Abstract

Objects:This study was conducted to investigate the current educational environment of herbology and to develop a future-oriented curriculum for oriental medicine. The questionnaire used in this research was drawn up based on the current curriculum referring to the current curriculum of herbology and pharmacognosy. Methods:The survey was carried out presenting the questionnaires to a total 12,754 of the students and doctors of oriental medicine through e-mailing five times; of these, 2,074 replied. Results: 1.Among the respondents, about 97% agreed that it was necessary to revise and complement the current curriculum of herbology. 2.The respondents felt that the assigned lecture time of subject was “sufficient” (19%), “insufficient” (39%) and “average” (39%), respectively, and the level of lecture was “insufficient” (37%) or “average” (43%) respectively. According to priority, it showed that the contents which needed complement in lecture were discrimination of medicinal herbs (24%), practical use of action and indications (23%), and correlation with modern disease (21%). In theoretical lectures, 69% of the respondents agreed on the introduction of natural scientific methods 3.In practice, 51% of the respondents replied that the lecture time for practice was insufficient. The contents which needed to be complemented in practice were as follows: audio-visual materials for discrimination of medicinal herbs (22%), concrete exercise for the processing of medicinal herbs (21%), and attempts for the objective discrimination of medicinal herbs using instruments (microscope, analytical instrument, residual pesticide, heavy metal, genetic analysis) (16%). 70% replied that the discrimination of medicinal herbs of high price and rarity was “none or insufficient”. 4.56% replied that it was necessary to introduce and practice physicochemical analysis, and they showed higher requests according to the increase of their educational level. However, 86% replied that they had never experienced concrete attempts for objective discrimination of medicinal herbs, which seemed to indicate that, excepting some schools, practice exercise was rarely performed. Conclusions:According to results, it seems that an urgent review on the current course of herbology and a workshop on the process of experimental practice for professors is needed.