Medicinal plants used in Hmong women's healthcare in northern Thailand

Geospatial patterns in traditional knowledge serve in assessing intellectual property rights and benefit-sharing in northwest South America

“…This omission might lead to biased interpretations of TK because, as we have demonstrated, single-reports represent a considerable fraction of the medicinal knowledge in a village. The act of discarding single reports leaves little room for understanding how individual experiences may create shared knowledge systems (Srithi et al, 2012). The individual's role in the group should not be underestimated (Lewis and Ramani, 2007).…”

“…Still, these studies have provided evidence for the existence of both localized and widespread TK on medicinal use. Notably, they show that the same medicinal plants may be used differently by adjacent communities (Junsongduang et al, 2014), that adjacent communities sometimes select different plant species for the same medicinal use (Shepard, 2004), that communities within a single ethnic group may exhibit both idiosyncratic and widespread ethnobotanical knowledge (Srithi et al, 2012), and that patterns of knowledge sharing may vary geographically (Vandebroek, 2010). Nevertheless, the multi-scale, inter-ethnic geographic comparisons necessary to elucidate the highly important and policy-relevant spatial structure of TK sharing patterns are missing.…”

Conservation and Ethnobotanical Knowledge of a Hmong Community in Long Lan, Luang Prabang, Lao People's Democratic Republic

“…Work is available which describes the ethnobotanical knowledge of the Hmong people in the U.S.A. (Corlett et al 2003) and in Thailand (e.g., Anderson 1986, 1993, Lemoine & Vidal 1970, Pake 1987, Srithi et al 2012a, 2012b. Pha Tad Ke currently has a small living ethnobotany collection that was expanded through the current investigation.…”

“…The social context of plant use in Hmong society is such that a specific herbalist has deep knowledge of very specific kinds of plants rather than having common knowledge of plants. The community recognizes the division of ethnobotany knowledge and goes to specific healers for specific treatment (e.g., Pake 1987, Srithi et al 2012a. With selected knowledgeable herbalists as guides and teachers for the investigation, the work went much deeper into the knowledge and resource use practices than could otherwise be hoped.…”

“…As was mentioned earlier, the social context of plant use in Hmong society is such that a specific herbalist has deep knowledge of very specific kinds of plants (Pake 1987, Srithi et al 2012a, and other villagers will go to this herbalist for treatment. This is an important methodological point relevant to ethnobotany research with the Hmong people.…”