A young boy is crying because his ear hurts. Then a man comes out of the forest. He carries some juice from a white fungus. Carefully, he drips the juice into the boy's ear. In some rainforest villages of South America, that's how earaches are cured (治愈)!
Rainforest doctors, called shamans, use many kinds of plants as medicine. They make tea from one type of red vine (藤蔓). It cures stomachaches. Yellow flowers from another plant are used to treat snakebite. Local shamans have used the curing power of plants for thousands of years.
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Today, scientists from all over the world want to learn what these shamans know about plant medicines. They are racing to find the secrets of the rainforest before the plants disappear for good. And the rainforests are disappearing fast. Every year, people cut down an area of rainforest as large as Florida. Sometimes they want to use the land for farms. Sometimes they cut down the trees and sell the wood.
Now the scientists travel by boat, air, and foot to tiny rainforest villages. Then they spend long hours making their way through the hot and humid jungle (丛林) with the local shamans. The shamans show the scientists which plants can be used as cures.
Saving the Rainforest
One U.S. company has already found an important new medicine. It comes from a plant found in the rainforests of Ecuador. This medicine may soon be used to cure lung infections in kids. Rainforest plants might cure many bad diseases, such as cancer and AIDS. So medicine companies are working to save the rainforests. When people buy medicines made from the rainforest plants, part of the money will go to help save the rainforests. If the rainforests survive, someday you may find cures in your home that were made from white fungus and red vines.
