The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that as many as 80% of the world's more than six billion people rely primarily on animal and plant-based medicines. The healing of human ailments by using therapeutics based on medicines obtained from animals or ultimately derived from them is known as zootherapy. The phenomenon of zootherapy is marked both by a broad geographical distribution and v...

1 Department of Pharmacology, School of Chinese Materia Medica, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100102, China 2 Research Unit for Complementary and Integrative Laser Medicine, Research Unit of Biomedical Engineering in Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, and TCM Research Center Graz, Medical University of Graz, 8036 Graz, Austria 3 Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney, ...

Many prescriptions of traditional medicines (TMs), whose efficacy has been tested in clinical practice, have great therapeutic value and represent an excellent resource for drug discovery. Research into single compounds of TMs, such as artemisinin from Artemisia annua L., has achieved great success; however, it has become evident that a TM prescription (which frequently contains various herbs o...

Livestock comprises a major part of Indian agriculture economics. Livestock owners in farflung remote areas still depend upon plants and animal products for curing various veterinary ailments. This folk knowledge of ethnoveterinary significance has been identified by tribal and rural people through a process of experience over hundreds of years. The present paper deals with the plant as well as...

Drugs fulfilling the criterion of a standard drug will always become panacea provided, if they are used properly. On the other hand, a poorly manufactured drug however used skillfully, will prove to be a poison. Texts of Ayurveda, do mention hazards of drugs, which are not properly manufactured or administered. Art of drug administration is unique in this ancient medical science that cautions t...

BACKGROUND The human body has simple and compound organs that obtain their nourishment through four humors. One of them is bile (yellow bile). According to Iranian traditional medicine (ITM), there are various kinds of natural medicines with their specific mechanisms of action affecting on bile in the human body. Hakim Aghili Shirazi (18th century), one of the great scholars in ITM field, intro...

AIM OF THE STUDY Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most difficult ailments to control in the world today. The emergence of drug resistant strains has made previously effective and affordable remedies less effective. This has made the search for new medicines from local traditional medicines urgent. The specific objectives of this study were to (1) identify plant species used in the treatment...

Purpose Kampo (Japanese traditional herbal medicine) plays a certain role in the current health practices in Japan. Similar to other medical interventions, health-economic aspects of Kampo medicines should be assessed for the rational use of scarce healthcare resources. The purpose of this study is to review the published pharmacoeconomic evaluations on Kampo medicines in Japan, delineating the...

BACKGROUND Traditional medicine (TM) occupies a special place in the management of diseases in Uganda. Not with standing the many people relying on TM, indigenous knowledge (IK) related to TM is getting steadily eroded. To slow down this loss it is necessary to document and conserve as much of the knowledge as possible. This study was conducted to document the IK relevant to traditional medicin...

Background: Inflammation caused by diapers is one of the most common skin diseases in infants and children all over the world. Among the current therapies, modern chemical medicines are the most common ways of therapy despite their potential risks. In the present study, a variety of available chemical and complementary therapies are presented to facilitate the selection or further research on t...