| Plant based Medicines • Aloe vera, known for its antimicrobial and wound-healing properties. • The Zhongyi system in China, Arabian medicine, and Indian Ayurveda have relied on plants like Rauwolfia serpentina, holy basil, artichokes, camphor, coconut, wild garlic and castor oil for thousands of years. • A natural product-based remedy popular in India, Chyavana Prasha, has its formula recorded in the Charaka Samhita. |
- Recently Article published in Nature documented a Sumatran orangutan treating a facial wound with a paste made from the local plant Fibraurea tinctoria.
- Fibraurea tinctoria is known for its anti-inflammatory properties due to the presence of berberine.
- Called ‘Akar Kunyi’ locally, the plant is used in the traditional medical. And in the southern subtropical regions, its equivalent is called Oleander and is used as a curative for jaundice.
- The term “Zoopharmacognosy refers to the behaviour of animals self-medicating with plants, soil, and insects.
- Apes, monkeys, reindeer, bears, and birds like starlings consume specific plants for health benefits.
- Dogs chew grass to induce vomiting and alleviate stomach infections.
- Pregnant lemurs eat tamarind leaves to boost milk production.
- Pregnant elephants in Kenya consume Boraginaceae leaves to induce labour.
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