Journal of ethnopharmacology
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The anticonvulsant effect of the volatile oil extracted from the fresh fruits of Tetrapleura tetraptera was investigated in mice. The results obtained show that the fresh oil given intraperitoneally offers some protection against leptazol-induced convulsions. A dose of 0.4 ml of the oil per mouse protected 78% of the animals when administered 30 min prior to leptazol. While 0.6 ml offered no protection from death, the onset of convulsions and the average time of death was prolonged.
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For many years students of Haitian society have suggested that there is an ethnopharmacological basis for the notorious zombies, the living dead of peasant folklore. The recent surfacing of three zombies, one of whom may represent the first potentially verifiable case, has focused scientific attention on the reported zombi drug. The formula of the poison was obtained at four widely separated localities in Haiti. ⋯ The symptomology of tetrodotoxication as described in the biomedical literature is compared with the constellations of symptoms recorded from the zombies in Haiti. The cosmological rationale of zombies within the context of Voodoo theology is described. Preliminary laboratory tests are summarized.
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The discovery is described of the high bactericidal and healing properties of basidiospores of a "star fungus" identified as Geaster mammosum Chev. (family: Geastraceae) growing saprophytically in pine forests. It is used in folk medicine for burns by the inhabitants of Kumaon. This drug was clinically tried on 25 patients with karnasrava (otorrhoea), 8 with karnasula (earache), 7 with vrana (wounds) and 2 with nabhipaka (umbilical sepsis) showing an improvement/cure in almost all cases. The drug offers potential for development as a therapeutic agent.
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There is a paucity of data on the occurrence of hepatotoxic and hepatocarcinogenic pyrrolizidine alkaloids in medicinal plants, and there are no data on the hepatotoxic properties of herbal medicines that are used in the traditional pharmacopoiea of Sri Lanka and other Asian and African countries. In view of the extensive consumption of these herbs and the occurrence of chronic liver diseases including hepatocellular cancer in this and other countries of South Asia, we have screened fifty medicinal plants for pyrrolizidine alkaloids and have obtained positive results with three species, namely Crotalaria verrucosa L., Holarrhena antidysenterica (L.) Br., and Cassia auriculata L. ⋯ The presence of alkaloids in C. auriculata has not been previously reported nor has the presence of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in H. antidysenterica. It is suggested that the consumption of herbal medicines that contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids could contribute to the high incidence of chronic liver disease including primary hepatocellular cancer in Asian and African countries.
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Coca has been used in folk medicine in South America for thousands of years both as a general stimulant and for more specific medical purposes. It remains one of the most commonly used medicines in some areas of Bolivia and Peru. The medical use of coca and cocaine in the industrial world has a more dramatic and varied history. ⋯ When its dangers became apparent and substitutes became available, its medical use went into decline, especially when, in the 1930s, amphetamine began to replace it for some purposes. Today its only generally accepted medical use is as a topical anesthetic in certain kinds of minor surgery and other clinical procedures. There are, however, some recent and so far uncertain signs of reviving interest in cocaine and even coca itself for other medical purposes, in research as well as in diagnosis and treatment.