Traditional medicinal knowledge of Malays in Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia

This study was carried out to assess the traditional knowledge of medicinal and aromatic plants, to explore and record those plants and plant parts used for treating various human ailments by the traditional healers in eight districts of Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia. It was carried out through face to face interviews with the aid of a semi-structured open questionnaire. Three hundred and eighty four respondents were selected based on Krejcie-Morgan table. Forty six plant species were documented. Syzygium polyanthum was the only plant species with high UV, RFC and FL% at 0.068, 0.872 and 100%, respectively. The most common part of plant used in preparing herbal medicine was the leaves (55.5%). The most common method of preparation was decoction (34.4%) and infusion (24.0%), and cancer has the highest ICF value of 0.9950. The study has provided both quantitative and qualitative data which will be very useful for researchers to plan for biodiversity conservation and plant standardization, for possible development of herbal supplement and new drugs. Further scientific studies should be carried out on S. polyanthum.