Medicinal plants used by Tibetans in Shangri-la, Yunnan, China

Chunlin Long,Zhiling Dao,Chunyan Yang,Yitao Liu,Yanchun Liu

doi:10.1186/1746-4269-5-15

Abstract

BackgroundMedicinal plants used by the local people in Xizang (Tibet) have been investigated since the 1960s. The others out of Xizang, however, have been less understood, although they may be easily and strongly influenced by the various local herbal practices, diverse environments, local religious beliefs and different prevalent types of diseases. In 2006, two ethnobotanical surveys were organized in the county of Shangri-la, Yunnan Province, SW China, to document the traditional medicinal plants used by the Tibetan people.MethodsAfter literature surveying, four local townships were selected to carry out the field investigation. Three local healers were interviewed as key informants. The methods of ethnobotany, anthropology and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) were used in the field surveys. Plant taxonomic approach was adopted for voucher specimen identification.ResultsSixty-eight medicinal plant species in 64 genera of 40 families were recorded and collected. Among them, 23 species were found to have medicinal values that have not been recorded in any existing Tibetan literatures before, and 31 species were recorded to have traditional prescriptions. Moreover, the traditional preparations of each species and some folk medicinal knowledge were recorded and analyzed. These traditional prescriptions, preparations, new medicinal plants and folk medicinal knowledge and principles were discovered and summarized by local traditional Tibetan healers through times of treatment practices, and were passed down from generation to generation.ConclusionAs a part of the cultural diversity of Tibetan community, these traditional medicinal knowledge and experiences may provide data and information basis for the sustainable utilization and development of Tibetan medicine, and may contribute to the local economic development. However, for many reasons, they are disappearing gradually as time goes by. Our study showed that there were abundant traditional Tibetan medicinal prescriptions and using methods. It implies that more Tibetan medicinal plants and traditional knowledge can be discovered. Further research should be done to save the wealth of these traditional medicinal knowledge and experiences before they are dying out.

Highlights

Medicinal plants used by the local people in Xizang (Tibet) have been investigated since the 1960s
During the long-term process of development of Tibetan medicine, many medical treatises had appeared, such as the Yue Wang Yao Zhen (Tibetan title: Sman dpyad zla ba'i rgyal po) [12], Si Bu Yi Dian (English title: the Four Tantras; Tibetan title: Rgyud bzhi) [13], Si Bu Yi Dian Lan Liu Li (English title: the Blue Beryl Treatise; Tibetan title: Vaidurya Sngon Po)[14] and Jing Zhu Ben Cao (Tibetan title: Shel Gong Shel Phreng) [15] which embodied the unique features of traditional Tibetan medicinal system with a relatively complete set of theory [5,16,17]
Twenty-three of the 68 medicinal plant species were found to have medicinal values that have not been recorded in any literatures related to medicinal plants in China and neighborhood countries before [16,43,53,54,55], and no records of them were found in a online databases of a resource and information centre for 7300 edible and other useful plants [56]

Summary

Introduction

Medicinal plants used by the local people in Xizang (Tibet) have been investigated since the 1960s. In 2006, two ethnobotanical surveys were organized in the county of Shangri-la, Yunnan Province, SW China, to document the traditional medicinal plants used by the Tibetan people. During the long-term process of development of Tibetan medicine, many medical treatises had appeared, such as the Yue Wang Yao Zhen (Tibetan title: Sman dpyad zla ba'i rgyal po) [12], Si Bu Yi Dian (English title: the Four Tantras; Tibetan title: Rgyud bzhi) [13], Si Bu Yi Dian Lan Liu Li (English title: the Blue Beryl Treatise; Tibetan title: Vaidurya Sngon Po)[14] and Jing Zhu Ben Cao (Tibetan title: Shel Gong Shel Phreng) [15] which embodied the unique features of traditional Tibetan medicinal system with a relatively complete set of theory [5,16,17]. Comparing with Jing Zhu Ben Cao, other literatures are more emphasized on medical knowledge [1,5,10]

Methods

Results

Conclusion