Indigenous Health Knowledge Systems in the Philippines

1. Indigenous Health Knowledge Systems in the Philippines A Literature Survey by Alana Gorospe Ramos and Pedrito dela Cruz

2. Definitions Indigenous knowledge - unique, traditional and local knowledge existing within and developed around specific conditions of women and men indigenous to a particular geographic area (IDRC, 2005) - the basis for community-level decision-making in areas pertaining to food security, human and animal health, education, natural resource management and other vital economic and social activities (Gorjestani, WB 2000)

3. THREATS to IK • Socio-economic and political changes and global processes of rapid change • Socialization of indigenous peoples into the mainstream culture dominated by western science and symbols, rather than their own indigenous cultures, wherein they stand to lose an invaluable part of their heritage and knowledge systems (Castro-Palaganas 2001) • Capacity and facilities needed to document, evaluate, validate, protect and disseminate such knowledge are lacking (SciDev 2005)

4. Value of Indigenous Health Knowledge Systems in the Philippines • Diversity of IK cultural practices that includes indigenous health knowledge systems. - 110 ethnolinguistic groups with more than 12 million people - 12,000 species of plants, from which 1,500 species are used by traditional herbalists • Low access to the formal health care system by people in remote areas

5. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY • To identify important indigenous or traditional health systems studies and researches, with focus on traditional medicine, existing in pre-selected libraries and information centers in Metro Manila • To provide an overview of indigenous or traditional medicine documentation in the Philippines; • To document and organize IK information resources

6. METHODOLOGY • Key informant interviews • Documents search in libraries, information centers and thru the internet

7. Historical Milestones of TradMed in the Philippines • Spanish Period - Earliest document is an unpublished treatise on indigenous medicinal pants written by a Franciscan around 1611 - Fr. Blanco’s Flora de Filipinas (1737, 1845, 1877) - Dr. Pardo de Tavera’s Plantas Medicinales de Filipinas (1892

8. Historical Milestones of TradMed in the Philippines • American Period - characterized by scientific vigor - establishment of the Government Laboratories (Bureau of Science) - intensive research on chemical constituents, pharmacology and therapeutics of medicinal plants by UP

9. Historical Milestones of TradMed in the Philippines • Commonwealth Period - extension of surveys to regions not previously explored - clinical and chemical investigations were made though in a limited scale

10. Historical Milestones of TradMed in the Philippines • Japanese Occupation - Impetus given to the cultivation of medicinal plants - E.O. 14 creating a committee on medicinal plants for the purpose of local production and manufacture of medicines from herbs

11. Historical Milestones of TradMed in the Philippines • Immediate Post World War II Period - First major exhaustive work on medicinal plants by a Filipino - Quisumbing’s Medicinal Plants of the Philippines, 1951

12. Historical Milestones of TradMed in the Philippines • Contemporary Period (1970 – present) - establishment of Community-Based Health Programs (CBHPs) in the early 70s which promoted the use of indigenous knowledge and resources for primary health care - creation of the National Integrated Research Program on Medicinal Plants (NIRPROMP) in 1977

13. Historical Milestones of TradMed in the Philippines • Technology transfer from NIRPROMP to the private sector for the production of 7 herbs into commercial form • Creation of TradMed Unit at DOH in 1992 • RA 8423 creating the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC) • Inclusion of survey questions on KAP towards TradMed in the 1998 and 2003 National Demographic and Health Surveys of NSO

14. SURVEY OF LITERATURE A. Socio-Cultural Aspects of Indigenous Medicine 1. F.L. Jocano’s Folk Medicine in a Philippine Municipality (1973) - an ethnographic account of folk medicine among peasants in Bay, Laguna 2. M. L.Tan’s Usog, Kulam, Pasma (1987) - formulated theoretical typologies of illness causation based on the literature

15. SURVEY OF LITERATURE: Socio-Cultural Aspects of Indigenous Medicine • Department of Health (DOH)-Community Medicine Foundation (COMMED), Filipino Traditional Medicine Comprehensive Database Project, 1995 - included an annotated bibliography consisting of ethnographic, historical and pharmacological literatures - derived six major themes in traditional medicine in the Philippines based on literature and results of the mapping of 191 TradMed practitioners, their demographics, healing practices and philosophy, as well as their distribution and networking

16. SURVEY OF LITERATURE: Socio-Cultural Aspects of Indigenous Medicine • Isidro Sia and NIH Study Group Documentation of 15 Ethnolinguistic Groups and their Traditional Medicine Practices - focused on 15 ethnolinguistic groups in the Cordilleras, Palawan, other parts of Luzon, and Mindanao

17. SURVEY OF LITERATURE: Socio-Cultural Aspects of Indigenous Medicine 5. Int’l. Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), Indigenous Knowledge and Practices on Mother and Child Care: Experiences from Southeast Asia and China (2000) - contains extensive discussions of maternal and child care in different cultural settings in the Philippines as well as other parts of Asia - chapter on retrieval, documentation and use of IK, with most of the cases based on community level initiatives in the Philippines

18. SURVEY OF LITERATURE: Socio-Cultural Aspects of Indigenous Medicine 6.Planta’s master’s thesis on the development of traditional medicine and pharmacopoeia in the 16th to the 19th centuries (1999) - attempts to portray Filipino culture and society through its traditional medical and healing practices

19. SURVEY OF LITERATURE – Medicinal Plants Inventory • Medicinal Plants Inventory 1. E. Quisumbing’s Medicinal Plants of the Philippines, 1951 - regarded as one of the earliest and most authoritative texts on medicinal plants 2. UP Botanical Society’s Manual on Some Philippine Medicinal Plants (1977) - sought to enlighten people of the potential healing properties of local medicinal plants, with sections divided according to medicinal properties of plants

20. SURVEY OF LITERATURE – Medicinal Plants Inventory • M. L. Tan’s Philippine Medicinal Plants in Common Use: Their Phytochemistry and Pharmacology (1977) - discusssed more than 200 plants; each plant entry is accompanied by its scientific and local name, a brief description of the plant and suggested preparations and uses

21. SURVEY OF LITERATURE – Medicinal Plants Inventory • Leonardo Co’s Common Medicinal Plants of the Cordillera Region (1984) - covers 122 species of common medicinal plants found in the Cordillera region • Quintana’s Philippine Medicinal Plant: Abstract and Bibliography (1989) - collated and organized references on medicinal plants resources from the UPLB campus’ libraries as well as other private l libraries

22. SURVEY OF LITERATURE – Medicinal Plants Inventory 5. Ludivina de Padua’s Medicinal Plants (1996) - conceived to be a series of several booklets that “approaches plant science from the ecological perspective rather than purely taxonomic”

23. SURVEY OF LITERATURE – Pharmacological Studies of Philippine Medicinal Plants 1. Jaime Zaguirre’s Some Emergency Bedside Preparations of Most Common Local Medicinal Plants (1955) - written in 1944 and re-circulated in 1949 primarily among the Medical Field Service of the AFP • Dr. Jocelyn Cruz, Herbal Medicine-A Viable Alternative for the Filipino People (1985) - documents early pharmacologic tests undertaken by Dr. Alfredo C. Santos in 1927

24. SURVEY OF LITERATURE – Pharmacological Studies of Philippine Medicinal Plants • NIRPROMP-led pharmacologic research - documentation of rapid screening process to study the efficacy and safety of medicinal plants, then the agricultural, pharmaceutical and clinical trials of plants that have passed initial screening • Departments of Pharmacology of the University of the East and UP Manila, Pharmacologic studies done by students

25. SURVEY OF LITERATURE – Mainstreaming Traditional Medicine 1. Segismundo’s Filipino Traditional Medicine and the Development of a Relevant Health Care System (1994) - critiqued the weaknesses of the health care system and cited efforts through NGOs and the CBHPs for the integration of TradMed 2. Castro-Palaganas, et. al., Mainstreaming Indegenous Health Knowledge and Practices (2001) - specific focus on indigenous notions of health or kasalun-alan and the women’s life cycle

26. SURVEY OF LITERATURE – Mainstreaming Traditional Medicine • M. L. Tan’s Traditional Medical Practitioners (1992) - showed the different types of traditional medical practitioners, their socio-geographic characteristics, skills acquisition, methods of diagnosis and healing • NSO’s National Demographic and Health Surveys (1998, 2003) - included questions on the knowledge, attitude and practices of Filipinos towards traditional medicine

27. SURVEY OF LITERATURE – Mainstreaming Traditional Medicine 5. Various handbooks on medicinal plants produced by government, NGOs and academic institutions - information on medicinal plants and their therapeutic uses aimed at re- educating health workers, trainors and community members

28. CONCLUSIONS • Good number of ethnographic and pharmacologic literatures exist • Theoretical and more inter-disciplinary studies that link traditional medicine to discourses in culture theory or social theory are few • Lack of literature or policy documents on the workings of the folkloric-commercial sector and their implications to health and safety

29. RECOMMENDATIONS • Develop and finance a research agenda on traditional medicine that taps on the core competencies of various agencies and stakeholders • Harness the results of bio-medical or pharmacological research for PHC • Encourage discourses towards the development of a cognitive framework for understanding the social-anthropological context of traditional medical practices and beliefs

30. RECOMMENDATIONS • Develop and finance a research agenda on traditional medicine that taps on the core competencies of various agencies and stakeholders • Promote safety in the use and practice traditional medicine • Examine the workings of the “folk sector” and their implications to health and safety • Encourage and enable participation of communities in the documentation of their traditional medicine practices and beliefs

31. RECOMMENDATIONS • Establish a strong medical anthropology program that will rationalize and invigorate the generation, processing and management of indigenous health knowledge