What is Phytotherapy?
The term phytotherapy, which consists of the Greek words phyton (plant) and therapia (treatment), is briefly defined as herbal treatment or treatment with plants. The general definition of phytotherapy is as follows: treatment with standardized pharmaceutical forms (tablets, capsules, etc.) based on medicinal plants and their parts carrying their active substances or natural products obtained through a process in order to prevent diseases or to support treatment.
History of Phytotherapy
Since there are parts of plant medicine that have become an ancient tradition, such as farming or cooking, their roots go back to prehistoric times. In other words, plant medicine begins with human history. In the ancient Greek period, Hippocrates, known as the father of medicine, Theophrastus, known as the father of botany, Galen, the founder of herbal medicines, and Skoridos are known as important plant scientists.
In the historical process, there have been developments in the discovery of plants used for therapeutic purposes, and humanity has constantly added new species to the list of plants in question. During the Mesopotamian civilization, the number of plant bears used for food and medicine purposes was about 250, while this number reached up to 4000 during the Middle Ages. At the beginning of the 19th century, this number reached up to 13000. In the researchers conducted by the World Health Organization in more than five countries in the 1970s, 1900 different herbal products were identified and, in the researchers, conducted in 91 countries in the 1990s, approximately 500 medicinal plants used for treatment were found. According to a 2008 study conducted by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), when the prayer method is excluded, herbal treatment or natural products other than vitamins and minerals are determined as the most used treatment adjunctive medicine method with 18.9%.
Although it is claimed that phytotherapy sweat, which we can explain as an approach to treat patients using plants, was first used by the French physician Henri Lenclerc, who lived between 1870 and 1953, in the journal La Presce Medical, long before this period, plants were able to protect health and to regain their health. It is known that it has been used in every period of history. It is possible to reach many documents on this subject and to examine the studies on the stage of history.
The Nineveh tablets of 3000 BC, which are the first written documents on the healing properties of plants, show and prove that there were treatments with herbal and animal medicines in the Sumerian, Akat and Assyrian civilizations established in Mesopotamia. One of the important representatives of Indian Medicine, which was in a parallel development to Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2500 BC, also mentions nearly a thousand medicinal plants in his works.
When we look at Greek Medicine, Esculap, one of the important names of Greek Medicine, and Hippocrates, who is considered as the basis of modern medicine, describe nearly 400healing and protecting herbal products. The plants in question have a therapeutic effect during the period, as well as protective and immune strengthening.
During the period of Islamic Civilization, Abu Reyhan, the author of the book Kitab-al Saydalafi al Medicine, which talks about the plant that heals twenty and a copy of which is in the Orhan Gazi Kironing House, draws attention. In addition, İbn-i Sina and Al Gafini, who wrote the Medical Law about 800 animal and herbal treatments, which were accepted as reference books until the 1650s, signed important works on herbal medicine and proved the effects of treatment with plants.
The method of treatment with plants, which is applied by many communities on the stage of history, has taken the form of phytotherapy on a scientific basis today and its development is advancing at a great pace and gaining momentum in the light of the information obtained from history.
The Development of Phytotherapy Today
Modern drugs consisting of synthetic drugs and antibiotics have been in our lives for about 150 years. When examined before this date, it is seen that people generally use natural products obtained from plants, fungi and animals as medicines. About 200 years ago, morphine, the first pharmacologically active pure compound, was produced from opium derived from poppy seeds. This discovery shows that drugs derived from plants can be purified and applied in certain dosages, regardless of the source or age of the plant.
This approach, which is the act of obtaining a therapeutic substance from plants, has been strengthened by the discovery of penicillin. Thanks to this ongoing approach, products derived from plants or natural sourcesmake a significant contribution to the lacquer industry today and have great effects on the progress of the pharmaceutical industry. For example, antibiotics (such as penicillin and erythromycin), digoxin, a cardiac stimulant derived from ferrule, salicylic acid, which is a precursor to aspirin and obtained from the bark of the willow tree, quinine obtained from the henna tree, and lipid-lowering agents obtained from fungi (such as lovastatin) are cited as examples of some of these discoveries.
As is well known, there are approximately one million plant species worldwide. The amount of these plant species used for therapeutic purposes has reached up to 13000 today.
In the 19th-20th centuries, the developments in chemistry and biochemical sciences gave a great acceleration to the pharmaceutical industry, and thanks to the momentum gained, efficiency, non-compliance and quality princips were adopted. With these principles adopted, analytical, toxicological, pharmacological and clinical studies have been carried out, and as a result of these studies, many drugs that respond to the needs of medicine have been developed in laboratories. It has been observed that 1/4 of the existing drugs are of vegetable origin and in many of them, the active substance is copied in the laboratory environment by trying to obtain from the plant.
Of course, there are many problems underlying the idea of turning to the vegetative. For example, medical and economic problems caused by serious side effects that can occur with synthetic drugs have been observed in decades. These medical and economic problems have also led to eco-logic approaches and movements strengthened by environmental pollution in industrialized countries. In addition, the threat posed by many chronic diseases, the curative treatment of which is not yet possible, has given rise to many thoughts such as the idea that naturalness is always effective and free from side effects, and depending on all these factors, herbal treatment has become popular and preferred again. In addition to direct herbal treatment, herbal medicines are also preferred for these and similar reasons.
Although the acquisition of active substances from plants and the production of synthetic derivatives have gained speed due to the developments in technology, herbal medicines are still used in treatments and are often preferred. According to the definition of the World Health Organization, herbal medicine; as an active ingredient, it carries the subsoil or above-ground parts of the plants, such as flowers, bark, roots, fruits, seeds, leaves, or other vegetable material or a combination thereof, in raw form or in the form of plant hand preparations, and has been prepared and finished in accordance with all the requirements and rules of today’s pharmaceutical industry technology. and labeled medical products.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) research, the number of medicinal plants used for therapeutic purposes is known to be around 20,000. Especially the properties of plants, which are thought to show such therapeutic properties, which are important for human health and killing microorganisms, have been examined in many ways in laboratuaries since 1926 and research continues continuously.
Treatment with plants in our country
As in the whole world, plants are used in various areas and for various reasons in our country. Among them, especially tea, thyme, son grass, nettle grass, ginger, etc. can be counted. In many parts of Anatolia, natural treatments are still applied instead of direct drug intake, and these traditional prescriptions from the past transmit their existence from generation to generation.
Due to the climate in our country, there is a wide vegetation cover and even a wide vegetative wealth. The main reason for this is; The fact that our country is located in the region where three phytogeographic regions intersect, that it is a bridge between the flora of Southern Europe and Southwest Asia, that the origin and differentiation centers of many genera and sections are Anatolian, and that species endemism is high in relation to ecological and phytogeographic differentiation is coming and accepted. The number of medical lice used for treatment in Turkey is known as around 500. Some studies indicate that there are about 1,000 plant species used for medicinal purposes, and that there is an export potential of about 200 medicinal and aromatic plants. These studies indicate that 70–100 species have been exported.
When we look at the plant geography of Turkey, nearly 9000 different plant species are observed. 30% of the 9000 plants in question are endemic. Turkey is a very rich country in terms of wild-growing plant species. It has an important place in the world with approximately 12 thousand plant taxa. In Europe, which is 25 times larger than Turkey, the number of taxa is 11 thousand, of which approximately 2 thousand 600 constitute endemic plant assets. Approximately 3,800 of the taxa that make up the flora of Turkey are endemic. The endemism rate in Turkey is 3 0%.
Anatolia, which is a bridge between Asia and Europe, has been playing an important role in herbal medicine and spice trade for centuries. It is known that the trade of plants and plant parts used as pharmaceutical active substances in Anatolia has been carried out since ancient historical times. There are records that foreign trade continued during the Ottoman Empire period and that only the plants grown and cultivated in Anatolia and the drogs from other countries within the borders of the empire were exported during this period. In the publications related to the drog trade in the Republican period, it is seen that approximately 70 plants were exported. In 1991, it was determined that around 100 herbal drones used in treatment and industry were exported in Turkey.
Importance Today:
Phytotherapy, which is an herbal treatment, attracts attention as the most widely used alternative treatment in the world along with acupuncture. The total share of herbal medicines in the world is estimated to be approximately 60 billion dollars in 2000, accounting for approximately 20% of the world’s annual pharmaceutical market. Herbal treament of cancer is the leading cause of many chronic diseases. Ginseng, ginkgo biloba, garlic, echinacea and St. John’s wort are the most commonly used herbal products. Phytotherapy is an effective auxiliary method used in the treatment of many diseases.
In Which Diseases Can Phytotherapy Be Used?
- Migraines and chronic headaches
- Obesity
- Thyroid gland diseases
- Supportive treatment after chemotherapy
- Diabetes
- Depression, Panic attacks etc. mental and nervous disorders
- Insomnia and sleep disorders
- Allergies, Skin diseases
- Rheumatismal diseases
- Osteoporosis (Bone resorption)
- Gynecologic disorders
- Kidney and urinary tract diseases
- Stomach and intestinal diseases