Traditional Uses of Leguminosae among the Karen in Thailand

Abstract

Leguminosae (legumes) are one of the largest plant families. They are widely used for a variety of purposes by people around the world and include many important cultivated economic food crops. On local scales, legumes are commonly used by various ethnic groups. However, the data are incomplete and scattered, not least in Thailand. We found that species of legumes were important in Karen communities, so we decided to investigate in detail the traditional knowledge of legumes on a local scale among Karen people in northern Thailand. We interviewed six herbalists and eighty-four nonherbalist informants in three Karen villages in Chiang Mai province about their use of legumes, and about the local names for the species, using semistructured interviews. A total of 83 legumes species (in 45 genera) had 4443 use reports. Five of the 83 legume species had not been reported previously as used in Thailand. Most Karen use reports (43%) of legumes were for food, medicine (36%), and materials (8%), but in term of species more legumes (68 species) were used for medicine than for food (53 species). The legume genera with most used species were Crotalaria and Flemingia each with six species. The most important species are Tamarindus indica (CI = 3.38), Senegalia rugata (CI = 2.39), Glycine max (CI = 1.27) respectively.

Keywords: Skaw Karen; cultural importance index; ethnic groups; ethnobotany; fabaceae; fidelity level; legumes; local scale; plant usage; traditional knowledge.

Figure 1

Number and percentage of use reports of Leguminosae in in each use categories in three Karen villages in northern Thailand.

Figure 2

Number of species of Leguminosae in each life form with traditional uses in three Karen villages in northern Thailand compared to their total number of species in each life form in the Thai legume flora.

Figure 3

Location of three Karen villages in Chiang Mai province, Thailand, where traditional uses of Leguminosae were studied.