the study of ethnomedicine of chu ru and raglai ethnic groups in phuoc binh natio

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - H! CHÍ MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE NGUY!N XUÂN MINH ÁI THE STUDY OF ETHNOMEDICINE OF CHU RU AND RAGLAI ETHNIC GROUPS IN PH"#C BÌNH NATIONAL PARK, NINH THU$N PROVINCE Major: Ecology Major’s code: 60 42 60 A THESIS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF BIOLOGY ADVISOR PhD Julie Nguyen Pouplin H" Chí Minh City, 2011 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor Dr Julie Nguyen Pouplin for her guidance She offered advices on research and writing that will stay with me throughout my career and also spend a lot of time to edit this thesis many times I would like to thank Dr Lê Công Ki!t who gave me valuable advices on methodology since the beginning of study I would like to thank Mr Hoàng Vi!t who is my “first” teacher and who has guided me since I was a freshman I would like to Mr Nguy"n Công Vân, a director of Ph#$c Bình National Park and officers here who are kindly helped me during the study time I am grateful to Mr Chamaléa Ch#%ng, Mr Kat%r Th%, Mr Pin&ng S%n, Mr Bình Tô Hà L#%ng and all local people live in Hành R'c and B( Lang hamlets Their generosity and hospitality allowed me to intrude into their lives and shared all their traditional knowledge Also, my fellow graduate students, )*ng Hà Ph#%ng and Lê Hoàng Tuy+t Trinh and my younger brother Nguy"n Lê Duy Trung who shared difficulties in the field trips lasted weeks Thank you to my close friend )inh Bình Ph#%ng who is always by my side to encourage me in the most difficult times and my friends who offered me limitless moral and emotional support Finally, I would like to thank my parents who have devoted the majority of their lives to provide me with a loving, rich, supportive and encouraging environment for which to cultivate my inner strength and freedom of mind Nguy"n Xuân Minh Ái ! ""! TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT (ENGLISH) iii ABSTRACT (VIETNAMESE) v TABLE OF CONTENTS vii LIST OF TABLES xii LISTS OF FIGURES xiv INTRODUCTION CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Ethnomedicine - A subdiscipline of Ethnobotany 1.1.1 Definitions 1.1.2 Quantification in Ethnobotany or Quantitative Ethnobotany 1.1.3 Traditional medicine and Western medicine: conflict and cooperation 1.1.4 Some trends in ethnomedical studies 1.2 Vietnamese traditional medicine 1.2.1 History of traditional medicine in Vietnam 1.2.2 Medicinal plants in Vietnam 10 1.3 Chu Ru and Raglai ethnic minorities 14 1.3.1 Malayo-Polyenesian ethnic group 14 1.3.2 Chu Ru people 16 1.3.3 Raglai people 19 ! #""! CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 22 2.1 Aim of the study 22 2.2 Scope of the study 22 2.3 Contents of the study 22 2.4 Study period 23 2.5 Study area 23 2.5.1 Physical features 23 2.5.1.1 Geography 23 2.5.1.2 Geomorphology 24 2.5.1.3 Climate and hydrology 24 2.5.1.4 Soil condition 25 2.5.1.5 Soil utilization and vegetation cover of forest 26 2.5.1.6 Flora 27 2.5.1.7 Fauna 27 2.5.2 Economical and social characters 28 2.5.2.1 Economical and social situation in the core zone of the National Park 28 2.5.2.2 Economical and social situation in the buffer zone 28 2.6 Study population 30 2.6.1 Chu Ru and Raglai community in Ph#$c Bình National Park, Bác Ái District, Ninh Thu,n Province 30 2.6.2 Study hamlets 32 2.7 Materials 32 ! #"""! 2.8 Study methodology 32 2.8.1 Communicating with local people 33 2.8.2 Collecting information about ethnical medicinal plants 33 2.8.2.1 Semi-structured interviews 33 2.8.2.2 Field trips 34 2.8.2.3 Questionnaire interviews 35 2.8.3 Collecting and processing samples 36 2.8.3.1 Sample collecting 36 2.8.3.2 Sample processing 37 2.8.3.3 Botanical identification 37 2.8.4 Database building 38 2.8.5 Data analysis and comparison 39 2.8.6 Calculating Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) of medicinal plants 39 CHAPTER RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 41 3.1 Biology of medicinal plants in the study area 41 3.1.1 Distribution of taxa of medicinal plants 41 3.1.2 Growing form of medicinal plants 45 3.1.3 Habitat of medicinal plants 46 3.2 Medicinal plants used by Chu Ru and Raglai ethnic groups 48 3.2.1 Demography of local informants 48 3.2.2 Medicinal plants reported by the local informants 51 3.2.3 Indigenous nomenclature 58 3.2.4 Local affections and therapeutic pathway 62 ! "$! 3.2.4.1 Local affections 62 3.2.4.2 Therapeutic pathway 68 3.2.5 Medicinal plants 72 3.2.6 Plant parts used 80 3.2.7 Preparation, route and dosage of administration 83 3.2.8 Transmission of the traditional knowledge in study area 89 3.2.9 Comparison of medicinal plants used reports 93 3.2.9.1 Informants consensus - ICF value 93 3.2.9.2 Principal species used to treat digestive ailments: A case of parallel use between Chu Ru and Raglai groups 97 3.2.10 Comparison of medicinal uses reported in specific related literature 99 3.2.11 Trade of medicinal plants in the local area 104 3.2.12 Conservation of medicinal plants: An important issue 105 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOKS 107 REFERENCES APPENDIX 1: LIST OF MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY CHU RU (C) AND RAGLAI (R) PEOPLE APPENDIX 2: DATA ANALYSIS APPENDIX 3: RESULTS OF COMPARISON OF MEDICINAL USES APPENDIX 4: SOME PICTURES OF MEDICINAL PLANTS ! $! LIST OF TABLES Page Table 3.1 Distribution of taxa of medicinal plant in the study area 41 Table 3.2 Distribution of medicinal plants in families 42 Table 3.3 Comparison of taxa distribution with SUB-FIPI’s result 44 Table 3.4 Distribution of category of age and gender of Chu Ru and Raglai informants 50 Table 3.5 Number of citations of each medicinal plants cited by local people 55 Table 3.6 List of indigenous medicinal uses cited by Chu Ru and Raglai people 62 Table 3.7 Category of indigenous medicinal uses in proportion to number of species and use-reports 66 Table 3.8 Veterinary medicinal plants used by Chu Ru (C) and Raglai (R) people 72 Table 3.9 List of medicinal plants with other minor uses 76 Table 3.10 Plant parts used for preparation of remedies by Chu Ru and Raglai people 82 Table 3.11 Methods of preparation of medicinal plants reported by Chu Ru and Raglai people 85 Table 3.12 Route of administration of medicinal plants used by Chu Ru and Raglai people 87 Table 3.13 Major transmitters in medicinal knowledge in Chu Ru and Raglai communities 91 Table 3.14 ! Comparison of Chu Ru and Raglai medicinal plant uses 95 $"! LIST OF TABLES (cont.) Table 3.15 Principle species used to treat digestive ailments between Chu Ru and Raglai people 97 Table 3.16 Comparison results of medicinal plants in the current study with related literatures 100 ! $""! LIST OF FIGURES Figure Ph#$c Bình National Park-The study area 29 Figure 3.1 Distribution of medicinal plants in families 42 Figure 3.2 Percentage of each family in total number species 43 Figure 3.3 Growth form of medicinal plants in the study area 45 Figure 3.4 Habitat of medicinal plants in the study area 46 Figure 3.5 Plants cultivated solely for medicinal uses 47 Figure 3.6 Age structure of Chu Ru and Raglai informants 49 Figure 3.7 Category of age and gender structure of Chu Ru and Raglai informants 50 Figure 3.8 The number of medicinal plants cited by Chu Ru and Raglai people 51 Figure 3.9 Distribution of the numbers of reported medicinal plants in accordance with ethnic groups, gender and age groups 53 Figure 3.10 Medicinal plants with their local names involving remarkable traits 60 Figure 3.11 Medicinal plants used for human and animals in the study area 65 Figure 3.12 Actions taken against ailments of Chu Ru and Raglai informants 70 Figure 3.13 Difference between male and female in their option to resort to shamans 70 Figure 3.14 Reasons local people choose medicinal plants for treating diseases 71 Figure 3.15 Two medicinal plants are reported for treating exclusively animal ailments: maggots in wounds for oxen 75 ! $"""! LIST OF FIGURES (cont.) Page Figure 3.16 Some plant parts used for medicinal purposes 80 Figure 3.17 Plant parts used for medicinal purposes by Chu Ru and Raglai people 82 Figure 3.18 Medicinal material condition used by Chu Ru and Raglai people 84 Figure 3.19 Methods of medicinal preparations reported by Chu Ru and Raglai people 86 Figure 3.20 Routes of administrations used for medicinal plants by Chu Ru and Raglai people 88 Figure 3.21 Major transmitters in medicinal knowledge in Chu Ru and Raglai communities 92 Figure 3.22 Age study medicinal knowledge (A) among ethnic groups (B) among male and female 92 Figure 3.23 ICF values of categories of indigenous medicinal uses in Chu Ru and Raglai communities 96 ! $"#! about ten years ago, the collection of Amomum species by local people occurred profusely following the important orders of merchants from the North Vietnam, flocking in to “collection campaigns” Unfortunately, the supply took over the demand, and the value of non-timber product went down rapidly until not even being sold The dried Amomum fruits piled up in the yards and were thrown away at last Nowadays, the locals, children in particular, collect the commercial medicinal plants like Senna tora and Strychnos seeds, Smilax glabra rhizomes to earn few cash money to buy treats The buyers here are only Kinh people who emigrate from Ninh S:n Town and set up small roadside houses not only to sell essential commodities but also buy agricultural products It is an important thing that the locals now not allow to collect forest products for commercial purposes Other reasons are that the trade of medicinal plants is not popular and the valuable species almost disappear in near areas due to over-exploitation, forest destruction, e.g Stemona sp., Coptosapelta tomentosa var dongnaiense These are some example of over-harvest of medicinal plants, and highlight the need for conservation and management of these valuable plants of Ph!"c Bình National Park 3.2.12 Conservation of medicinal plants: an important issue All medicinal plants are checked for their presence in the Red List of Vietnam (Plant section) (2007) [4] and the Red List of IUCN (2011) [92] Despite there are no plants cited in these references, it not mean that there is nothing to worry about their population According to our field trip records, Coptosapelta tomentosa var dongnaiense was used to be exploited locally a lot in the past so long as it was considered useful for treating arthralgia and backache The raw materials for production medicinal glue were the segments of trunks or roots with cm of diameter at least Hence, it takes a long time in order that such a liana reaches this size Over months of field trips, we just recorded the presence of the species as seedlings, without the mature ones The results were similar when we conducted the 105 interviews with the locals They confirmed that it was hardly the big trees in the surrounding areas where there had abundant supply of medicinal material previously Additionally, most of the medicinal plants (87.1% of total) were collected from the natural vegetation According to the informants, however, there is no special protection or care given to these plants and they are treated just like any other plants which had no claims to medicinal values In addition, rhizomes and roots are the first and third choices for medicinal purposes by the locals The popularity of these parts has serious consequences from both ecological point of view and from the survival of plant species Another important point is that medicinal plants would be damaged seriously to satisfy the demands of local people who not pay attention to the conservation issue much In fact, the interrelationship between society and nature is close and has recently become widely acknowledged Human health cannot be considered in isolation but depended highly on the quality of the environment in which people lived [36] The damage which can be included as the biodiversity loss were the reduction of the supplies of raw materials for industries, drug discovery as well as the decline of food production, water quality and the spread of human diseases And it is quite clear that the practice of traditional medicine is not immune to the current environmental crisis facing our planet [37] Degradation of forests affects the erosion of the sole health care option for the poor lived in the remote rural areas The conservation of medicinal plants in the study area is limited Although the locals not often collect them for commercial purposes, they are not aware of sustainable exploitation of medicinal plants Therefore, it is necessary for construction of projects to enhance the awareness of social, cultural and political dimensions to ecosystem and the valuable knowledge 106 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK Chu Ru and Raglai people living in the buffer zone of Ph!"c Bình National Park, located in the Central Highlands (Ninh Thu#n Province), gather from their environment most of their food, material and medicines Ph!"c Bình National Park harbours a high diversity of plants among those a lot with medicinal properties There are 93 plants belonging to 79 genera, 49 families, classes and phyla cited for medicinal purposes by Chu Ru and Raglai informants Herbs are the most growing form with 50 species (53.8%), and Zingiberaceae is the most common family with 14 species cited (15.0%) Most of medicinal plants are obtained exclusively from wild sources (84.9%) in surrounding area, the remaining plants being collected from home gardens or both sites The number of medicinal plants reported is different between Chu Ru and Raglai informants, between male and female and among category of ages Those medicinal plants are used for treating 79 types of health problem, including 76 ailments in human and in animals From the 93 medicinal plants, 73 species (78.5%) are used against human ailments, species (2.2%) are specifically used to treat animals health problems and the 18 remaining species (19.3%) are used to treat both human and animals ailments Chu Ru and Raglai informants used the most frequently medicinal plants to treat first digestive ailments (58 species, 62.4%) then dermatological and infectious ailments in human Besides major medicinal uses, forty species (43.0%) also are used for other purposes, including foods, snacks, condiment, construction, craft, furniture, ornament and forage Many different parts of medicinal plant species are used, in which rhizomes (including bulb) are the most commonly part (22.8%), followed by leaves (22.2%) and roots (including tuberous roots) Fresh material is preferred to use by both Chu Ru and Raglai people than dried one (87.8% versus 12.2%), and most of the plants are used directly without preparation (25.5%), then by crushing (23.7%) and hot maceration 107 (17.8%), the least being squeezing (0.9%) However, doses are not established or are just approximated for most of the treatments Both western and indigenous therapeutic systems are available and alternatively used Despite of the wide spread of modern medicinal system, there is a deep local belief in their traditional medicine for curing their common ailments Even if herbal medicines not major in therapeutic pathway resorting, it is almost as used as western medicine by Chu Ru and Raglai people in first intention Therefore herbal medicine remains an important component of public heath care in the study area, as it is often the only treatment option for low-income households, and the next alternative of choice when modern medicine fails In most cases, the traditional knowledge of Chu Ru and Raglai ethnic minorities is passed verbally from generation to generation and most of fathers are responsible in transmitting medicinal knowledge In addition, since roots are the most widely used plants parts and plants are mostly collected from wild resources as well as the agricultural expansion so the risk of loss of biodiversity in the area is high Therefore, further researches have to be done, and a program for sustainable development should be set up As a start, the results of this project will feed back to them in various ways (documents, talks…), as a thankful return for their participation to the study, and to allow the spread and sustainability of those skills and traditions in the community as well as in the whole population and at an international level (publications, databases) For instance, the results of the study will be reported to each village (report, meeting), and interview transcription summary will be distributed for each household A working document pooling all the remedies with illustration and details, to be able to collect correctly the plants and prepare safely and correctly the medicines, should be distributed within the community, with adequate comments on efficacy, safety (toxicity) according to extensive literature review for each remedy 108 REFERENCES ! Vietnamese [1] Phan Qu!c Anh (2008), V!n hóa Raglai - Nh"ng l#i, NXB V"n hoá Dân t#c, Hà N#i, 341 trang [2] $% Huy Bích c#ng s& (1993), Tài nguyên thu$c Vi%t Nam, NXB Khoa h'c K( thu)t, Hà N#i, 640 trang [3] Phan Xuân Biên (1998), V!n hóa xã hôi ng&'i Raglai ( Vi%t Nam, NXB Khoa h'c Xã h#i, Hà N#i, 346 trang [4] B# Khoa h'c công ngh* Môi tr+,ng (2007), Sách )* Vi%t Nam, Ph-n Th&c v)t NXB Khoa H'c K( Thu)t, Hà N#i, 789 trang [5] Lê Tr-n Ch.n (2003), “Tài nguyên thu!c / Vi*t Nam”, Báo S+c kho, )'i s$ng, s! 24, Hà N#i [6] Võ V"n Chi (1997), T- i/n thu$c Vi%t Nam, NXB Y h'c, 1468 trang [7] Nguy0n V"n Di*u (1981), “Vài nét v1 ng+,i Chu Ru / Lâm $2ng”, T#p chí Dân t0c h1c, s! 3, trang 23-31 [8] Ph3m V"n D+4ng (1999), “Nh5ng nghi l0 liên quan 67n s8n xu.t nông nghi*p c9a ng+,i Chu Ru”, T#p chí Dân t0c h1c, s! 2, trang 51-55 [9] $inh Th: Hoa, Tr-n Minh H;i (2009), “M#t s! k7t qu8 nghiên c H;p, t=nh Ngh* An”, Báo cáo Khoa h1c v2 Sinh thái Tài nguyên sinh v3t, Ph-n $a d3ng sinh h'c, trang 987-990 [12] Ph3m Hoàng H# (1974), Sinh h1c th4c v3t, T9 sách khoa h'c, B# Giáo d?c, Sài Gòn, trang 286 [13] Ph3m Hoàng H# (2001), Cây c* Vi%t Nam, t)p I, II, III, NXB Tr@ [14] Ph3m Hoàng H# (2006), Cây có v5 thu$c ( Vi%t Nam, NXB Tr@, 717 trang [15] Nguy0n Th: Thu H+4ng (2007), V!n hóa qu6n l7 xã h0i ( c0ng 8ng ng&'i Raglai, huy%n Bác Ái, t9nh Ninh Thu3n, Lu)n v"n Th3c s(, Tr+,ng $3i h'c Khoa h'c Xã h#i Nhân v"n, $3i h'c Qu!c Gia Tp H2 Chí Minh [16] Lê Công Ki*t (1967), )5a lí h1c th4c v3t, T9 sách khoa h'c, B# Giáo d?c, Sài Gòn, trang 22-24 [17] $% T.t L;i (2005), Nh"ng thu$c v5 thu$c Vi%t Nam, NXB Y h'c, 1274 trang [18] Ph3m $[...]... literature, Chu Ru people posses a valuable treasure of folk proverbs and folk poetry stories, in which the outstanding topics are praise of matriarchy and about the role of women in the traditional society Regarding to the music, drums (sogon), trumpet (rokel) and mã la are special musical instruments of the Chu Ru In their festivals, they often play a melody and dance Tamga-a kind of community dance 1.3.3 Raglai. .. physical and mental illnesses [94] 2.3 CONTENTS OF THE STUDY " Collecting the information of the medicinal plants used by Chu Ru and Raglai people by interviewing key informants " Collecting and processing all cited medicinal plants by accompanying with key informants during field trips to make the species vouchers " Building up the medicinal plants database and illustrated book in order to seek more information... Ái District, Ninh Thu#n Province According to statistics, the buffer zone gathers 4438 individuals living in different hamlets, corresponding to 876 households in total The main ethnic group is Raglai which occupies 78.82% of the area, whereas the others are Chu Ru and Kinh people Most of the people work in agriculture, and the others work in small trade, forestry, industry or small handicraft 28 ... coastal plain of central part, and a small number in the southern provinces Despite sharing cultural background and origin since nearly two millennia, each ethnic group of those adjacent residents remains at different level of development in economic and social terms and keep their own particular features in their culture and their society There are many theories about the origin of this ethnic group In general,... Population and habitat Raglai is another ethnic group from the Malayo-Polynesian (South Island) language family in Vietnam The ethnic name was transcribed and used in different ways: Raglai, Radlai, Oranglai, RAc lây They settled in the highlands, along the east slope of the end of the Truong Son Range in different provinces of Khánh Hòa, Ninh Thu#n, Bình Thu#n and Lâm 0$ng, their majority being concentrated... kites and organise kite flying competition 21 CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY 2.1 AIM OF THE STUDY This project relies firstly on the necessity of conserving the folk knowledge in using plants for medicinal purposes of Chu Ru and Raglai people in Ph!"c Bình National Park, Ninh Thu#n Province 2.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY According to Fellows (1991), the term “medicinal” as applied to a plant indicates that it contains... Central and South Central Vietnam, the Chu Ru minority concentrated in the Dran Valley of the Lang Bian Plateau whereas the Raglai minority mainly inhabited in the mountainous areas of Nam Tr!>ng S:n-Tây Nguyên regions Tri=t (2000) commented in more details this migration theory He believes that in Metal Age, the Malayo-Polynesians in southern Indochina was formed by the five groups listed above One minority... of taxa and family, the growing form, and the habitat " Exploring the traditional medicinal uses " Verifying the belonging of each medicinal plant to the Red List of Vietnam (flora section) (2007) and Red List of IUCN (2011) " Calculating the Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) for each category of ailments to identify the agreements of the informants on the reported cures for the group ailments 2.4 STUDY. .. are recorded in the Red Book of Vietnam and 29 species in the international Red List Experts appreciate that National Park had the biggest community of bull and deer in the recent specialized forests 27 2.5.2 Economical and social characters 2.5.2.1 Economical and social situation in the core zone of the National Park According to the planning project, the National Park includes a part of the Hành R8c... instance, scientists combined the explanation of the origin of medicinal plants local names and their use by ethnic groups, which corresponded to the association of anthropology and medicine They also applied some methods of mathematical statistics as a tool to analyse the information during the investigation process, e.g sorting by preference, ranking matrix or comparing the three groups [19], [81] This ... structure of Chu Ru and Raglai informants 49 Figure 3.7 Category of age and gender structure of Chu Ru and Raglai informants 50 Figure 3.8 The number of medicinal plants cited by Chu Ru and. .. among informants using the Use Index and compared the medicinal uses in B=n En National Park with those in other area of Vietnam and in elsewhere of South-East Asia and the Indo-Pacific region The. .. praise of matriarchy and about the role of women in the traditional society Regarding to the music, drums (sogon), trumpet (rokel) and mã la are special musical instruments of the Chu Ru In their