Zone 2 Traditional Thai Pharmacy
Wisdom Accumulated Through Generations
In the past, folk healers and traditional practitioners used their experiences to diagnose and treat their patients. The tailor-made recipes have been compound according to the condition of each patient. They generally collected the medicinal plants from the wild. Cleaned and dried crude drugs were kept for their usage.
Principle of traditional Thai Pharmacy
Traditional medicine practitioners are influenced by the Indian Ayurveda healing arts and have to obtain complete mastery of the four basic subjects: Pasat-vattu, Sapakum-pasat, Kana-pasat, and Pasatkama. This knowledge allow them to select the correct ingredients and remedies for any situation. Traditional Thai practitioners were influenced by the Indian Ayurveda knowledge, and have to obtain complete mastery and understanding of the four basic principles: Pasat-vattu, Sapakum-pasat, Kana-pasat, and Pasatkama.
Paesat-vattu is the knowledge of medicinal crude drugs which can be plants, animals or minerals. Traditional practitioners must be able to characterize those drugs for their compounding.
Sapakum-paesat refers to the properties of the crude drugs identified in Paesat-vattu, including their tastes and other traditional uses f in written records or orally passed through generations. The drug tastes divided into 3 Ya rot prataan or formulation tastes and 10 rot-ya or crude drug tastes.
Kana-paesat involves the art to group some Paesat-vattu which possess similar property or enhance efficacy and must be used together. These categories help practitioners to memorize a wide range of ingredients, which makes it easier to formulate recipes.
Paesatkama describes the art of Thai herbal compounding, both for internal use and external applications.
General periods to collect medicinal plants:
Roots and underground stems: From start of cool season to end of hot season.
Stems and above-ground root barks: From end of hot season to start of rainy season.
Leaves and whole small plants: Collect when the plant has fully matured.
Flowers and fruits: Depends on the type of plant.