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Traditional Medicine in Health Care and Disease Management
Published in Amit Baran Sharangi, K. V. Peter, Medicinal Plants, 2023
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates about 4% of the world’s population die annually of different forms of diseases regardless of their level of civilization. Unhygienic practices, under-nutrition, poor communication, and lack of basic amenities like portable water, good roads keep communities worldwide in a perpetual state of risk and help to accelerate disease episodes. Traditional medicinal systems are widely accepted worldwide. The WHO has defined ethnomedicine as the indigenous knowledge, skills, and practices in different cultures (WHO, 2008). Among American traditional folk healers, herbal remedies, cupping, and leeching practices are common (Baxandall, Gordon, and Reverb, 1995). Bio-archeological and paleogenetic techniques assuredly became important tools for those who wish to write the history of disease from a global or long-term perspective, and were particularly important where manuscript and other documentary sources are fragmentary or ambiguous.
Exploring Important Herbs, Shrubs, and Trees for Their Traditional Knowledge, Chemical Derivatives, and Potential Benefits
Published in Azamal Husen, Herbs, Shrubs, and Trees of Potential Medicinal Benefits, 2022
Tilahun Belayneh Asfaw, Tarekegn Berhanu Esho, Archana Bachheti, Rakesh Kumar Bachheti, D.P. Pandey, Azamal Husen
The use of plants by man is an ancient practice. Plants are beneficial for humans as sources of medicines, flavors, foods, insect deterrents, ornaments, fumigants, spices, cosmetics, and income. Plants synthesize many secondary metabolites as a part of their regular metabolic activity to prevent themselves from predators, but researchers have demonstrated their use to treat various human illnesses (Gupta et al., 2014). Great emphasis has been given to the secondary metabolites of different natural sources, especially plants (Alassali and Cybulska, 2015). Ethnomedicine refers to natural practices of healing and treating ailments and diseases using various local practices made of wild plant and animal products. According to some studies, about 75–90% of rural populations rely on traditional medicines for their health care system (Assefa et al., 2010). Ethnomedicines/herbal medicines are much in demand as they are affordable and have fewer side effects (Abat et al., 2017). Recently, the WHO has also recognized the importance of traditional medicine in the health care sector and has designed the strategic use of national policies in medicinal plants (WHO, 2013).
Fenugreek (Methika)
Published in Dilip Ghosh, Prasad Thakurdesai, Fenugreek, 2022
Tanuja Manoj Nesari, Bhargav Bhide, Shivani Ghildiyal
Ethnomedicine practices are the roots of present medicine. The history of fenugreek revealed that it has been in use since ancient times in various continents of the globe. Fenugreek is one of the oldest medicinal plants used in Rome and Egypt to ease childbirth and to increase milk flow. In ancient Rome, it was used to aid labour and delivery.11 Even today, Egyptian women use this plant as Hilba tea to alleviate menstrual pains and sedate tummy problems.12
A comprehensive review of the ethnomedicine, phytochemistry, pharmacological activities of the genus Kniphofia
Published in Pharmaceutical Biology, 2022
Gashaw Nigussie, Metasebia Tegegn, Dessalegn Abeje, Haregua Melak
Plants, according to the locals, have nutritional, therapeutic, and mystical properties. Medicinal plants play an important role in local communities' healthcare systems as major components of medicine, particularly among the rural population (Nigussie 2021). Plant knowledge and application are strongly linked to ethnic cultures. The distribution, taxonomic variety, and abundance of medicinal plants vary based on location and climatic circumstances, and ethnomedicinal healing systems vary between societies (Farooq et al. 2019). The World Health Organisation (WHO) report shows that over nearly 80% of the world's population uses herbal plants to cure human ailments (WHO 2013). The report also demonstrates that medicinal plants are being studied as an alternative therapy and support for health-care activities. Traditional medicine incorporates medical parts of indigenous knowledge that have been passed down through generations prior to the development of modern medicine.
Cannabis as a potential compound against various malignancies, legal aspects, advancement by exploiting nanotechnology and clinical trials
Published in Journal of Drug Targeting, 2022
Nazeer Hasan, Mohammad Imran, Afsana Sheikh, Suma Saad, Gaurav Chaudhary, Gaurav Kumar Jain, Prashant Kesharwani, Farhan J. Ahmad
As defined by United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, cannabis or marijuana belonging to the genus Cannabis is a flowering of a fruit tops of the Cannabis plant [1]. Since ever the surge of legalisation of this ethnomedicine for therapeutic and clinical use, researchers from various fields (Medicinal Chemistry, Clinical Medicine, Pharmacology, and Molecular Biology) are investigating to derive the paramount results [2–5]. As an herbal medicine, the use of the plant Cannabis sativa can be dated back as early in Asia as 500 BC. Its active ingredient, cannabinoid, is always in controversy due to its abuse. Among the seventy cannabinoids, cannabidiol (CBD) and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) are the most prolific ones. Initial studies suggested that cannabinoids deliver physiological effects through vague interaction with the cell membrane. However, extensive research in the late eighties shed light on cannabinoid-specific receptors, CB1 and CB2 [6,7], suggesting remedial action mediated activities by cannabinoids.
Tinospora Cordifolia: A review of its immunomodulatory properties
Published in Journal of Dietary Supplements, 2022
Charles R. Yates, Eugene J. Bruno, Mary E. D. Yates
As the incidence of and susceptibility to acute and chronic diseases continuously increases, many health-conscious individuals have shifted their mindset from “treatment-centric”, viz., a primary reliance on pharmaceutical interventions, to one that incorporates measures and routines that promote disease prevention and resilience. For example, recent emergent health threats have heightened human awareness of the importance of and need for natural-based modalities that improve health and wellness. In this context, potential candidate botanical preparations are those that both promote a vigorous, well-regulated immune response and mitigate co-morbidities (e.g. diabetes) that weaken the immune system and pre-dispose to either bacterial or viral infection. The ethnomedicine literature including traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine is rife with preclinical and clinical substantiation data that support the immunomodulatory-related structure function claims of herbal preparations derived from numerous well-known medicinal plants such as Echinacea, Curcuma, Camellia, etc. The increased emphasis on human disease prevention and resilience has provided the impetus to explore and highlight additional, lesser-known medicinal plants with purported anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activity.