Ads
related to: medicinal plant uses
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The plant is used by both primates and indigenous peoples in Africa to treat intestinal ailments such as dysentery. [172] [173] Veronica officinalis: Veronica The plant is used for sinus and ear infections. [174] Viburnum tinus: Laurustinus V. tinus has medicinal properties.
Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including defense and protection against insects , fungi , diseases , against parasites [ 2 ] and herbivorous mammals .
perennial herb medicinal also used as agricultural fungicide: Culantro: Eryngium foetidum: Apiaceae: perennial or biennial herb culinary, medicinal leaves [4] Coca: Erythroxylum coca and E. novogranatense: Erythroxylaceae: shrub [5] culinary (rare [6]), medicinal, ritual leaves, occasionally seeds source of the recreational drug cocaine: Eucalyptus
Archaeological evidence indicates that the use of medicinal plants dates back to the Paleolithic age, approximately 60,000 years ago. Written evidence of herbal remedies dates back over 5,000 years to the Sumerians, who compiled lists of plants. Some ancient cultures wrote about plants and their medical uses in books called herbals.
Plants used in herbalism include ginkgo, echinacea, feverfew, and Saint John's wort. The pharmacopoeia of Dioscorides, De Materia Medica, describing some 600 medicinal plants, was written between 50 and 70 AD and remained in use in Europe and the Middle East until around 1600 AD; it was the precursor of all modern pharmacopoeias. [14] [15] [16]
There are roughly 13,000 medicinals used in China and over 100,000 medicinal prescriptions recorded in the ancient literature. [1] Plant elements and extracts are the most common elements used in medicines. [2]