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Washington University in St. Louis News & Information > Faculty Experts at Washington University in St. Louis >
Professor Emeritus of Biology in Arts & Sciences
Expertise: aerobiology, airborne particles, biology, allergies, allergens
Bio:
Lewis is an internationally known ethnobotanist who has made the importance of preserving the Latin American rain forest abundantly clear to worldwide publics. He and his wife, Memory, have brought back hundreds of novel plants from the rain forest and have worked hand-in-hand with one of the most cultured tribes of Indians left in the Amazon, the Jivaro. The Jivaro have given the Lewises ideas for researching the chemical/medicinal properties of their native plants. The Lewises have discovered the plant with the world's highest concentration of caffeine through these visits, as well as a plant that may be used as a cure for hepatitis B, and another that could heal bedsores. This may well be the one area of his ethnobotanical work that is the most exciting and most significant. There are a host of other interesting plant remedies the Lewises are studying.
WUSTL Contact Information:
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| Address: | One Brookings Drive
Campus Box 1137
St. Louis, MO 63130
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Education:
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B.A. in Biology and Botany at University of British Columbia at Vancouver
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M.A. in Biology at University of British Columbia at Vancouver
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Ph.D. in Biology at University of Virginia
| News Stories & Tip Sheets: |
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Grow global, cultivate local
Local growers preserve plant genetic variation
Nov. 2,
2005 --
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| Allison Miller discusses jocotes with a man in southern Honduras. |
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis report that farmers and families in Central America have saved genetic variation in the jocote (ho-CO-tay), (Spondias purpurea), a small tree that bears fruit similar to a tiny mango. And they've done this by taking the plants out of the forest, their wild habitat, and growing them close to home for family and local consumption Allison Miller, Ph.D., a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Colorado, and former graduate student in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, and Spencer T. Olin Professor of Biology Barbara Schaal, Ph.D., from Washington University, in conjunction with Peter Raven, Ph.D. Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University and Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, have shown multiple domestications of the jocote in Central America in the midst of large-scale deforestation, a practice that endangers genetic diversity .
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Cornucopia of plant information
New book explains plants as medicines
Dec. 16,
2003 --
A new book by botanists at Washington University in St. Louis enlightens both consumers of natural products and herbs and traditional physicians. Medical Botany, Plants Affecting Human Health, is the second edition of a 1977 book, Medical Botany, published by Walter Lewis, Ph.D., professor emeritus of biology, and Memory Elvin-Lewis, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and ethnobotany in biomedicine in Arts & Sciences at Washington University.
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