"Rain Forest Conservation and the Search for the New Jungle Medicine" is the topic for ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin in the ninth annual Audrey Harkness O'Connor Lecture, set for Friday, Nov. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall at Cornell University.

A pioneer in the field of ethnobotanical conservation, Plotkin is the author of Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines. The O'Connor lecture is presented by Cornell Plantations and honors the longtime editor and gardens curator at the Plantations.

A reception by Auraca Herbarists and author's book-signing will follow the lecture, which is free and open to the public.

Plotkin is a research associate in the Smithsonian Institution and executive director of the Ethnobiology and Conservation Team (ECT), a nonprofit organization seeking solutions to conservation issues. He worked for 15 years in South and Central America to learn about medicinal plant use from the shamans of indigenous people.

The original Shaman's Apprentice book, first published in 1993 and now in its 14th edition, reveals some of the secrets Plotkin discovered while participating in healing rituals with shamans, who are known to use deadly poisons and hallucinogens. A children's version of the book, The Shaman's Apprentice: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest, was written in collaboration with Lynne Cherry and is scheduled for publication in February 1998.