Nowadays, medicinal plants used in folk medicine are being increasingly studied and used on pharmaceutical, food and nutraceutical fields. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium L.) is widely used in both folk and official medicine. Therefore, in the present paper different extracts of yarrow inflorescences and upper leaves were investigated for their total polyphenolic content and antioxidant activity u...

ABSTRACT Mayurbhanj, a hilly district, is rich in ethno medicinal plants. In the present paper 58 plant species belonging to 34 families used in folk medicine have been documented. Due to poor condition of modern healthcare facilities and poverty, indigenous people of the district fully or partially depend on local medicinal plants. An attempt has been made to document traditional knowledge fro...

The present study is an attempt to list some of the medicinal plants used by the traditional practitioners of the Marakanam bio-region in the treatment of various eye diseases. The survey of folk medicine men from this bio-region has revelaed that there are 24 medicinal plants locally available for treating both simple and complex eye diseases. Most of these diseases have been identified in San...

BACKGROUND Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) continues to be one of the commonest pathogens encountered in clinical as well as laboratory practice. It has become a major health problem worldwide. Newer antimicrobials/agents are urgently needed to combat this problem MRSA resistance to various anti-staphylococcal agents. In the back-drop of this difficult situation Nigella sativ...

BACKGROUND The relationship between spirituality, religion and medicine has been recognized since antiquity. Despite large differences in their history, society, economy and cultures human communities shared a common belief that spirituality and religion played an important role in the healing of diseases. METHODS The study of religious remedies used by Italian folk medicine in order to treat...

This article is intended as a first attempt to assemble and, where necessary, to newly devise, a series of terms which can be used to indicate the poetical features1 and rhetorical structures and devices typically present in the words of a charm, and also the proxemic manoeuvres employed in the “performance” of charms.2 In the English-speaking world academic investigations into individual verba...

In the city of Iquitos and its vicinity there is even today a rich tradition of folk medicine. Practitioners, some of whom qualify as shamans, make an important contribution to the psychosomatic health of the inhabitants of this area. Among them there are those called vegetalistas or plant specialists and who use a series of plants called doctores or plant teachers. It is their belief that if t...

Since ancient times, folk medicine and agro-food science have benefitted from the use of plant derivatives, such as essential oils, to combat different diseases, as well as to preserve food. In Nature, essential oils play a fundamental role in protecting the plant from biotic and abiotic attacks to which it may be subjected. Many researchers have analyzed in detail the modes of action of essent...

Among the sources of homoeopathic medicines vegetable kingdom is major source. Compositae family one largest plant giving more than 60 to homoeopathy. Plants compositae are important in herbal and folk medicine since antiquity. In system medicine, from Asteraceae were used for shock, spasms, convulsions, traumas, bruises, liver blood disorders, respiratory problems, fever, sepsis worm infestati...

The ethnopharmaceutical approach is important for the discovery and development of natural product research and requires a deep understanding not only of biometabolites discovery and profiling but also of cultural and social science. For millennia, epigeous macrofungi (mushrooms) and hypogeous macrofungi (truffles) were considered as precious food in many cultures based on their high nutritiona...