Page 50 - Proceedings of The Fifth Meeting of Indigenous Medicine in the Mekong Basin

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Indigenous Medicine in Vietnam and Usage Experience
in Ethic Communities

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Duy THUAN
Deputy Director
Viet Nam of University of Traditional Medicine

Natural advantages and conditions

Geography, Area and Population
 Vietnam is located in South-East Asia with the area of
2
331,211.6 km . It has a coastline of about 3,200 km.
 The North of Vietnam borders on China while the west of it
borders on Laos and Cambodia. The East Sea or “South
China Sea” lies to the East and the South of Vietnam.
 Three-quarters of the country is hilly or mountainous.
 Population: 85 millions
Situation on Indigenous Medicine in Viet Nam
 Vietnam has long history of TM, a precious heritage of Viet
Nam
 54 ethnic groups live in Vietnam. The Viet (also known as
the Kinh) accounts for 88 percent of the country’s population.
 In contrast, most of the other ethnic minority peoples (about 5.5 millions) live
mainly in the mountainous areas where there are potential in biodiversity of
medicinal plants (especially Ethnical plants) and traditional knowledge systems.
 The experience on indigenous medicine has been handed down from generation
to generation, not only within families but also transmitted to the community.
Moreover, it has become the folk medicine knowledge (traditional knowledge) of
other ethnic groups in the South of Vietnam and is considered as one of the
elements of national culture.
 Medicinal Plants ethnic and local knowledge play a very important role in health
care for ethnic minorities, especially those in remote communities and remote areas,
where the access to health services of the state is still low.
 We want to continue contributing to preserving, intensify the research,
conservation and development of traditional medicine and combine traditional
medicine with modern medicine in caring and protecting people's health.
 Many projects on conservation of medicinal plants and indigenous knowledge
have been implemented.
 Experimental studies have been conducted on selected medicinal plant remedies.
Many plants have been identified as object orientation for Medical Research and
Pharmacology.
Research on Indigenous Medicine in Viet Name
Investigation of medicinal plants sources in a number of ethnic people living in
the northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam and the experience of local people in
the use of indigenous medicinal plants for health care has been organized.