News from Tartary: an ethnopharmacological approach to drug and therapeutic discovery

Abstract

Ethnopharmacology aims to identify new therapeutic agents based on their traditional use. It begins by the identification of disease states, and of the traditional therapies for these, most commonly herbals. Herbals of interest are selected from ethnopharmacological surveys, and tested on experimental models of the diseases of interest. Once the activity of the traditional remedy is demonstrated, including dose-dependence, if possible comparatively to reference medications, the active ingredients can be explored, if possible using bioguided extraction. Identified molecules can then be further developed as medicinal products or pharmaceutical medicines (e.g., artemisine), or the herbal product can be developed as such (e.g. St John's wort). We provide examples of various study programmes, concerning the antiplatelet and antithrombotic effects of Armagnac extracts from Southwest France; antithrombotic and antihypertensive effects of extracts of Ocimum basilicum L; antithrombotic, antihypertensive and antihyperlipidemic effects of Cydonia oblonga; Antiproliferative and antithrombotic effects of Abnorma Savda Munziq of traditional Uyghur medicine; and the antidiabetic and hepatoprotective effects of Centaurium erythraea Rafn, Artemisia herba-alba Asso and Trigonella foenum-graecum L., all in collaboration

Herbal remedies used for the treatment of infertility in males and females by traditional healers in the rural areas of the West Bank/Palestine

“…In addition, the global public interests are in continuous growing toward the use of this type of medicine. In fact, about 80% of people in rural areas of developing countries utilized traditional medicine, since it is available, cheap and has a variety of health benefits [7–9].…”

Investigation of the Effects of Topical Centarium Erythraea in Full-Thickness Skin Wounds in Diabetic Rabbits

“…Centaurium, a species of flowering plant in the Gentianaceae family, takes part in the pharmacopoeia of 23 different countries and it was named as the medicinal plant of the year 2004 (16,19). Centaurium erythraea (CE), one of the most important pharmacological species of this family, has antidiabetic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, hepatoprotective and wound-healing properties (17,(19)(20)(21)(22). CE grows in different regions around the world (17,20,23,24) and is a traditional medicinal plant used in the treatment of various diseases (17,20).…”

Traditional medicines for COVID‐19: Perspectives from clinical pharmacologists

“…Significant advances in the science of ethnopharmacology has helped to introduce single chemical entities, in contrast to composite natural product source, into modern medicine. 7 A large number of modern-day therapies have had their documented origins in natural products. These include the popular antimalarial drugs, quinine and artemisinin from Cinchona and Artemisia species, respectively; the heart failure treatment, digoxin from Digitalis species; the important pain relief agents codeine and morphine from Paperver species; anticancer drugs vincristine and vinblastine from Catharanthus roseus; and the pre-surgery medication, atropine from Atropa belladona.…”