Indigenous Health Knowledge

Systems in the Philippines

A Literature Survey
by
Alana Gorospe Ramos and Pedrito dela Cruz

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)

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)

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

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

METHODOLOGY
Key informant interviews
2. Documents search in libraries, information
centers and thru the internet
1.

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- Earliest document is an unpublished treatise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. Blancos Flora de Filipinas (1737, 1845,
1877)
- Dr. Pardo de Taveras Plantas Medicinales
de Filipinas (1892

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

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

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

Historical Milestones of TradMed in the

Philippines
Immediate Post World War II Period
- First major exhaustive work on medicinal
plants by a Filipino - Quisumbings
Medicinal Plants of the Philippines,
1951

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

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

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

SURVEY OF LITERATURE: SocioCultural Aspects of Indigenous Medicine

3.

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

SURVEY OF LITERATURE: SocioCultural Aspects of Indigenous Medicine

4.

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

SURVEY OF LITERATURE: SocioCultural Aspects of Indigenous Medicine

5. Intl. 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

SURVEY OF LITERATURE: SocioCultural Aspects of Indigenous Medicine

6. Plantas masters 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

SURVEY OF LITERATURE Medicinal

Plants Inventory
B. Medicinal Plants Inventory

1. E. Quisumbings Medicinal Plants of the

Philippines, 1951
- regarded as one of the earliest and most
authoritative texts on medicinal plants
2. UP Botanical Societys 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

SURVEY OF LITERATURE Medicinal

Plants Inventory
2.

M. L. Tans 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

SURVEY OF LITERATURE Medicinal

Plants Inventory
3.

Leonardo Cos Common Medicinal Plants of the

Cordillera Region (1984)
- covers 122 species of common medicinal
plants found in the Cordillera region

4.

Quintanas 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

SURVEY OF LITERATURE Medicinal

Plants Inventory
5. Ludivina de Paduas Medicinal Plants (1996)
- conceived to be a series of several booklets
that approaches plant science from the ecological
perspective rather than purely taxonomic

SURVEY OF LITERATURE
Pharmacological Studies of Philippine
Medicinal Plants
1. Jaime Zaguirres 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
2. 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

SURVEY OF LITERATURE
Pharmacological Studies of Philippine
Medicinal Plants
3.

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

4.

Departments of Pharmacology of the University of

the East and UP Manila, Pharmacologic studies done
by students

SURVEY OF LITERATURE
Mainstreaming Traditional Medicine
1. Segismundos 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 womens life cycle

SURVEY OF LITERATURE
Mainstreaming Traditional Medicine
3.

M. L. Tans Traditional Medical Practitioners

(1992)
- showed the different types of traditional
medical practitioners, their socio-geographic
characteristics, skills acquisition, methods of
diagnosis and healing

4.

NSOs National Demographic and Health

Surveys (1998, 2003)
- included questions on the knowledge,
attitude and practices of Filipinos towards
traditional medicine

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 reeducating health workers, trainors and
community members

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

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 socialanthropological context of traditional medical practices
and beliefs

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

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