By Maurice Malanes
Inquirer Northern Luzon
First Posted 19:30:00 11/16/2010
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines —Botanist Leonard Co is remembered in the Cordilleras for his work in helping communities systematize the knowledge of traditional healers about medicinal plants for their own primary health care.
Co was reportedly killed in a crossfire between government troops and communist rebels on a Leyte mountain on November 15, while he was doing field research.
As a former staff member of the Baguio City-based nongovernment Community Health, Education, Services and Training in Cordillera Region (Chestcore), Co since 1981 had helped list 122 medicinal plants in the region with their scientific and common names.
The description for each plant included its habitat, distribution, parts utilized, indications, directions for use, dosage, and precautionary notes on toxicity and contra-indications.
The list also included illustrations so anyone could identify the plant.
Co updated his list and in 1989, in collaboration with the Chestcore, published the book, “Common Medicinal Plants in the Cordillera Region: A Trainor’s Manual for Community-Based Health Programs.”
The book was primarily designed to help communities tap their traditional medicinal plants to treat some common diseases without relying too much on prescription drugs, which are not readily available.
Colleagues remember Co as a serious botanist always ready with a bag in which he would keep plants he collected anywhere he went, and a friend with a sense of humor.
He used to work as a botanist of Conservation International-Philippines.
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