INTRODUCTION
1.2. Historical perspectives of traditional medicinal practices by the tribal communities with respect to cultural diversity
Page 9 Health beliefs are the products of specific cultural, historical and political context and medical anthropology seeks to understand particular notions of ill health, curing, help seeking and sickness management withion these larger knowledge systems.
Approaches in medical anthropology:
Medical anthropology examines the interaction between culture and biology what is popularly called as biological approach. How people through culture construct illness and find meaning in it is the essence of interactive approach. The critical approach of medical anthropology investigates how social conditions especially politico-economic forces shape the experience of health and sickness. Thus, broadly there are three approaches.
Ethnologists and cultural / medical anthropologists agree that the understanding of sickness and attempts of healing are dependent on cultural understanding of people within a historical context, as well as social, political, economic ,ecological conditiond and also the envioronment they inhabit (Hah1995)./
1.2. Historical perspectives of traditional medicinal practices by the tribal communities
Page 10 At present there is discussion about Ayurvedic and tribal medicine at different forums to find out important methods of healing for mankind. Ayurveda, the ancient medical system of India, which flourished traditionally is often translated as the "'science of life," It is an instruction for healthy and disease free life. In Ayurvedic system, medicinal treatment based on holistic approaches, there is a dominance of the three dosha (tridosha) systems: vata pitta and kapha and panchmahabhutas. In ancient period plants have symbolic significance as well as specific therapeutic attributes. The therapeutic attributes were based on closed observation of nature and interpretation of those observations in terms of relatively simple systems of categorization and corelations. This ancient period extended until the development of the investigative techniques associated with modern science. The next period was that of early science, which affected India and China, as well as most of the world, during the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. During this period crude analysis of plants could be carried out, the idea of reporting specific medical cases or collecting many case histories of similar nature arose, and herbal medicines were described in terms of botanical names, Chemical constituents, and reported the use for diseases defined by modern medicine. The third period, which we are now working within, involves the development of advanced scientific analysis, with the ability to find individual chemical constituents, test them in sophisticated 'laboratory experiments, and then attempt the difficult task of validating traditional claims by clinical trials. In Tribal medicinal system, tribal people use several herbs for treatment of various diseases. The Tribal medicinal system is differ than Ayurvedic system are due to, lack of education, and lack of good awareness about medicinal plants makes consumers easy victims of marketing exploitation and herbal myths. Another recent error is due to lack of knowledge about photochemistry (Dwivedi and etal. 2011).
Nature always stands as a golden mark to exemplify the outstanding phenomena of symbiosis. In the western world, as the people are becoming aware of the potency and side effect of synthetic drugs, there is an increasing interest in the natural product remedies with a basic approach towards the nature. Throughout the history of mankind, many infectious diseases have been treated with herbals. Herbal medicines are currently in demand and their popularity is increasing day by day. About 500 plants with medicinal use are mentioned in ancient literature and around 800 plants have been used in indigenous systems of medicine. A number of scientific investigations have highlighted the importance and the contribution of many-plant families i.e. Asteraceae, Liliaceae, Apocynaceae, Solanaceae, Caesalpinaceae, Rutaceae, Piperaceae, Sapotaceae used as medicinal plants. In India around 20,000 medicinal
Page 11 plant species have been recorded recently but more than 500 traditional communities use about 800 plant species for curing different diseases. Medicinal plants play a vital role for the development of new drugs. The bioactive extract should be standardized on the basis of active compound. The bioactive extract should undergo safety studies. Almost, 70per cent modern medicines in India are derived from natural products. Medicinal plants play a central role not only as traditional medicines but also as trade commodities, meeting the demand of distant markets. India has a very small share (1.6per cent) of this ever-growing global market.
To compete with the growing market, there is urgency to expeditiously utilize and scientifically validate more medicinally useful plants (Dwivedi and etal. 2011).
Medicinal Plant: Herbal medicine include herbs, herbal materials, herbal preparations and finished herbal products that contain as active ingredients parts of plants, or other plant materials, or combinations. Traditional use of herbal medicines refers to the long historical use of these medicines. Their use is well established and widely acknowledged to be safe and effective, and may be accepted bynational authorities.
The World Health organization (WHO) has defined herbal medicines as finished labeled medicinal products that contain as active ingredients
aerial or underground parts of plants or other plant material or combination there on whether in the crude state or as plant preparations. The same WHO document adds that medicines containing plant material combined with chemically defined active substances, including chemically defined, isolated constituents of plants, are not considered to be herbal medicines. The goal of health for all cannot be achieved without herbalmedicines.
Herbal medicinal, as defined by WHO, can be classified into three categories as under.
i) Phytomedicines or photo phytopharmaceuticals sold as over the counter (OTC) products in modern dosage forms as tablets capsules and liKuids for oral use.
ii) Dietary supplements containing herbal products, also called nutraceuticals available in modern dosage forms. These two types of herbal medicines are used by consumers in developed countries and those in urban areas of developing countries. These herbal medicines are gradually occupying increasing shelve space in modern pharmacies.
Nutraceuticals are in great demand in USA and Japan.
Its market in USA is about 80-250 billion dollars with equal size in Europe and Japanese sales worth 1.5 billion.
Page 12 iii) Herbal medicines consisting of crude, semi-processed or processed medicinal plants.
These have a vital place is primary health care in developing countries.
In India, the Similipal forest area of Mayurbhanj district in Odisha is dominated by a number of tribes such as Kol, Santal, Bhumij, Mankidias and Khadias who depends on the forest for their food to medicine. It is reported that ethno medicinal uses of 32 potential medicinal plants belong to 24 families of medicinal plants used for ailment of various diseases like leucorrhoea, spermatorrhea, piles, sore throat, rheumatism, elephantiasis etc. by Kol tribe living in some villages situated in and around Similipal Biosphere Reserve.
In order to have a clear concept of medicinal plants the under noted terms pertaining to it must be taken into consideration.
Herbal Medicine Scenario in India
The turnover of herbal medicines in India over the counter products, ethical and classical formulations and home remedies of AYURVEDA, UNANI and SIDHA system of medicines is about a billion dollar with a meager export of about $80 billion.Three of the 10 most widely selling herbal medicines in the developed countries, namely preparations of Allium sativalim Aloe barbedensis and panax species are available in India.
About 1500 Plants with medicinal uses are mentioned in ancient texts and around 800 plants have been used in traditional medicine with or without standardization. In 1989 WTO developed standardization principle were ratified by the 6th International conference of Drug Regulatory Authorities held at Ottawa. The salient features of W.H.O guidelines are:
1. Qualities assessment: Crude plant material, plant preparation; finished product. Stability self life.
2. Safety assessment: Documentation safety based on experience or/and ToxicologyStudies.
3. Assessment of efficacy: Documented evidence of traditional use or/and activity determination (Animals, human).
Page 13 Tribal System of Treatment
The tribal society has largely depended upon traditional medicine, mainly based on medicinal herbs commonly found in the area for treatment of disease generally it in the area and for melting contingencies such as snake and insect bites.
Tribal system of treatment is a strange mixture of magic and medicine, of faith in super natural elements and in medicinal herbs. With spread of education and literacy and with greater facilities for availing modern medical treatment, the belief that diseases are caused by hostile spirit angered by violation of some taboos is no longer dominant in the mind of the tribalthat used to have in the past. But this is not true of their faith in curative properties of herbs which is still unshaken. The first choice of tribal people is if the herbs are available and the medicine man is around, to get them treated in the indigenous way.
The most common diseases are malaria, cold and cough, fever, typhoid, diarrhoea and dysentery. Diseases related to abdominal joyriders like diarrhoea and dysentery are also very common. The sufferings from these in most cases continue up to one week. By and large, in treatment of most common diseases predominantly allopathic medicines are used followed by herbal medicines.
One of the important reasons for prevalence of intestinal diseases at remote rural areas is the lack of safe drinking water. The situation is likely to improve with the installation of hand pumps. But where this facility is not available, people have to be depending upon unasked, unhygienic sources like river water wells, ditches andnallahs and therefore incidence of such disorders is high. Diseases caused by malnutrition such as anemia and night blindness are also common. So also are cases of liver disorders such as jaundice, perhaps caused by addition to drinks.
Understanding the magnitude of different health problems, different national and international bodies have been implementing various health related programmes. To mention a few of them are Primary Health Care, Comprehensive Health Care, Basic Health Services and Community Health Care etc. Besides this, in Indian context various commissions and committees like the Bhore Committee in 1966, the Srivastav Committee in 1975, the New Draft Health Plan of Government of India in 1977, the glorious Alma Ata Declaration in 1978 and "Health for All" by 2000 A.D. have substantially contributed in bringing a revolution while providing health services to all.
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