Pieroni et al. investigated the use of traditional Turkish folk medicine and changes in materia medica amongst first generation Turkish migrants living in the urban environment of Cologne, Germany.

Field research conducted over a 24-week period in 2003 and 2004 consisted of interviewing and holding focus groups of randomly selected Turkish participants about their use of traditional remedies. The authors obtained prior informed consent from survey participants and followed ethical guidelines established by the American Anthropological Association and the International Society of Ethnobiology. They collected voucher specimens of relevant dried and fresh plant material and identified them with the assistance of Turkish botanists. The researchers then compared field data with literature on traditional Turkish phytotherapy and evidence-based clinical German phytotherapy.

Apart from presenting a table outlining the data on 79 botanical taxa, 115 plant-based preparations and 167 phytotherapeutical uses and selected animal and mineral remedies named in the interviews, the article provides additional detail about three interesting plant remedies: aerial parts of Sideritis species, Pistacia terebinthus fruits and Peganum harmala fruits and seeds.

Analysis of the results revealed that (1) a quarter of the treatments consisted of 'medicinal food'; (2) women were more knowledgeable than men about plant uses, and (3) most of the material for the traditional medicine was imported to Germany through 'unofficial' means or bought in Turkish shops in Cologne. Local cultivation and wild harvest of the plants in Germany were very minimal, but most survey participants gathered wild herbs or bought them in markets in Turkey. This challenges assumptions about how migrants source material for food and medicine. Only one third of the phytotherapeutical uses reported had been previously recorded in ethnobotanical research conducted in Turkey, and only 9% of the medicinal uses reported in this study had been acknowledged by the modern school of German phytotherapy. Although the researchers comment on the importance of understanding the cultural significance of plants, they limit their analysis to the frequency of mention of a remedy.

The assimilation process of the migrants in their host country is discussed along with the indigenization and de-contexualization of German phytotherapy as it is incorporated in novel ways into the Turkish migrants' materia medica. This research points to the need for more investigation into the effects of simultaneous use of traditional and conventional medicines among migrants, and to the mutual transmission of ethnopharmaceutical knowledge between migrants and host country populations.

Prepared by Megan Glore, edited by Gary Martin

Even though local knowledge and traditional medicine are gaining wider recognition at the global level, according to Shukla and Gardner most of this recognition is focused on codified, text based traditional systems such as Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Policy makers and NGOs largely overlook un-codified, predominantly oral folk systems of traditional medicine. In India, this is also true. Even though the majority of the Indian population relies on non-codified folk medicine practiced at the local level there has been almost no policy support. According to the authors, this lack of recognition and support has led to the erosion of local folk medicinal knowledge. While global and national conservation efforts have focused almost exclusively on traditional codified systems, some local NGOs, such as the Rural Communes Medicinal Plant Conservation Centre (RCMPCC), are using community-based participatory approaches to the conservation of medicinal plants and folk medicinal knowledge.

In this article, the authors describe and analyse the RCMPCC efforts, specifically in the village of Amboli, to include local knowledge in its conservation efforts, and examine the positive outcomes generated at a local, regional, national and global levels. While there is an allopathic medical facility in Amboli, practitioners are only sporadically available, and there is a high reliance on local medicinal knowledge for health care. Recognizing this dependence and importance of local healers (vaidu), RCMPCC set up a project in the area, which consisted of the following:

• Village Biologist Program (vaidu sammalan): local knowledge experts, which are often, but not limited to, local healers are identified. The vaidu and other experts engage in knowledge exchange with scientists, offering their knowledge on local ecology and medicinal plants in exchange for learning formal botanical and biological skills.
• Village biologists are then consulted and included in the documentation of local plant knowledge; involved and trained in value-adding activities to manufacture and market products made from local plants, and included in all local biodiversity conservation efforts.
• The creation of Medicinal Plant Conservation Areas (MPCAs). Areas are of high biodiversity and large populations of medicinal plants and selected in consultation with vaidu, the community, and the Forest Department.
  MPCAs were further designated as Medicinal Plant Reserves by the Forest Department

Shukla and Gardner describe and give detail on each of these project components and found the RCMPCC programme to be highly successful. Locally it has increased the recognition of local healers, folk medicine, and local knowledge concerning medicinal plants, including those considered rare and endangered, as well as increased the recognition of women healers. At the regional level, the Forest Department publicised the knowledge and contribution of the vaidu by including their knowledge in publications and working plans.

However, the authors conclude that the RCMPCC programme has been less successful and had less of an impact at the national and global levels. As a result of the project, vaidu taking part of RCMPCC project were asked by national and international organizations to participate in training and their input included in databases of medicinal knowledge and threatened medicinal species. And there has been evidence of increased funding for similar projects. Despite this, the authors feel the RCMPCC project’s greatest success has been at the micro level, locally and regionally creating a sense of empowerment and equity, and integrating local knowledge with scientific knowledge while simultaneously conserving local medicinal resources and traditional knowledge.

Prepared by Erin Smith