Ethnomedicinal Plant Knowledge of the Karen in Thailand.

Methee Phumthum,Rapeeporn Kantasrila,Henrik Balslev,Sukhumaabhorn Kaewsangsai,Angkhana Inta

doi:10.3390/plants9070813

Methee Phumthum, Rapeeporn Kantasrila + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9070813

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Abstract

The Thai Karen, the largest hill-tribe in Thailand, guard substantial ethnomedicinal plant knowledge, as documented in several studies that targeted single villages. Here, we have compiled information from all the reliable and published sources to present a comprehensive overview of the Karen ethnomedicinal plant knowledge. Our dataset covers 31 Karen villages distributed over eight provinces in Thailand. We used the Cultural Importance Index (CI) to determine which species were the most valuable to the Karen and the Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) to evaluate how well distributed the knowledge of ethnomedicinal plants was in various medicinal use categories. In the 31 Karen villages, we found 3188 reports of ethnomedicinal plant uses of 732 species in 150 plant families. Chromolaena odorata, Biancaea sappan, and Tinospora crispa were the most important medicinal plants, with the highest CI values. The Leguminosae, Asteraceae, Zingiberaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Lamiaceae, Acanthaceae, Apocynaceae, and Menispermaceae were the families with the highest CI values in the mentioned order. A high proportion of all the 3188 Karen use reports were used to treat digestive, general and unspecified, musculoskeletal, and skin disorders.

Highlights

Plants have been part of the human culture since pre-historical times
Traditional medicinal plant knowledge is invaluable for modern drug discovery, and many modern medicines were developed from such traditional knowledge [2,3,4]
Because of the importance of medicinal plants for both poor villagers and for industrial drug discovery, the rapid erosion of traditional knowledge is of global concern [5,6,7], and there is an urgent need for ethnobotanists to document and conserve this valuable knowledge before it is completely lost

Summary

Introduction

Humanity has accumulated knowledge of medicinal plants to combat diseases and bad health over innumerable generations. We currently develop scientific knowledge and cutting-edge technologies for treating disease and other health conditions, people in many parts of the world still depend on local knowledge and medicinal plants as the first or only option for treatments [1]. Traditional medicinal plant knowledge is invaluable for modern drug discovery, and many modern medicines were developed from such traditional knowledge [2,3,4]. Because of the importance of medicinal plants for both poor villagers and for industrial drug discovery, the rapid erosion of traditional knowledge is of global concern [5,6,7], and there is an urgent need for ethnobotanists to document and conserve this valuable knowledge before it is completely lost. The country houses over 11,000 plant species [9], and is Plants 2020, 9, 813; doi:10.3390/plants9070813 www.mdpi.com/journal/plants

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