Useful Plants of Neotropical Origin

origin. Those contributions from Middle and South America are superior to other "The greatest service which can continents, for example from Africa be rendered to any country, (Briicher 1969, 1977). is to add a new useful plant If we compare Eurasia with the American to its culture". continent, we notice a fundamental differ- Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826, Third President of the USA ence as far as the origin of our cultivated plants and domestic animals is concerned. This book is the result of living and explor- Whilst almost all useful animals have been ing over several decades in tropical latitudes domesticated in the "Old World", a consid- on three continents, foremost in the neo- erable amount of essential food plants and tropics. It presents various critical aspects of industrial crops originated in the "New endangered species and natural resources of World". This successful event would have Latin America, where the biotic equilibrium been unthinkable without the active inter- is menaced as never before by the imprudent vention of man. In this case, the reward for actions of one single species, Homo "sapiens". notable breeding abilities goes to Amerindi- The destruction of natural habitats, espe- an tribes in Meso- and South America cially the tropical forests between the rivers (Hoehne 1937, Sauer 1959, MacNeish 1964, Parana, Bermejo, Paraguay, Mamore, Ma- Parodi 1966, Schwanitz 1967, Ucko and deira, Ucayali, Amazonas, Orinoco and Rio Dimbleby 1969, Reed 1977 and Korber- Magdalena progresses at the catastrophic Grohne 1988).