Abstract
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.
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Acknowledgments
Author affiliations and research fields: University at Buffalo—GRW(Biochemistry), DS (Medical Anthropology); Missouri Botanical Garden—RWB(Ethnobotany), GM-G (Medicinal Chemistry), DS; National University of Truillo (UNT,Peru)–MG-Y and IC (Pharmacy), This work was funded by the MIRT/MHIRT grant program (# G0000613, Fund 54112B MHIRT and NIH/NIMHD # 5 T37 MDOO 1442-18) of the US National Institutes of Health awarded to San Diego State University as well as the Deutsches Forschungs Gemeinschaft (DFG) and the William L. Brown Center of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Unfortunately, we cannot name all the individuals who participated in this project. We gratefully acknowledge the support of Luis Fernandez, M.D. and the staff at the EsSalud-CAMEC PHS Trujillo site; Drs. Manuel Vera and Alberto Quezada at UNT; Dr. Noe Anticona of the Clinica Anticona; Dr. Fredy Perez at UPAO; Carolina Tellez our consulting botanist, Manuel Bejarano at Laboratorios BEAL; Ashley Glenn and other staff members of the Missouri Botanical Garden; Dr. Tom Love from Linfield College; and the numerous students who worked on the project both as MHIRT awardees and volunteers.
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Willsky, G.R., Bussmann, R.W., Ganoza-Yupanqui, M.L., Malca-Garcia, G., Castro, I., Sharon, D. (2020). Integrating Traditional and Modern Medicine: Perspectives from Ethnobotany, Medical Anthropology, Microbiology, and Pharmacy. In: Smith, K., Ram, P. (eds) Transforming Global Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32112-3_19
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