There are numerous medicinal plants in current use in Thailand. Ayurvedic medicine and Thai traditional medicine, each finding many uses and deserving to be exhibited to the enthusiasts who wish to know about the characteristics of its stem, flower, fruit together with the research work undertaken, it is impossible to exhibit all, or even the majority, of them.
For this reason some common medicinal plants which received research attention both locally and internationally have been selected. In addition, some which have so far attracted little attention from researchers have also been included owing to their recognition in Ayurvedic Medicine and traditional medicine in Thailand as well as some Asian countries.
The information has been searched from the literature, selected and edited in order to be presented in this site, which will familiarize the reader with general characters of such plants. No botanical details are given owing to the nature of this work and also to limited space. Sketches of the plants, however, are given to enable the reader to recognize them. It should be noted that all Thai, Sanskrit, Latin and English common names of the plants appearing in this site are transliterated into English with the sound in mind, and not according to the official rules.
In addition, owing to the limited space the traditional usage of each plant is meant to be representative, and by no means comprehensive.
It is interesting to note that out of 5,800 plants species indigenous to Thailand, 1,900 species have already been studied. In the period 1967-81, over 177,000 publications of research work on these plants in the fields of chemistry, pharmacology, toxicology and others appeared in the Chemical Abstracts. Over 800 species are described in Thai traditional recipe and about 400 species are available in traditional drug stores. It can be said that the medicinal plants presented herein represent a fair number of their kind.
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