Centro de Medicina Andina | Traditional Andean medicine in the Cusco Region
Gathering of Hampicamayoc at the Raqchi archaeological site, Canchis
Guided walk through a medicinal plant garden in Pomacanchi
Women from Pitumarca holding the medicinal plants they gathered
Field internship with Hampicamayoc in Urcos
Community members during a medicinal plant gathering day
Raqchi, Canchis

Centro de Medicina Andina

Promoting health through Andean medicine

We train the Hampicamayoc across the whole Cusco Region, help them set up medicinal home gardens, gather seeds and organise healing fairs, workshops and internships so that this ancestral knowledge stays alive.

See our activities

We work alongside

CENSI INIA Andenes Cusco Pensión 65 CIAM ACR Ausangate Universidad Privada San Juan Bautista GIES Cusco KLJB Alemania Los Amigos de Adveniat Parque Natural Regional de Aubrac
10 lines of work in the 2026 project
4,000 medicinal plants in our herbarium
40 Hampicamayoc supported during 2026
Cusco Region our institutional working area
About us

Andean medicine exists, it is alive and it deserves recognition

Since 1981 the Centro de Medicina Andina (Centre for Andean Medicine) has worked alongside rural communities and the traditional health knowledge keepers of the southern Andes. We were founded to rescue the healing knowledge of the Quechua and Aymara world from oblivion, and to see it recognised and integrated into the health system rather than dismissed as folklore.

Our mission

We are an institution dedicated to promoting health through natural Andean medicine, valuing, strengthening and training the Hampicamayoc of the Cusco Region, organised in different groups. We promote the responsible use of medicinal plants, their transformation into medicinal products and the transmission of the ancestral wisdom of the Hampicamayoc for the benefit of the population.

Our history and track record

Hampicamayoc gathered at the meeting on ancestral wisdom and health in the Andes of Cusco
Meeting on the ancestral wisdom of the Hampicamayoc and health in the Andes of Cusco.
Institutional record

The CMA timeline

More than three decades of work documented step by step: how the Centre was born, the stages it went through, the projects delivered, the laboratory, the herbarium and the lessons learned alongside the communities of the southern Andes.

See the full timeline

  • 1981 The Popular Natural Medicine Coordinating Team is founded
  • 1984 The Centro de Medicina Andina is formally established
  • 1993 The phytotherapeutic products laboratory opens
  • 2005 Library and herbarium move into the new premises
  • 2026 Strengthening project with 40 Hampicamayoc
Hampicamayoc from Pomacanchi showing the tinctures made in their workshop
Hampicamayoc from Pomacanchi with the tinctures made in their workshop.
Hampicamayoc network

Traditional health knowledge keepers, organised and accredited

The Hampicamayoc are the people who preserve and practise Andean medicine in their communities. During 2026 we are supporting 40 of them across the Cusco Region to strengthen their skills, their organisation and their economic sustainability.

  • Registration and geolocation of each Hampicamayoc, with their specialities.
  • Workshops on making ointments, tinctures, essential oils and syrups.
  • Working kit, official ID card and accreditation to serve the population.
  • Formation of an association with its own legal status.

See the Hampicamayoc network

2026 activities

The ten lines of work in the project

The project to strengthen and revalue traditional Andean medicine in the Cusco Region unfolds across ten activities: from mapping the Hampicamayoc through to internships, taking in workshops, medicinal home gardens, seeds, healing fairs and the creation of their association.

See the full breakdown
01 Registration visit to Hampicamayoc in Pomacanchi

Mapping and visits to Hampicamayoc

Identifying, registering and geolocating the Hampicamayoc of the Cusco Region on a digital platform, with their specialities and availability.

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02 Distilling essential oils during a workshop in Urcos

Hands-on medicinal product workshops

Nine workshops on the use, transformation and conservation of 30 medicinal plants: ointments, essential oils, tonics, poultices and herbal teas.

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03 Students taking part in a session about medicinal plants

Awareness campaigns

Twelve educational campaigns in which the Hampicamayoc visit schools and communities to teach the proper use of medicinal plants.

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04 Medicinal home garden set up by a Hampicamayoc in Pitumarca

Medicinal home gardens of the Hampicamayoc

Forty personal plots combining medicinal plants and food crops, with technical support, seeds, tools and organic fertiliser.

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05 Medicinal seeds stored in labelled jars

Gathering seeds and cuttings

Collecting seeds, stakes and cuttings from the different ecological tiers of Cusco to build an inventoried community seed bank.

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06 Community members exchanging plants and products

Exchange of plants and seeds

Annual exchange fairs where each participant brings at least ten medicinal species to enrich the home gardens and the model community garden.

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07 Traditional medicine fair in the main square of Urcos

Healing and exhibition fairs

Fairs with the municipal centres for older adults, where the Hampicamayoc offer healing sessions and display their medicinal products.

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08 Handing over working materials to Hampicamayoc in Tungasuca

Equipment and accreditation

Assessment of the 40 Hampicamayoc and delivery of their working kit: identifying vest, official ID card, tools and materials.

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09 Hampicamayoc gathered in a working assembly

Legal status for the Association

Formalising a legal association bringing together the 40 Hampicamayoc, with statutes, registration and a strategic plan for 2026–2030.

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10 Field internship with Hampicamayoc in Urcos

Internships within Peru

Knowledge exchange with Hampicamayoc and kindred institutions across the country to build skills, learn techniques and spread Andean knowledge.

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CMA services

Research, academia and work with the communities

Our services hold up the three sides of the work: the scientific one, through the herbarium and botanical research; the academic one, through the library and publications; and the community one, through the products and seeds made together with the people we serve.

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Scientific

Medicinal herbarium

Around 4,000 specimens collected across the ecological tiers of the southern Andes, classified by botanical family with their local and scientific names.

Explore the herbarium Academic

Library and publications

Some 9,500 titles and more than 5,000 specialised articles on traditional medicine, plus the books and bulletins published by the CMA itself.

Go to the library Community

Sumaq Hampi solidarity shop

The CMA online shop: ointments, tinctures, essential oils and soaps made by the Hampicamayoc and the communities we work with.

Visit the shop Community

Seeds and seedlings

Community seed and cutting bank of medicinal and native species, with germination and seedlings for the medicinal home gardens.

See seeds
Medicinal plant herbarium

Close to 4,000 medicinal plants preserved

It is one of the country's most important resources for conserving and sharing traditional Andean knowledge. Today it is complemented by the community herbaria that the communities themselves are building.

4,000 specimens in the institutional herbarium
4 community herbaria being set up

Explore the herbarium

Mounting herbarium sheets with medicinal plants in Urcos
Community members in Pomacanchi building their community herbarium
Handing over the community herbarium to the community of Pitumarca
Field work with medicinal and food plants
Tending medicinal and food plants in community gardens.
Project under development

Franz Riedel Ethnobotanical Garden

In the community of Llocllora, district of Checacupe, province of Canchis, we are planning a living space where the medicinal plants of the Andes can be learned about, cared for and passed on alongside the people who have always used them. The project is currently under development.

  • Guided walks among the medicinal species of the southern Andes.
  • Traditional healing sessions with Hampicamayoc.
  • Production of seedlings, seeds and medicinal products.
  • A space for internships, research and intercultural education.

Learn about the project

You can become our ally Join us in making the Ethnobotanical Garden of Medicinal Plants a reality.

Two Hampicamayoc preparing a tincture with plants gathered in Tungasuca

Work for the health of all the brothers and sisters in need, for those the doctors and the pills never reach. To be with them is human and Christian.

Mons. Luis Vallejos Santoni, at the inauguration of the CMA — 11 November 1981
Where we work

Priority areas in the Cusco Region

Our work covers the whole Cusco Region. During 2026 we are concentrating on five areas, each with its own activities page.

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Making medicinal tinctures in Urcos

Urcos

Quispicanchi

Tinctures, herbaria, essential oils, ointments, fairs and internships.

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Beeswax ointments made in Pomacanchi

Pomacanchi

Acomayo

Plant gathering, herbarium, soaps, beeswax ointments and tinctures.

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Hampicamayoc from Tungasuca with the ointments made in their workshop

Tungasuca

Canas

Soaps, tinctures, seeds, herbaria and flower gathering.

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Medicinal plant garden in Pitumarca

Pitumarca

Canchis

Medicinal home gardens, herbaria, plant gathering and teaching sessions.

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The community of Coporaque gathered during a CMA internship

Coporaque

Espinar

Tinctures, beeswax ointments, herbaria and internships.

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Essential oils workshop at the Centro de Producción Artesanal

Centro de Producción Artesanal

Yanaoca, Canas

Essential oils and artisan soaps. It belongs to the Parish of Yanaoca; the CMA takes part in running it.

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Map of our work

Where we are working in the Cusco Region

Our priority areas stretch from Quispicanchi, south of the city of Cusco, down to the province of Espinar. Tap any point to see the work carried out there.

City of Cusco Urcos Pitumarca Pomacanchi Tungasuca Yanaoca Coporaque Indicative location diagram.

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Videos and outreach

Andean medicine, told in pictures

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Documentary La Ruta del Sasawi — a production linked to the CMA. In Spanish.

Networks and allies

Working together to give medicinal plants their value

Here we bring together our current relationships and the partnerships we want to build with public institutions, international organisations and youth networks.

Learn about the partnerships
CENSINational Centre for Intercultural Health
INIA Andenes CuscoAgricultural research
Pensión 65National solidarity assistance programme
CIAMMunicipal centres for older adults
ACR AusangateRegional Conservation Area
Universidad Privada San Juan BautistaCooperation agreement in progress
GIES CuscoInstitutional network, Cusco
KLJB AlemaniaRural youth network
Los Amigos de AdveniatFunds the project
Parque Natural Regional de AubracFrance