| Investigation into the cultural construction of health and therapeutics expressed through the paradigms of Vietnamese traditional medicine was undertaken in order to explore the ethnobotanical and ethnomedical practices associated with this cultural health framework among Vietnamese native and immigrant populations. In addition, attention to the cultural context of the overall use of modalities of medicine, and particularly, on the medicinal contexts of food plants was given in order to draw laboratory inquiry to the medicinal potentials by evaluating the biological activity of food plants commonly consumed as part of the Vietnamese diet.;Qualitative methods such as participant observation, focus groups, and structured and unstructured interviews that were directed by questionnaires, were used to obtain information on behavioral perspectives of health and medicine from Vietnamese immigrants and natives. Data from in vivo and in vitro experiments, together with compelling epidemiological studies, have shown that vegetables have an important role in protection against various cancers. Therefore, the laboratory portion of the research dissertation employed a battery of anti-cancer and cancer chemopreventive assays to investigate the bioactivity potentials of the food plants commonly consumed in the Vietnamese diet. The present study revealed that the Vietnamese population chose Western medicine for one set of conditions and retained traditional medicine for another set of conditions, while showing preference for one or the other based on fundamental cultural beliefs. Therefore, the conjunctive use of Eastern medicine with Western pharmaceuticals was a common practice within both of the study populations.;Results of the biological evaluation of 91 food plant samples obtained from markets in Vietnam demonstrated favorable biological activity, with the total number of samples characterized as "active" against any of the various targets was established in the range of 54.9%. |
