Human beings everywhere, at all times and places, had to deal with diseases and illnesses. Medical systems emerge from human efforts to survive disease and surmount death. All living organisms, starting from a tiny plant to the highly evolved man, have their own inbuilt mechanism to ward off death and disease, thereby postponing their demise from this world. In other words, different adaptive strategies (medicine and medical systems) made by human groups to counteract disease pressures in their environment have resulted in the development of medical systems. All indigenous groups and their medical systems must provide certain minimum levels of responses to human health problems. Thus, traditional medicine and medical systems are related.
Medicinal plants constitute an integral part of many indigenous folk and tribal medical systems in India as well as in other countries. Even before the emergence of civilization, man was a simple hunter and gatherer. He relied on plants for food, medicine and shelter. Early man realized the well-placed role of plants in every walk of life. This created a necessity for comprehensive study of plants. Medicines from herbal sources still play a major role in dealing with certain critical and intractable diseases such as diabetes, asthma and cancer. There is a revival of interest in herbal drugs worldwide as substitute medicines for the above conditions. Early humans had discovered many useful curative agents in the plant and animal kingdoms. This empirical knowledge was passed on by oral tradition and ultimately recorded in the 'Materia Medica'. The indigenous knowledge was built up through practical experience and trial and error testing. The scientific inquiry for pharmacologically active and therapeutically useful constituents contained in herbal drugs is an ongoing research activity in the field of herbal drug research and ethnopharmacology.
The Indian subcontinent is unique in possessing anthropologically diverse ethnic groups with varied cultural background exhibiting unity and diversity. In India, there are 533 major tribal communities comprising 8.2 percent of the total population, living in different areas of hilly tracts, forests and other geographically isolated pockets forming tribal India. Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) are spread over 17 States / UTs and are 75 communities in number.
The ethnomedical practices involving the use of plants and animals and their documentation studies are now gaining importance. The age-old practical applications of traditional knowledge of tribal people with reference to medicine, health, food and environment are worth examining in such non-literate groups living in the Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu.
Humans have been dependent on plants for their health care needs since the dawn of civilization. The ancient man used various plant parts, like roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruits, to maintain his health apart from using these for food, clothing and shelter. Discovering newer drugs of plants on the basis of their traditional usage by the aboriginal populations for the cure of various diseases is an endless effort. Continuous screening for new sources of drugs of plant origin, such as anticancer drugs lycopin (Lycopersicum esculentum), carotinin (Daucus carota), allinin (Allium sativum and Allium porrum) and so on is continuing. The drug prepared from the Chinese traditional plant, namely sweet worm wood (Artemisia annua), whose active constituent is artimisinin, is very effective against malaria.
A large number of therapeutic agents has been synthesized and significant developments in the field of synthetic drug chemistry are on the rise today. Plants still constitute a major source of raw materials for drugs to treat various ailments of human beings. In the recent past, there has been considerable increase in the use of plants as sources of medicine. The use of synthetic drugs, such as vaccines, toxoids, antisera, hormones and antibiotics is known to cause side effects and these are considered harmful when used on long term basis. For example, amphetamine is a synthetic drug allied to ephedrine, which it resembles in its vasoconstrictor action, but when taken in excess, this drug may give rise to cardiovascular collapse and convulsion (Hadgraft, 1957).
According to Principe (1991) the use of plant based drugs in 1990 was worth 9.8 billion dollars which was expected to have a further increase to 20 billion dollars in 2000 in USA. Because of the realization of health hazards and toxicity associated with the indiscriminate use of synthetic drugs and antibiotics, alternatives from other sources are sought after. The plant-based new drugs have been discovered on the basis of plants used as medicines by the folk or traditional or indigenous systems of medicine practiced in the various parts of the world by different population groups.
These have been adopted into modern medical systems after due screening through chemical, pharmacological and toxicological standards. During the last ten years, the use of plant based raw materials for the preparation of medicines by the pharmaceutical industry has increased considerably.
Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) used by American aborigines to treat infected sores and ulcers contains the active principle hydrastine. The plant also contains hydrochloride which is antiseptic and also a remedy for uterine cancer. The latex from Papaver somniferum, containing morphine which is antiseptic and also a remedy for uterine cancer has been used by southeast African hill tribes, especially women. Podophyllotoxin, a promising antineoplastic agent has been found in May apple (Podophyllum peltatum) used by the Pennobscot Indians to treat cancer (Duke, 1982).
Acupuncture & Acupressure (197)
Gem Therapy (23)
Homeopathy (513)
Massage (22)
Naturopathy (429)
Original Texts (220)
Reiki (59)
Therapy & Treatment (171)
Tibetan Healing (131)
Yoga (43)
हिन्दी (1087)
Ayurveda (3168)
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist