The taste and smell of Taban Kenyah (Kenyah medicine): An exploration of chemosensory selection criteria for medicinal plants among the Kenyah Leppo` Ke of East Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia

The Kenyah Leppo` Ke of East Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia rely heavily on plants grown and gathered for healing a wide range of health complaints. For the Leppo` Ke, sensory evaluation of plants plays a critical role in the selection and use of botanical therapies. This study explores the biological evidence for organoleptic selection criteria of medicinal plants vis-a-vis cultural understandings of modes of action and efficacy. The salient taste and smell qualities---pa`it 'bitter,' pa:t 'astringent' and more---mirror widespread patterns of interpretation and use found in other plant-dependent medical systems around the world. For instance, bitter plants are favored for resolving febrile conditions while astringent plants are primarily taken internally as antidiarrheals and used externally as wound-healers. Subordinate categories of the Leppo` Ke sensorium such as the property nglidah, accentuate the subtleties and sophistication of perception, interpretation and application that guide native therapeutic systems. Although harder to typecast, this elusive property that characterizes distant species is in fact distinguished by a number of chemotaxonomic and pharmacological commonalties.;Biocultural and ethnobiological theoretical frameworks informed research. Social and natural science methods were conjoined to address key questions about Leppo` Ke approaches to illness and healing. Open-ended and structured protocols and field observation were used to collect, contextualize and confirm data. Consensus analysis was employed to ascertain which medicinal taxa are identified as most efficacious and why. Voucher specimens were collected and taxonomically identified. A database search on the phytochemistry and pharmacology of plant species is used to suggest how medicinal flora may physiologically influence the health of human consumers.