Eduardo Estrella Aguirre

Eduardo Estrella Aguirre (1941 in Tabacundo, Ecuador – 1996 in Quito) was an Ecuadorian doctor and researcher who published Flora Huayaquilensis: The Botanical Expedition of Juan Tafalla 1799-1808. Dr. Eduardo Estrella studied medicine at the Central University of Ecuador. After graduation, Dr Estrella did his Postgraduate education on Radiotherapy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States from  1968 to 1970. He did his specialized studies in psychiatry at the University of Navarra, Pamplona from 1970 to 1973, Spain. Estrella later chaired the medical faculty at the Central University of Ecuador. Dr Estrella got his doctoral degree from the Catholic University of Quito in the 1980s. This was after he had published extensively on Andean medicine and on the history of medicine. 

Dr. Eduardo Estrella founded the Ecuador National Museum of Medicine, the history of medicine museum in Quito, Ecuador - South America.

Flora Huayaquilensis: The Botanical Expedition of Juan José Tafalla Navascués 1799-1808
One of the first expeditions to South America by a Spaniard to document plants was done by Juan Tafalla whose works were lost for 200 years . Dr. Estrella was in the Archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Madrid Spain in 1985 where he found the documentary of the "Division IV" corresponding to the expedition of Ruiz and Pavon in Peru and Chile, Dr. Estrella found a considerable amount of descriptions of plants whose origin corresponded to places belonging to the Royal Audience of Quito. The work in the Royal Botanic Gardens archive was a daunting task and took almost three years to complete. In Madrid Spain, Dr. Estrella continued his research in the Archive. The evidence mounted and was such that it was impossible to deny that at least for a few years botanist Juan Tafalla and his companions had traveled through Ecuador.

The folios were numbered and contained the mysterious initials FH and differed from others that did not correspond to the flora of the Royal Court, and had the initials FP. Still nothing was clear, but there was sufficient evidence to consider that was the trail of something important and this led to the publishing of the Flora Huayaquilensis and after 200 years, finally publishing the hard work and giving the credit to the expedition of Juan Tafalla.

Not all early explorers of Ecuador were so lucky in having there documents survive. Theodor Wolf (February 13, 1841 - June 22, 1924) was a German naturalist who studied the Galápagos Islands during the late nineteenth century. Wolf Island (Wenman Island) is named after him. Wolf had performed a geologic survey of mainland Ecuador, but unfortunately his collections were lost in storage.