Disclosure of Herbal Medicines Use on Mother and Children Health Care in Ternate Island Indonesia

Abstract

Traditional medicine (TM) is still used by some tribes in Indonesia to treat and cure a variety of diseases, including maternal and child health care. A Biang, or Woman Traditional Healer (WTH), is a woman who uses herbal plants to practice TM for the health of mothers and children. Indeed, the herbs and ingredients used are frequently undocumented, putting the sustainability of TM in jeopardy. TM practices are also practiced on Ternate Island, and no research has been conducted to date on the identification and documentation of local knowledge of WTH in the use of herbal plants. The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of the WTH who practice on Ternate Island, as well as to identify local knowledge of WTH and to document herbal plants used in caring for the health of mothers and children. The descriptive explanatory research method was used, and data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire guide. Snowball sampling was used to obtain respondents, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The average age of the thirty-eight WTH respondents was fifty-three years old. They have a primary school education (92.1%), and some have attended traditional medicine training (60.5%). All WTH use herbs in traditional medicine practice (100%), and their healing skills were entirely inherited from their parents. WTH used 32 herbal plants, with postnatal care receiving the most attention. Given the significance of TM using herbal plants, more research is needed to determine the safety of these plants.