Importance And Importance Of Medicinal Plants

“Use of herbs as medicines dates back to the beginning of civilized man. The earliest known written records of herbal medicines were inscribed on a six thousand year old clay tablet written by the Sumerians, who lived on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now known as Iraq”(History).

To tested the effects of this plant, a research study was conducted through an online survey among college students. A group of undergrad college student was randomly selected through email from a large university in southwestern Unites States to participate. The study procedure was an online survey, with based questionnaire on college student’s achievement, lifestyle, alcohol, and other drugs behavior if a user of drugs. The data was base on the usage of drugs within the two semesters of fall 2006 and spring 2007. To get respondents to participate, rewards were offered for anyone who

An increasing number of medical schools are now offering courses in alternative medicine for their students, and some hospitals already have alternative medicine departments. The availability of healers and doctors practicing holistic medicine has also increased in recent years, and more and more people are educating themselves in these new fields. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that between 65 and 80 percent of the world’s population (about 3 billion people) rely on traditional medicine as their primary form of health care.

Herbal remedies-aromatic plants that may be used by people from all ethno cultural traditional backgrounds as one method of restoring physical health. (Africa)

I specifically chose this topic because I believe that for us Americans this is the next big frontier. Not only could this plant helps save some people’s lives, but it could also help alleviate the pressure on our national debt. As long as we continue to do research and try to understand the complexity of this issue, then we should be able to grow in our mind frames of how this could be beneficial to a lot of people. There will always be the other side of this issue that it could do more harm than help, but if we continue to monitor and maintain control of these herbal medicines we can begin the steps towards a safer path.

For many years, Africa had used herbs to cure various ailments such as AIDS. Because of the lack of treatments available, doctors have been prescribing certain herbs, such as hypoxis. (Mills) Although it doesn’t provide a cure, it does help with the lack of immune system due to the disease. Although there haven’t been any official clinical trials on the drug, there appears to have negligible side effects compared to other medicines typically proscribed for this disease. Another plant that is often prescribed is Sutherlandia. Although it treats AIDS, it is prescribed for many other diseases such as depression. Unlike hypoxis, it has gone through clinical trials, although there are still relatively few (Mills).

The plant species that I researched was Medicago sativa, or more commonly known as Alfalfa. I found this to be a very intriguing plant to research because we grow alfalfa on the farm as a fodder feed for the animals but I had no idea that it had such a practical use in modern medicine. It is believed that alfalfa was first grown somewhere within the Middle East and then spread to Europe and parts of Asia, the colonists brought it over from Europe to America. And today it can be found in nearly every continent used to feed livestock. The leaves of Alfalfa are what is beneficial in the use of medicine.The leaves are known to have positve affects on the digestive system and can help to lower cholesterol. They also aide with the cleansing the

Herbal supplements were initially used in China and the East but it has become prevalent in the United States. As stated in the Tachjian et al. (2010) article, the herbal remedy market takes in over $34 billion annually, as 15 million Americans consume some form of the product, such as remedies or vitamins. Interestingly enough more people visit alternative medicine providers than a primary healthcare physician (Self, 2010). Herbal remedies and therapy fall “under the category of biological based therapies, which uses substances found in nature, such as herbs, food, vitamins, minerals, and botanicals” (Dossey & Keegan, 56). Herbal medicines are derived from plants and fungi through alcoholic extraction or decoction. The notion that these herbal supplements are natural, therefore they are safer for consumption is a huge misconception perpetuated by the manufacturer and well placed advertising. The use of these supplements can be harmful when combined with other drugs and can lead to death if the interactions are not properly monitored or even examined, as “herbs that seem safe under normal conditions for healthy people may not be safe for certain patient groups” (Tascilar et al., 736). These readily available and seemingly safe alternatives to prescription medicine can lead patients to unforeseen

The Arabic doctors studied the works of the Ancient Greeks as their education to become medical professionals. Thus, the Ancient Greeks’ use of cannabis was implemented and experimented with by the doctors of the time. Profesor Indalecio Lozano said, “The first mention of the curative power of hemp in Arabic literature was by Ibn Masawayh (al-Razi 1968, XXI i, p. 124) (d. 857 A.D.), who refers to the oil obtained from hemp seeds and applied in drops into the ear as having the virtue of drying out the ‘‘moisture’’ (rut· uba) generated by this organ, a curative property which later physicians attribute to the juice of these seeds.” While Masawayh used cannabis as a medicine, he didn’t know the full of extent of its

Before the time of imperialism, native people had already lived in what is Canada today for many centuries. Back then, the native people used the plants for healing illness. (example?) It can also be used for

Each essential oil has unique properties and functions in nature such as attracting pollinators and dispersal agents, to serve as internal messengers for the plant host, releasing chemicals to aid in allelopathy, to serve as defense compounds against insects and animals, and to protect the plant with their antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal

When I was a child in rural Ethiopia, there were no hospitals or clinics in the area to provide modern treatment. The only treatments that local people used were herbal medicines given by the local elders, who inherited their knowledge both from ancestors and through experience. They knew which plants were curative and which ones were poisonous. However, people in these areas often get sick due to malnutrition and lack of sanitation, and herbal medicines do not work all the time. People often die due to complications caused by the herbal medicine itself.

Most patients now prefer herbal medicine as compared to medicinal drugs. They are becoming popular to treat everything from minor to major to diseases. The reason why people are so into herbal medicine is because of their natural qualities that promote a healthy method of healing various products.

People have used them for centuries but it is only recently that western culture has rediscovered the wonders of herbs. In part, this was because the development of allopathic medicinal techniques in the west combined with the lack of scientific support for non-conventional medicines to give an unsavory (and quite wrong) reputation to herbal medicines and supplements. Recent discoveries have forced the medical community to reconsider the benefits of herbs. This has mostly come about with increasing exposure of western community to the healing techniques practiced in other cultures and countries that proved to be more effective than, or at the least complimentary to, allopathic

Historically, plants have played a vast role in the everyday lives of humans. Indigenous peoples have used over a thousand different plants for food, medicine, materials, and in cultural rituals and mythology (Szczawinski and Turner, 1978-80). People mainly consumed root vegetables and green vegetables. Fruits, nuts, seeds, berries, and mushrooms were also traditionally used as a source of food. Plants also contributed in the development of many different medicines throughout history. Plant parts were often combined with herbs to create cures for many ailments. Herbal medicines were sometimes associated with ritual and in many cultures herbal curing and ritual curing were often performed together (Szczawinski and Turner, 1978-80). Plants have played a very important role in helping to preserve the human race, from building our homes to supplying us with the most essential gas we breathe.