Abstract

INTEGRATING TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE INTO COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE: HOMOEOPATHIC INSIGHTS ON ACHYRANTHES ASPERA

Dr. Don J. Scott Berin G.* and Dr. Jeba Beula P.

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Abstract

Background: Nature has been a source of medicinal agents for thousands of years and since the beginning of mankind. Medicinal plant is an integral part of human life to combat the sufferings from the dawn of civilization. It is estimated that more than 80,000 of total plant species have been identified and used as medicinal plants around the world. Over the past twenty years, interest in medicinal plants has grown enormously from the use of herbal products as natural cosmetics and for self-medication by the general public to the scientific investigations of plants for their biological effects in human beings. Therefore, people are encouraging indigenous production and processing of these medicinal plants to use in different cultures and religion for the treatment of various diseases. The demand for plantbased medicines, health products, pharmaceuticals, food supplement, cosmetics etc. are increasing in both developing and developed countries, due to the growing recognition that the natural products are non-toxic, have less side effects and easily available at affordable prices. Nowadays, there is a revival of interest with herbal-based medicine due to the increasing realization of the health hazards associated with the indiscriminate use of modern medicine and the herbal drug industries is now very fast-growing sector in the international market. There is great demand for herbal medicine in the developed as well as developing countries like India, because of their wide biological activities, higher safety of margin than the synthetic drugs and lesser costs.

Keywords: Achyranthes aspera, anti-microbial, anti-diabetic, Homoeopathic medicine.