First a survey through interviews with residents of the country to gather maximun info on ethnobotanical plants used as traditional medicines and then you can have a more detailed study on their pharmacological property. I think when you will have sufficient knowledge on the plants used you can yourself decide which pharmacological test you should try i.e anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic.

Hi Devesh, your question is too broad, any study have its own requirement. Ethnopharmacology is at the intersection of the medical, natural, and social sciences. so just follow the basic scientific methodology of ethnopharmacology. you could start with the problem or the need of the study and state the objectives, select the methods that coherence with the objective, here some articles that could help you to select which method you could use for your study: 1. http://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c03/E6-79.pdf; 2. http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186%2F1746-4269-6-32.pdf; 3. http://mon.univ-montp2.fr/claroline/backends/download.php?url=L0JfTW9pem8vZXRobm9lY29sb2d5LnBkZg%3D%3D&cidReset=true&cidReq=FMOB309_001; 4. http://etnof.fciencias.unam.mx/P4Mat/Etnofarm%2006Etk..pdf; 5. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/np4009927; 6.https://d3gqux9sl0z33u.cloudfront.net/AA/AE/gertschgroup/downloads/15941/how_scientific_is_the_science_by_Gertschl.pdf. In fact there are many other publications in ethnopharmacology including the journal of ethnopharmacology. so good luck for the study.

May want to check the work of Paul Cox- My group worked with him (we did the chemistry on a couple of projects).

Dear Devesh,

This is a broad subject, but it is gaining more importance nowadays as we realise and beginning to appreciate more our heritage and nature.

My suggestion:

Make a survey of plants, herbs used for treatment of ailments for certain specific area and group of people: aborigines, villages etc. and you may use some bioassays to support the medicinal claims. You may publish this work in reputable journals.

Then if you want to go further you can perform bioassay guided study of the plants that exhibited activities relevant to claims such as anti cancer, anti inflammatory, antibacterial etc. you may also go further to mechanism of action of the potent compounds. All these work may be published in reputable journals like journal j.of ethnopharmacology, food chemistry, planta medica , fitoterapia , molecules and many others.

All the best

Thank you so much respected Prof Khalijah for the valuable suggestions. Papers provided by Hari are very useful and appreciating Mr Jack and Ms Coolen thanks for the appropriate direction. I will use the above important suggestions for the completion of the good ethnopharmacological studies to explore some gifts given by nature to the world....Thank you.

@To conduct an ethno-pharmacological study, first you have to select the area. This you can select by studying the available literature. Preferably choose the area which has not been studied earlier. Fix the number of persons to be contacted for your study depending upon work plan and time duration. Plan your visits to the study area. The language should be convenient to the respondents so that they can understand and interact in a better way. You can select some plants they are using in medicines. These plants can be studied for the presence of various phytochemicals, micro and macro elements which are likely to be responsible for medicinal activity. These chemical compounds can be separated and studied individually for their medicinal value. By doing so one may come across some new or modified phytoconstituents of high medicinal importance.

Regards

As a basic framework to begin with; you should conduct some basic empirical, quantitative pharmacological research on the medicine(s) in question and explain their effect profile and any potential risks in a way that allows any anthropologist without a background in pharmacology to understand what you're saying, yet using phrasing that is completely concise and avoids any subjectivity or unscientific assumption. As you won't have access to spectrometers or a biochemistry lab of your own in all likelihood, you'll have to rely on the research of actual lab-based teams who have published on the subject. Word this first part of the research just like any journal article you would read in a journal of pharmacology.

For the ethnographic element, you should conduct research into the history of its use, ROA practices, usage frequency/patterns, perception of use from the indigenous cultural perspective, and try and observe the ways in which its usage might be similar or dissimilar from the way the Western biomedical system might utilize an analogous drug in our own culture.

Speak with individuals at length about their opinions of its use, of its efficacy, and whether or not it acts as a primary foundation of local medicine or if it plays a different role in their medical culture. Find out whether they practice medical pluralism, or if they only utilize a single system. Have their primary healthcare provider figures show you how it should be used and explain their opinion. You don't have to cover all of those points, but you should include enough ethnography that by the time the reader is done, they will understand how, why, when, where, and who uses the medicine you chose to study. They should know what it does, what its risks and benefits are, and whether it is similar or dissimilar from any Western pharmaceutical drugs they may know of.

I should have clarified; I would choose one drug to focus on. You might mention other common adjunct medicines, but I would avoid spending time going into detail on more than one.

Dear Sir,

First choose your study area and go for survey on the selected area for the plants available followed by literature survey on the selected area and the plants. Then choose a plant with no research work. Collect the plants and first shade dry your plant samples and go for extraction with various solvents. You can perform Pharmaco-chemical characterization,Preliminary Phytochemical Screening, GC-MS, LC-MS, HPTLC analysis, FT-IR analysis, estination of phenols, flavonoids, Compound isolation and characterization, Pharmacological activities like, anticancer, antidiabetic, anti inflammatory, antiulcer, immunomodulatory, hepatoprotective, antifertility, fertility enhancement activity etc., antioxidant activity, antimicrobial activity, antioxidant activity by cyclo voltametric method and anticorrosion studies in your shade dried plant samples. These all comes under ethnopharmacological studies.

Good luck.

With regards,

Dr.Tresina

Start with survey of selected area. Enumerate and document the gathered information. GO for literature survey of the plants to find out which is with less research work. Then collect sufficient amount and dry the samples. Proceed with ethnopharmacological studies

Thank you every one for your valuable expert suggestions....