Medicinal plant knowledge of the Temuan tribe in Kampung Orang Asli Hulu Kemensah, Ampang, Selangor and the evaluation of anti inflammatory properties of three selected plants / Nurul Akmal Muhamad

Nurul Akmal , Muhamad (2022) Medicinal plant knowledge of the Temuan tribe in Kampung Orang Asli Hulu Kemensah, Ampang, Selangor and the evaluation of anti inflammatory properties of three selected plants / Nurul Akmal Muhamad. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Abstract

Indigenous people possess their own knowledge on the usage of medicinal plants articulated by word of mouth between generations. If this knowledge is not documented, it will be lost in time. Thus, this study attempts to document plants that have therapeutic values to the indigenous Temuan tribe of Kampung Orang Asli Hulu Kemensah, Selangor. Fourteen villagers comprising an equal number of males and females ranging from 20 - 80 years old were interviewed for this study. Data for this study were collected using a set of questions whereby the name of the plant, treatment conditions, plant part used, method of preparation, and method of application were recorded. The anti-inflammatory activity of selected medicinal plant species was also evaluated using the inhibition of protein denaturation method. A total of 45 medicinal plant species from 32 families were documented. The majority of these medicinal plants belong to the families Fabaceae and Zingiberaceae. Cinnamomum javanicum is used as a treatment for the highest number of ailments and conditions followed by Curcuma longa. Meanwhile, Homalomena sagittifolia is the most commonly used medicinal plant species by Temuan in Kampung Orang Asli Hulu Kemensah. Apart from that, Cratoxylum formosum is the medicinal plant with the highest number of parts used among all the medicinal plants recorded. A total of 36 different ailments or health conditions were recorded where asthma, jaundice, wound, hypertension and diabetes were the most common. The most frequently used parts of the medicinal plants were roots and leaves with 17 and 14 species, respectively. A total of 23 species of medicinal plants are processed by decoction before application. Oral intake was the most common method of medicinal plant administration observed with 30 species. Cinnamomum javanicum, Clidemia hirta and Zingiber montanum were selected for anti-inflammatory analysis. The potency in inhibiting the protein denaturation was calculated in the following order: ethanol extract of C. javanicum (48.00 ± 4.00%) > water extract of C. javanicum (45.33 ± 3.53%) > water extract of Z. montanum (37.4 ± 3.13%) > ethanol extract of C. hirta (37.06 ± 4.04%) > ethanol extract of Z. montanum (34.27 ± 0.00%) > water extract of C. hirta (30.07 ± 8.07%). These findings could act as the baseline for exploring new anti-inflammatory medication using the traditional knowledge of indigenous people.

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