TRADITIONAL HEALING IS A WELL ESTABLISHED PRACTICE OF MEXICAN CULTURE
"An essential part of Zapotec culture is using plants for medicinal purposes," said Isabel Jimenez, traditional healer.
Isabel wants to pass on her skills and knowledge to younger generations.
"Traditional healers are very important in our culture. We need to preserve the knowledge of our ancestors, by teaching children how to identify, recognise and defend protect medicinal plants," she said.
The National Autonomous University of Mexico has set up a digital library that lists more than 3,000 indigenous plant species.
But many academics worried on the decline in the country's natural resources in recent decades.
"Now with the destruction of the vegetation in Mexico, we're losing many of these plants. Some of these plants we can bring into cultivation, but not all the plants," said Robert Bye, the Head Researcher Professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
