Praphat Manuelo Ruengthanoo

Praphat Manuelo Ruengthanoo, known as Drum, is a Thai Traditional Medicine practitioner, ethnobotanical researcher and educator from Chiang Mai, Thailand. His work looks at the links between traditional ecological knowledge, medicinal plants, indigenous wisdom, community resilience and regenerative approaches to health and land stewardship.

For more than ten years he was president of Sangob Foundation, a grassroots non-profit working on cultural preservation, ecological education and community development in Northern Thailand. Through Sangob he developed and led experiential learning programmes that brought international students, educators and visitors to Karen indigenous communities in the forested highlands. Participants learned about Karen spirituality and community values, traditional music, rice terrace agriculture, seasonal farming calendars, herbal medicine, natural dyeing, weaving, local food traditions and forest-based livelihoods. The foundation also supported local schools with educational resources, computers, scholarships and sports equipment, and worked with rural schools and villages on organic gardening, composting, food forests and natural building.

As an ethnobotanical researcher he studies the medicinal plants and traditional healing systems of Southeast Asia, including Andrographis paniculata (Fah Talai Jone), Cannabis sativa and Mitragyna speciosa (kratom), with a focus on their phytochemistry and medicinal properties. He is the founder of TAWI EdLab and is establishing the Praphat Vechasin Thai Traditional Medicine Clinic in Chiang Mai.

At IPC16 he speaks on the Many Paths the Collective panel, with the theme "The Forest as Pharmacy: Indigenous Knowledge, Thai Traditional Medicine, and Regenerative Futures".