PHYTOMEDICINES| Introduction to herbal medicines
Herbs
During my teen days I realize that My dad is so delighted in eating fruits, leaves and herbs than using drugs and this trigger me to ask him one day the reason why he so much love eating plant than drugs. The reply I got that day was "my son, don't you know that all these drugs are the end product of the leaves and herbs I used?" and I was like end product has how he said all there is no way there won't be constituent of drug inside its pack and he showed me some drugs and I saw that he was right. But when I gain admission to higher institution one of my lecturer gave us an assignment on herbal medicine and then I found out that there are so much component of drugs are in herbs and most of these drugs are produced from plants. I move further in my investigations to know if its just my dad that knows about this and I got to know that an information was released by the world health organisation (WHO) that about 80% of people in the world are dependent on the use of herbal medicines for therapy. Same thing happens in my country "Nigeria", almost all the rural areas uses herbs as treatment to various blood glucose level, blood parameters and other chronic and acute diseases this is not because they are poor it is mainly because they have tested most of these leaves and they could identify the effects of each herbs.
Herbal medicines includes finished herbal products herbs,herbal preparations, and herbal materials that possess therapeutic properties or beneficial pharmacological effect on the human body. They are also called Herbalism, Phytomedicines, medicinal plant and botanical medicine.
Herbs are plants with leaves, seeds and flowers which are used for flavoring, food, medicine and perfume. Herbs can be biennial, annual and perennials. They can be infused into either boiled water and cold water. Research works has make us understand that almost every herbs has Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, Manganese,Zinc, Phosphorus, Vitamin A and Vitamin B as their constituents. Herbs are good in the treatment of various illness like kidney disease, it boost psycological well being, liver disease, reduces cancer, are anti inflammatory and lots more, many herbs like Gymnema sylvestre, Cinnamon, Green tea leaf extract, Curcumin Extract etc. are been used for the treatment of Diabetes.
The major focus of this Article is to briefly introduce to us what herb means and in the next phase we will be going deep into herbs which serves as treatment to many ailments and how they are been used.
- Vaccinium macrocarpon
- Hibiscus sabdariffa
- Achillea millefolium
Vaccinium macrocarpon
Vaccinium macrocarpon
Vaccinium macrocarpon is a medicinal plant that belongs to the kingdom (Plantae), family (Ericaceae), order (Ericales), genus (Vaccinium) and species (V. macrocarpon). This plant is commonly found in Europe, Canada, North America and United states, it is grown as cash crop for its berries and juice.
Researchers reveals that Vaccinium macrocarpon is good in the treatment of Urinary tract diseases (e.g Pyelonephritis, Cystitis) especially if the extract of about 300-500mg could be drank twice per day, it also serve as cure to oxidative damage and it improve metabolic profile of the body.
Nutritional Components
Water, Protein, Fibre, Fat, Sugar, Carbs, Vitamin K, Copper etc.
Hibiscus sabdariffa
Hibiscus sabdariffa
Hibiscus sabdariffa is a beutiful plant which is mostly called Roselle, it belongs to the kingdom (Plantae), family (Malvaceae), order (Malvales), genus (Hibiscus) and species (H. sabdariffa). It is commonly found in Australia, China, Thai and the whole of West Africa.
The calyces of these plant is been used as food coloring, It is used in lowering high blood pressure and it also eases sore throats {prevention.co}
Nutritional Components
Vitamin A, Thiamine B1, Riboflavin B2, Niacin B3, Vitamin C, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Sodium, Iron,
Achillea millefoliu
Achillea millefoliu seed
Achillea millefoliu is a flowering plant that is commonly found in Asia, Europe and North America. It belongs to the kingdom (Plantae), family (Asteraceae), order (Asterales), genus (Achillea) and species (A. millefolium). it is a perennial plant and it is used for so many things;
- It is used in lowering the rate of malaria because it contains oil which is used in killing mosquitoes
- It is used in the treatment of wounds
- It is used in treating ache
- It serves as anti inflammatory
- It is used as cure to gastro-intestinal disorder
Conclusions:
Extract from various herb are used in curing many ailments, The phase 2 of this topic is going to cover a lot, there we will be talking on how drugs could be made from some important herbs, we will cover a lot on diabetes and how it is cured with some leaves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_herbalism
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/8/07-042820/en/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3887317/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roselle_(plant)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccinium_macrocarpon
