Article Summary
What this article covers: Why traditional healing is being practised, researched and regulated again worldwide, how it differs from codified systems, and where travellers can see it without intruding.
Who this is for: Travellers and culture enthusiasts who want to understand the revival before they meet it on the road.
Key takeaway: Folk medicine never actually went away. What changed is that health ministries, researchers and travellers all started paying attention again at once.
Expert insight: “The first time I really noticed this was at a market stall in Marrakech, where a woman selling dried herbs was answering questions from a queue of local people rather than tourists. It made me realise how much of what we file under folk medicine is ordinary household knowledge that never left the house. You hear the same thing in Ireland when somebody mentions a neighbour who has the cure for a burn.” , Ciaran Connolly, Founder of ConnollyCove
Quick facts:
- The World Health Organization adopted its Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025 to 2034 in May 2025.
- The WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre is based in Jamnagar, Gujarat, India.
- Folk practice is passed on orally; systems such as Ayurveda are written down and licensed.
Table of Contents
Ask most people when it died out and they will give you a date. The nineteenth century, maybe, or whenever the local chemist opened. The honest answer is that it never did, as ConnollyCove found while researching Irish folk medicine and its herbal roots. In rural Ireland people still talk about neighbours who have the cure for shingles or a burn, and they say it plainly, the way you would mention someone who is good with cars.
What has genuinely changed over the past few years is the attention. Health ministries are writing traditional healing into policy. Universities are running trials on plants previously filed under superstition. And travellers are seeking out the markets, wells and gardens where these practices still happen. This guide covers what is driving that shift, what it looks like on the ground, and how to approach it without turning somebody’s living tradition into a photo opportunity.
What Is Driving the Folk Medicine Revival
Four things are driving it: cost, access, migration, and a change in who gets to decide what counts as knowledge. None of them is a wellness trend, and none of them is new. They have simply lined up at once.
Cost is the plainest of the four. Where a consultation is expensive or a prescription is not covered, a remedy made from something growing near the house is the option that is actually available. Access works the same way. In remote regions the nearest clinic may be a day’s travel, whilst the person who knows which plants do what lives on the same road.
Migration has moved these practices into cities that never had them. Curanderismo travelled north with Mexican communities into the United States. Chinese herbal shops opened wherever Chinese communities settled. Irish emigrant families carried their cures to Boston and Liverpool along with everything else. Our guide to traditional healing practices in Mexico traces one of those routes in detail.
The fourth driver is harder to measure but easier to notice. For most of the twentieth century, knowledge that had not been written down and tested was treated as folklore rather than information. That assumption has weakened. Researchers now take oral traditions seriously as a starting point for investigation, and a good many communities have decided they are no longer willing to hand over that knowledge for free. Both shifts have pushed these practices back into public conversation.
There is a fifth factor that matters for anyone reading this on a travel site. People tracing family history increasingly want to know what their great-grandparents actually did when someone got sick. That question leads to archives, to place names, and eventually to a plane ticket.
How the World Health Organization Changed the Conversation
The clearest sign that folk medicine has moved from curiosity to policy is what the World Health Organization has done since 2022. This is the part of the story that almost no travel or lifestyle article covers, and it is the part that explains why so much is changing at once.
In April 2022 the foundation stone was laid in Jamnagar, Gujarat, for what is now the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre, a WHO headquarters department outposted in India and funded largely by the Indian government. It functions as a knowledge hub, with a working focus on research and evidence, health systems, sustainability and equity.
The first WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit followed in August 2023 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, running alongside the G20 health ministerial meeting. A second summit was convened in December 2025 under the theme of restoring balance. Between the two, in May 2025, the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly adopted the Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025 to 2034, which sets four objectives: strengthen the evidence base, put regulation and safety standards in place, integrate traditional and complementary medicine into national health systems where the evidence supports it, and work across sectors on the wider benefits.
Two things follow from that for a reader rather than a policymaker. The first is that “traditional medicine” is now a regulated category in a growing number of countries, which is why you will increasingly see licensed practitioners, standardised products and formal training where there used to be none. The second is that the WHO itself flags the problems honestly: research methods that do not fit the subject, regulation that varies wildly between countries, and the misappropriation of Indigenous knowledge. That last one is worth carrying with you when you travel.
Folk Medicine and Traditional Medicine Are Not the Same Thing
Folk medicine is uncodified and domestic; traditional medicine is written down and institutional. Almost every article on this subject uses the two terms interchangeably, and the confusion is why so many searches for one return results about the other.
The distinction is genuinely useful once you have it. Ayurveda has texts, colleges, licensing bodies and a government ministry behind it. The remedy your grandmother made for a chest cold has none of those things and was never intended to. Both are legitimate. They simply work through different mechanisms of transmission and require different things from anyone studying them.
| Folk medicine | Traditional medicine | Modern biomedicine | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it is passed on | Orally, within families and neighbourhoods | Written texts, formal schooling | Published research, medical schools |
| Who practises it | Community members, often unpaid | Trained and increasingly licensed practitioners | Registered clinicians |
| Where it happens | Kitchens, farms, local homes | Clinics, hospitals, dedicated institutions | Hospitals and surgeries |
| How it is standardised | Rarely, and it varies by parish or valley | Pharmacopoeias and national standards | Regulatory approval and clinical trials |
| Examples | Irish cures, household herb remedies, poultices | Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Unani, Kampo | Prescription pharmaceuticals, surgery |
One correction worth making, because the original version of this article got it wrong: Unani medicine did not originate in the Indian subcontinent. It grew out of Graeco-Arabic medicine, developed in the Islamic world, and was later established and elaborated in South Asia. Our overview of traditional medicine across cultures covers the major codified systems in more depth.
Where the Revival Is Visible to Travellers
You can see the revival most clearly in four places: markets, sacred water sites, botanical and monastic gardens, and small regional museums. These are ordinary, mostly free, and usually unmarked on any tourist map. Below are the regions where ConnollyCove has covered this ground, with the caveat that in every case you are looking at something people still use rather than a heritage display.
Ireland
Ireland’s version of this survives in language before anything else. People speak about “the cure” as an inherited gift held by a particular family for a particular ailment, separate from herbalism. The National Folklore Collection’s Schools’ Collection, gathered from schoolchildren in 1937 and 1938 and now searchable at Dúchas.ie, holds thousands of these accounts in the children’s own handwriting, parish by parish. It is the single best free resource for anyone tracing a family remedy.
On the ground, the holy wells are the most visible remnant. Many carry rag trees, where cloth strips are tied to branches as a petition, a custom closely related to the fairy tree traditions covered in our guide to Ireland’s fairy trees.
ConnollyCove’s fuller treatment of the plants themselves sits in traditional Irish herbal remedies.
For the ritual and belief side of it, including fairy doctors and the customs attached to particular wells, see Irish folk healing traditions.
Mexico and Central America
Curanderismo remains an active practice rather than a historical one, with markets in Oaxaca and Mexico City selling herbs alongside candles and ritual items. Practitioners are consulted for conditions that have no biomedical equivalent, which is part of why the tradition has proved durable.
The Amazon
Plant knowledge in the Amazon basin is held by specific communities and, increasingly, defended by them. This is the clearest case anywhere of the misappropriation problem the WHO strategy names. Our guide to healing practices in the Amazon rainforest goes into how that knowledge is organised.
South and East Asia
Here the line between folk and codified practice is thinnest. A herbal shop in Kuala Lumpur or Kyoto may sell both standardised preparations from a licensed system and household remedies that never entered any text. If you are heading that way, our Kuala Lumpur city centre guide covers the markets where you will find both side by side.
Travellers interested in how two separate traditions handled the same problems will find the comparison in Irish and Native American healing customs a useful place to start.
Visiting Living Healing Traditions Respectfully
Treat these places as somebody’s practice, not somebody’s heritage attraction. That single rule covers most of what follows, and it is the difference between being welcome and being a nuisance.
Ask before photographing people, the items left at a site, or the interior of a shrine. At holy wells and rag trees, leave what is already there alone; it belongs to whoever left it, and taking cloth from a rag tree is genuinely offensive. Do not add non-biodegradable material either, which is a modern problem the custodians of these sites raise repeatedly.
Access in Ireland is usually informal rather than official. Many wells sit on private farmland reached through a gate that has been left open by long habit. Ask at the nearest house if the route is not obvious, take the same care you would with any working farm, and close gates behind you. Local guides are worth the money at sites where the significance is not signposted, which is most of them.
Do not buy remedies containing wildlife products. Several species used in traditional preparations are protected under CITES, and carrying them across a border is a customs matter regardless of what you were told at the stall. Dried plants are usually fine; check your destination’s biosecurity rules first, because Australia and New Zealand in particular do not make exceptions.
Finally, if somebody tells you a practice is not for outsiders, that is the end of the conversation. Irish oral tradition is full of the same idea in a different form, as the sayings collected in our guide to Irish proverbs show: knowledge is understood to belong to somebody.
What the Revival Cannot Do
Folk medicine is a cultural subject on this site, not a medical one, and the revival does not change the safety position at all. Nothing here is health advice, and none of it should replace speaking to a doctor.
Three specific risks are worth naming. Plant preparations interact with prescription drugs, sometimes seriously, which is why anyone taking regular medication should raise any remedy with a pharmacist before using it. Dosage in uncodified practice is by definition unstandardised, so two batches of the same preparation are not the same thing. And products sold as herbal supplements are regulated very differently from country to country, which the WHO strategy identifies as an open problem rather than a solved one.
There is also a conservation cost. Rising demand has put pressure on wild plant populations, and harvesting for commercial supply is not the same activity as a household picking nettles from a ditch. The older tradition of herbal medicine worked at a scale that regenerated itself. The current market frequently does not.
Frequently Asked Questions
These are the questions travellers and readers ask ConnollyCove most often about this subject, including the definitional ones that trip up most search results.
What is folk medicine?
Folk medicine is the body of healing knowledge held informally within a community and passed on by word of mouth rather than through texts or formal training. It usually draws on locally available plants, physical treatments such as poultices and bone-setting, and ritual or spiritual elements. Because it is uncodified, it varies from region to region and sometimes from parish to parish. That local variation is the defining feature, and it is what separates the practice from the large codified systems it is often confused with.
What is the difference between traditional and folk medicine?
Traditional medicine refers to codified systems with written texts, formal training and, increasingly, licensing, such as Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Unani and Kampo. Folk practice is uncodified and domestic, transmitted orally within families and neighbourhoods with no formal institutions behind it. Most articles use the two terms interchangeably, which is why searches for one often return results about the other. The practical difference is that traditional systems can be standardised and regulated, whilst folk practice largely cannot.
Why is folk medicine becoming popular again?
The revival has several causes running at once: the cost of conventional care, poor access in rural and remote regions, migration carrying practices into new countries, and a shift in how researchers treat oral knowledge. Policy has followed. The World Health Organization adopted a ten-year global strategy on traditional medicine in May 2025, which has pushed a number of countries towards formal regulation. For travellers, family history is a further driver, since tracing ancestry often leads to questions about what previous generations actually did when they fell ill.
Is folk medicine safe to use?
That question needs a doctor rather than a travel guide, and this article is written as cultural history rather than health advice. The general risks are well documented: plant preparations can interact with prescription medication, dosage in uncodified practice is not standardised, and herbal products are regulated very differently between countries. Anyone taking regular medication should speak to a pharmacist or doctor before using any remedy. It is worth understanding as heritage without being treated as a substitute for medical care.
What does the World Health Organization say about traditional medicine?
The WHO treats traditional medicine as a real component of health systems that needs evidence and regulation rather than dismissal. Its Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025 to 2034, adopted at the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly in May 2025, sets out four objectives: strengthening evidence, establishing safety and regulatory standards, integrating traditional and complementary medicine into health systems where justified, and working across sectors. The organisation also runs a dedicated Global Traditional Medicine Centre based in Jamnagar, Gujarat.
Where can travellers see folk medicine traditions today?
Markets, sacred water sites, monastic and botanical gardens, and small regional museums are the four places where these traditions remain visible. In Ireland that means holy wells and rag trees, most of which are free to visit and unmarked. In Mexico it means the herb sections of city and village markets. In parts of South and East Asia, herbal shops sell licensed preparations and household remedies from the same counter. Almost none of this is presented as a tourist attraction, which is precisely why it is still going.
What is a clootie well?
A clootie well is a spring or holy well where visitors tie strips of cloth to a nearby tree as part of a petition for healing. The name comes from the Scots word for a cloth. The custom is found across Ireland, Scotland and parts of Cornwall, and the tree involved is often the same species treated as a fairy tree in Irish tradition. Cloth left at these sites is meant to decay naturally, which is why synthetic fabric and plastic ribbons cause real problems for the people who look after them.
Do I need permission to visit holy wells in Ireland?
Most Irish holy wells are free and open, but many sit on private farmland reached by informal access rather than a public right of way. Ask at the nearest house if the route is not obvious, close gates behind you, and do not park across farm entrances. Some wells have active pattern days, when local people gather for prayers on the saint’s feast day, and those are worth checking before you visit. If a site is being used, it is better to come back later.
What are examples of folk medicine?
Common examples include herbal infusions for coughs and digestion, poultices applied to wounds and swellings, bone-setting, steam and sweat treatments, and healing customs attached to particular springs or wells. In Ireland, the specific idea of “the cure” describes an inherited gift for treating one named ailment, held by a particular family and separate from herbalism itself. Similar concepts appear across Europe and the Americas under different names, which is one reason the comparison between regional traditions is so productive.
Where to Go From Here
The revival is easiest to understand at ground level, in a market or at a well, rather than in a policy document. If you are heading to Ireland with this in mind, start with the Schools’ Collection to find what was recorded near the townland your family came from, then work outwards to the wells and sites nearby.
ConnollyCove is an Ireland-based travel and culture platform, and the healing customs above connect to a much wider body of Irish material we cover. Our guide to Celtic mythology creatures sets out the world these beliefs grew alongside.
The mythology runs deeper still in our coverage of the Tuatha Dé Danann, whose stories are tied to specific wells and burial sites you can walk to.
For the same instinct expressed in language rather than practice, ConnollyCove’s collection of Irish farewell blessings is a good place to start.
You can also follow along on the ConnollyCove YouTube channel, where we film these places as we visit them.
