Abstract
This research project has aimed at collecting, screening and translation of Lanna medical
text books and the development of a program for the data base of Thai Lanna medicinal plant recipes
and the selection of the recipes for the application in health system for the development of modern
medicinal plant products and modern phamaceuticals and for conservation. The total of 225 recipes
from Lanna medical text books and medicinal plant recipes written in Lanna religious alphabet and
recorded in palm leaves or mulberry pulp paper in seven provinces (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai,
Pra-Yao, Lumphun, Lumpang, Phrae and Nan) in northern part of Thailand were collected from the
Institute of Social Research, Lanna Art and Culture Promotion Center, and Pharmaceutical – Cosmetic
Raw Materials and Natural Products Research and Development, Chiang Mai University, Thailand.
Only 21 copies were selected base on the completeness of the contents and the reliability of the
documents. The documents were translated into 3 steps which were step 0 : the record of the recipes
as Lanna alphabet in the computer, step 1 : the translation of Lanna language to common Thai and
step 2 : the translation of common Thai to the understandable Thai. The total recorded recipes was
7,265 formulae. A program for the data base of Thai Lanna medicinal plant recipes was developed.
This program can be used to search and print the reports by the key words : province, document
code, microfilm code, disease /symptom (Thai, Lanna, English), medicinal plant (Thai, Lanna, English,
local name and scientific name) and the active compounds in the medicinal plants. The list of 3,965
names of the medicinal plants was obtained.
The examples of the monograph of the thirty Thai Lanna medicinal plants were presented. For
the 1,781 diseases which have been found in these recipes, there are classified according to
alphabetical order, anatomical system and disease code. For the selection of recipes, the program
was used to search the highest frequency of the disease/symptoms found in the recipes. Fever gave
the highest frequency followed by “San-ni-bat”, “Khang”, “Lom“, “Mareng-kud”, head-ache, “Mahoke”, ill during pregnancy, abscess and ill after baby delivery. The total of 619 medicinal plants were
used to treat fever. The 10 medicinal plants which were used in the highest frequency were, Oi-dang,
Choom-hed-tes, Ya-kha, Ya-teen-ka, Kluay-teep, Ya-khad, Ma-kog, Ma-dua-u-thoom-porn, Krua-khaoyen and Phai-bong. These plants may contain active compounds for antipyretic. Choom-hed-tes was
found in all recipes whereas other plants were in less frequency.
We have proposed 10 steps for the research and development of the selected 10 recipes for
health system application, by further study on confirming the effectiveness and safety and the
development of the proper formulations of these recipes. The five steps of the process to perform on
Thai medicinal recipes in other parts of Thailand following the criteria of this research project, have
also been proposed.
