S. Tripathi et al., Using plants for health: indigenous knowledge in health care in a tribal region of Bihar, India, INT J SUS D, 7(4), 2000, pp. 321-332
Citations number
22
Categorie Soggetti
Environment/Ecology
Journal title
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND WORLD ECOLOGY
While the potential of indigenous knowledge for health care is fully recogn
ised in the literature and by many health professionals, the practices of s
o many indigenous peoples go unrecorded and untested. Indigenous knowledge
remains essentially untapped, an unwritten resource involving information,
language and skills in many groups, languages, cultures and environments. A
n attempt is made in this paper to identify selected indigenous health tech
nologies in a tribal area of Bihar State, India; to describe the treatments
, their application and preparation; and to link the traditional practice w
ith the relevant scientific information to test or determine the validity o
f the practices. These practices were found to be effective in the treatmen
t of a variety of health problems, and most were also scientifically confir
med. The paper argues, however, that other plant uses practised by tribal p
eople still need to be explored: in order to popularise more widely the aut
henticated practices; to preserve indigenous knowledge; to integrate or ble
nd it with scientific knowledge so that health professionals and healthcare
users may benefit from a wider range of healthcare strategies which are en
vironmentally unthreatening.