Ethnobotanics As An Alternative Medicine

Ethnobotanics as an alternative medicine

The beginning of humans in society led them to experiment with countless things, since the time where life was based on hunting and collection until this contemporary era where some play to be God and create genetically modified organisms. This constant experimentation of the human being to seek a way of living longer and the main obstacle that was presented to him was the entone. In this environment he faced wild animals that threatened his life. But it is certainly aware that it was not the only thing that threatened them. Similarly, weather and diseases are factors that determined their active stay in society, the latter is what has been studied most over the last years. One of the first steps for the understanding and resolution of the problem, diseases, was ethnobotany. In concise words, it is scientific knowledge about traditional plants.

This set of many sciences like all have their limitations, a particular one that suffers is from the origin of their knowledge. Generally, knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation reaching uses and customs about "Home remedies". As a method of knowledge conservation is quite relevant because with each generation you can refine the use of the same remedy, plant or extract. He is currently making an effort to collect as many data as possible of all sources. This is crucial in the advance of the discovery of new molecules capable of attending hundreds of conditions.

A giant step in this aspect is the genome project in medicinal plants (Chen, Xiang, Gou, & Li, 2011). Other important databases that are being generated are from Asian cultures which are aware that abounds in medicinal plants. All this is important because most medicinal plants are not reported anywhere, causing a loss of knowledge by preventing the generation of new drugs in the industry.

Most of the research is focused on the characterization of the secondary metabolites of medicinal plants since it has been seen that this is one of the main origins of the therapeutic response. Another capo that is being developed is the opening is the characterization of the genome, proteoming, transcriptoma, etc. The genomic part is the next step that any science is following to try to improve production. Usually, drug production from medicinal plants is governed by them, since these are the raw material. This entails a fairly low performance in addition to a fairly slow production rate. This factor has a strong impact on the industry since it generates an economic loss. With the genomic characterization and genetic engineering, this process can be improved by modifying an organism so that the drug in question is capable of giving as a metabolite.

Another problem that has this type of generation of new drugs is its characterization. Frequently, remedies from medicinal plants are administered by infusions or extracts of the same plants. Sometimes there is no certainty of the content of medicinal plants extracts. It is important to know the components to elucidate a mechanism of action in the body to increase its effectiveness and security. In the Korean market there are medications which are not characterized for the sale of the public leaving the population in irrigation. Many times this issue falls into synergism, that all components support the same pharmacological response, which is even more difficult to understand since the components of the preparation must be taken into account as the patient who is being administered.

However, it cannot be denied that, thanks to the description of medicinal plants, their experimentation, purification and elucidation of mechanisms we have reached today. Nature contains an immense variety of organism, ecosystems, etc. which is reflected in thousands of possible combinations. This huge amount of possibilities has contributed to the generation of new molecules with pharmacological function, with medicinal extracts or the modification of molecules present in traditional medicine. It is a sufficient source of inspiration to experiment for decades.