Last
Update
December 2024
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| The Philippine medicinal plant list now numbers
over 1500 (April 2024). There are three separate listing of medicinal plants: a Tagalog list, an English list for those plants with English
designations, and a Chinese list (alas, not updated) for the medicinal plants with Chinese names. English names are included in the Tagalog lists for plants
that have not acquired local names.
The red- and bold-fonted names are the original ten medicinal plants promoted by the Department
of Health.
For quite a number of plants, there may be a confusing
similarity in common names shared by plants of different species, or
different names for the same plant in the same region or tribe, or confusing
variations in the common names of the same specie of plant. (See: Plant
Names) Of interesting note, is the variety and seemingly amusing
origins of the common names, which in itself presents as an interesting
etymological study. Frequent updates are done for photos, folkloric
info, research studies and addition of new plants.
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Ornamental
and Medicinal
The
compilation includes many ornamental plants, weeds
and shrubs with no known folkloric medicinal use in the Philippines,
which on web-search and research reveal folkloric medicinal use in other
countries or have undergone scientific investigations. Thus, because of the surprising wealth of information I have stumbled upon, I have started to include medicinal plant entrees without graphics. The use of public domain images and images through Creative Commons and GNUF Licenses have enormously helped provide visual elements to what would otherwise be bland pages of text. |
The difficulty in searching for a particular Philippine plant is the
multiplicity of common names that the plant may possess, often more than 10, sometimes as many as 30, varying from province to province or region to region. Offten, the common
names are shared by plants of other species. The Freefind search engine
will significantly facilitate your search through the haystack of
scientific names, common and English names. |
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Errors,
Updates, Images and Disclaimer |
Errors
Despite every obsessive-compulsive effort to match the botanical
information with the digital photos, the occasional mismatch
or incorrect image occurs. I appreciate
the corrections. |
Updates
There is a continuing effort to expand the list, improve the digital images, and update the research studies. Unfortunately, some links have become dead between the intervals of updating. Corrections are made as I stumble into them. |
Images
I search far and wide for the images to accompany the plant info. The use of creative commons and copyrighted images have been invaluabe in this medicinal plant compilation. I have made every effort to make the proper attributions and/or linking of these photos to the source pages. |
Disclaimer
The compilation on medicinal plants is part of the overview
on Philippine alternative medicine and intended for general
information, educational use and springboard material for
further studies. |
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New plant names needed
The compilation now numbers about 1,500 medicinal plants. While I believe there are hundreds more that can be added to the collection, they are becoming more difficult to find. If you know of a medicinal plant, native or introduced, to suggest for inclusion, please email the info: local plant name (if known), any known folkloric medicinal use, scientific name (most helpful), and, if possible, a photo. Your help will be greatly appreciated. |
© Godofredo U. Stuart Jr., M.D. / StuartXchange |
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