Natural Medicines have been extracted from plants for thousands of years and new ones are still being discovered. Here are several plant extracts with robust medical benefits. Humans have been extracting the healing properties of plants for thousands of years. Although herbal remedies are often discounted as unscientific, more than one-third of modern drugs are derived either directly or indirectly from natural products, such as plants, microorganisms and animals.
Galbulimima belgraveana tree
Now, researchers from the Scripps Research Institute in the US state of California have found that a chemical extracted from the bark of the Galbulimima belgraveana tree has psychotropic effects that could help treat depression and anxiety. The tree is found only in remote rainforests of Papua New Guinea and northern Australia and has long been used by indigenous people as a healing remedy against pain and fever.
Poppy Flowers
The most well-known example of a medical drug extracted from a plant species is opium, which has been used to treat pain for over 4,000 years. Opiates like morphine and codeine are extracted from the opium poppy and have a powerful effect on the central nervous system.
Velvet Bean
The velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) has been used in ancient Indian Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine for over 3,000 years. Ancient texts tell us how healers used bean extracts to reduce tremors in patients to treat the condition we now consider Parkinson’s disease.
Studies now show that the velvet bean contains a compound called levodopa, a drug used to treat Parkinson’s disease today.
Levodopa helps to stop tremors by increasing dopamine signals in areas of the brain that control movement.
Hawthorn
Clinical trials using current research standards have found that hawthorn (Crataegus spp) reduces blood pressure and may be useful to treat cardiovascular disease. Hawthorn berries contain compounds such as bioflavonoids and proanthocyanidins that appear to have significant antioxidant activity.
The medical properties of hawthorn were first noted by Greek physician Dioscorides in the 1st century and by Tang-Ben-Cao in ancient Chinese medicine in the 7th century.
Hawthorn extracts are not yet suitable for medical use in the wider public — studies are ongoing, and more rigorous research is needed to assess the long-term safety of using the extracts to treat diseases.
Pacific Yew Tree
Yew trees have a special place in medicine in European mythology. Most parts of the tree are very poisonous, causing associations with both death and immortality. The Third Witch in Macbeth mentions “slips of yew slivered in the moon’s eclipse” (Macbeth Act 4, Scene 1).
But it is a species of yew tree in North America, the Pacific yew tree (Taxus brevifolia), that possesses the most beneficial medical properties.
Scientists in the 1960s found that the tree’s bark contains compounds called taxels. One of these taxels, called Paclitaxel, has been developed into an effective cancer treatment drug. Paclitaxel can stop cancer cells from dividing, blocking further growth of the disease.
Willow Bark
Willow bark is another traditional medicine with a long history. The bark was adopted 4,000 years ago in ancient Sumer and Egypt to treat pain and has been a staple of medicine ever since.
Willow bark contains a compound called salicin, which would later form the basis of the discovery of aspirin — the world’s most widely taken drug.
Aspirin has several different medical benefits, including pain relief, reduction of fever and prevention of stroke. Its first widespread use was during the 1918 flu pandemic to treat high temperatures.
“This goes to show that Western medicine hasn’t cornered the market on new therapeutics; there are traditional medicines out there still waiting to be studied,” senior author Ryan Shenvi, PhD, a professor of chemistry at Scripps Research, told reporters last week.
Reference
Website – https://www.dw.com/en/herbal-medicines-that-actually-work/a-61865033
