Plant remedies

Take another look in your medicine cabinet to see other products that had their origin in plant remedies beta blockers, birth control, sedatives, laxatives, antiseptics, soap. So the next time you take a much-needed medicine, go out and hug a tree. 

Plants have always played a central role in traditional systems of medicine for the prevention and treatment of disease worldwide [10, 11]. Although an in-depth history of plant medicines, for both human and veterinary purposes is beyond the scope of this review, it is important to understand that for thousands of years the traditional medicine in all countries exclusively employed naturally occurring plant medicines. For example, Hippocrates (5th century B.C.) mentions approximately 300 to 400 medicinal plants in his medical writings Dioscorides (1st century A.D.) wrote De Materia Medica, a medicinal plant treatise that outlined the medical use of numerous plant species and many hundreds of plant remedies are described in the Papyrus of Ebers, discovered in Egypt, which was written about 1550 BC [5, 11]. Furthermore, traditional Chinese medicine uses multiple plant prescriptions and has served the health needs of the Chinese population for over 5000 years [12, 13]. The Bible also described over 30 plant species, including frankincense and myrrh, which are reported to have antiseptic and healing properties [5]. 

Herbal medicine is the art of restoring or preserving the health of humans physically, mentally, socially, spiritually and otherwise through the use of plant remedies. The term is often used interchangeably with traditional medicine or traditional remedies because it has evolved through the ages from the traditional and cultural practices of the indigenous people. In the industrialised countries of the West where biomedicine is conventional, herbal medicine is usually referred to as complementary or alternative medicine. Some people in the industrialised nations will even term elements of herbal remedies as health supplements. 

There is inadequate documentation about herbal medicine in the cormtry. The plant remedies have not been scientifically validated for safety and efficacy for them to be included in list of essential drugs for natiorral health systems (JJ). Herbal medical practice is also still shrouded in secrecy and perceptions of metaphysical powers. It is essential that research should explode the myths and superstitions associated with herbal remedies by establishing the real basis of the therapeutic properties of the medicirral plants used in herbal remedies (J 2). 

The majority of plants used in traditional medicine are directly collected from the wild with few cultivated. The most common plant remedies are used as infusions, powders, decoctions (boiled for few minutes or hours), macerations (steeped in cold water for a period of time), added in foods or drinks (5). 

The vast majority of chiral drugs present in the old remedies were unichiral Mother Nature is not even-handed. All in all, chiral drugs have been of great importance in the development of pharmacotherapy, from the earliest plant remedies of miUeimia ago to the modern age. Many of these ancient chiral drugs are still in use today, and many new and important drugs have been developed by modifying the molecules of natural products identified in old remedies. 

The ultimate question, of course, is whether these plant remedies really work, and if so, what the side effects are. Are they serious Dosage levels and frequency, methods of administration, and biochemical individuality have to be considered. The bottom line becomes the risk/benefit trade-off. 

Somehow, the status of alternative cancer therapies is akin to the role played by Australian nurse Sister Elizabeth Kenny in the treatment of polio. Her ways of assisting polio patients were more or less all that was available at the time, although often vilified, until the Salk and Sabin vaccines appeared on the scene. (With the qualifier that most new polio cases are now said to be caused by the vaccine itself.) Thus, we await the magic bullet for cancer, which may be unsuspected, but whose discovery may be fortuitous, as with penicillin and other antibiotics. No one would have anticipated that there could be such destroyers of infection as penicillin, though their existence and use were apparently known in native folklore medicine. Such may be the course for a cancer cure, that is, some native plant remedy may already be in existence, only awaiting discovery by modem medicine. Combining serendipity and purpose, someone might come up with an effective, universal vaccine. 

Heinerman observes that a huge number of plants could be dted, but he presents a limited few excerpted from an article by Dr. Hartwell on Plant Remedies for Cancer. These are further listed in Table 7.1, for the record, but with no guarantees. 

Source Adapted from Heinerman, J., The Treatment of Cancer with Herbs, BiWorld, Orem, UT, 1980, 1984 as taken from Jonathan L. Hartwell s Plant Remedies for Cancer, Cancer Chemotherapy Reports, 7 19-24, May 1960. 

We can further ask, were human beings somehow constituted differently in times past Were their immune systems more active and more responsive to outside stimuh, say from the plant remedies administered And were the plants themselves, back then, more biologically active ... 

At the same time, one would think that the U.S. government should take up the slack and become more involved in plant remedies, say, via the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute. (An Office of Alternative Medicine, later called the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, was founded within the National Institutes of Health, but all seems quiet at the front lines.) Furthermore, as already indicated, musical chairs are being played by government and industry (and academia as weU, which depends on research grants). Call it collusion if you will. It is the downside of capitalism in action. The human element always will out. 

Hartwell, J.L., Plant Remedies for Cancer, Cancer Chemotherapy Reports, 7 19-24, May... 

For centuries, mankind has searched for the cure of illnesses in herbs. In that sense, approximately one third of drugs actually in use are from plant origin [1]. In the last decades, however, most of the drugs incorporated to the therapeutic arsenal come from synthetic sources. Nevertheless, in recent years a remarkable interest in the study of medicinal plants has appeared, mainly due to the concern about the destruction of rain forest habitats, with the risk of extinction of numerous species. Another fact is the loss of the knowledge related to the use of plant remedies by the people from native settlements, that is very common when they are incorporated to the urban life, and/or when their environmental conditions are seriously transformed. 

Owen PL, Johns T Xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity of northeastern North American plant remedies... 

Given the sketchy knowledge, as in the case of other plant remedies reported in the chapter, the decoction of zoapatle appears now to be a far better medicine used as a whole than the sum of each of its ingredients separately. 

Interest on stockpiled concentrate Engineering/construction overheads Operating costs of an old plant Remedial work... 

Many of the specific activities of plant remedies described by Avicenna have been confirmed by modem research conducted at the Institute of Chemistry of Vegetative Substances (ICVS) of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan. For example, according to Avicenna, the plant Haplophyllum perforatum has anti-inflammatory and seda-... 

A Mexican research group produced a plant remedy from P. gua-java L. leaves under the coded registry QG-5. The natural medicine had a standardized concentration of flavonoids (estimated as quercetin 1 mg/500 mg) and it was presented in capsules for oral administration to 50 adult patients with acute diarrheic disease. There was a control group n = 50), who received placebo capsules of the same size, taste, and color and the same administration routine (every 8 hours for 3 days). The phytodrug showed a relevant spasmolytic effect and succeed in decreasing the duration of abdominal pain (Lozoya etal. 2002). 

Plant Remedies to Modern Medicine Language of Plant Remedies Common Medicinal Plants Words of Caution... 

LANGUAGE OF PLANT REMEDIES. Along with the knowledge of the use of medicinal plants, a particular language has resulted which describes the method of use and/or the ailments for which plant remedies are employed. Some of the more important words commonly used follow. 

Emmenagogues—Plant remedies with this action are said to promote menstrual discharge. 

---