Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Biodiversity plays a vital role in maintaining human and animal health because numerous plants, animals, and fungi are used in medicine to produce vital vitamins, painkillers, antibiotics, and other medications. [1] [2] [3] Natural products have been recognized and used as medicines by ancient cultures all around the world. [4]
Plants synthesize a variety of phytochemicals, but most are derivatives: [9] Alkaloids are a class of chemical compounds containing a nitrogen ring. Alkaloids are produced by a large variety of organisms, including bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals, and are part of the group of natural products (also called secondary metabolites).
Architectural designs resembling plants appear in the capitals of Ancient Egyptian columns, which were carved to resemble either the Egyptian white lotus or the papyrus. [36] Ancient Greek columns of the Corinthian order are decorated with acanthus leaves. [37] Islamic art, too, makes frequent use of plant motifs and patterns, including on ...
A cat eating grass – an example of zoopharmacognosy. Zoopharmacognosy is a behaviour in which non-human animals self-medicate by selecting and ingesting or topically applying plants, soils and insects with medicinal properties, to prevent or reduce the harmful effects of pathogens, toxins, and even other animals.
The Galician people were known for their strong connection to the land and nature and preserved botanical knowledge, with healers, known as "curandeiros" or "meigas," who relied on local plants for healing purposes [31] The Asturian landscape, characterized by lush forests and mountainous terrain, provided a rich source of medicinal herbs used ...
Paraherbalism is the pseudoscientific use of extracts of plant or animal origin as supposed medicines or health-promoting agents. [1] [6] [7] Phytotherapy differs from plant-derived medicines in standard pharmacology because it does not isolate and standardize the compounds from a given plant believed to be biologically active. It relies on the ...
Medical use of alkaloid-containing plants has a long history, and, thus, when the first alkaloids were isolated in the 19th century, they immediately found application in clinical practice. [206] Many alkaloids are still used in medicine, usually in the form of salts widely used including the following: [ 14 ] [ 207 ]
The plant has been used for centuries in the South Pacific to make a ceremonial drink with sedative and anesthetic properties, with potential for causing liver injury. [117] Piscidia erythrina / Piscidia piscipula: Jamaica dogwood: The plant is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of insomnia and anxiety, despite serious safety ...