High-Value Plant Species Used for the Treatment of “Fever” by the Karen Hill Tribe People

Phumthum, Methee; Sadgrove, Nicholas J.

doi:10.3390/antibiotics9050220

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…These are common symptoms that people experience every year, especially seasonal symptoms such as fever, cough, headache, and sore throat. A previous study showed that Thai Karen had tremendous knowledge of medicinal uses for treatments of fever ( Phumthum and Sadgrove, 2020 ). Diarrhea is usually found among Thai rural population because of the consumption of unsanitary or very sour and spicy food, and body aches and pains are commonly found among laborers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medicinal Plants Used for Treating Mild Covid-19 Symptoms Among Thai Karen and Hmong

2021

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is causing many severe problems globally, and it is not known for how long it will last. The only hope we have for dealing with the problem is to produce sufficient vaccines and administer them efficiently. However, the current demand for vaccines greatly exceeds the supply, and many people will suffer from the disease for still some time. Moreover, the period for immunity obtained by the vaccines remains unknown, and we cannot predict how long the world will suffer the COVID-19 infections. Therefore, there will be a continued demand for treatments of its symptoms. An alternative solution for providing such treatment is the use of traditional medicinal plants.Aims: To document medicinal plants used by Hmong and Karen in Thailand to treat mild symptoms of COVID-19.Methods: Traditional knowledge about ethnomedicinal plants used by Hmong and Karen in Thailand for treating mild symptoms listed by WHO as associated with COVID 19, was collected in field interviews and extracted from the literature.Results: We identified 491 plant species used medicinally by both ethnic groups to treat fever, cough, diarrhea, muscle pain and ache, rash, headache, sore throat, and conjunctivitis. Of the 491 species 60 were mentioned at least five times in the literature or in our field data. Of these 60 species, we propose the most commonly used ones for treatments of mild COVID-19 symptoms. Ten of these most commonly mentioned species were used for treatments of fever, nine for treatment of cough, four for treatment of diarrhea, two for treatment of rash, and a single species was used to treat muscle pain and headache.Conclusion: This study suggests alternative treatments for mild symptoms of COVID-19 with medicinal plants that are traditionally used by the ethnic minority groups of the Hmong and Karen in Thailand. Although COVID-19 is a new disease, its mild symptoms are shared with many other diseases. Traditional knowledge on medicinal plants used by the Thai Karen and Hmong could help in the treatments of these symptoms associated with COVID-19. Many of the proposed plants were used abundantly by both ethnic groups, and other studies on biological activities support their efficacy in such treatments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medicinal Plants Used for Treating Mild Covid-19 Symptoms Among Thai Karen and Hmong

2021

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“…[ 17 ]. For the treatment of sickness, the Karen depends on a large body of traditional knowledge about medicinal plants, especially herbs for the treatment of stomachaches, diarrhea, coughs, fevers, infectious diseases, and also plants for tonic and refreshment [ 14 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Therefore, the Karen hold a vast amount of medicinal plant knowledge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnomedicinal Plant Knowledge of the Karen in Thailand

Phumthum

Balslev

Kantasrila

et al. 2020

Plants

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The Thai Karen, the largest hill-tribe in Thailand, guard substantial ethnomedicinal plant knowledge, as documented in several studies that targeted single villages. Here, we have compiled information from all the reliable and published sources to present a comprehensive overview of the Karen ethnomedicinal plant knowledge. Our dataset covers 31 Karen villages distributed over eight provinces in Thailand. We used the Cultural Importance Index (CI) to determine which species were the most valuable to the Karen and the Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) to evaluate how well distributed the knowledge of ethnomedicinal plants was in various medicinal use categories. In the 31 Karen villages, we found 3188 reports of ethnomedicinal plant uses of 732 species in 150 plant families. Chromolaena odorata, Biancaea sappan, and Tinospora crispa were the most important medicinal plants, with the highest CI values. The Leguminosae, Asteraceae, Zingiberaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Lamiaceae, Acanthaceae, Apocynaceae, and Menispermaceae were the families with the highest CI values in the mentioned order. A high proportion of all the 3188 Karen use reports were used to treat digestive, general and unspecified, musculoskeletal, and skin disorders.

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“…Nevertheless, the unique anti-malarial effects of V. doniana extracts from the specimen collected in the current study could be attributed to symptom treatment, rather than targeting of the pathogen itself. In this regard, many ‘anti-fever’ species in ethnomedicine confer their effects by anti-inflammatory activity following COX-2 inhibition [ 21 ], which reduces prostaglandin E(2) levels in the hypothalamus and attenuates the effects of pyrogens secreted by the invading pathogen [ 22 ]. In this regard, the Kenyan study of V. doniana [ 5 ] demonstrated that the ecdysteroids confer significant in vivo anti-inflammatory effects at 100 mg.kg −1 (b.w., PO) in a Sprague Dawley rat model, by oral administration.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecdysteroids from the Stem Bark of Vitex doniana Sweet (Lamiaceae; ex. Verbenaceae): A Geographically Variable African Medicinal Species

et al. 2021

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Vitex doniana Sweet is an African medicinal species that is prescribed as an aqueous bark extract to be applied topically or orally to achieve anti-infective outcomes. In select regions it is also taken orally as an antimalarial agent. The aim of the current study was to explore the biological properties of V. doniana and isolated compounds in the context of pathogenic bacteria and the protozoan parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Three compounds were isolated and assigned by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy as ecdysteroids: (1) 20-hydroxyecdysone, (2) turkesterone, and (3) ajugasterone C. Interestingly, two of these compounds had not previously been identified in V. doniana, providing evidence of chemical variability between regions. The bark extract and three ecdysteroids were screened for activity against a panel of pathogenic bacteria associated with skin, stomach and urinary tract infections, and the protozoan parasite P. falciparum. The crude extract of the bark inhibited all bacterial strains with MIC values of 125–250 μg.mL−1. The three isolated compounds demonstrated less activity with MIC values of 500–1000 μg.mL−1. Furthermore, no activity was observed against P. falciparum at the screening concentration of 4.8 μg.mL−1. Nevertheless, we present a hypothesis for the possible mechanism for symptomatic relief of malarial fever, which may involve reduction of prostaglandin E(1) & E(2) activity in the hypothalamus via modulation of the monoaminergic system. While further studies are required to identify all antimicrobial agents within this plant species and to determine the cytotoxicity of each of these compounds, these data suggest that the traditional application of this species as an antiseptic is valid.

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High-Value Plant Species Used for the Treatment of “Fever” by the Karen Hill Tribe People

Cited by 13 publications

References 43 publications

Medicinal Plants Used for Treating Mild Covid-19 Symptoms Among Thai Karen and Hmong

Medicinal Plants Used for Treating Mild Covid-19 Symptoms Among Thai Karen and Hmong

Ethnomedicinal Plant Knowledge of the Karen in Thailand

Ecdysteroids from the Stem Bark of Vitex doniana Sweet (Lamiaceae; ex. Verbenaceae): A Geographically Variable African Medicinal Species

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