What if the next medical breakthrough didn’t come from a lab, but from the forest?
That’s exactly what Hemerson Dantas dos Santos — or Pataxó Hãhãhãi, as he proudly identifies — is proving. A chemist-turned-ethnobotanist and doctoral student at Brazil’s Federal University of São Paulo, he’s leading groundbreaking research cataloging the medicinal plants used by his Indigenous community in southern Bahia.
In his recent study, Pataxó Hãhãhãi documented 175 native plants, 43 of which are used to treat modern health threats like diabetes, high blood pressure, and intestinal worms — illnesses virtually unknown in his community before colonization. Remarkably, nearly 80% of those traditional treatments are backed by scientific research.
But this isn’t just about herbs — it’s about healing the rift between modern medicine and ancestral knowledge. Pataxó Hãhãhãi’s approach, called participatory ethnobotany, centers his community as co-creators of scientific knowledge, rather than passive subjects. His work weaves together lab research, oral histories, and cultural preservation — all while navigating the challenges of lost language, displaced traditions, and a changing climate.
Through interviews with village elders and the creation of a bilingual medicinal plant guide, he’s reviving ancient knowledge that was nearly lost — and showing that Indigenous science is, in many ways, the original science: observation, experimentation, and a profound connection to nature.
He doesn’t see modern medicine and Indigenous healing as opposites, but as complementary. “With both,” he says, “we’re stronger.” The future of medicine may very well lie at this intersection, where academic rigor meets generations of lived wisdom, rooted not just in biology, but in belonging.
As his research continues, one thing is clear: healing isn’t just physical — it’s cultural, environmental, and deeply ancestral.