Use of Plant Medicines by Contemporary Native Hawaiians

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The use of plant medicines by contemporary people of Hawaii is commonplace, even among urban populations and in a state which offers one of the most liberal access to biomedical health care in the US. Especially for Native Hawaiians, health care professionals express concern that access to these alternative medicines delays seeking attention from practitioners of biomedicines, which compromises the efficacy of such therapy, and that plant medicines are used in conjunction with or to the exclusion of pharmaceuticals, thereby setting into motion physiochemical actions that might be contrary to the outcome of pharmaceutical therapy alone. The primary objective of this research is to investigate the use of plant medicines from a biobehavioral perspective that explores the cultural constructions of "folk" preventive and therapeutic strategies and links that to pharmacologic assessments of medicinal plants. The principal concern is how preventive and therapeutic strategies affect the physiological health of Native Hawaiians. The plants isolated for attention will meet two criteria that increase the likelihood that they have a significant impact on health: 1) plants that enjoy wide currency - used most commonly by people and/or for more conditions; 2) plants most likely to compete directly with pharmaceuticals and other forms of biomedical care or to delay biomedical treatment.