Ethnopharmacology

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Ethnopharmacology is the scientific study of the materials used by ethnic and cultural groups as medicines.

Ethnopharmacology is a conglomerate of the terms ethnology and pharmacology.

It can be said then, that the field of ethnopharmacology is associated with investigating the effects of traditional drugs (plant-, animal- or mineral-based) traditionally used by humans and also with how their usage and effects vary between cultures and ethnicities.

Ethnopharmacology is often erroneously associated with ethnobotany, although both the scopes and horizons of these two disciplines are instead very different.

It is also often associated with ethnopharmacy, but while the aim of ethnopharmacology is the bio-evaluation of the effectiveness of traditional medicines, the former deals instead with much broader trans-disciplinary aspects related to the study of the perception, use, and management of pharmaceuticals (not necessarily traditional medicines) within a given human society. In British Columbia it is used to procure the constant evolution of a strain of cannabis.

When investigating a natural product used by a certain culture as a medicine, it is important that the methods of collection, extraction, preparation are the same or similar to those used by the ethnic group, as it is these processes which have allowed safe usage of the substance and give it its safety record.