Embedded Files
The MEDICINAL PLANTS OF LAOS (MPoL) website was created by Bethany G. Elkington, Bounleuane Douangdeuane, Onevilay Souliya, Ounneua Keokongtanh, Thongsavanh Sengkongdala, Manoluck Vanthanouvong, Khammanh Phoulivong, Vliath Soukvilay, Pasit Keokongtanh, Soudachanh Xayavong, Kongmany Sydara, Mouachanh Xayvue, Kimberly Hansen, Richard Ree, and D. Doel Soejarto, and other experts from the Institute of Traditional Medicine (ITM) in Laos, along with the Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH) and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in the USA. In addition to common names in Lao, this website lists the accepted Latin names for featured species. For synonymous names, a link to an alternative site with more information on the species' taxonomy is provided.
Purpose
Purpose
The purpose of this website is to provide information about the medicinal plants of Laos, based on collaborative research between traditional healers of Laos, scientists at the Institute of Traditional Medicine, Ministry of Health, Vientiane, Lao PDR, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, USA.
These plants are documented with herbarium specimens deposited at the Herbarium of the Institute of Traditional Medicine, Vientane, Lao PDR, and the Searle Herbarium of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, USA.
All images and data are copyrighted under ©The Field Museum of Natural History, ©The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and ©The Institute of Traditional Medicine of the Ministry of Health, Lao PDR.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
The Government of Laos has been most kind to grant the necessary permits to interview citizens of Laos and to collect plant specimens. We are grateful to the healers of Laos for sharing their knowledge of the plants.
Funding
Funding
Creation of this website has been funded through the California Community Foundation Elina Vesara Ostern Fund, as "Support to further the study of medicinal/pharmacological use of wildlife products particularly in relation to local communities," and through the United States National Cancer Institute (NCI) program project Grant (P01 CA125066), “Discovery of Anticancer Agents of Diverse Natural Origin,” https://u.osu.edu/naturalproducts/research/ and https://u.osu.edu/naturalproducts/, awarded to the Ohio State University (Principal Investigator: Professor A. D. Kinghorn).
Plants posted on this website were aquired through ethnobotanical fieldwork supported by the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) grants (1998-2010; Soejarto et al., 2012) and the California Community Foundation (CCF) grants (2013-2014; 2019-2022; 2023-2025; Soejarto et al., 2023).
Useful Links
Useful Links
Methods
Methods
Fieldwork and ethnobotanical interview methods were described in two previous publications, namely, "An ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants of Laos toward the discovery of bioactive compounds as potential candidates for pharmaceutical development" (Soejarto et al., 2012) and "Medicinal Plants of Laos" (Chapter 6 in Soejarto et al., 2023). Below are brief summaries of the two methods used.
The Vietnam-Laos International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) Project (1998-2008)
Etnonobotanical field interviews were conducted in conjunction with laboratory studies aimed at discovering new chemicals for potential therapies against AIDS, cancer, malaria, and tuberculosis. Hence, for each plant collected during the field interview, both herbarium voucher specimens and plant samples (in most cases, leaves, stem bark, and root) were collected and assigned a matching identifying code. Voucher herbarium specimens were sent to herbaria for taxonomic identification, and plant samples were sent to laboratories for chemical analyses and biological testing.
Considering the great cultural and ethnolinguistic diversity of the people of Laos and the fact that medicinal plant knowledge has been shown to have a link with geographical location, field interviews were designed to cover as broad an area of the country as possible, in order to maximize the diversity of knowledge and the plant species employed in traditional therapy. Thus, ethnobotanical field interviews were conducted in the following provinces of Lao PDR (from north to south; see "Preserves" on the website dashboard): Luang Namtha, Phongsali, Oudomxay, Luang Prabang, Sayabouri, Houaphan, Vientiane, Vientiane Prefecture (= Province), Xiangkhouang, Bolikhamxay, Khammouan, Savannakhet, Saravan, Xekong, Champasak, and Attapeu. It should be noted that there are other English spellings for these provinces, and that Vientiane province includes the former Xaisomboun Special Zone (the eastern portion of the province), which was dissolved in 2006 and annexed to the Vientiane province. Due to some logistical issues, no interviews were performed in Bokeo Province.
For each interview session, communication between ITM staff and the Provincial Health Department (PHD) preceded the field trip. Upon receiving communication from the ITM, staff of the PHD notified the Head of the Traditional Medicine Station (TMS) in each province to announce the upcoming field research visit of the ITM team and to request the TMS staff's support and collaboration throughout the field trip. On arrival in the province where the interview session was to take place, the ITM team went directly to the TMS headquarters to meet with the TMS Head and discuss the plan of work. The ITM team normally stayed at the TMS facilities for the duration of the field trip or at a local guesthouse if the TMS lacked adequate facilities to accommodate visitors. Upon the recommendation of the TMS Head, the team headed to the village where a healer or healers had been identified. However, before meeting with the healer, the team first met with the village Head to obtain clearance for the visit and to explain its purpose. Once clearance was given, the team and the TMS Head visited the healer's house in that village. One or more healers may live in the same village. In this context, healers are defined as individuals in a community (male or female) recognized as the person to whom one turns for medical treatment in the event of health problems. The TMS Head accompanied the TMS team and assisted the team in explaining the purpose of the visit (the ICBG research) and in obtaining permission to conduct the interview. Additionally, in certain situations, an interview was also performed with individual members of the village. The entire chain of permissions and clearances involved, including the ITM, the PHD, the TMS, and the village head, supports the authenticity of the prior informed consent of the Lao people with interests in traditional medicine to the ICBG project. Healers were remunerated for their services, namely, the time and effort in collaborating with the interviewing team. A broader design of benefit-sharing with the communities is described in various papers, but especially, Soejarto et al. (2007)
Healer interviews were conducted in the Lao language in a relaxed, informal setting, with the interviewee and interviewer sitting face-to-face, normally on an elevated floor of the healer’s house. Members of the healer’s family may or may not have been present, while the ITM team consisted of two or three persons (one, the field trip leader, served as the interviewer), occasionally with a UIC scientist present, and always with the Head of the TMS. All interviews were conducted under research protocols approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of Illinois at Chicago: IRB Research Protocol #H-97-1056/1999 (1999-2003) and #2003-0636/2003 (2003-2008); and by approval of the Lao National Ethics Committee. A specific informed consent procedure was carried out with each healer under this protocol. An IRB research protocol is subject to a continuing annual review by the UIC IRB. During the interviews, the interviewer and their team recorded the information in a field notebook in front of the healer. A typical interview session began with recording the healer's demographics (name, age, gender, education, ethnicity, length of practice as a healer, name of village, district, and province). Once this demographic section was completed, the following question was asked: “What diseases do you know how to treat?” This question would eventually lead to a specific disease or diseases.
At the end of the interview, the healer led the interviewing team to the locations of the various plants mentioned. It may be a garden or a forested area (“walk in the forest” interview). For each plant collected as a result of the interview, at least three voucher herbarium specimens were collected as a basis for taxonomic identification. These specimens were later distributed to the Herbarium of ITM in Vientiane, the National Herbarium of Vietnam in Hanoi (as part of the ICBG project), and the John G. Searle Herbarium of the Field Museum in Chicago. Frequently, the plant identified by the healer lacked flowers or fruits. If, after a further search in the area, no flowering specimens could be found, voucher herbarium specimens were prepared from the sterile specimen, using standard good botanical collecting practices. Data elements recorded for each collection included: locality, habitat, altitude, GPS reading, plant field characters, collector, collection number, date of collection, medicinal use, method of preparation, and route of administration.
The first attempt at taxonomic determination of the collected voucher herbarium specimens took place at the Herbarium of the Institute of Traditional Medicine in Vientiane. The book of Lao common plant names by Vidal (1959) was the primary reference used. In almost every case, the scientific name (the Latin binomial) of the plant at hand was given in this book, though oftentimes, two or more Latin binomials were referred to, and an erroneous scientific name was given. The next step was to consult the ITM Herbarium's holdings to carefully confirm the taxonomic identity of the specimen as given in Vidal’s book, using an identified specimen in the ITM Herbarium. An additional standard resource used was the 3-volume book “Cayco Vietnam” (Flora of Vietnam) by Pham Hoang Ho (1991, 1992, 1993, 1999). Other resources included taxonomic revisions from the “Flora of Thailand,” “JSTOR” Type database, the “Plants of the World Online” database, and the “Global Biodiversity Information Facility” database.
Identification was also made through the dispatch of a set of voucher herbarium specimens to the ICBG plant taxonomy team based in Hanoi at the National Herbarium (Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology), who had access to an excellent herbarium collection and library resources for the identification of Indo-Chinese plants. A similar set of vouchers was sent to the John G. Searle Herbarium at the Field Museum in Chicago for identification and/or confirmation of taxonomic identification. When necessary, a duplicate of a collection was sent to a specialist for assistance in taxonomic identification.
The California Community Foundation (CCF) Project
Ethnobotanical field interviews (referred to as “Rapid Ethnobotanical Field Interviews”) were performed in conjunction with a goal in the conservation of medicinal plants in forested areas defined by boundaries, named “Medicinal Plant Preserves” (MPP) or “Medicinal Biodiversity Preserves” (MBP), ranging in size from 4 hectares to 500 hectares located in provinces of Lao PDR (see map in "Preserves" on the website dashboard).
The protocol used related to prior informed consent was similar to that used for the ICBG healer interview: namely, similar arrangements were made between the staff of the ITM, the Provincial Health Department, the Food and Drug Division of the Provincial Health Department, the provincial Traditional Medicine Station, the village head, and the healer to be interviewed. Hence, the entire chain of permissions and clearances involved supports the authenticity of the prior informed consent of the Lao people (healer) with interests in traditional medicine to the CCF project. Healers were recruited from a village near or adjacent to the preserve, and arrangements were made for the healer(s) and the village community to assist in monitoring the collection of medicinal plants from the preserve. Healers were remunerated for their services.
As a matter of protocol, the team of researchers, namely two ITM scientists and one UIC scientist, supported by staff from the Traditional Medicine Unit (TMU) of the Food and Drug Administration and local workers, conducted the interviews. "Walk-in-the-forest" interviews with the healer and with occasional in-house interviews were conducted in both Lao and English languages (with Lao translation provided by the ITM staff scientist).
These Rapid Ethnobotanical Field Interviews (REFI) for this research were conducted under a research protocol approved by the UIC Institutional Review Board with approval no. 2013-0763 and with the approval of the "Lao National Ethics Committee ." If a plant pointed out by the healer during the interview process was sterile, attempts were made on the spot, with the entire field team participating, to find a specimen bearing flowers and/or fruit to be collected. If no plant in flower or fruit was found, voucher specimens of the plant identified by the healer were collected.
The process of taxonomic identification of the voucher herbarium specimens collected mirrors that for the ICBG project.
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