Plants have been widely used as a source of medicine, throughout the history of mankind.  Medicinal or herbal plants have been important components in Traditional Medicine therapies and therapeutic techniques documented in various countries (WHO, 2002).  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 80% of the world’s population still subscribes to plants to meet their healthcare needs (Mesfin et al., 2013 cited in Fajardo et al., 2017).  
 

In the Philippines, according to the Department of Health (DOH), of the 250,000 traditional healers or traditional medical practitioners (TMP) that were documented.  For every single healer, about 300 persons consult for prescriptions on the herbal medicine and its preparation method to be used.  The government enacted the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act of 1997 to support these alternative modalities in various health care services.  This aims to improve the quality and delivery of health care services to the Filipino people by developing traditional and alternative health care and integrating it into the national health care delivery system (WHO, 2002).

 

In the Ilocos Region, the TMP could be categorized under various specializations such as paltera or mangablon, mammullo, mannuma, herbolaryo, and faith healers.  The paltera or mangablon acts as a midwife during and after birth care and advises on menstrual disorders and family planning.  The mammullo use their skills in massage to mend fractures, heal sprains, and other musculoskeletal conditions.  The mannuma are consulted for insects and animal bites like dogs, snakes, and others, the mannuma are consulted.  The herbularyo or quack doctors or in other terms albularyo are general practitioners that make use of curative herbal plants and are knowledgeable in treating different diseases including those caused by unseen beings (Wallace, 2006).  On the other hand, faith healers claim their healing powers as God-given and that patients must put their faith and believe in that power so that healing would take effect (Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, 2016). 

The traditional knowledge of the use of medicinal plants and their practices has been passed on from generation to generation among TMP.  This valuable information could be of good contribution to the national efforts on the drug discovery research and development program.  However, rapid urbanization and modernization may reduce traditional knowledge preservation when undocumented.  Hence, this survey will be conducted to document the ethnomedicinal plants and the practices utilized by TMPs in the rural areas of Ilocos Norte.  After which, the geographical location of the uncommon medicinal plant will be characterized based on several biophysical parameters. 

Publication: At least 1 publishable article

Products:  IEC materials on medicinal plants and other uses, location where uncommon medicinal plants thrive 

 Peoples and Partnership: Linkages with TMPs 
                                                          utilizing plants in their
                                                          herbal practices
                                                      Linkages with LGUs/ 
                                                          community of interest