Sustainable traditional medicine in French Polynesia: a focus on antidiarrheal remedies. – SUSTAINMEDPOL

Traditional medicine is an intangible cultural heritage which is used by 10 to 60% of people depending on the country. Its role is predominant in the achievement of seven sustainable development goals and targets. In French Polynesia, Polynesians (called ma’ohi) is the main indigenous group and represent 60% of the total population. They are known to have extensive traditional medical knowledge (TMK) with about 150 medicinal plants reported, and with gastrointestinal ailments as one of the main disorders treated. However, their TMK is threatened by various socio-cultural (lack of knowledge transmission), ecological (extinction of some medicinal plants due to overuse and climate change) and sanitary factors (health safety concerns due to misuse). SUSTAINMEDPOL aims to contribute to the sustainability of TMK in French Polynesia by analyzing these factors, sources of global pressure, developing new strategies of sustainability, and proposing solutions (plant conservation strategies, training program, scientific validation for official integration into the local health system). Diarrheal illnesses, highly prevalent in this territory and associated with various disorders, will be used as an object of study. SUSTAINMEDPOL is built around four work packages (WP). WP1,2&3 are chronologically ordered and imbricated to develop and propose tangible solutions that will be implemented in the WP4. Overall, SUSTAINMEDPOL is an interdisciplinary project involving original and innovative tools (online and on-site survey, multiple stakeholders at local and regional scales, replacement of mammals in lab experiments) from the fields of botany, ecology, pharmacology, phytochemistry and sociology. The scientific coordinator of this project is one of the few specialists in ethnopharmacology (interdisciplinary study of TMK) in France, and has developed strong collaborations with local experts in conservation and sociology, as well as internationally recognized biologists and chemists.