Take a moment to review your own personal culture. Can you think about any traditions your older family members may have used or practices they may have engaged in to treat or preserve health? How about any herbal teas that may have been used or currently used? Peppermint for nausea? Ginger to settle the stomach? Garlic for hypertension or cholesterol? Ethnobotany and ethnomedicine are as old as man’s history. Even the Biblical scriptures of Christianity speak of the usage of botanical and herbal usages:
1 Timothy 5:23 (Links to an external site.) – Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
Isaiah 38:21 (Links to an external site.) – For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.
Psalms 104:14-15 (Links to an external site.) – He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth.
So, ethnomedicine has been around for quite some time. However, modern medical practice still thinks that the role of ethnomedicine may need to be more effective than that of the plants they discovered. Contrary to belief, medicinal plants have essential contributions to the healthcare system of local communities as the primary source of medicine for most of the rural population (Mussarat (2014).