The Development of an Indigenous Kenyan EthnobotanicalDatabase
The problem
There are two major threats to humankind today: the loss of biodiversity
and the loss of traditional knowledge about biodiversity. Both are issues
of utmost importance. Any species that becomes extinct is an option for
medicine, food, genes, etc., lost forever. Cultures with vast knowledge of
their plant resources also are threatened by extinction because of
acculturation. The traditional knowledge of plants has provided our
modern society with medicines, food, industrial materials and many other
advantages that we take for granted. Ethnobotanical research is providing
fundamental information in the search for new drugs, foods, pesticides,
natural products, genes and all kinds of chemicals. Ethnobotanical data
provides an extraordinary diversity of important questions for botanical,
ecological and anthropological research.
Purpose To manage the complex information involved in ethnobotanical research, a
database system is an excellent approach. Databases can be designed to
incorporate many of the intricacies of the real world. For example, the
relationships between scientific names and common names vary through
time, space and culture. Names come in and out of use. Species referred
to by a common name will change from one area to the next, from one
time period to the next. Through the use of the right relational data
tables and programming, it is possible to provide for those complexities.
Furthermore, with relational databases, many individuals can work
separately adding and correcting material that enhances the overall
information system. Upon searches, people can then discover information
and relationships novel to them from their own data entry and research.
For example, the biochemicals found in various species may be entered by
various people. Other individuals could enter the medicinal uses made of
various species in many different cultures. Still others could find through
their data queries a list of biochemicals found in plants effective in the
treatment of a certain disease. Further searches can find which ones
would affect various aspects of the disease process.
The purpose of this project is to develop such a database focusing on the
ethnobotany of Kenya.
Outputs and
milestones
The Ethnobotanical database will efficiently provide and preserve
fundamental information in the search for:
• new drugs,
• foods,
• pesticides,
• natural products,
• genes and
• all kinds of chemicals.
• The data in the database will provide an extraordinary diversity of
important questions for research in:
• botany,
• ecology and
• anthropology.
Impact and
beneficiaries
The immediate beneficiaries are the people in rural areas who have no
access or prefer to use herbal remedies to modem medicine. The project
will enhance transfer of available knowledge in herbal medicine to them.
The project will also provide essential information to the pharmaceutical
industry on plants with active ingredients and their agronomic practices.
Some of this knowledge will be translated into drugs for different diseases.
In other words the project will be bioprospecting for the pharmaceutical
industry. The project will also enhance conservation of plants being used
and some which might be under the threat of extinction.
Project
location
The database will be based in Nairobi, Kenya but will have activities in all
parts of Kenya namely western Kenya (Luo, Luhya), Central Kenya
(Kikuyu), Eastern Kenya (Kamba, Meru), Coast (Mijikenda, Taita),
Southern Kenya (Masai) and Northern (Turkana), Northeastern Kenya
(Somali/ Borana/ Samburu). Data will be collected from these
communities and curated in the database at Nairobi.
Collaborators Traditional herbal practitioners, tribal heads, NGOs, Kenya Medical
Research Institute, ICIPE, Kenya Agricultural Institute, Kenya Forestry
Research Institute, Ministry of Environment and natural resources,
universities and Pharmaceutical companies.
Duration 2 years initially, but updated regularly.
Item Cost (US$)
Collection /collation of herbal knowledge in all Districts in Kenya US$78,000.000
Computer hardware US$29,700.00
Computer Network infrastructure, Software
development and Database management US$20,500.0000
Institutional overheads at US$ 27,320.00
Budget
Total US$155,520.00
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