Exploring Important Herbs, Shrubs, and Trees for Their Traditional Knowledge, Chemical Derivatives, and Potential Benefits
Azamal Husen in Herbs, Shrubs, and Trees of Potential Medicinal Benefits, 2022
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).
Role of Wild Plants in Curing and Healing the Skin Diseases
Mahendra Rai, Shandesh Bhattarai, Chistiane M. Feitosa in Wild Plants, 2020
Ethnomedicinal plants have excelled the synthetic medicines due to their fewer side effects, rapid action, and low price. In old times, the magic and superstition overwhelmed the ethnomedicinal practice. Today, the scientific tests have proven the remarkable curative power of many traditionally used herbs. Nowadays, the dangerous and costly drugs are replaced by the safe alternative medication in the form of ethnomedicinal plants. Ethnomedicine has imparted a significant contribution to the world of medicine. Ethnobotany enjoys the features of the wide scope application and understanding of primitive societies and plant utilization. Skin is the most sensitive organ and covers all the body of the human. In all animals and humans, skin serves as the first line of defense, and combats the infection when it tries to enter the body through it. The skin contains numerous specific cells and structures. It is secluded into three rule layers, as epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis. Each layer has a substitute assignment to do in keeping up the skin prosperity. The aim of this chapter is to analyze the treatment of skin diseases with the help of wild plant extracts, their inhibitory concentrations, active ingredients, and mode of action. So this discussion has confirmed the role of wild plants and their secondary metabolites as therapeutic agents. This herbal treatment saves us from any drug resistance and the side effects of drugs, which is the part and parcel of allopathic treatment.
Ethnomedicinal Plants of the Indo-Gangetic Region and Central India
T. Pullaiah, K. V. Krishnamurthy, Bir Bahadur in Ethnobotany of India, 2017
The plant people relation dates back to the very early period of human civilization. With the gradual development of human civilization, dependence of primitive men increased more and more on their surrounding plant resources, not only for food, but also for fodder, fuel, drug and shelter. The knowledge of curing diseases and ailments was developed as a system of health care through trial and error over a long period of time. Like any other traditional knowledge, this system of knowledge on health care is also transmitted orally from one generation to another (Rahaman, 2015). Such age-old healthcare systems have been developed by the ancient people in different corners of the world where they are living in close association with the nature. Since time immemorial, for the treatment of ill health plant wealth have been in use among different ethnic and traditional communities throughout the world including India. This is the basis of ethnomedicinal study today. Ethnomedicine is an important branch of ethnobotany which deals with the traditional practices involved in using biological resources including plants by the ethnic people for curing the diseases and ailments of their own and their domesticated animals. Medicinal plants which are used in preparation of remedies by the ethnic communities are generally known as ethnomedicinal plants. India is a country of rich biodiversity and is endowed with her great cultural heritage. In India, there are about 550 tribal communities covered under 227 ethnic groups residing in about 5000 villages in and around different forest and vegetation types (Pushpangadan, 2002).
Traditional medicines and their common uses in central region of Syria: Hama and Homs – an ethnomedicinal survey
Published in Pharmaceutical Biology, 2021
Chadi Khatib, Abdulhakim Nattouf, Mohamad Isam Hasan Agha
The perspectives in the questionnaire were compared with other ethnomedicine studies in the countries surrounding Syria such as Lebanon (Taha et al. 2013), Jordan (Lev and Amar 2002; Al-Qura'n 2009), Palestine (Friedman et al. 1986; Kaileh et al. 2007), Iraq (Al-Douri 2000) and Turkey (Yeşilada et al. 1995; Sezik et al. 2001). Similarities in various traditional uses in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan were observed. This is mainly due to the mutual history of these areas that were previously called Levantine Nations (Bilad al-Sham) (Lev 2002), and there is some similarity with a smaller number of folk uses both in Syria and Iraq, but there is a difference in the folk uses described between Syria and Turkey (Korkmaz et al. 2016; Yerebasan et al. 2020). We compared the folk uses of plants mentioned in related articles on ethnomedicine in these regions with the plants studied in our research to find out the extent of congruence or difference the uses of similar plants.
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.
Differential Expression of Platelet Activation Markers, CD62P and CD63, after Exposure to Breast Cancer Cells Treated with Kigelia Africana, Ximenia Caffra and Mimusops Zeyheri Seed Oils In Vitro
Published in Nutrition and Cancer, 2022
Monica N. Gomes, Pascaline Fru, Tanya N. Augustine, Davison Moyo, Eliton Chivandi, William M. U. Daniels
Ethnomedicine has historically been used for the prevention and treatment of various diseases (30). For instance Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia are treated with compounds isolated from the Madagascar periwinkle plants (Vinca rosea) – Vinblastine and Vincristine (31, 32), while Paclitaxel, originally extracted from the bark of the Pacific Yew, Taxus brevifolia Nutt, is frequently used in the treatment of ovarian and breast cancer (32, 33). However the use of some of these herbiceuticals has been controversial. A concern has been raised over a possible Paclitaxel-induced pro-thrombotic risk as a number of reports of thrombotic episodes in cancer patients being treated with this chemotherapy plant alkaloid have been reported (34, 35).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Drug Discovery
- Ethnobotany
- Medical Anthropology
- Medicinal Plants
- Traditional Medicine
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- Pharmacognosy
- Herbal Medicine
- Lead Compound
- Medication