Ethno Medicine

This study was designed to determine the sustainability of Orang Asli Indigenous Knowledge and Practice of Green Technology (IKPGT) in the field of herbal therapeutic medicine at selected Orang Asli settlements in Peninsular Malaysia. A case study with multiple sites was used as the research design. Interview protocols and observations were used to obtain the qualitative data. The interview involved 13 informants from Mah Meri, Semai, Bateq dan Semaq Beri tribes. The interviews were video and audio-taped, transcribed verbatim, analyzed, and imported into Atlas.ti software for data processing. The findings showed that the Orang Asli tribes were using their indigenous knowledge to prepare traditional herbal medicine to cure certain diseases using selected herbs from the forest. This ethno-medicine especially in herbal therapeutics is pertinent in Orang Asli culture. Orang Asli tribes utilized medicinal plants to heal various health conditions in treating both children and adults. The plants were hand-picked and processed with natural "green" methods without damaging the natural habitat and without using synthetic chemicals. This explorational study found that Orang Asli's practices of making traditional medicine from selected plants were environmentally friendly and could be sustainable if the practices were passed down to the younger generation. However, the younger generation of Orang Asli seemed to be less interested to learn and to practice the making of herbal medicine to treat common illnesses among Orang Asli community. Another major weakness of Orang Asli IKPGT in making therapeutic herbal medicine was the lack of documentation of the medicinal procedures and processes. In conclusion, the main result shows that most Orang Asli tribes still maintain and practice "green technology" based on their indigenous knowledge in their daily lives. As an implication, Orang Asli IKPGT, based on the empirical data, could be used to develop as a new "Green ethno-medicine framework" with respect to Orang Asli traditional herbal medicine preparation.

Post Harvest Handling and Processing of Unexploited fruits Specific to Goa
Dr. M.J. Gupta1 and Dr. S. Priya Devi2
Goa is India's smallest state in terms of area and the fourth smallest by population. It is located in South West India in the Konkan region and is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its western coast. It has a rich flora and fauna, owing to its location on the Western Ghats range, which is classified as a biodiversity hotspot.
The main food crops of Goa are Rice, Pulses like Cowpea (alsando) and Ragi. coconuts, cashewnuts, arecanuts, sugarcane and fruits like Mangoes Jackfruits, pineapples, mangos and bananas are the main cash crops. Goa's forests are rich with medicinal plants. Goa is rich in diverse minor fruits like sapota, bread fruit, Ambada, Bimbla, churna, carambola, chivra, Jagoma, karonda, kokum, rose apple, wax apple, Malay rose apple, Mattom, Jamun etc. Processing in Goa is confined to that of Jack fruit, Mangoes as Mango leather, juice, Kokum as juice or its dried rind as ‘sol’ and used as a souring agent in Goan fish curry. Cashew fruits are processed as the local ‘Feni’. Most of these products are done at cottage level by women or by few SHGs. A vast potential exists as to the processing of these minor fruits. This paper explores the various unexploited minor fruits of Goa, their medical and nutritive value and their potential in the processing industry to enhance livelihood security to Goan farmers.


1) Scientist (Agricultural Structures and Process Engineering, ICAR Resarch Complex for Goa, Ela, Old Goa
2) Scientist (Fruit Science), ICAR Research Compex for Goa, Ela, Old Goa.

World Health Organization (WHO), has defined health in a more holistic approach, which reflects the relationship with a variety of factors such as the individual's physical, social, psychological, emotional; environmental and cultural factors. The health of indigenous or tribal people is the perceptions and conceptions in their own cultural system, based on external stimuli emanating from astrological influences, witchcraft and evil spirits in the etiology of disease, with less awareness of the modern health-care and health services for Health-seeking behavior. They have the various procedures of treatment viz. folk treatment, religious or preventive procedure, magical or curative procedures and modern medical system. Tribal communities in general and Primarily Vulnerable Tribal Groups (from now PVTG, erstwhile primitive tribal groups) in particular are highly disease prone. Also they do not have required access to basic health facilities. They are most exploited, neglected, and highly vulnerable to diseases with high degree of malnutrition, morbidity and mortality. Their misery is compounded by poverty, illiteracy, ignorance of causes of diseases, hostile environment, poor sanitation, lack of safe drinking water and blind beliefs, etc.The paper aims to discuss the health and nutritional status of PVTGs in Madhya Pradesh, analyzing the disease intensities and causes and etiology of disease and also to identify major problems and issues with some suggestions to upgrade the health status of the Primitive Tribal Groups of Madhya Pradesh.

Traditional healing methods of the indigenous groups have always been looked upon with skepticism by the society in general, due to the obvious scientific logic of medicinal cure that is defied through these methods, purely based on holistic, intuitive & natural ways of recovery. The indigenous ways of treatment focus on integrated healing of all three physical, emotional & spiritual well being of their member and since it is an community driven practice the whole group becomes a part of the healing ritual. The attempts by western pharmaceutical companies to introduce their ways of modern medicine amongst the tribe does not only cause forced extinction of health related sociocultural customs passed on through generations but also in a subtle way creates a divide & rule policy through traditional medicine vs. modern medicine.

With changes in our genetic structures, environmental factors & social settings, many new diseases are coming up, especially in the urban atmosphere, encouraging people to look for alternatives with permanent or prolonged healing. As a result even the institutionalized western medical practitioners & pharmaceutical industries are making attempts to acquire the indigenous healing knowledge. Their aim is not always to create a cross-cultural interface but to capitalize on it through application of unfair patents to the genetic resources & traditional knowledge, also known as Bio-Piracy. Intellectual Property Rights protecting this aspect of Indigenous Knowledge System is not very effective due to India still being a dominion state. The elements that are used to make various medicines in the laboratory are easily available in the natural habitat of the indigenous, making their knowledge more vulnerable to misappropriation.  This results in gradual Acculturation through exploitation of indigenous healing methods by the way of Modern Colonialism that accumulates raw material from these groups at a low price, sometimes by force, for their own globalized benefits and gives neither fair compensation nor recognition to the indigenous groups.

This paper elaborates on the points mentioned above using theoretical references from the in depth study conducted by various researchers in all related fields and by the means of fieldwork done via Participant Observation amongst the Gonds of Bastar and interviews of its traditional healers & other members.

Este artículo trata de ahondar en el uso de prácticas simbólicas concretas extraídas de la experiencia etnográfica
que pueden contribuir a arrojar luz, desde una perspectiva socio-antropológica, sobre el fenómeno del éxito terapéutico
de la saga de hueseros de Cliza en Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Being a female-concentrated job, nursing has forgotten the place of men within the profession despite their contribution since time immemorial. The heightened efforts of Florence Nightingale to transform nursing into a respectable female occupation denied men the opportunity to enter this domain. Despite their growing representation, they are still a minority in nursing in countries across the globe. When the occupational roles do not conform to the gender-appropriate roles prescribed by the society, the ‘male’ nurses’ prestige and self-esteem are at risk since others recognize them neither as true nurses nor as real men. Drawing majorly from secondary sources and data gathered from an anthropological study of in-home care providers in the South Indian state of Kerala, this paper on the predicament of men in nursing throws light on the ‘spoiled identity’ they carry; the work stress, gender stereotyping, stigma and discrimination they encounter by always being suspected and their very identity and sexual orientation questioned. A note on the strategies employed by them to overcome the problems is also within the purview of this paper.

Fairness evaluating effects of prescriptions is
indispensably importance in disease treatment. The development
of Intelligence Technologies nowadays makes it realizable for a
moderation of subjective prescription evaluations in medicine. In
this paper, we present an application of Self-Organizing Map
(SOM) to visualization of herbal prescription effects in Oriental
Medicine (OM). The application is used to estimate influence of
herbal ingredients prescribed for patients who have several
concurrent diseases. Inputs to the SOM are herbal treatment
prescriptions, and an output is a map that shows disease states
that can be influenced by these prescriptions. Training data is
133 standard prescriptions with 221 popular herbs in 17 disease
groups collected from oriental medical text books by experienced
doctors. First, the prescription problem in OM is described. Next
the system structure and implementation of a proposed system
are shown. Finally the visualization abilities of the proposed
system verified by experienced doctors are presented

Species diversity and ethno-medicinal usage of 39 species of invasive plants were explored in and around two protected areas, Khadimnagar National Park (KNP) and Rema-Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary (RKWS), of northeastern Bangladesh,. Status of invasive plants were investigated in 60 sample plots with 5 different habitat types, including forest, roadside, homestead, fallow land and others (ponds, canals, water logged areas, agricultural land, etc.). Data about the usage of invasive plants in traditional health care were collected through interviewing 110 households. Among the five habitat types, fallow land (28 species) possessed the highest number of species, followed by roadside (25 species), forest (23 species), homestead (22 species) and others (13 species). Based on the survey, invasive plants of study areas were also categorized into five degrees of invasiveness e.g., naturalized, introduced, possibly invasive, moderately invasive and highly invasive. Additionally, there is the linear trend between degrees of invasiveness and use percentage of invasive plants. Total 39 species of invasive plants belonging to 29 families were recorded, which are generally used to treat 37 diseases, ranging from simple headache to highly complicated eye and heart diseases. The majority of the species used by the local inhabitants were herbs (16 species), followed by some shrubs (11 species), climbers (5 species), trees (5 species) and grasses (2 species). The use percentage of aboveground plant parts were higher (70.58%) than that of underground plant parts (16.18%).

The scientific rigor of ethno botanical research has increased dramatically in the past few decades. The passion for medicinal plants has triggered interest to seek medicinal values in the desert plants. Despite the prevailing harsh climatic conditions, the Indian Thar desert comprises richest plant diversity among the other desert of the world. This region is rich in phytodiversity especially in medicinal plants. In the present paper ten selected medicinal plants are used extensively by the local people and tribal communities. Ethno botanical data have been gathered on the traditional uses of plant species, especially for asthma, blood pressure,

The North East region of India is an important pool of medicinal plants. For a large number of tribal communities living in this part of India, the traditional healing practices are vital to maintain the healthcare of the tribal communities across the Seven States. Communities rely heavily on ethnobotanical preparations and believe firmly in these traditional systems of medicine prescribed by traditional healers. However, as new directives such as the “New Land Use Policy” (NLUP) promotes economic development and permeates even the most remote tribal areas of the region, and the young members of the communities migrate to the cities in search of work, the traditional ethnobotanical knowledge is subject to erosion. Traditional practitioners across 34 tribal communities living in the regions of Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim were interviewed. Names of the ethno-medicinal formulae, the plant parts used and methods for combining and preparing, dosages and duration of treatment were collected over a period of four years (2012-2016). The results of the study showed that decoction is the most common method used and traditional healers prepare a total of 66 plant species that belong to 49 families. Decoction is made in similar processes as those used in traditional Ayurvedic preparations (quath or kawath). Given the current changes at tribal level, it is now vital to record the formulae and support plant conservation. One way to achieve this is through scientific validation so that the traditional ethnobotanical knowledge remains available for the transmission to the future generations and for conservation measures. Correction: To cite this article: Shukla, A.C; Montanari, B; Thangjam N.M; Laldingngheti Bawitlung S. 2018. Decoction: A valuable ethnobotanical treatment for the tribal communities of the Seven Sister States of North East India. Acad. J. Med. Plants. 6 (12): 404-411.

A questionnaire-guided ethno-medical survey of the Igede speaking communities of Benue state (Nigeria) was conducted. 90 plant species from 45 families were identified covering 109 recipes against 35 ailments, including internal, external infections and parasitic diseases as well as poisons, pesticides, cuisine and for veterinary purposes. Ageratum conyzoides was the only plant used in HIV/AIDS disease. Mode of preparation, dosage regimen, plant(s) and part(s) used are reported. The importance of this kind of documentation in research and bio-conservation are discussed.

The artice is available at: https://journals.openedition.org/moussons/8144

This article analyses the appropriation of biomedicine among the Dayak Benuaq in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Taking the successful curing of a brain tumour as an example, I show how biomedicine is creatively intertwined with indigenous, animist healing practices in order to cure the patient comprehensively. I embed the case study within a broader discussion of modernity and enchantment, which have long been perceived as an opposing pair in western theory, as attributes of modernity like rationalization, secularization and bureaucratization are commonly seen as opposed to animistic connections, magical expectations and spiritual explanations of the world. I argue that the introduction of biomedicine among the Dayak Benuaq does not lead to an abandonment of animistic ideas and indigenous healing practices and as such to a process of disenchantment. Instead, their ability to accept the simultaneous relevance of alternative assumptions about how the world works allows them to combine biomedicine and indigenous medicine in a creative way.

Mon District of Nagaland, India has tremendous potential in providing valuable Wild edible Fruits (WEFs) and very few works has been done on it. This paper deals with documentation of 65 species of WEFs belonging to 36 families and 51 genera. An attempt has been made to record the use of fruits and its treatment in various ailments. Besides medicinal values it also has high market values.

Being a female-concentrated job, nursing has forgotten the place of men within the profession despite their contribution since time immemorial. The heightened efforts of Florence Nightingale to transform nursing into a respectable female occupation denied men the opportunity to enter this domain. Despite their growing representation, they are still a minority in nursing in countries across the globe. When the occupational roles do not conform to the gender-appropriate roles prescribed by the society, the ‘male’ nurses’ prestige and self-esteem are at risk since others recognize them neither as true nurses nor as real men. Drawing majorly from secondary sources and data gathered from an anthropological study of in-home care providers in the South Indian state of Kerala, this paper on the predicament of men in nursing throws light on the ‘spoiled identity’ they carry; the work stress, gender stereotyping, stigma and discrimination they encounter by always being suspected and their ver...