Comparative analysis of web search trends between experts and public for medicinal herbs in Korea

The information and knowledge about ethno-medicinal herbs are getting stronger interest in Global and Korea after the agreement of the Nagoya Protocol. However, it is known that there is a serious asymmetry of ethno-medicinal information between experts and public, thus this study aimed to analyze the similarities and differences in interest between experts and public for medicinal herbs in Korea through big data analysis.

The medicinal herbs selected in this study were the top 10 herbs in terms of the amounts purchased by TKM centers. And two representative web search engines were selected to collect the web search logs, i.e. big data, of experts and public for medicinal herbs in Korea. Comparative analysis was accomplished through descriptive statistical analysis, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and time-series graph analysis.

The web search traffic logs were collected for the past three years (2012-2014) from OASIS and NAVER, which are the representative web search engines of experts and public respectively in Korea. First, regarding OASIS, the most searched medicinal herb was Angelicae Gigantis Radix while the least searched was Alismatis Rhizoma; for NAVER, the most searched medicinal herb was Paeoniae Radix, unlike OASIS, and the least searched was Alismatis Rhizoma, as with OASIS. The coefficient between rank of herbs and OASIS was -0.401, and that between rank of herbs and NAVER was -0.387, and the correlational coefficient for web search trends of OASIS and NAVER during the past three years was 0.438. Also the correlation of interest between experts and public for each herb on monthly web trends basis was similar with regard to Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma and Angelicae Gigantis Radix, but different with regard to the other 8 medicinal herbs. Finally, significant outcomes or suggestions were figured out through time-series graph analysis.

This study presents meaningful results concerning the similarities and differences in interest between experts and public for popular medicinal herbs in Korea. Contrary to the common assumption that there exists big different interest between experts and public, this study revealed that there is apparent similar interest between experts and public on popular medicinal herbs in Korea.