In all countries of the world there exists traditional knowledge related to the health of humans and animals. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the definition of traditional medicine may be summarized as the sum total of all the knowledge and practical, whether explicable or not, used in the diagnosis, prevention and elimination of physical, mental or social imbalance and relying...

Whereas pharmaceuticals prepared by extraction of medicinal plants constitute an important part of evidence-based medicine also in the Western Hemisphere, medicinal mushrooms are mainly used as dietary supplements without declaration of a medical indication. Scientific investigations and case studies from Asian medicine show that fungi have very promising pharmacological potential. This article...

Plants have been used as a source of medicine since ancient times. These medicines are cheaper and safe. According to WHO about 80% of the world’s population depends on traditional medicine for their primary health care. These traditional knowledge systems have started to disappear with the passage of time due to scarcity of written documents and relatively low income in these traditions. The p...

BACKGROUND The paper presents the first ethnobotanical application of Ellenberg indicator values, which are widely used in European plant ecology. The aim of the study was to find out if Ellenberg values (indicating habitat preferences) differ for wild food and medicinal plants used in north-eastern Istria (Croatia). We used Ellenberg-Pignatti values (the version of Ellenberg values used in thi...

According to one of the ancient proverbs in India,” there is no plant on earth which has no medicinal property.” More than 90% of the compounds used in modern medicine have their origin from plant sources. A large number of plants have been used by man from ancient times as medicine for curing various ailments. In recent times there is an upsurge of interest and focus on the importance of medic...

Background. Chinese medicinal herbs may be useful for the treatment of hyperuricemia, but there has been no systematic assessment of their efficacy and safety. Objectives. To systematically assess the efficacy and safety of Chinese medicinal herbs for the treatment of hyperuricemia. Methods. Six electronic databases were searched from their inception to December 2015. Randomized controlled clin...

IntRoductIon Herbs are one of remedial agents which God has created for afflicted humans. Herbal extracts have been used in traditional medicine for several thousand years [1]. The knowledge on medicinal plants has been accumulated in the course of many centuries, based on different medicinal systems such as Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha. In India, it has been reported that traditional healers use...

The primary therapeutic effects of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) are based on the properties of each herb and the strategic combination of herbs in formulae. The herbal formulae are constructed according to Chinese medicine theory: the "Traditional Principles for Constructing Chinese Herbal Medicinal Formulae" and the "Principles of Combining Medicinal Substances." These principles of formulati...

Nowadays the irregular increase of population in the world is a complex issue and is a crisis for the future. The evidences and statements show a large increase in accessible and useful plants that have medicinal properties. Due to side effects of chemical drugs, the use of traditional medicine, especially herbal therapy, is considered in recent decades. The use of medicinal plants has begun in...

Antiepileptic drugs used to treat epilepsy can cause severe, life threatening side effects. In Iranian traditional medicine, herbal remedies have been used for centuries to treat seizures. In this study, the five most important herbals in Iranian traditional medicine, namely Canon, al-Hawi, al-Abniah 'an Haqaeq al Adwia, Tuhfat al-Mu'minin, and Makhzan ul-Adwia, were searched for the term "sar-...