional and Western knowledge to understand how new medicines can be created [2]. If this is successful, then new medicines that come from these plants can be shared all over the world. There are many other fields that also rely on combining different knowledge systems to learn about other things. For instance, ethnomedicine is focused on learning about traditional medicine in general, and ethnobotany studies everything related to plants—from medicinal plants to agriculture and natural building materials.

Solve the Puzzle

How can combining different ways of understanding give us a better picture of the world? Now it is your turn to be a scientist and ask some questions: What do you see in the images shown in Figure 1? What could these different dots and lines represent? Do the lines connect the dots in the same way in the different images? How do they work together?

Do you think you have the answers to the puzzle in Figure 1? Let us take a look.

How Do Scientists Find New Medicines?

Throughout history, humans have always relied on nature for healing: watching animals use plants for health; experimenting with roots, leaves, and mixtures; and passing this knowledge down through generations [1]. These early practices laid the foundation for medicine.

Today, however, instead of starting with nature, many scientists rely on man-made chemicals, testing thousands in the lab to find potential cures. At first, having so many options to choose from might sound exciting, but there is a catch: trial-and-error approaches can be expensive, slow, and risky [3]. We can never really know if they will work or not.

An alternative is to return to the “old ways.” Ethnopharmacologists look at how human communities have used natural resources for health over centuries. If a plant or remedy has been used safely and effectively across generations, it is a strong clue that it holds real medicinal value [1]. By starting off from this traditional knowledge, ethnopharmacologists have a much better chance of finding an effective new medicine, rather than searching blindly through endless man-made chemicals that have never been used before.

About half of today’s medicines come, either directly or with some help from scientists, from natural resources (like plants and microorganisms, such as bacteria or fungi) [4]. Worldwide, at least 39,000 different kinds of plants are being used for medicinal purposes, and there is still so much more that we have not explored. Only a small number of these 39,000 plants have been studied in modern science labs so far. So, how can ethnopharmacology help us learn about these unexplored resources? It can give us the tools to combine Western and Traditional ways of knowing. Then, we can start understanding the bigger picture, to successfully create new medicines!

Clues From Traditional Knowledge

In the 1950s and 1960s, the world was facing a serious crisis: malaria—a deadly disease caused by tiny parasites spread by certain mosquitoes—was on the rise. Countries were doing everything they could to stop the disease, like using toxic chemicals called insecticides to kill mosquitoes and treating sick people with malaria medication. These efforts worked for a while, but soon the parasites became resistant to the medicines and treating the disease became much more difficult. Scientists around the world were desperately searching for new treatments, but no matter how many chemicals they tested—mostly following the Western scientific methods—nothing seemed to work [5]. That is when China stepped in to help.

In China, scientists took a different approach. Instead of only relying on testing man-made chemicals, one scientist named Tu Youyou turned to her country’s deep history of Traditional medicine. She searched for clues in ancient Chinese medicine books that had thousands of years’ worth of information on medicinal plants, and she found the treatment for malaria hidden in these old texts [5]!

At first, she and her group of scientists could not understand these old books alone, so they had to ask for help from many different experts to understand the books. Historians helped figure out what the words in the old medicine books meant. There were terms like “intermittent fevers” (nüe 瘧) and “intermittent coldness and heat” (han re 寒熱) that kept popping up all over those old books while “malaria” was nowhere to be found [6]. So, the historians helped Tu Youyou understand what those terms meant and how they could relate to malaria [6]. Plant scientists also helped crack the codes of the ancient Traditional medicine books, helping the Chinese scientists figure out which plants were being described. Often the names used in the old books do not match the names scientists use nowadays—so botanists use the way the plants are being described to identify them.

With help from history and plant experts, Tu Youyou discovered a plant called Artemisia annua—a treatment for malaria! There can be hundreds or even thousands of different substances in a plant, but only a few are of interest to scientists looking to create new medicine. Tu Youyou separated out a substance called artemisinin, and she volunteered to be the first human test subject, proving that it could treat malaria. By 2001, artemisinin became the official treatment for malaria, and to this day it continues to save millions of lives [5].

Ethnopharmacology in Action, Step by Step

The story about artemisinin shows how important working together can be. Now, let us dive into ethnopharmacology and learn about the steps it takes to make great things happen, such as those shown in Figure 2.

Step 1: Learning From Other Communities

First, ethnopharmacologists must talk to people to gather information on certain topics. Usually they talk to traditional healers, elders, and others from the community to learn about which natural materials are being used for medicine. For example, even though scientists used ancient books to discover the wonders of artemisinin, they also could have asked people who still use the plant Artemisia annua today.

Step 2: Gathering Samples

Next, scientists collect samples of natural resources that are used in Traditional communities—these can be samples of plants, insects, or even fungi [4]. To collect samples, scientists visit local markets or go into nature to gather them from the wild, with help from local people that live there. While collecting, they try to avoid harming the environment—by being careful not to destroy habitats, not picking all of the flowers, barks, leaves or roots in one place, or avoiding species that are in danger of disappearing from Earth forever.

Step 3: Preparing Collected Samples and Making Extractions

Then, scientists prepare the collected samples to be tested in a science lab [4]. They must be very careful how they prepare the samples, because sometimes using the wrong procedure will destroy their medicinal powers. For example, the ancient medicine books explained that Artemisia annua works best when it is prepared while it is still fresh. Once the samples are prepared, scientists try to remove specific ingredients from them so they can be tested for medicinal activity. This is called extraction, which often involves multiple scientific instruments and tools.

Step 4: Inside the Science Lab

After they have their extracts, scientists can test their medicinal properties using the help of cells or cell components. They use special lab dishes or test tubes to study how the cells react to certain extracts in a monitored environment. If these experiments are successful, they test the extracts on living beings, like mice or rats. This stage of testing allows the scientists to see how living things react to the extracts, to make sure the medicine is safe to use on humans. If the results of these two testing stages are positive, then scientists can begin testing on people, to help decide if the treatment is safe so that doctors can start giving the new medicine to sick people all over the world.

Step 5: Giving Back to the Communities

The most important step in ethnopharmacology is to say thank you by sharing the scientific results with the communities that helped support the research. Those communities helped the scientists, so it is important that scientists help the communities in return, by sharing the results and benefits with them. After all, no new medicines could have been developed without their help!

Sharing Matters, and This is Why

Many times, researchers—including biologists, botanists, historians, and many others—collect knowledge from local communities without giving them anything in return. This means that the local people—those who hold the Traditional knowledge—are left out of receiving many rewards like money, credit, or rights to the natural resources. This is very unfair to the local people since they are the ones who gave the scientists—and the entire world—important information no one else had.

Thankfully, ideas and rules are starting to change. Global agreements, like the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol, focus on making sure that local people are treated fairly and that they get a portion of the rewards when their knowledge is used for new inventions—this is called benefit-sharing. When others provide information, it is very important that they receive a share of the money, credit, and research results. After all, without their help, the research would not have been possible [7]. But sharing the research results is not just about sending a paper full of big words. It is about making sure the results are shared in ways that make sense—through community workshops, presenting the results using visual materials, or by using simple words to explain the research. Right now, there are not any clear rules on how scientists should do this, and existing rules vary from country to country. Making some easy-to-follow steps to help scientists share their work in fair and friendly ways could be the next big step in the field of ethnopharmacology.

Now, let us go back to our artemisinin story. The artemisinin clue came from a 4th century medical text, which was public and widely known. It is officially stated that there is no actual living knowledge holder or community. However, some sources link the original traditional uses of Artemesia annua described in the ancient medical text to a specific community, the Uyghur [8], who consider themselves as the custodians of the knowledge today. Do you think the Uyghur or other Traditional communities that indirectly helped the Chinese researchers come up with the new artemisinin medicine received any of the invention’s benefits? Sadly, the answer is no. When it was time to collect money, credit, and applause, the communities were left out [8]. This happened before the CBD and the Nagoya Protocol existed, so there was no formal way for the communities to make a complaint. Unfortunately, the United States of America, Canada, and Australia have still not signed the Nagoya Protocol. This means they are not legally bound to comply with the benefit-sharing rules. This lack of participation undermines global efforts toward fairness and respect for biodiversity and traditional knowledge.

Nowadays, if the communities live in a country that agrees with the CBD and the Nagoya Protocol, they can rely on it to help protect their rights and make sure they are treated fairly. Even with these rules, things are not easy. Making sure research is shared fairly—in ways that communities can truly understand and use—is still very hard, especially when there are no clear instructions on how to do it, or how to make sure it actually happens. So, there is still a lot of work ahead to make ethnopharmacology a fair and collaborative field. But things are changing and, hopefully, one day we will get there. Who knows, maybe by the time some of you decide to become ethnopharmacologists, Western and Traditional knowledge will be shared equally, with the same level of respect and acceptance.

Glossary

Western Knowledge Systems: ↑ Ways of learning and sharing knowledge that are based on European traditions that mostly rely on controlled observations of nature.

Hypothesis: ↑ A hypothesis is a “smart guess”. It is an idea you have about how something works, which you then test with an experiment to see if you are right.

Traditional Knowledge Systems: ↑ Ways of learning and sharing knowledge that are based on traditional communities, which mostly rely on observations of nature.

Ethnopharmacology: ↑ This is the study of how people around the world use natural resources—like plants, insects, and fungi—for medicine.

Malaria: ↑ A dangerous—and sometimes deadly—sickness that is spread by mosquitoes.

Artemisinin: ↑ Artemisinin is a powerful chemical found inside a plant called Artemisia annua, also known as Sweet Wormwood. Scientists discovered that this chemical is like a superhero medicine that cures malaria.

Extraction: ↑ Extraction is the lab process where scientists use special tools to “pull out” the chemicals from a plant, like separating the medicinal juice from the leaves and stems.

Benefit-sharing: ↑ Benefit-sharing means “giving back”. If scientists find cures using a village’s plants or secrets, they must share the prizes they get from that discovery with the village who helped.

Conflict of Interest

The author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by two grants from the Volkswagen Foundation (9E510, 9E519; FS, KB, and LF), and one grant from the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (01KA2506B; FS). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the funding agencies.

AI Tool Statement

The author(s) declared that generative AI was used in the creation of this manuscript. In the early version of the manuscript the authors used ChatGPT (version GPT 5; model GPT-5 series large language model (LLM)) to rephrase bits of the text for fluidity/coherence.

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