Ethnoheritage Project

Medicinal Plant Tour/ Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Trees Salix – Willow -- salicylic acid – used as a pain killer in ancient Sumaria 4000 years ago.  Problmatic side effects --Salicin isolated by Felix Hoffman in 1899 – leading to Bayer *Asperin Betulus – Birch – infusion of dried leaves said to help inappropriate fluid retention.  And, swelling joints. Sweetgum – Liquid Amber – sap – Chewing gum -- storax—strong antimicrobial agent -- *Timiflu for flu prevention. Tilia – Lime  -- dried flowers and bracts, mild sedative, antisposmodic, coughs, sore throat                    *80% - 20% story Med Garden Euphedra – Stimulates the brain, increases heart rate, increases blood pressure – a performance enhancer – possibly the source of Soma in ancient Iran.  Meth, chrystal meth, banned by Olympic Committee, but is basis of *Desoxyn, used for ADHD and w...

Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used by people in Zegie Peninsula, Northwestern Ethiopia An ethnobotanical study was conducted from October 2005 to June 2006 to investigate the uses of medicinal plants by people in Zegie Peninsula, northwestern Ethiopia. Information was gathered from 200 people: 70 female and 130 males, using semistructured questionnaire. Of which, six were male local healers. The informants, except the healers, were selected randomly and no appointment was made prior to the visits. Informant consensus factor (ICF) for category of aliments and the fidelity level (FL) of the medicinal plants were determined. Sixty-seven medicinal plants used as a cure for 52 aliments were documented. They are distributed across 42 families and 64 genera. The most frequently utilized plant part was the underground part (root/rhizome/bulb) (42%). The largest number of remedies was used to treat gastrointestinal disorder and parasites infections (22.8%) followed by exter...

Medicinal Plants and Traditional Healing in Contemporary Rural South Africa http://sluse.dk/courses/ilunrm/project/11_south_africa_medicinal_plants

Numerous indigenous healing traditions around the world employ plants with psychoactive effects to facilitate divination and other spiritual healing rituals. Southern Africa has thus far been considered to have relatively few psychoactive plant species of cultural importance, and little has been published on the subject. This paper reports on 85 species of plants that are used for divination by southern Bantu-speaking people. Of these, 39 species (45 %) have other reported psychoactive uses, and a number have established hallucinogenic activity. These findings indicate that psychoactive plants have an important role in traditional healing practices in southern Africa. More http://www.sahumanities.org/ojs/index.php/SAH/article/viewFile/247/208

Ritual uses of palms in traditional medicine in sub-Saharan Africa: a review Palms (Arecaceae) are prominent elements in African traditional medicines. It is, however, a challenge to find detailed information on the ritual use of palms, which are an inextricable part of African medicinal and spiritual systems. This work reviews ritual uses of palms within African ethnomedicine. We studied over 200 publications on uses of African palms and found information about ritual uses in 26 of them. At least 12 palm species in sub-Saharan Africa are involved in various ritual practices: Borassus aethiopum , Cocos nucifera , Dypsis canaliculata , D. fibrosa, D. pinnatifrons, Elaeis guineensis, Hyphaene coriacea, H. petersiana, Phoenix reclinata, Raphia farinifera, R. hookeri, and R. vinifera. In some rituals, palms play a central role as sacred objects, for example the seeds accompany oracles and palm leaves are used in offerings. In other cases, palms are added as a support to other power...

Traditional Medicines in Africa: An Appraisal of Ten Potent African Medicinal Plants The use of medicinal plants as a fundamental component of the African traditional healthcare system is perhaps the oldest and the most assorted of all therapeutic systems. In many parts of rural Africa, traditional healers prescribing medicinal plants are the most easily accessible and affordable health resource available to the local community and at times the only therapy that subsists. Nonetheless, there is still a paucity of updated comprehensive compilation of promising medicinal plants from the African continent. The major focus of the present review is to provide an updated overview of 10 promising medicinal plants from the African biodiversity which have short- as well as long-term potential to be developed as future phytopharmaceuticals to treat and/or manage panoply of infectious and chronic conditions. In this endeavour, key scientific databases have been probed to investigate trends i...

Healing Herbs and Medicinal Plants List .... Read Original Article: http://www.herbslist.net/