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영어

Investigating traditional knowledge, it can be source of various field including food and medicine. It means that it is not clearly defined scientifically and/or technologically. Therefore, this study was objected to survey and document traditional knowledge on mountain grown plants through the interview of local people in several the interior village, Republic of Korea by preliminary stage. We surveyed traditional knowledge in Gangwon and Kyeongsangbuk province, the republic of Korea, which is located in the mid-eastern part in Korean peninsula. When the age considered, the people under 65 years knew more and better than the people of other age. It is considered that they have better memories and chances to interact with mass media so that often confuse modern knowledge with traditional knowledge under unconscious situations. Except for under 65 years old age, the people of 76 years old to 80 years showed more knowledge than other age. More than half of the plants surveysed were used as medicinal source to solve problems such as cold, fever, stomach, joint pains, injury, woman’s disease, etc. The secondary usage was food. Some of the plant were used differently both in purpose and method by locality. Medicinal and edible plants were important for last decades for Koreans because medicines and even food were not easily available due to colonization and inner conflicts. Some plants used have toxic materials, but interviewees knew well how to remove them, although the process was not supported scientifically and technologically. Thus it needs a lot of caution if we take plants as source of food or medicine. The most popular part of a plant was leaf, stem, root, total plants, wood, and fruits in order. It is believed that herbs are used more frequently than trees because they are easily accessible and not necessarily divided.