We present the results of an ethnopharmacological investigation of a Bolivian lowland ethnic group, the Tacana. The Tacana have a long tradition of exchange with highland communities. Though facing rapid acculturation, highlighted by the loss of the Tacana language among the younger generations, the knowledge and uses of medicinal plants are still alive. Of the approximately 450 different plant...

Fungal communities were isolated from surface sterilized leaf segments of nine ethnopharmaceutically important medicinal herbs collected from the Bhadra River Project Area, the Malnad region, Southern India. A total of 2159 isolates belonging to 55 different fungal species were isolated from 3600 leaf segments collected during the wet and dry seasons. Chaetomium globosum (7.3%), Aureobasidium p...

Pakistan has a variety of herbs and medicinal plant resources, due to its varied ecological conditions. Large number of physicians of south Asia (locally called Hakeems and Tib-e-Unani or Ayurvedic medicines) use herbs, plant parts and extracts for treating human diseases. Source of medicinal plants are hilly areas, deserts and coastal zones of the country. Major supply of medicinal herbs is wi...

An ethnobotanical survey was carried out in the former Transkei homeland to document the unwritten knowledge related to traditional uses of medicinal plants. The indigenous people of Transkei, Eastern Cape, South Africa depend on the natural plant resources from their environment for medicine, food, pastoral, cultural and religious needs. This area, mainly inhabited by the Xhosa people, has rem...

The current status of medicinal plants used by traditional Vaidyas was studied in Uttaranchal state of India. Information was gathered using semi-structured questionnaires among 60 traditional Vaidyas. They were questioned about the types of ailments treated with plants and the preparation of herbal medical formulations. A total of 243 herbal medical formulations prepared by Vaidyas treating 73...

The use of medicinal plants is continually expanding worldwide. The increasing search for therapeutic agents derived from plant species is justified by the emergence of diseases, yet without proper treatment, and the growth of scientific knowledge about the herbal medi‐ cines as important treatment alternatives. Therefore, the quality and safety of herbal prepa‐ rations are also of great concer...

The past decade has witnessed a tremendous resurgence in the interest and use of medicinal plant products, especially in North America. Surveys of plant medicinal usage by the American public have shown an increase from just about 3% of the population in 1991 to over 37% in 1998 (Brevoort, 1998). The North American market for sales of plant medicinals has climbed to about $3 billion/year (Glase...

BACKGROUND The pastoral lifestyle of Indigenous communities of Bajaur Agency is bringing them close to natural remedies for treating their domestic animals. Several studies have been conducted across the globe describing the importance of traditional knowledge in veterinary care. Therefore, this study was planned with the aim to record knowledge on ethnoveterinary practices from the remote area...

BACKGROUND In rural communities of Thailand, traditional healers still play an important role in local health care systems even though modern medicine is easily accessible. Meanwhile, natural forests in Thailand which are important sources of materia medica are being greatly destroyed. This has led to an erosion of traditional Thai medicine. Furthermore, the concept of medicinal plant selection...

The use of plants as natural medicines in the treatment of type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has long been of special interest. In this work, we developed a docking score-weighted prediction model based on drug-target network to evaluate the efficacy of medicinal plants for T2DM. High throughput virtual screening from chemical library of natural products was adopted to calculate the binding affi...