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| Research Interests | Courses Taught | Students | Publications | Activities | Biography |
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Dr. Bradley C. Bennett |
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Dr. Bennett’s focus is ethnobotany
in lowland regions of the Neotropics. He is the Director of the newly
created Center
for Ethnobiology and Natural Products. His primary research questions
include the following: 2) How do traditional people use and manage these botanical resources? While accurate botanical documentation is sufficient, alone it is inadequate. Ethnoscientists also should examine the reciprocal ecological effects of the plant-people interactions. 3) Why do people use particular plants? Few researchers address this topic, yet it is perhaps the most interesting one. The "Why?" question encompasses a variety of possible explanations at both proximate and ultimate levels. Tradition, form-function (doctrine of signatures), taxonomic affiliation, efficacy, empiricism, and exchange (diffusion), all may play a role in determining which plants will be utilized. Dr. Bennett has worked with several indigenous people in the Neotropics including the Quechua in the highlands of Peru, the Shuar and Quichua in Amazonian Ecuador, the Cachi in coastal Ecuador, the Guaymí in Panama, and the Seminole in southern Florida. His comparative approach, with data from several cultures, is especially important in examining the "Why?" question. The practical applications of Bennett’s research (along with that of his graduate students in Bolivia Cameroon, Costa Rica, Brazil, Guyana, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Peru and the US) includes preservation of traditional knowledge, conservation of tropical forests, and sustainable use of plant resources. Bennett’s second research focus concerns floristic and vegetation dynamics, especially in southern Florida. He and his students study vascular epiphytes, restoration and succession in hardwood hammocks, exotics, and the human use of Florida's native plants. One study, for example, has examined saw palmetto (Serenoa repens). An estimated 50 millions pounds of the fruit are shipped to Europe annually, where they are used in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasy. Working with a colleague in chemistry, Martin Quirke, he are looking for new compounds in the fruit that may be responsible for its efficacy.
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Conservation of Tropical Forests
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Bruce Hoffman (M.S. 1997) studied Heteropsis flexuosa. Roots of this hemiepiphyte are an important fiber source, used in the manufacture of furniture. (currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan) Christiane Ehringhaus (M.S. 1997), a Fullbright scholar from Germany, examined medicinal uses of Piperaceae in a Kaxinawá community in Acre, Brazil. (currently a Ph.D. student at Yale University) Cristina Ugarte (M.S. 1997) investigated medicinal uses of food plants in a Mexican Totonacan community. (currently a Ph.D. student at FIU) Laura Flynn (M.S. 1998) studied soil seed banks in southern Florida tropical hammock communities. (currently working for a conservation NGO in NY) Alan Phipps (M.S. 2000) examined traditional methods of detoxifying Amanita muscaria in Japan. (currently teaching high school biology) Jason Steindler (M.S. 2000) investigated the phytochemistry of Ligusticum porteri in Colorado. (currently working in a phytochemistry lab) Cecilia Garcia Espinosa (M.S. 2000) looked at the effects of Peruvian medicinal plants on cancer cells. (currently south America sales rep for Leica) Kristine Stewart (Ph.D. 2001) modelled the sustainability of Prunus africana bark harvest in Cameroon. (currently teaching Biology at FIU). Allen Dray (Ph.D. Candidate) is investigating chemical and morphological variation in Melaleuca quinquenervia form Florida and Australia. (planning to defend in Fall 2001). Alíce Warren (Ph.D. Candidate) is studying the sustainability of leaf harvest of Lepidocaryum tessmanii from Amazonian Peru. (planning to defend in Spring 2002). Michael Thomas (Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Florida) is examining the medicinal plants of the Pataxoa people of Brazil. (planning to defend in Fall 2001). Kiki Mutis (M.S. Candidate) is investigating the use of Solanaceae in Bolivian house gardens. (currently in Bolivia) Anne Frances (M.S. Candidate) will begin studying plant knowledge of the Guaymí in Costa Rica in March 2001. Eve Lehmbeck (M.S. Candidate) will begin studying Jamaican women’s use of medicinal plants in March 2001.
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Dr. Bradley C. Bennett is an Associate Professor at Florida International University in Miami, Florida and Director of the University's Center for Ethnobiology and Natural Products. Originally from southern Florida, he received a B.A. (majoring in Biology and Geology/Geography) from Bucknell University in 1978. Bennett completed an M.S. (Biology) at Florida Atlantic University in 1982 and a Ph.D. (Biology) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988. He spent two years as a post-doc and two years as a research associate with the New York Botanical Garden's Institute of Economic Botany. During this time Bennett studied plant use by the Shuar people of Amazonian Ecuador. He completed a similar study with the lowland Quichua in Ecuador and directed a multidisciplinary study of the economic value of non-timber forest products in terra firme and floodplain forests. Dr. Bennett also examined plant use of the Chachi, who live in the Pacific lowlands of Ecuador. After returning to Florida in 1992, he began studying plant use of Florida's Seminole and Miccosukee people and recently initiated a project with the Guaymí in Panama. Chris Joyce described some of this research in Earthly Goods: Medicine Hunting in the Rainforest (Little, Brown and Company 1994) and in Chasing the Dragon (Details Magazine, Sep. 1994). Additional info can be found at Dr. Bennett's webpage at the Center for Ethnobiology and Natural Products |
Bennett,
B.C. and J. Hicklin. 1998. Uses of Serenoa repens (Bartr.)
Small (saw palmetto) in Florida Econ. Bot 52:365-375.