สำนักราชบัณฑิตยสภา

The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Vol. 30 No. 4 Oct.-Dec. 2005 962 Researching Traditional Medicine: A Review and Evaluation of Objectives and Methodologies rance of a casual conversation, but both parties are aware that it is an interview. The researcher exercises minimum control over the responses-- the informant is led to the topic of the interview but independently develops the content of discussion. 23 Unstructured interviews are most useful when there is ample time on the field and interviewees may be interviewed on many separate occasions. Unstructured interviews can be used to build initial rapport with informants, approach sensitive issues, and develop formal guidelines for more structured interviews and methods. 24 An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in Portugal chose to use unstructured interviews in order to encourage informants to speak spontaneously and without pressure. 26 Each informant was interviewed several times, some- times with more than one informant at a time. The results of the interview included a list of medicinal plant aromatic plants used and/or known by each informant and voucher specimens. This data was quantita- tively analyzed to determine such factors as novelty of plant names, ethnobotanicity index, ethnobotanical richness, ethnobotanical diversity, equitability, and informant consensus factor. Semi-structured interview The semi-structured interview is guided by a list of questions and topics that are covered in a particular order, but the interviewer may follow leads during the interview. This method is most useful when there is little time available on the field and people may not be interviewed more than once. It may also be used to pursue details after specific research questions have been established. 23 The pharmacopoeia of a mi- nority ethnic group in Croatia was surveyed for the first time. 27 The study chose to use semi-structured interviews because the study period was short and flexible methods were needed to collect data. Semi- structured interviews were com- plimented with participatory obser- vations methods to collect ethno- botanical, ethnopharmaceutical, and ethnomedical data from elderly community members. Many of the interviews were recorded with audio and video records and photos. The results included a detailed list of medicinal plants and animals and medicinal use details, and voucher specimens. Structured interview or question- naire Structured interviews use one set of questions to collect data in a consistent and accurate manner and provide fast analytical data from a large study population from which inferences can be made with reasonable accuracy. 22 Negatively, the inflexible and impersonal cha- racteristics of structured interviews increase the possibility of bias in the questioning, especially if the questions have not been well de- veloped. Questionnaires were adminis- tered to a sample of 400 women in postnatal period to document their use of herbal remedies for six different groups of health conditions. 28 Plants samples were not necessary to iden- tify the plants, since the women used common local plant names. The study compiled information detailing medicinal plant species used to remedy each health condition, the plant part used, medicinal plant preparation and method of use, and the women’s basis and result for using each remedy. This study chose to use questionnaires in order to reach a large sample of women and identify the broad scope of herbal remedies used for postnatal health conditions. Applied interviews A field interview takes place in vegetation zones, where the infor- mant and/or interviewer may select plants to discuss. This method allows informants to see plants in a natural state, which validates plant identi- fication and encourages new leads and discussion during interviews. The interviewer may choose to mark or number plants prior to the interview in order to quantify the results. However, this method is time- consuming, and the researcher may be limited to the number of infor- mants and plant species used in the sample. 23 Plant samples can be collected from the field and used as props during interviews with informants in the village. This is a fast and useful method for reconfirming or gathering