Forming, transfer and globalization of medical-pharmaceutical knowledge in South East Asian missions (17th to 18th c.) – historical dimensions and modern perspectives
Abstract
From
the 17th to the 18th centuries, missionaries in Southeast Asia
dedicated themselves to providing and establishing a professional
medical-pharmaceutical supply for the local population and therefore
explored the genuine Materia medica for easily available and affordable
remedies, especially medicinal plants. In characteristic
medical-pharmaceutical compendia, which can be classified as missionary
pharmacopoeias, they laid down their knowledge to advise others and to
guarantee a professional health care. As their knowledge often resulted
from an exchange with indigenous communities, these compendia provide
essential information about traditional plant uses of Southeast Asian
people. Individual missionaries such as the Jesuit Georg Joseph Kamel
(1661–1706) not only strove to explore medicinal plants but performed
botanical studies and even composed comprehensive herbals. The Jesuit
missionaries in particular played roles in both the order’s own global
network of transfer of medicinal drugs and knowledge about the
application, and within the contemporary local and European scientific
networks which included, for example, the famous Royal Society of
London. The results of their studies were distributed all over the
world, were introduced into the practical Materia medica of other
regions, and contributed significantly to the academization of
knowledge. In our article we will explain the different intentions and
methods of exploring, the resulting works and the consequences for the
forming of the pharmaceutical and scientific knowledge. Finally, we will
show the options which the works of the missionaries can offer for the
saving of traditional ethnopharmacological knowledge and for the
development of modern phytotherapeutics and pharmaceutical supply. The
publication is based on a comprehensive study on the phenomenon of
missionary pharmacy which has been published as a book in 2011 (Anagnostou, 2011a)
and shows now the potential of historical medical-pharmaceutical works
written in the Asian missions of the 17th to 18th century and influenced
by ethnopharmaceutical knowledge and the relevance of historical
studies for modern investigation in phytotherapy.
Graphical abstract
Keywords
- History of medicinal plants;
- Intercultural transfer of knowledge;
- Formation of knowledge;
- Phytotherapeutics;
- Historical tradition;
- Philippine flora
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