MedPlantBot: AI Chatbot Architectural Design Framework for Responsible Use of Medicinal Plants

Medicinal plants become a viable substitute goto treatment for common ailments when overburdened with hospitalization expenses and low accessibility to the government's health care system. As support and advancement with Catanduanes' alternative healing, this paper presented an approach to integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Chatbot technology to address queries on treatment forms and usage of various medicinal plants. Employing documentary analysis and AI Chatbot framework design for its mixed-methods approach, the MedPlantBot prototype was built using conversational AI Chatbot architecture, Google's DialogFlow platform, and Kommunicate, a web chat interactive platform for bot and human interaction (Bot + Human hybrid). User acceptance, consisting of experts, traditional healers, and users of medicinal plants, for the prototype, averaged as “Strongly Agreed” in terms of its usability. Significantly, this study can serve as an educational platform for the community to learn how to use medicinal plants available in their area to treat ailments. Ultimately, this study brings potential in providing local folks with a cost-effective alternative as an initial healing practice to improve their health and wellness, thereby contributing to the attainment of the third Sustainable Development Goal of the United Nations – Good Health and Well-being.