Semantic Knowledge Representation of Plants Used in Traditional Medicine in Somalia

In Somalia the traditional medicine is widely used to treat different types of diseases. The rural communities trust and rely more on traditional healing as its part of their cultural experiences. The traditional knowledge regarding the Somali herbal medicine is yet to be documented to reserve for the future generation. This paper discusses the semantic knowledge representation of plants used in traditional medicine in Somalia. The study uses Acanthaceae-Chenopodiaceae family as a case study for the development of the ontology of the Somali medical plants. The study investigates the scientific name and the family of the plant, the vernacular or (indigenous name), parts of the plant used, medicinal usage, the method of preparation of remedy and the dosage. METHONTOLOGY ontology process life cycle is used to create the knowledge representation applying Resource Description Framework (RDF), Web Ontology Language (OWL), and RDF Query Language (SPARQL). In this ontology, data was gathered from previous publication on inventory of plants used in traditional medicine in Somalia especially the Acanthaceae-Chenopodiaceae family of plants. A prototype of a knowledge-based system is constructed based on the ontology classes in order to provide a well-defined model for Somali herbal plants used for traditional medicine. The findings of this study help to establish an ontology for Somali traditional medicinal plants, which is needed by a variety of parties and supports the best possible protection and utilization of Somali's botanical resources.