A study of lightweight ontology for herb domain

The usage of herb has evolved from an alternative healing option to mainstream medical field, culinary, cosmetic as well as gardening purpose. The dramatic increment of interest in the usage of herb these days are due to the critical scientific analysis and quality control of its therapeutic potential and safety. Consequently, the process of searching for herbal information becomes difficult due to the heterogeneity of herb data, as well as the overlapping content. The massive herb knowledge needs to be organized and managed so that it can be accessed easily by scientists, herbalists and general users. The herb species, usages and their relationship need to be well-captured and stored. Thus, ontology is seen as a solution to solve this problem. Nowadays, ontology is in widespread use as a means in representing domain knowledge. The reason for such extensive use is that it is not only consistent but also has upward compatibility and is modifiable. However, the ontology design released by researchers especially in herb domain is relatively small in number. A characteristic of lightweight ontology is further investigated in order to modelling the herb domain.