Integrating Traditional and Modern Medicine: Perspectives from Ethnobotany, Medical Anthropology, Microbiology, and Pharmacy

Traditional medicine (TM) as defined by the World Health Organization is “the sum total of the knowledge, skill, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness.” The objective of this study is to introduce more (TM) practices, central to the local culture, into the Peruvian public health system (PPHS) in Northern Peru. There are three interrelated parts: (1) to help public health service personnel understand the local TM practices of their patient population to supplement the therapy for these patients, (2) to inform the patient population that many of the herbal remedies of TM are the same as the medicines used in the allopathic medical tradition, (3) to promote conservation programs by educating the public and maintaining gardens of native medicinal plants. The work involves an interdisciplinary approach of ethnobotany, medical anthropology, microbiology, and pharmaceutical sciences to improve patient satisfaction with public health services and to preserve local medicinal plants and the knowledge concerning their use.