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Witch Doctor's Apprentice: Hunting for Medicinal Plants in the Amazon
When Nicole Maxwell first visited the Amazon more than forty years ago, she had no idea that she would make a life's work of the people, plants and lore to be found there. Decades before Americans became aware of the riches to be found in the knowledge of plant medicines which native shamans had passed down over thousands of years, Ms. Maxwell, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, was scouring the Amazon ram forest for clues to this ancient medical tradition. Now, on the eve of the decade in which mankind will have its last chance to determine the fate of this region and its wealth of traditional knowledge, Citadel Press's Library of the Mystic Arts is proud to bring out a newly revised edition of this classic work. Long hailed as one of the major works of popular ethno-medicine, this book is both an engaging adventure story and an engrossing account of the traditions of plant medicine to be found among the tribes of Amazonia -- and its re-release could not be more timely. Scientists now fear that one plant species per day is being made extinct by man's ravenous appetite for "progress". Of the plants which are found only in the Amazon rain forest, only a tiny percentage have been tested for their full medical possibilities. Witch-Doctor's Apprentice is an inspiring and amusing plea to modern civilization to save these plants -- and the people who know how to use them -- before they are destroyed forever. On the occasion of this newly revised edition, Ms. Maxwell has created an appendix which catalogs all of the plants mentioned in the text, with their scientific names, the names by which they are known locally, and their medicinal uses. This edition also includes a newintroduction by the noted ethno-botanist Terence McKenna. "A spirited and engrossing personal narrative, as much about people and places, discomforts and dangers, the beauty of the jungle and the arc-leap of wordless communication across cultural barriers, as it is about... bringing natu
412 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 27, 2012
This is one of my favorite books of all time. Nicole Maxwell went to Peru by herself back in the days when women didn't go many places on their own. She flew to Peru, and then she entered into the jungle with little more of a plan then to gather medicinal plants. Maxwell would stay with local peoples, she would sometimes hire a guide to help her in her travels, and she would go into the remotest part of the Amazon to find indigenous people and try to learn their secret medicines. I'm telling you, Nicole Maxwell is a legend! She was brilliant and kind and had great respect for indigenous people and for the earth. She was an excellent writer too, and this book is well written and fun to read.
Nicole Maxwell is amazing! Read this book if you want to be inspired!
Nicole Maxwell is amazing! Read this book if you want to be inspired!
May 18, 2020
My favorite book of all time. It is about a mature woman who decides to go to the Amazon in search of medicinal plants. The holy grail is a birth control plant. She trades glass eye balls and all kinds of treasures. She travels by canoe. Great role model.
July 24, 2023
4.5:
This book felt a bit odd close to the end. On one hand, it seems Maxwell really loves, respects, and appreciates indigenous culture, knowledge, and medicines. On the other, it felt like it lacked proper acknowledgment and there were so many parts where it felt very much like her whole goal was just manipulating and extorting them and not being grateful. Perhaps that was just how she wrote this section though, as I’m sure it was never her intention to come across this way. Even in the acknowledgements at the end, she never stopped to say, “thank you to the indigenous people for giving me these precious medicines despite having to take risks by going against your own people to do so.”
I get that this all went down and was written 60 years ago, and yes, what she did was incredibly brave and amazing, but I felt a bit “meh” about certain tones in the last chunk of the book. However, I didn’t feel this way for the majority of the book! Altogether, I loved the book! It was close to getting 5 stars until those chapters.
The entire story felt calming, and I’m not sure if it was her tone and writing or if was the beautiful description of her surroundings (it was probably both) While reading, I felt like I was on a raft in paradise just drifting through the amazon, despite the mentions of the gnats, mosquitos, salt fish, and other hardships. She wrote this in a way that didn’t over romanticize living or being in the amazon, but rather in a way that was honest and reassuring.
What surprised me most about her story is not the number of miraculous plants she found, but rather the lack of interest shown by big pharma. Surely there was a way for them to isolate and synthesize the active ingredients in order to turn a profit? Or were they concerned that by validating the plants, people would just buy the plants instead of their more expensive manufactured option? It was disheartening to read how many times she was taken advantage of and sometimes just completely disregarded by these companies.
60 years later, the story is still very enjoyable. I couldn’t help but to wonder how much today’s technology would’ve changed an adventure/mission such as hers. I also wonder how accessible these plants/medications are for the indigenous still living there and for the outside world, if they ever started exporting them.
I really wish more of her pictures were included and I’m definitely going to go down a rabbit hole now trying to find them online somewhere!
This book felt a bit odd close to the end. On one hand, it seems Maxwell really loves, respects, and appreciates indigenous culture, knowledge, and medicines. On the other, it felt like it lacked proper acknowledgment and there were so many parts where it felt very much like her whole goal was just manipulating and extorting them and not being grateful. Perhaps that was just how she wrote this section though, as I’m sure it was never her intention to come across this way. Even in the acknowledgements at the end, she never stopped to say, “thank you to the indigenous people for giving me these precious medicines despite having to take risks by going against your own people to do so.”
I get that this all went down and was written 60 years ago, and yes, what she did was incredibly brave and amazing, but I felt a bit “meh” about certain tones in the last chunk of the book. However, I didn’t feel this way for the majority of the book! Altogether, I loved the book! It was close to getting 5 stars until those chapters.
The entire story felt calming, and I’m not sure if it was her tone and writing or if was the beautiful description of her surroundings (it was probably both) While reading, I felt like I was on a raft in paradise just drifting through the amazon, despite the mentions of the gnats, mosquitos, salt fish, and other hardships. She wrote this in a way that didn’t over romanticize living or being in the amazon, but rather in a way that was honest and reassuring.
What surprised me most about her story is not the number of miraculous plants she found, but rather the lack of interest shown by big pharma. Surely there was a way for them to isolate and synthesize the active ingredients in order to turn a profit? Or were they concerned that by validating the plants, people would just buy the plants instead of their more expensive manufactured option? It was disheartening to read how many times she was taken advantage of and sometimes just completely disregarded by these companies.
60 years later, the story is still very enjoyable. I couldn’t help but to wonder how much today’s technology would’ve changed an adventure/mission such as hers. I also wonder how accessible these plants/medications are for the indigenous still living there and for the outside world, if they ever started exporting them.
I really wish more of her pictures were included and I’m definitely going to go down a rabbit hole now trying to find them online somewhere!
September 1, 2016
Amazing woman. Fantastic story.
December 18, 2022
Didn’t finish. Not a good book. What Nicole Maxwell actually did - venturing in to the jungle as a woman in the 1950s in search of medicinal plants - is undeniably impressive. How she did it and how she tells her story is utterly unimpressive and not worth the read.
February 22, 2021
She's a really fun writer. She's a medicine hunter, making repeated trips to the Amazon I believe in the 1950's and 60's. This book is her memoir of her adventures. I thoroughly enjoyed the way she says what she says. As I've been studying German, I've really been coming to appreciate what a playful language English can be, and she definitely likes to play. She's had incredible experiences and I guess you'd have to have a sly sense of humor to not just endure but thrive in such circumstances. It's one of those books that's just plain fun to read, so there's that.
I keep waiting, though, for some mention of the witch-doctor's apprentice. I know that publishers make up titles and design bookcovers and she may have fought hard against the name. Who knows? I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. I certainly bought the book because I had judged it by its cover. I thought at some point there would be someone who was an apprentice. I probably would not have purchased a book called "White Lady Mucks around in the Jungle." It's true. Oh well, in this case I'm glad I got tricked.
I learned more than I expected about everyday life in the Amazon, just stuff like bugs and rain and food. The basics. She's engaging enough that I have a sort of hyper-real impression of what it's like to ride on a river boat that's carrying a ornery pig and an ever-increasing number of barrels of rubber sap, for example. She had so much contact with so many different native tribes that she's able to give some fairly fine-grained and subtle information about social interactions. I'm interested in the topic of how various cultures demonstrate and reciprocate respect, and there's plenty to feed that interest in these pages. And she has that light-hearted bemusement that comes from real familiarity. She likes some groups more than others, some individuals more than others, her interactions have the texture of human to human connection. There are times when I strongly disapproved of her trickery in getting information out of people, although I did think her motives were sincere, if naive. Part of the appeal of the book, though, is that she is a very real, flawed person. She makes mistakes, gets overtired, acts like a jerk, loses track of her priorities. You know, like a person does.
Anyway, as far as information on medicinal plants, like tangible, usable information, there's only just enough that I plan to keep the book. Just barely, though. Mostly she gets obsessed with some birth control and fertility promoting herbs. Not my bag. What's more, she's a terrible botanist. It turns out at the end that several of the plants she's collected are varieties of the same species. Because of this, she assumes they have similar properties and that the distinctions she's been taught are cultural. I wanted to yell into the book "Bell pepper and cayenne are the same species! Do they have the same properties in your mouth?"
All in all, a fun read in the herbal entertainment genre. Nothing groundbreaking.
I keep waiting, though, for some mention of the witch-doctor's apprentice. I know that publishers make up titles and design bookcovers and she may have fought hard against the name. Who knows? I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. I certainly bought the book because I had judged it by its cover. I thought at some point there would be someone who was an apprentice. I probably would not have purchased a book called "White Lady Mucks around in the Jungle." It's true. Oh well, in this case I'm glad I got tricked.
I learned more than I expected about everyday life in the Amazon, just stuff like bugs and rain and food. The basics. She's engaging enough that I have a sort of hyper-real impression of what it's like to ride on a river boat that's carrying a ornery pig and an ever-increasing number of barrels of rubber sap, for example. She had so much contact with so many different native tribes that she's able to give some fairly fine-grained and subtle information about social interactions. I'm interested in the topic of how various cultures demonstrate and reciprocate respect, and there's plenty to feed that interest in these pages. And she has that light-hearted bemusement that comes from real familiarity. She likes some groups more than others, some individuals more than others, her interactions have the texture of human to human connection. There are times when I strongly disapproved of her trickery in getting information out of people, although I did think her motives were sincere, if naive. Part of the appeal of the book, though, is that she is a very real, flawed person. She makes mistakes, gets overtired, acts like a jerk, loses track of her priorities. You know, like a person does.
Anyway, as far as information on medicinal plants, like tangible, usable information, there's only just enough that I plan to keep the book. Just barely, though. Mostly she gets obsessed with some birth control and fertility promoting herbs. Not my bag. What's more, she's a terrible botanist. It turns out at the end that several of the plants she's collected are varieties of the same species. Because of this, she assumes they have similar properties and that the distinctions she's been taught are cultural. I wanted to yell into the book "Bell pepper and cayenne are the same species! Do they have the same properties in your mouth?"
All in all, a fun read in the herbal entertainment genre. Nothing groundbreaking.
July 27, 2011
[written 29apr1994], I really enjoyed this. It was so well written that I could really experience the jungle. Ms Maxwell has captured a way of life that is quickly disappearing, if not already gone.
I wonder what came of her contributions to science? Why don’t we hear anything about them—especially the contraceptive and fertility medicines? Not surprising that they’d be hushed-up, but creepy to know that someone knows about them and isn’t telling.
It reminds me of Chinese medicine and herbology. Are we so confounded by Western medicine that we require chemistry? Is it true that this knowledge is kept hidden because it is too cost effective? Consider the birth control pill… I took them for 12 years at approximately $200/yr… well now, what would one dose of a contraceptive plant cost? How many farmers would it require to supply the necessary dosage, as well as to grow the fertility plant? How does it compare to the number of people required to produce one packet-per-month of Loestrin? How benevolent are the pharmaceutical companies?
What’s become of Nicole Maxwell and her hard work? [Google her!]
This book really is a testimony to the importance of trust and honor. Not only to her personal relationships with those she met, but to the results in the Western world, as well.
I wonder what came of her contributions to science? Why don’t we hear anything about them—especially the contraceptive and fertility medicines? Not surprising that they’d be hushed-up, but creepy to know that someone knows about them and isn’t telling.
It reminds me of Chinese medicine and herbology. Are we so confounded by Western medicine that we require chemistry? Is it true that this knowledge is kept hidden because it is too cost effective? Consider the birth control pill… I took them for 12 years at approximately $200/yr… well now, what would one dose of a contraceptive plant cost? How many farmers would it require to supply the necessary dosage, as well as to grow the fertility plant? How does it compare to the number of people required to produce one packet-per-month of Loestrin? How benevolent are the pharmaceutical companies?
What’s become of Nicole Maxwell and her hard work? [Google her!]
This book really is a testimony to the importance of trust and honor. Not only to her personal relationships with those she met, but to the results in the Western world, as well.
June 25, 2011
This turned out to be a really good book, though it was slow going in the middle. I can't wait to research some of the plants she mentioned, in case there are natural remedies out there that aren't commonly known. Congrats to Nicole Maxwell for her bravery, perseverence, and cultural understanding (of indiginous cultures if not her own).
January 30, 2011
I found this book on clearance at Barnes and Noble about 10 years ago. This book resurfaced my love of reading. Fascinating account of what is happening to our planet and the secrets hidden in the rain forests. Absolutely loved this book!
July 4, 2014
Wow!!!! Great story...what an amazing woman...loved reading this book, although it is not the easiest read in the world. Learned a lot about medicine outside the US, a lot about the Amazon itself, and a lot about plants, research and how they relate to the products we see on the US shelves.
February 27, 2008
Charming autobiography af a pioneering female ethnobotanist. Real short on the actual ethnobotany.
May 9, 2012
interesting that a woman in the 50's made this amazon journey
October 28, 2013
This is a wonderful book, takes you right into the jungle, well-written. Interesting to think of all the possible healing potential. First time I had heard of Pisco Sours, now a favorite drink!
August 6, 2016
3 1/2 stars
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews