Traditional Medicine with Plants – Present and Past

Abstract

Definitions Traditional medicine represents the knowledge gained in most if not all human societies during history of manhood before the rise of modern medicine. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medicine as: "Traditional medicine is the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness" [1]. Traditional medicines comprises of formalized forms with well-documented remedies practiced by lay people (e.g. European cloister medicine, Ayurveda, ancient Iranian medicine, Islamic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine etc.) as well as more informal practices orally handed down from generation to generation. Practices of traditional practices include herbal remedies, reflex therapies like acupuncture, manual therapies, dietetics, spiritual therapies and others. Herbal remedies are herbs (leaves, flowers, seeds, fruits, roots etc.), materials derived from herbs (essential oils, fresh juices, gums and resins etc.) and plant preparations (fluid or dry extracts, tinctures, decoctions and infusions, oils etc.). Herbal remedies exert therapeutic activity because of their active constituents that act either alone or in combination. Knowledge about traditional medicines in modern sciences is being created by different disciplines, e.g.: Medical anthropology Study the interrelationships of traditional medicines for the culture of indigenous societies. Ethnobotany Investigates the cultural use of plants by ethnic societies. This includes not only how plants served for medicinal purposes, but also how plants have been used as foods, for the preparation of cloths, cosmetics, construction, currency, rituals etc.