Using a Learning Tool for Improving Results from a Multi-Lingual and Multi-Cultural Herbal Search Engine

Abstract

Traditional Thai medicine has been influenced by several cultures, especially from China and India. It is hard to search herbal information we need using a simple keyword, e.g., a common name of a language. In this paper, the KUIHerbRx2014, a multi-lingual and multi-cultural learning tool for herbal information, is introduced. Herb identification, herbal vocabulary, medicinal usages and reliable references, can be collected from this system. Mechanisms of utilizing this tool for improving results from a multi-lingual and multi-cultural herbal search engine are also proposed: (1) providing a set of technical terms in multiple languages, especially herb names, with can be added into local dictionaries. These terms are utilized by word segmentation tools for improving the indexing and searching processes (2) a set of synonyms of these technical terms is built for helping users from a lot of keywords of the same term (3) a list of references from the learning tool can be used as sources of information. From the results, information collected from KUIHerbRx2014 is useful for searching multi-lingual and multi-cultural herbal information by a search engine.