Valorizing the 'Irulas' traditional knowledge of medicinal plants in the Kodiakkarai Reserve Forest, India

Ragupathy Subramanyam, Newmaster

Description

A mounting body of critical research is raising the credibility of Traditional Knowledge (TK) in scientific studies. These studies have gained credibility because their claims are supported by methods that are repeatable and provide data for quantitative analyses that can be used to assess confidence in the results. The theoretical importance of our study is to test consensus (reliability/replicable) of TK within one ancient culture; the Irulas of the Kodiakkarai Reserve Forest (KRF), India. We calculated relative frequency (RF) and consensus factor (F ic ) of TK from 120 Irulas informants knowledgeable of medicinal plants. Our research indicates a high consensus of the Irulas TK concerning medicinal plants. The Irulas revealed a diversity of plants that have medicinal and nutritional utility in their culture and specific ethnotaxa used to treat a variety of illnesses and promote general good health in their communities. Throughout history aboriginal people have been the custodians of bio-diversity and have sustained healthy life-styles in an environmentally sustainable manner. However this knowledge has not been transferred to modern society. We suggest this may be due to the asymmetry between scientific and TK, which demands a new approach that considers the assemblage of TK and scientific knowledge. A greater understanding of TK is beginning to emerge based on our research with both the Irulas and Malasars; they believe that a healthy lifestyle is founded on a healthy environment. These aboriginal groups chose to share this knowledge with society-at-large in order to promote a global lifestyle of health and environmental sustainability.

Informations

• Publié par: biomed
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 78
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

JournalofEthnoboiolygna E d htonemcidine

Abstract A mounting body of critical research is raising th e credibility of Traditional Knowledge (TK) in scientific studies. These studies have gained credibility because their claims are supported by methods that are repeatable and provide data for quantitative analyses that can be used to assess confidence in the results. The theoretical importa nce of our study is to test consensus (reliability/ replicable) of TK within one ancient culture; the Irulas of the Kodiakkarai Reserve Forest (KRF), India. We calculated relative frequency (RF) and consensus factor (F ic ) of TK from 120 Irulas informants knowledgeable of medicinal plants. Our research indicates a high consensus of the Irulas TK concerning medicinal plants. The Irulas revealed a diversity of plants that have medicinal and nutritional utility in their culture and specific ethnotaxa used to treat a variety of illnesses and promote general good health in their communiti es. Throughout history aboriginal people have been the custodians of bio-diversity and have sus tained healthy life-styles in an environmentally sustainable manner. However this knowledge ha s not been transferred to modern society. We suggest this may be due to the asymmetry between scientific and TK, which demands a new approach that considers the assemblage of TK and s cientific knowledge. A greater understanding of TK is beginning to emerge based on our research with both the Irulas and Malasars; they believe that a healthy lifestyle is founded on a healthy environment. These aboriginal groups chose to share this knowledge with society-at-large in order to promo te a global lifestyle of health and environmental sustainability.

Background requires new approaches to the relationship between A mounting body of critical research is raising the  scientific and TK. We must consider some criteria for credibility of Traditional Knowledge (TK) in scientific  negotiating and legitimating the validity of knowledge. studies and natural resource management. The lack of  Science is based on the evolution of knowledge, which is recognition of the place and value TK in science has  testable and ultimately generalisable, mobile and glob- prevented real engagement of this knowledge in scien-  ally meaningful [2]. tific endeavours including nutrition, medicine, environ- mental assessment and resource management practices  To gain credibility, scientific studies that utilize TK must be [1]. One explanation is the lack of validation using  reliable (refutable) and designed so that they can be quantitative analyses that give some measure of con-  replicated. The need for full disclosure in science demands fidence and methods for replication. Clearly there is  quantitative measures of the reliability to be established. In some asymmetry between scientific and TK, which  ethnobotanical studies, this was established by Trotter and

Address: 1 Biodiversity Institute of Ontario Herbarium, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada E-mail: Subramanyam Ragupathy - [e-mail]; Steven G Newmaster* - [e-mail] *Corresponding author † Equal contributors

Published: 14 April 2009 Received: 5 January 2009 Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2009, 5 :10 doi: 10.1186/1746-4269-5-10 Accepted: 14 April 2009 This article is available from: http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/5/1/10 © 2009 Ragupathy and Newmaster; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Research Open Access Valorizing the 'Irulas' traditional knowledge of medicinal plants in the Kodiakkarai Reserve Forest, India Subramanyam Ragupathy and Steven G Newmaster

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