Bush medicine database may hold key to more effective treatments
Insciences, 21 December 2008
BASEL, SWITZERLAND: Australian scientists are tapping into the traditional knowledge of Aboriginal Elders to compile a database of medicinal plants that may hold the key to more effective antibacterial and antifungal treatments.Researchers from Macquarie University’s Indigenous Bioresources Research Group (IBRG) have worked closely with the Yaegl people in northern NSW to document their medicinal plant knowledge, and have also begun phase two of their study – examining the chemical and biological properties of the plants. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemist Associate Professor Joanne Jamie said the research aim was to conserve customary Aboriginal knowledge, and apply this to the discovery of new evidence-based alternative medicines … Central to the success of the bush medicine research is the strong relationship between the researchers and the Elders, which has been forged over many years and has culminated in a collaborative partnership agreement to work together on the study. Read the article …
4 January 2009 at 3:39 am
Kam Local Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Resource Management in Guizhou and Guangxi Provinces, China
Amy Eisenberg Ph.D., John Amato RN, and Dengtao
http://www.pbase.com/jamato8
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs: Division for Social Policy and Development through the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
2008
Kam Ethnobotany
The Kam people of China have a well-developed comprehensive ethnobotanical inventory (Figure 2) and a diverse pharmacopoeia of traditional medicine and useful plants in which hundreds of species have been employed for centuries in preventing and curing disease (Huang et al. 1996:267-268). Some of the most commonly used medicinal plants by the Kam are in the following plant families; Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Rosaceae, Rubiaceae, Poaceae, Liliaceae, Lamiaceae, Rutaceae, Polygonaceae and Apiaceae. Kam healers have created a special school of medicine, which embodies the life and wisdom of the Kam people (Liu & Long 1996:183).
Before going to the mountains, traditional Kam healer of Gaoxiu Village, Wu Shun Jun sings a spirited plant medicine gathering song. Kam practitioners of local medicine perform acupuncture, acupressure, therapeutic massage, bloodletting and plant medicine while applying oppositional principles that are unique to the Kam ethnomedical system. Rice wine and tea seed oil, juc xac, from the seeds of Camellia oleifera Abel, meix yuc (Burusphat et al. 2000:102, 148) in the Theaceae are employed in Kam medicinal preparations, therapeutic massage and other curative applications. Gaoxiu local healer, Wu Shun Jun (Figure 3) would like to create a small Teaching and Healing Center for Kam Medicine in his village. In 1991, he was given a commemorative honor for saving a seriously ill man’s life through his healing arts. Wu Shun Jun’s wife, Yang Bei Xiao assists him with his health and wellness practices. His grandfather taught him Kam medicine and he is teaching this very specialized intergenerational knowledge to his son. Wu Shun Jun began treating people when he was 12 years old. Traditional Kam doctors also practice veterinary medicine.
Ethnomedicine
In the past, Oryza sativa Linnaeus, glutinous rice, oux lail (oux jos) in the Poaceaeae was the staff of life for Kam people. It is referred to as Kam rice or good rice and is distinguished from another cultivar of Oryza sativa Linnaeus, which is Han (Chinese) rice, oux gax (Burusphat et al. 2000:189). Oryza sativa Linnaeus is an aquatic annual in the Tribe Oryzeae of the Poaceae family. It has erect culms and leaf sheaths that are slightly inflated below. Its panicle is loosely contracted and nodding at maturity and the rice spikelets are oblong to oblong-lanceolate. The rice caryopsis is a dry one-seeded fruit whose ovary wall is united with the seed coat. The caryopsis is ovate or elliptic to cylindrical, whitish yellow to brown or blackish. Rice water is a very useful constituent in Kam medicine for topical applications. There are more than forty types of glutinous rice cultivated in the southern Kam region including red, purple, black and fragrant glutinous rice, from which the best wine is made. Rice wine is an extremely important element in Kam medicinal preparations; for therapeutic massage and other external as well as internal healing treatments. Culms of dried glutinous rice, Oryza sativa Linnaeus, oux lail (oux jos) are cut into short strands and tied together into a bundle. Incantations are recited and the bundle is hung around a Kam child’s neck to protect the child from harm. Oryza sativa Linnaeus is grown primarily in flooded fields throughout most of China and was domesticated in Southeast Asia. It is widely cultivated in tropical and warm-temperate regions of the world with many different cultivated races (Liu & Phillips 2006:182-184).