J Ethnopharmacol. 2016 Apr 22;182:57-66. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2016.02.013. Epub 2016 Feb 13.
Ethnopharmacological
survey about medicinal plants utilized by herbalists and traditional
practitioner healers for treatments of diarrhea in the West
Bank/Palestine.
Abstract
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE:
Folk
herbal medicine knowledge and its utilization by aboriginal cultures
are not only useful for conservation of cultural traditions and
biodiversity, but also useful for community healthcare and drug
discovery in the present and in the future.
AIM OF THE STUDY:
Using
a semi-structured questionnaire, an ethnopharmacological survey of
medicinal plants used for treatment of diarrhea in the West
Bank/Palestine was investigated.
RESULTS:
Information
about fifty medicinal plants used for treatment of diarrhea, including
the names of plants, parts used, mode and methods of preparation was
obtained from 100 traditional healers and herbalists. This research is
the first scientific work in the Middle East to collect data about
plants used by traditional healers for treatments of diarrhea and their
evidence based effects against this disease. The fidelity levels were
97% for Salvia fruticosa, Teucrium polium and Musa paradisiaca, 95% for
Camellia sinensis and Aegle marmelos, 79% for Oryza sativa and Solanum
tuberosum, 77% for Quercus boissieri, 66% for Psidium guajava, 56% for
Anthemis palestina, 54% for Solanum nigrum and 52% for Juglans regia
while the highest use and choice values were for S. fruticosa, T. polium
and M. paradisiaca as well as the factor of informant's consensus for
medicinal plants used for treatment of diarrhea was 0.505.The leaves
were the most commonly used parts, followed by fruits, roots and
rhizomes, while decoctions and infusions are the preferred methods of
preparation.
CONCLUSIONS:
The
Palestinian traditional medicine is rich with herbal remedies for
treatment of diarrhea in comparison with other countries, but most of
these herbal remedies lack standard in-vitro and in-vivo evaluations to
establish their antidiarrheal effects. Therefore, the information
obtained can serve as a basis for further phytochemical and
pharmacological studies to determine their efficacy and safety which
might contribute to a better integration of Palestinian traditional
medicine into the national health system in the future.
Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
KEYWORDS:
Diarrhea; Herbalists; Medicinal plants; Traditional practitioner healers; West Bank/Palestine
- PMID:
- 26883246
- [PubMed - in process]
Today in History
March12
| 1496 |
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The Jews are expelled from Syria. |
| 1507 |
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Cesare Borgia dies while fighting alongside his brother, the king of Navarre, in Spain. |
| 1609 |
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The Bermuda Islands become an English colony. |
| 1664 |
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New Jersey becomes a British colony. |
| 1789 |
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The United States Post Office is established. |
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| 1884 |
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Mississippi establishes the first U.S. state college for women. |
|
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| 1912 |
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Juliet Low founds the Girl Scouts in Savannah, Georgia. |
| 1917 |
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Russian troops mutiny as the “February Revolution” begins. |
| 1930 |
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Gandhi begins his march to the sea to symbolizes his defiance of British rule in India. |
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| 1945 |
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Diarist Anne Frank dies in a German concentration camp. |
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| 1994 |
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The Church of England ordains women priests. |
| Born on March 12 |
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| 1858 |
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Adolph Simon Ochs, publisher of The New York Times. |
| 1862 |
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Jane Delano, nurse, teacher, founder of the Red Cross. |
| 1890 |
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Vaslav Nijinsky, Russian ballet dancer.
Epilogue: Consider Nijinsky
Abstract
In 1939 Vaslav Nijinsky was visited in a Swiss hospital by press photographers.1
Years earlier Bleuler had assessed the dancer as ‘a confused
schizophrenic with mild manic excitement’ (Acocella, 1999, p. xli).
Similarly, H.G. Baynes (1940) would see Nijinsky as so arche-typically
schizophrenic that he could see the dancer in the drawings of leaping
androgynous figures made by others. Although we may question
twentieth-century schizophrenia, there is no doubting Nijinsky’s
troubled mental history—his own writing and diaries bear witness to it.
In a garbled and sometimes incoherent letter to Jean Cocteau, written
shortly after his diagnosis, signs of Nijinsky’s unwellness still echo
dancelike across the page: ‘Mogi, cogi, togi, jogi. Migi, gigi, gi gi,
rigi, Tchigi, tchigi, tchigi, rigi. Tchigi, rigi, rigi, tchigi. Migi,
tigi …’ (Acocella, 1999, p. 274). This is tragic, although maybe even
delightful in its rhythms for Cocteau, and somewhat fitting for a
dancer, who, more than any, was never truly separated from the dance.
|
| 1922 |
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Jack Kerouac, American novelist (On the Road). |
| 1928 |
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Edward Albee, American dramatist (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf). |
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