Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Long before the development of Western medicine, most countries had their own version of healers and folk treatments for a variety of illnesses. Even in the 21st century, many people still turn to alternative cures using herbs and traditional medicines.

Cambodia, for example, has a culture of robust traditional medicine centered on the Kru Khmer, the traditional healers who are found all over the country. The Kru Khmer uses a form of naturopathy that combines different roots, barks, leaves of various trees, some minerals, and other natural ingredients.

Practitioners claim this branch of natural medicine can cure more than 100 diseases. The National Center of Traditional Medicine says about 40 to 50 percent of the Cambodian population use traditional medicine because they are poor and it is cheaper than Western medicine. These patients say that traditional medicine cures just as well as Western alternatives.

Traditional or natural medicines are available in stores and from individuals throughout Cambodia. They may be used topically or consumed orally. It sometimes happens that Kru Khmer will give their medicines to hospitalized patients.

Ly Bunarith, a well known Kru practitioner, said in an interview in Phnom Penh, “Khmer traditional medicine has little side effects to people’s health and people quickly recover from their illness.”

Although the Kru Khmer have their own special fields, and possess extensive wisdom and knowledge, there has been little in the way of statistical or academic evidence to support the methods they use.

Traditional remedies shop in Phnom Penh

That is changing. Recently, the Ministry of Health and the National Centre for Traditional Medicine opened the first official school of Khmer Practitioners of Traditional Medicine in Phnom Penh with the support of the Nippon Foundation .

One of the roles of the school will be to assess the findings of a Ministry of Health survey dealing with the Kru Khmer in order to scientifically manage the data produced by this survey, and prevent misinformation about traditional healthcare.

The opening of an official school for traditional medicine in Phnom Penh represents the first step toward the preservation and distribution of accurate information about traditional medicine in Cambodia.

It is the first step toward ensuring that proper treatment is given to the poorest of society and to people living in remote regions by carefully trained students who will provide the best of traditional healthcare.

The school has a curriculum, materials, and outreach programs that will nurture highly skilled Kru Khmer. It is hoped that the traditional medicine they will practice will become one part of a health system that assists people who cannot gain access to hospital based care. Courses will include study of herbs, traditional medicine plants, pharmacology, dissection, massage, moxibustion, and acupuncture.

The Nippon Foundation is sending Japanese traditional medicine experts to provide curriculum input, and the school will dispatch Cambodian traditional practitioners to study how other countries in the region are applying their own traditional medicine to treat their population.