It is certain that many of these remedies have empirical properties that substantiate their use in Machiguenga medicine. Of these, some may have applications for global medicine.

Traditional herbal medicines have brought the world such important drugs as aspirin, quinine, curare, reserpine, atropine, morphine and more recently such drugs as vinblastine and taxol for cancer. Many researchers hope that important new drugs await to be discovered in the rain forests of the tropics.

The medicinal knowledge of indigenous and tribal peoples is an important source for guiding pharmacological research. Yet native people have rarely been compensated for the contributions they have made.

I have begun to initiate a long-term plan of ethnobotanical study which will include a formal contract guaranteeing return of benefits to native communities. To date, no agreement has been made between the Machiguenga people or the Manu park with any organization or researcher concerning pharmacological study of Machiguenga medicines. Until such agreements are formalized and approved by local communities, a responsible researcher must be careful not to publish prematurely specific information about native plants and their uses, since this would be a violation of native peoples' intellectual property, and a violation of basic ethical principles of modern ethnobiology, a new ethnobiology for the twenty-first century.