What do we know about our medicinal and culturally important plants? : current status of Malaysian ethnobotany
2001
K. Mat Salleh | A. Latiff, Kebangsaan Malaysia Univ. (UKM), 43600 UKM, Bangi, Selangor (Malaysia). Fakulti Sains dan Teknologi. Program Sains Sekitaran | M. Nazre, World Wide Fund For Nature Malaysia, 49, Jalan SS23/15, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor (Malaysia)
Scientific progress and deeper insights into the unexploited potential of our country's flora for pharmaceutical, curative and essential oil markets have led to a greatly renewed interest in our natural products. Medicinal and aromatic plants have always been regarded as one of the most pivotal ethnobotanical elements of human civilisation. However, the rich and diverse floristic resources of Malaysia have not been fully documented. There have been no attempts to revise I.H. Burkill's monumental Dictionary of Economic Products of the Malay Peininsula, which was published 65 years ago. The Herbarium Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Bangi (UKMB) has initiated the Ethnobotany of Malaysian Plants database and has been online since 1997. Following a general survey by UKM on the current status of ethnobotanical coverage in the local universities in 1994, WWF People and Plants Initiative agreed to fund an extended nationwide survey in 2000 in which all known and available ethnobotanical resources would be made available in UKM whenever possible. With the basic framework and data from Burkill's Dictionary already in our system, we are hoping to complete a new comprehensive compilation of our ethnobotanical resources.
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