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TRAMIL ethnomedicinal survey in Jamaica
What is TRAMIL?
In the Caribbean region, the Traditional Medicines in the Islands network (TRAMIL) is an applied research programme that scientifically evaluates and documents the safety and efficacy of medicinal plant remedies used for primary healthcare (www.tramil.net). A key aspect of the TRAMIL programme is the documentation and conservation of traditional knowledge and biodiversity, using ethno-medicinal surveys. Prior to the Jamaican study, approximately 50 surveys had been completed across the region, with submissions from countries including Antigua, Barbados, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Guatemala, Haiti, Martinique, Mexico, Saint Lucia, and Tobago.
A key goal of TRAMIL is the development of a Caribbean pharmacopoeia, that is, the detailed documentation of medicinal plants in use across the region, their medicinal value, known toxicities, etcetera. The importance of such a pharmacopoeia is highlighted by the disparity in the commercial availability of medicinal plants between countries with and without a written history of medicinal plant use. For example, sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, with an oral tradition of medicinal plant use, and, until recently, no formal pharmacopoeias, are home to approximately 60,000 plant species, yet account for only 83 of the world’s 1100 leading commercial medicinal plants. In contrast, China, with its extensive documentation of medicinal plant use, is the world’s largest exporter of medicinal plant material, with output from its materia medica valued at approximately US$83 billion in 2012. This disparity is unlikely to
change without the further development of regional and national pharmacopoeias, detailing medicinal plant use.
Project description and origin
This project was carried out as a survey, and represents the first Jamaican study to follow the TRAMIL methodology, and to contribute to the Caribbean wide TRAMIL database. The Research Group (MPRG) at the Biotechnology Centre, led by Dr Sylvia Mitchell, had adopted TRAMIL-style questionnaires since 2002, to gather information on the folk use of medicinal plants, thus building an extensive database of the rich heritage Jamaica possesses in this area. Her efforts culminated in this study,
Fourteen plants were identified as medicinal plants with significant uses, equal to, or greater than 20% of
the sample, for a specified health issue, and have been shortlisted and included in the TRAMIL database.
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