The doctrine of natural therapeutic factors of medicinal plants occupy a special place. Acquaintance with the medicinal properties of plants lalele out in the past and is closely linked with a thousand years history of human development. The names of Hippocrates, Pliny and Dioscorid, collected, compiled and recorded information about the medicinal properties of plants accumulated by the ancient Greeks and Romans, known to every expert in this area. It’s safe to say that will never be forgotten Galen, abbess Hildegard of Bingen, albert the Great, Paracelsus, Sebastian Kneipp and the priest Küntzle, each of which has contributed to the development of herbal medicine. In the late middle ages were very popular herbalists who contributed to the dissemination of knowledge about the healing power of plants.
Herbal medicine today
Over time, the doctrine of the use of medicinal plants for health purposes has grown into science, which became known as phyto (from the Greek. phyton — a plant and therapeia treatment) or herbal treatment. Experts find out why and act on the human body herbs, identify chemical compounds and isolated them in laboratory conditions to establish their properties and features. Continue reading
This discovery would not have become a revelation for the doctors of Ancient China. Artemisinin used to treat malaria back in the early 70’s but the plant on the basis of which manufactured the drug, was used in febrile States already in III–IV centuries.
The residences identified properties of artemisinin, studying traditional Chinese treatises on the use of medicinal herbs. The way this discovery was complicated by a vast array of information, the need to conduct hundreds of experiments and political situation in China of the 70s. fortunately, persistence paid off, and now artemisinin is a key anti-malaria drug.
Artemisinin is not only derived from plants, the compound that is used in modern medicine. For example, another medicine for malaria – quinine comes from the bark of a tropical South American Cinchona tree Cinchona officinalis L. analgesic morphine from the opium poppy Papaver somniferum L, and the poison strychnine – from the tree Strychnos nux-vomica L. These plants were used for thousands of years before chemists were able to extract their active ingredients. Continue reading
The best drugs for the treatment of children parents consider drugs based on medicinal plants, first of all, they perceive them as “soft” and effective means. According to the world health organization (who) 30% of people in the world trust the drugs, which are used medicinal plants. Herbs used for years, their market, in contrast to synthetic is increasing every year. About 25% of prescription drugs currently available on the pharmaceutical market and are used in treatment, prepared on the basis of medicinal plants. However, the use of drugs in Pediatrics has its own characteristics and boundaries of security. Not always such funds may be safe in children at a young age, for them there are also certain toxic doses and side effects.
In General, most clinical studies on the use of preparations based on plants conducted involving adult patients, scientific data on the use of herbal remedies in children is very limited. A significant problem in childhood are allergic reactions that may be caused by the use of active biological substances based on herbs. Often herbal support allergic alertness of the child. If the child or one parent has an Allergy to any medicinal plant, drugs in which it voditelb contraindicated or should be used with extreme caution in children. Continue reading