By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Pharma Investments, Ventures & Law Weekly -- New research on Drugs and Therapies - Ethnopharmacology is the subject of a report. According to news originating from Aarhus, Denmark, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Plants have provided medicine to humans for thousands of years, and in most parts of the world people still use traditional plant-derived medicine. Knowledge related to traditional use provides an important alternative to unavailable or expensive western medicine in many rural communities.”
Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Aarhus University, “At the same time, ethnomedicinal discoveries are valuable for the development of modern medicine. Unfortunately, globalization and urbanization causes the disappearance of much traditional medicinal plant knowledge. To review available ethnobotanical knowledge about medicinal plants in Thailand and to estimate its diversity. Information about ethnomedicinal uses of plants in Thailand was extracted from 64 scientific reports, books, and theses produced between 1990-2014. Plant identifications in the primary sources were updated to currently accepted names following The Plant List website and the species were assigned to family following the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Use Values (UV) were calculated to estimate the importance of medicinal plant species (UV) and families (UV). Medicinal use categories, plant parts used, preparations of the medicine, and their applications were noted for each use report. We found 16,789 use reports for 2187 plant species in 206 families. These data came from 19 ethnic groups living in 121 villages throughout Thailand. The health conditions most commonly treated with medicinal plants were in the categories digestive system disorders, infections/infestations, nutritional disorders, muscular-skeletal system disorders, and genitourinary system disorders. Plant families with very high use values were Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Acanthaceae, Lamiaceae, and Zingiberaceae and species with very high use values were Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M.King & H.Rob., Blumea balsamifera (L.) DC., and Cheilocostus speciosus (J.Koenig) C.D.Specht. Stems and leaves were the most used plant parts, but also other parts of the plants were used in medicinal recipes. The most common way of using the medicinal plants was as a decoction in water. We found 2187 plant species that were used in traditional medicine in Thailand.”
According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Of these a few hundred had high use values, suggesting that they may produce bioactive compounds with strong physiological effects.”
For more information on this research see: Ethnomedicinal Plant Diversity in Thailand. Journal of Ethnopharmacology , 2017;():. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Journal of Ethnopharmacology - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-ethnopharmacology/)
The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from M. Phumthum, Dept. of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Building 1540, Ny Munkegade 116, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. Additional authors for this research include K. Srithi, A. Inta, A. Junsongduang, K. Tangjitman, W. Pongamornkul, C. Trisonthi and H. Balslev.
The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2017.12.003. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.
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CITATION: (2018-01-07), Findings from Aarhus University Provide New Insights into Ethnopharmacology (Ethnomedicinal Plant Diversity in Thailand), Pharma Investments, Ventures & Law Weekly, 5, ISSN: 0000-0000, BUTTER® ID: 014911519
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