Medicinal plants: its contribution to the economy in the Peruvian Amazon

Abstract

The Peruvian Amazon is the most extensive region of the national territory, in recent years many international, national and local companies have taken real interest to generate products based on their resources used as medicinal, which is why development was considered the present study. The IIAP (Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana), is committed and its main mission is "to achieve the development of the inhabitants of the Amazon." This proposal was executed through the execution of the Project medicinal plants of the Peruvian Amazon; the advances, the economic situation and dissemination of results are presented. Information on more than one thousand species with medicinal use is indicated, which are traditionally used in the Amazon, consigned in the database of the IIAP, and of which more than a hundred are already commercialized and as many more potentials. Local markets are presented in the main Amazonian cities and the country where they are sold, as well as the resources and products that are exported to countries, companies, with examples of two of the high demand species Uncaria tomentosa and U. guianensis (Cat's claw) and Maytenus macrocarpa (Chuchuhuasi).