Multimedia-based Medicinal Plants Sustainability Management System

Medicinal plants are increasingly recognized worldwide as an alternative source of efficacious and inexpensive medications to synthetic chemo-therapeutic compound. Rapid declining wild stocks of medicinal plants accompanied by adulteration and species substitutions reduce their efficacy, quality and safety. Consequently, the low accessibility to and non-affordability of orthodox medicine costs by rural dwellers to be healthy and economically productive further threaten their life expectancy. Finding comprehensive information on medicinal plants of conservation concern at a global level has been difficult. This has created a gap between computing technologies’ promises and expectations in the healing process under complementary and alternative medicine. This paper presents the design and implementation of a Multimedia-based Medicinal Plants Sustainability Management System addressing these concerns. Medicinal plants’ details for designing the system were collected through semi-structured interviews and databases. Unified Modelling Language, Microsoft-Visual-Studio.Net, C#3.0, Microsoft-Jet-Engine4.0, MySQL, Loquendo Multilingual Text-to-Speech Software, YouTube, and VLC Media Player were used. Keywords: Complementary and Alternative Medicine, conservation, extinction, medicinal plant, multimedia, phytoconstituents, rural dweller

Medicinal Plants in Pregnancy and Lactation: Perception of the Health Risk and Practical Educational Group in Araraquara, São Paulo State, Brazil

The use of medicinal plants among pregnant women and lactating is a common practice in diverse countries. However, many medicinal plants are contraindicated during pregnancy and lactating, due to various adverse effects, such as teratogenic, embryotoxic and abortive effects, exposing these women, their fetus and babies to health unknown risks. Thus, the purpose of this commentary, was to analyze the perception about the use of medicinal plants by pregnant women and lactating registered in the "baby on board" NGO, Araraquara, São Paulo state, Brazil, between 2010 at 2013. The group was constituted by 48 women, between the first and last trimester of pregnancy or whilst breastfeeding. Information was collected during group meetings by oral interview, using a questionnaire, as script. The nature of the study was a qualitative analysis. The results were based on reports about the use of medicinal plants by pregnant women during group meetings: use, indication of use, knowledge about risks. All participants received written and oral information about the study and they gave a written informed consent. The use of medicinal plants is a reality among pregnant and lactating women of the "baby on board" NGO. They reported that they feel that "natural" products are not harmful for their health. The primary information sources for the majority of women about medicinal plants during pregnancy are family, neighbors and herbalists. The plants most cited were: senna, chamomile, boldo, lemon balm, lemon grass. They were used mainly for: nausea, heartburn, indigestion, flatulence, intestinal and abdominal pain, anxiety, intestinal constipation and low milk production. The pregnant and lactating women lacked knowledge about the health risks of the use of medicinal plants and herbal medicines in pregnancy and lactation. They also reported difficulties in clarifying some questions about the use of medicinal plants with their doctors. The results of the present study showed that educative actions about the rational use of medicinal plants in pregnancy and breastfeeding could be part of the operating protocols to promote the maternal and child health programs in Araraquara. Thus, our results also suggest the importance of creating institutionalized places, to the implementation of continued education programs about rational use of medicinal plants in pregnancy and lactation. These targeted programs are not only for health professionals, but also for community members, pregnant women and breastfeeding. Our results pointed out the importance of guidance of doctors and healthcare professionals on the scientific studies about medicinal plants and herbal medicines and the risk/benefit of using herbs during pregnancy. Finally, it is noted the importance of the health professionals to inform women of childbearing on risks to their health, as well as on possibilities of utilization of herbs during fertile period, giving special attention to the potential risk of self-medication

Diversity of plant-parasitic nematodes on medicinal plants in Melinh station for biodiversity, Vinh Phuc Province, Vietnam

Plant-parasitic nematodes are known as one of the most important pests attacking various plants in the world, and investigating the nematode component is very essential for management of this pest and prevent damage to plants in general. Our survey of plant-parasitic nematodes on medicinal plants in Melinh Station for Biodiversity, a place for conservation of precious plants and animals in Vietnam, identified ten species that belong to nine genera, five families, and two orders of plant-parasitic nematodes parasitizing six medicinal plants. Excoecaria cochinchinensis was parasitized by the highest number of nematode genera (5 genera, including Xiphinema, Discocriconemella, Meloidogyne, Helicotylenchus, and Hemicriconemoides), while Hymenocallis littoralis was associated with the highest number of plant-parasitic nematodes (2060 nematodes/250g soil). The results also showed that Discocriconemella limitanea was found to be a dominant species with the highest number of individuals on 6 medicinal plants, and the genus Helicotylenchus had the highest frequency of appearance (5/6 plants or 83.3%). These nematodes caused symptoms such as yellowing leaves, root galls, and root lesions, which directly affect the quality and yield of medicinal plants. Based on the results, this study showed that plant-parasitic nematodes are a potential threat to the cultivation of medicinal plants in Melinh Station for Biodiversity, and thus, control measures should be applied to ensure sustainable cultivation of medicinal plants in this place

Prospects and Challenges of Medicinal Plants Conservation and\ud Traditional Medicine in Tanzania

A qualitative study was carried to assess prospects and challenges of medicinal plants conservation and\ud traditional medicine in Tanzania. The study shows that TRM and medicinal have great prospects in healthcare\ud delivery worldwide. These prospects have more impact in developing countries where 70%-80% of population used\ud TRM for Primary Healthcare (PHC). It is reported that 25% of prescribed drugs in conventional healthcare were\ud derived from their ethnomedicinal use in TRM. Medicinal plants still provided hope for discovery of new drugs for\ud the resistant diseases and those that were not treated by conventional prescribed drugs. Traditional medicine and\ud medicinal plants were faced with challenges notably; threats due to increasing depletion of the natural resource\ud as an impact of population increase, urbanization, modernization of agriculture and climatic change. There was\ud erosion of indigenous medical knowledge as most of the traditional health practitioners were aging and dying, while\ud the expected youths to inherit the practice shy away from practice. The youths in rural settings who were willing\ud to practice some of them die because of AIDS. The other major challenges on traditional medicine and MPs were\ud constraints and include lack of data on seriously threatened and endangered medicinal plant species. Others include\ud inadequate and conflicting guidelines on management and utilization of natural resources, especially medicinal\ud plants. Efforts for scaling up the practice of TRM and medicinal plant conservation have been suggested. These\ud were creating awareness of the importance traditional medicine and medicinal plants in healthcare; training THPs\ud on good practices for provision of healthcare; conserving medicinal plants through in-situ and ex-situ programs and\ud sustainable harvesting of medicinal plants resources and training conventional health workers on the contribution\ud of TRM and medicinal plants in PHC. Traditional health practitioners, TRM and medicinal plants should be essential\ud components in PHC in order to meet the health millennium goals by 2025

Cultivation cost-benefit analysis of some important medicinal plants in Serbia

Driven by frequent media misinformation about the level of profitability of growing certain medicinal plants, in this paper we presented a cost-benefit analysis based on twenty years of experience in field production. The observed costs and profits for peppermint, chamomile, lemon balm, marshmallow, valerian and pot marigold are based on the average values of production elements within the current prices of labor, energy and raw materials. Fixed costs in this paper were deliberately neglected and the discussion was based on the assumption of the existence and availability of infrastructure. In the cost analysis, we divided them into four main groups, which had different shares in total costs such as labor 45-79 %, drying 5 – 37 %, material, 9-16 % and machinery use 4-13 %. Regarding the level of profitability of cultivation of the six observed medicinal plants valerian was the most profitable with an estimated profit of over 4000 €/ha. Next best earning plants were lemon balm and marshmallow with about 3500 €/ha, while the income from peppermint and chamomile was more than twice lower and it was around 1500 €/ha. The lowest profit was realized by cultivating marigold (about 600 €/ha) due to the high labor consumption on the flower picking operation. In terms of labor consumption marshmallow, pot marigold and valerian are the most demanding with 365, 285 and 150 working days per hectare, respectively. The general conclusion of this observation of the profitability of growing medicinal plants would be that the producer must be aware of the costs and scope of labor engagement he expects per unit area before embarking on the calculation of production

Improvement of seed quality of medicinal plants and herbs in organic farming

As in vegetable growing or grain cropping the seed quality is an important factor for the successful cultivation of medicinal plants and herbs. In spite of intensive efforts made by specialised seed producers there are recurring problems with important quality parameters (e.g. germination capacity, emergence or seed health). The lack of sufficient study results is typical for special purpose crops, also concerning the particular host-parasite relationship and its methodical verification. Few experiences with the improvement of seed quality of medicinal plants and herbs are available. The intention of the study is to test physical and biological methods of seed treat-ment for their practicability in medicinal plants and herb cultivation. Fundamental information on the pathogens is also examined. Moreover there is a focus on further aspects of the production techniques (e.g. harvesting time) as a means to improve the seed quality

Towards conservation of Nigerian medicinal plants

The scientific world today, seems to have gone indigenous, searching the grassroots for potential plants and animals that could confer solutions to problems that have puzzled mankind, to search for newer and more potent drugs and perhaps even to develop vaccines against diseases plaguing the nation. Whatever it may be, it is not farfetched to say that indigenous knowledge is now the “in-thing”. Africa is naturally endowed with the richness of diverse and mostly un-investigated flora and fauna, and this has placed this continent on priority for indigenous investigations. Nigeria is one of such nations, showing a growing boom of indigenous based research especially in the use of medicinal plants. However, it is interesting to note that over the years, great efforts have been put in place for the conservation of its diverse fauna, thus overshadowing the relevance of plant conservation, especially the medicinal plants. This paper aims at highlighting the importance of adopting proactive measure through education and local communities’ participation in order to conserve the medicinal plant wealth in Nigeria

GC/MS chemical analysis of lavandin (Lavandula x intermedia) hydrolat: successive extraction fractions

Hydrolats are valuable co-products of the essential oil distillation process, whose volatile compounds can be quantified by various methods. In this paper, we have tried to estimate the liquid-liquid extraction cycle number threshold for volatile compounds quantification of lavandin (Lavandula x intermedia) hydrolat. For this purpose, ten consecutive hydrolat extractions with \textit{n}-hexane were analyzed GC/MS with hexadecane (C16) as an internal standard and compared with the lavandin essential oil. The chemical composition of the lavandinhydrolat showed similarity with its essential oil to the great extent, while volatile compounds dissolved in hydrolat exclusively belonged to the class of oxygenated monoterpenes. The total amount of extracted compounds has been estimated to 2174.2 mg/L, where the most dominant compounds in lavandinhydrolat were cis- and trans-furanoidlinalool oxide (676.3 and 634.1 mg/L, respectively), followed by much smaller amounts of linalool, camphor, and 1,8-cineole (167.6, 157.0, and 148.2 mg/L, respectively). Cumulative recoveries of total compounds yield after the third, fifth, and eighth extractions were 88 %, 96 %, and 99 %, respectively. Combined fraction analysis confirmed that in the first 5 cycles more than 95 % of the total yield (from 10 cycles) of extracted volatile compounds can be collected. Based on the results of this study, for volatile compounds quantification in lavandinhydrolat, 5 cycles of \textit{n}-hexane liquid-liquid extraction can be recommended

Comparing Medicinal Plants Use for Traditional and Modern Herbal Medicine in Long Nah Village of East Kalimantan

The purpose of this research is to describe theequivalence of local knowledge and scientific knowledgeor western knowledge in terms of medicinal plantusage for traditional medicine (TM) or ethnomedicineand modern herbal medicine or jamu (MM), and therecognition of both. This descriptive-comparative researchwas accomplished using the case study method.The research used participant observation and semistructuredinterview techniques to collect data andinformation from traditional healers, communityleaders, and villagers. The research results show thaton the one hand, local people particularly traditionalhealers (dukun) have developed knowledge of medicinalplants and TM compounds. This knowledgehas been based on the existence of illnesses in thecommunity and availability of medicinal plants in theirenvironment. On the other hand, rural communityhas known, acknowledged, and consumed MM as acomplement to TM produced by traditional healers(dukun). Comparison of medicinal plants used for TMand MM is not appropriate to prove the equivalenceof local knowledge and scientific knowledge, becausedifferent plant species mayhave the same efficacy. Onthe other hand, different local communities may usedifferent plants with similar efficacy for TM. Likewise,different MM industries may use different plants forMM to have the same efficacy