Medicinal Plants

Medicinal Plants

Since prehistoric times, Medicinal plants, often known as medicinal herbs, have been identified and employed in traditional medicine practices. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for defense against insects, fungi, illnesses, and herbivorous mammals, among other things. Numerous phytochemicals have been found as having biological activity, either potential or established. The consequences of taking a complete plant as medication, however, are unknown because a single plant has a vast range of phytochemicals. Furthermore, many therapeutic plants' phytochemical content and pharmacological effects, if any, remain unknown due to a lack of rigorous scientific investigation to determine efficacy and safety.

Hundreds of medicinal plants, including opium, are documented on clay tablets dating from around 3000 BC by the Sumerian civilization. Over 850 plant medicines are described in the Ebers Papyrus from ancient Egypt, which dates from around 1550 BC. In De materia medica, c. 60 AD, the Greek physician Dioscorides, who worked in the Roman army, wrote over 1000 formulas for remedies employing over 600 medicinal plants; this served as the foundation for pharmacopoeias for almost 1500 years. Ethnobotany is sometimes used in drug research to find pharmacological active chemicals, and this method has produced hundreds of valuable molecules. Aspirin, digoxin, quinine, and opium are just a few examples. Plants contain a wide range of chemicals, but the majority belong to one of four biochemical classes: alkaloids, glycosides, polyphenols, and terpenes.

In non-industrialized communities, medicinal plants are commonly used, mostly because they are readily available and less expensive than contemporary pharmaceuticals. In 2012, the yearly global export value of the thousands of different varieties of medicinal plants was estimated to be US$2.2 billion. The global market for plant extracts and medications was expected to be worth several hundred billion dollars in 2017. Traditional medicine is unregulated in many countries, but the World Health Organization manages a network to promote safe and sensible use. Medicinal plants are threatened by both general risks like climate change and habitat degradation, as well as the specific threat of over-collection to suit market demand.

The importance of particular herbs, as well as their medical properties

• Wounds, sores, and boils are treated with herbs such black pepper, cinnamon, myrrh, aloe, sandalwood, ginseng, red clover, burdock, bayberry, and safflower.
• Some significant medicinal herbs that can be grown in the kitchen garden include basil, fennel, chives, cilantro, apple mint, thyme, golden oregano, variegated lemon balm, rosemary, and variegated sage. These herbs are simple to produce, attractive, delicious, and fragrant, and many of them attract bees and butterflies.
• Many herbs are utilized as blood purifiers to help transform or improve a long-term condition by removing metabolic poisons. 'Blood cleansers' is another name for these. Certain herbs boost a person's immunity, lowering the risk of illnesses like fever.Antibiotic characteristics can be found in some botanicals. Turmeric can help to prevent germs, dangerous organisms, and bacteria from growing. Turmeric is commonly used as a home treatment for wounds and cuts.
• Traditional Indian medical practitioners offer antipyretic herbs such as Chirayta, black pepper, sandal wood, and safflower to reduce fever and the heat produced by the disease.
• Apart from being scented, sandalwood and cinnamon are excellent astringents. Sandalwood is particularly effective at stopping the flow of blood, mucus, and other bodily fluids.
• Some plants are used to neutralize the stomach's acid production. Marshmallow root and leaf are examples of herbs. They function as antacids. These herbs help to keep the healthy stomach acid required for optimal digestion.
• Plant medicines were reported to be used by Indian sages to treat poisons from animals and snake bites.
• Cardamom and coriander, for example, are well-known for their flavor. Other aromatic herbs, such as peppermint, cloves, and turmeric, give the food a pleasing aroma and enhance the flavor.
• Aloe, sandalwood, and turmeric are examples of herbs that are often used as antiseptics and have a high medical value.
• Certain cough syrups contain ginger and cloves. They're recognized for their expectorant properties, which help mucus thin and eject from the lungs, trachea, and bronchi. Expectorants include Eucalyptus, Cardamom, Wild Cherry, and Cloves.
• Herbs like Chamomile, Calamus, Basil, Cardamom, Chrysanthemum, Coriander, Fennel, Peppermint, and Spearmint, Cinnamon, Ginger, and Turmeric, as well as cinnamon, ginger, and turmeric, can help with blood circulation. As a result, they're used to stimulate the heart.
• Certain therapeutic herbs contain disinfection properties, which kill bacteria that cause sickness. Pathogenic bacteria that cause communicable diseases are also inhibited by them.
• Calmative herbs, which have a soothing effect on the body, are recommended by herbal medicine practitioners. Sedatives are frequently used with them.
• Mild tonics are made from aromatic herbs including aloe, golden seal, barberry, and chirayata. Toxins in the blood are reduced by the bitter taste of such plants. They are also beneficial in the fight against infection.
• Certain herbs, such as cayenne pepper, are used as stimulants to boost the activity of a system or an organ.
• Tonics are made from a variety of herbs, including Giloe, Golden Seal, Aloe, and Barberry. They can also be nutritious and rejuvenating to both healthy and ailing people.
• A fresh cut and wound can be properly treated with honey, turmeric, marshmallow, and liquorice. Vulnerary herbs are what they're called.

Phytochemical foundation

All plants produce chemical substances that provide them an evolutionary benefit, such as fighting against herbivores or acting as a hormone in plant defenses, as in the case of salicylic acid. If experimentally established, the content and recognized pharmacological action of these phytochemicals in medicinal plants is the scientific basis for their use in modern medicine. Daffodils (Narcissus) contain nine families of alkaloids, including galantamine, which is approved for use in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The alkaloids are bitter and toxic, and they are concentrated in sections of the plant that herbivores are most likely to eat, such as the stem; they may also guard againstparasites.The Medicinal Plant Transcriptomics Database, which supplied a sequencing reference for the transcriptome of thirty species by 2011, is systematizing modern understanding of medicinal plants.The principal classes of pharmacologically active phytochemicals, as well as examples of therapeutic plants that contain them, are listed below.

Alkaloids

Many therapeutic plants include alkaloids, which are bitter-tasting compounds that are widely distributed in nature and often dangerous.As medications, there are a variety of classes with various mechanisms of action, both recreational and pharmacological.Atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine (all from nightshade), berberine (from plants like Berberis and Mahonia), caffeine (Coffea), cocaine (Coca), ephedrine (Ephedra), morphine (opium poppy), nicotine (tobacco),[c] reserpine (Rauvolfia serpentina), quinidine and quinine (Catharanthus roseus).

Glycosides

Rhubarb, cascara, and Alexandrian senna are examples of medicinal plants that contain anthraquinone glycosides. Senna, rhubarb, and Aloe are examples of plant-based laxatives manufactured from such plants.

Cardiac glycosides are potent medications derived from medicinal plants such as foxglove and lily of the valley. They include digoxin and digitoxin, both of which help the heart beat and function as diuretics.

Polyphenols

Polyphenols come in a variety of classes and play a variety of roles in plant defenses against diseases and predators.Hormone-mimicking phytoestrogens and astringent tannins are among them.Plants containing phytoestrogens have been used for generations to treat gynecological issues like infertility, monthly irregularities, and menopausal symptoms. Pueraria mirifica, kudzu, angelica, fennel, and anise are among these plants. Many polyphenolic extracts, such as those derived from grape seeds, olives, or maritime pine bark, are offered as nutritional supplements and cosmetics without any scientific or legal evidence that they have beneficial health effects.The astringent rind of the pomegranate, which contains polyphenols known as punicalagins, is utilized as a treatment in Ayurveda.

Terpenes

Terpenes and terpenoids of various types can be found in a wide range of medicinal plants, as well as resinous species like conifers. They have a strong odor and are used to repel herbivores. Their smell makes essential oils helpful in perfumes like rose and lavender, as well as aromatherapy. Some have medical properties, such as thymol, which is an antibacterial and was previously used as a vermifuge (anti-worm medicine).

History

the prehistoric era

Plants, including many that are today used as culinary herbs and spices, have been utilized as medicines since prehistoric times, but not always successfully. Spices have long been used to combat food spoilage germs, particularly in hot regions and in meat meals that deteriorate more quickly. The majority of plant medications originated from angiosperms (flowering plants). Weeds utilized as herbal medicines, such as nettle, dandelion, and chickweed, are frequently found surrounding human settlements. Humans aren't the only ones who use herbs as medicine: non-human monkeys, monarch butterflies, and sheep all eat medicinal plants when they're sick. Plant samples from prehistoric burial sites are one of the many lines of evidence indicating Paleolithic peoples were familiar with herbal therapy. For example, pollen from eight plant species was discovered at the 60,000-year-old Neanderthal burial site "Shanidar IV" in northern Iraq, seven of which are presently utilized as herbal treatments. A fungus was also discovered in the personal possessions of tzi the Iceman, whose body had been frozen for almost 5,000 years in the tztal Alps. The mushroom was most likely utilized to combat whipworm.

Back in the day

Hundreds of plant medicines are described in the Ebers Papyrus (about 1550 BC) from Ancient Egypt. Hundreds of medicinal herbs, including myrrh and opium, were documented on clay tablets dating back to roughly 3000 BC in ancient Sumeria. Over 800 plant medicines are listed in the ancient Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, including aloe, cannabis, castor bean, garlic, juniper, and mandrake.Hundreds of pharmacologically active herbs and spices, such as turmeric, which includes curcumin, have been utilized in Ayurvedic treatment from ancient times to the present, as detailed in the Atharva Veda, the Rig Veda, and the Sushruta Samhita. The Shennong Ben Cao Jing, a Chinese pharmacopoeia, lists botanical treatments such chaulmoogra for leprosy, ephedra, and hemp. Yaoxing Lun of the Tang Dynasty elaborated on this.Theophrastus, Aristotle's pupil, wrote the first comprehensive botany work, Historia plantarum, in the fourth century BC.In his book De materia medica, written for the Roman army in 60 AD, the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides chronicled over 1000 formulas for medications using over 600 medicinal plants. For nearly 1500 years, until the seventeenth century, the book was the standard reference on herbalism.

Middle Ages

illustration of a physician conversing with a female patient in a garden, while attendants prepare remedies, from a 1632 edition of Avicenna's 1025 The Canon of Medicine. Benedictine monks in Europe conserved medical knowledge in the early Middle Ages by translating and transcribing classical books and keeping herb gardens. On medicine, Hildegard of Bingen wrote Causae et Curae ("Causes and Cure"). Many classical Greek literature, like Dioscorides, were translated into Arabic throughout the Islamic Golden Age, with academics contributing their own commentary. Herbalism grew in popularity in the Islamic world, especially in Baghdad and Al-Andalus. The Book of Simples was written by Abulcasis (936–1013) of Cordoba, and Ibn al-Baitar (1197–1248) described hundreds of medicinal herbs in his Corpus of Simples, including Aconitum, nux vomica, and tamarind. Many plants were featured in Avicenna's 1025 The Canon of Medicine. Further pharmacopoeias were written by Abu-Rayhan Biruni, Ibn Zuhr, Peter of Spain, and John of St Amand.

In the early modern period,

The Grete Herball, 1526, is an early illustrated book about medicinal plants.Starting with the 1526 Grete Herball, illustrated herbals flourished across Europe during the Early Modern period. In 1597, based on Rembert Dodoens, John Gerard released The Herball or General History of Plants, while Nicholas Culpeper published The English Physician Enlarged. Many novel plant remedies arrived in Europe as a result of Early Modern travel and the Columbian Exchange, which saw cattle, crops, and technologies exchanged between the Old World and the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries. Garlic, ginger, and turmeric were among the medicinal herbs that arrived in the Americas, whereas coffee, tobacco, and coca went the opposite way. The Badianus Manuscript, written in Mexico in the sixteenth century, documented therapeutic herbs found in Central America.

Context

In modern medicine and traditional medicine, medicinal plants are utilized with the goal of maintaining health, administering treatment for a specific ailment, or both. In 2002, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that more than 50,000 medicinal plants are utilized globally. In 2016, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew estimated that 17,810 plant species have a therapeutic use, out of a total of 30,000 plants for which any form of application is documented.

Around a quarter of the medications administered to patients in modern medicine are derived from medicinal plants, and they are well evaluated. Medicinal plants may make up the majority of what are frequently haphazardly attempted remedies that haven't been properly evaluated in other medical systems. Without solid data, the World Health Organization believes that over 80% of the world's population relies mostly on traditional medicine (which includes but is not limited to plants); perhaps two billion people are predominantly dependent on medicinal plants. In industrialized countries, the usage of plant-based materials, such as herbal or natural health products with alleged health benefits, is on the rise. Despite the safe image of herbal treatments, this carries the danger of poisoning and other negative effects on human health. Herbal remedies have been used for a long time, long before modern medicine existed; there was, and frequently still is, little or no understanding of the pharmacological basis of their activities, if any, or their safety. In 1991, the World Health Organization established a policy on traditional medicine, and since then, it has released recommendations and a series of monographs on commonly used herbal remedies.

Medicinal plants may bring three types of benefits: health benefits to those who use them as medicines, financial benefits to persons who collect, process, and sell them, and societal benefits such as job possibilities, tax revenue, and a healthier labor force. Weak scientific data, bad methods in the drug development process, and insufficient funding, on the other hand, stymie the development of plants or extracts with potential medical benefits.

Conclusion

We are moving away from nature as our lifestyle becomes more techno-savvy. We can't get away from nature since we are a part of it. Herbs are natural products with no adverse effects, are relatively safe, environmentally friendly, and readily available. Traditionally, a variety of plants have been used to treat diseases associated with certain seasons. It is necessary to promote them in order to preserve human lives.

In contrast to synthetic medications, which are seen as dangerous to humans and the environment, herbal products have become a symbol of safety. Although herbs have been valued for their medicinal, flavoring, and aromatic properties for millennia, the synthetic products of the modern era temporarily overshadowed their relevance. The naive reliance on synthetics, however, is coming to an end, and people are returning to naturals in the hopes of finding safety and stability. It's past time to market them on a global scale.

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