Ethnobotany: Folk Medicines

Ethnobotany is the study of how and for what reasons people use plants. Usage usually relates to people?s conceptualization of the importance of plants, medicinally and otherwise, and their experience of plants occurring in their local environment. The meaning of the term ?ethnobotany? changed from the ?study of native uses of plants? to a more scientific. Ethnobotany maintains a multidisciplinary character: botanically, plants and plant uses are the focus, although ecological patterns, plant dispersals, resources utilization and horticultural and agricultural patterns have become popular avenues of study among Ethnobotanists. Traditional medicine or, more appropriately, traditional systems of health care, have undergone a major revival in the last twenty years. Every region historically had a form of traditional medicine or a traditional system of health care. Chinese, Arabic, African and other traditional medicines are traditional because they are deeply rooted in a specific social-cultural context, which varies between communities.