Answer to Question #229184 in English for Xoloh

Question

A report on a process on how traditional doctors get their medicines

Answer 1

Traditional medicine refers to the knowledge, skills, and practices which are based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures and used in the maintenance of health and the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental health. Traditional medicine occupies a very important place in health care in the world.

The traditional healer typically diagnoses and treats the psychological basis of an illness before prescribing medicines, particularly medicinal plants to treat the symptoms. The traditional healer provides health care services based on culture, religious background, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs that are prevalent in his community.

Traditional medicine is viewed as a combination of knowledge and practice used in diagnosing, preventing, and eliminating disease. This may rely on past experience and observations handed down from generation to generation either verbally, frequently in the form of stories, or spiritually by ancestors or, in modern times, in writing. Herbal medicines, also called botanical medicines, vegetable medicines, or phytomedicines, as defined by World Health Organization refers to herbs, herbal materials, herbal preparations, and finished herbal products that contain whole plants, parts of plants, or other plant materials, including leaves, bark, berries, flowers, and roots, and/or their extracts as active ingredients intended for human therapeutic use or for other benefits in humans and sometimes animals. Some of the plant parts used in herbal medicines include roots, bulbs, rhizomes, tubers, bark, leaves, stems, flowers, gums, nectars, exudates, fruits and seeds.

Methods of preparation of herbal medicines may vary according to place and culture. The plant materials may be used fresh or dry. With experience, a particular method is chosen to increase efficiency and decrease toxicity. Some of the methods of preparation include;

• Extraction - This is prepared with solvent on a weight by volume basis. Sometimes, the solvent is evaporated to a soft mass.
• Infusions are prepared by macerating the crude drug for a short period of time in cold or hot water. A preservative such as honey may be added to prevent spoilage.
• Decoctions are made by boiling woody pieces for a specified period of time and filtered. Potash may be added to aid extraction and as preservative.
• Ashing - The dried parts are incinerated to ash, then sieved and added as such to water or food.