How 'alternative'is Phytotherapy?

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How "alternative" is Phytotherapy?

Calvin Kouokan

Health care is one of the major preoccupations of human beings. And even in this millennium, despite the great technological boom, some illnesses remain a big challenge to the scientists as exemplified by cancer, AIDS and so on. Of course, people in every generation have been mobilizing their knowledge and energy to try finding solutions to their health troubles. But these solutions differ from place to place and even from a generation to another.

Today many tend to classify phytotherapy among the so called "alternative healing methods". That's why in some countries, there is a clear difference between the pharmacies which are thought to sell conventional medicines and the herbalists' shops supposed to handle phytodrugs.

Consider the word "phytotherapy". Therapy comes from the Latin word therapia, originally from Greek therapeia, from therapeuein which means to treat medically. The latin prefix phyto stands for plant and is called phuton in Greek (previously, phuto). In other words we can just call "phytotherapy", herbal medicine.

Phytodrugs are mixtures of many compounds extracted from a single or many plants. They are thought to display a wide range of beneficial and less undesirable side effects than the monosubstances, and are therefore appropriate for long term medications of chronic illnesses and for handling of metabolic disorders. For example, plant extracts from Hypericum perforatum (commonly called St John's Wort) are used for treating mild to moderately severe depressive disorders.

Phytotherapy is an ancient medication

The historian Herodot wrote that the builders of the Egyptian pyramids were given large amount of garlic, to protect them against Malaria. The antimicrobial properties of this plant were also used for centuries. Other evidence for the great importance of herbal medicine in the past is the fact that several old Chinese documents are essentially lists of herbs with their medicinal uses. There are even references to "leaves for healing" in the Christian Bible.

Phytotherapy is still the "center" of our health care today. Take a look at daily life. Have you thought about what a cup of tea or coffee contains? Their alkaloids are thought to display many pharmacological effects. And what about spices ? Most of us think that their role is only to flavour the meal. Of course they do so, yet many of them have been proven to have healing properties, for example, curcumin, a component of that golden spice turmeric.

And many natural plant products are used in developing pharmaceuticals. Quinine, for example, is an antimalarial drug, which is made from the bark of the Cinchona tree (Cinchona officinalis, Rubiaceae). Menthol which possesses local anaesthetic and counterirritant qualities is a compound obtained from peppermint (Mentha piperita) oil or other mint oils or made synthetically. Furthermore, like Menthol, many active components of plants are then chemically synthesized in a laboratory to produce large quantities. Active ingredients of plants are also frequently chemically modified, for example to improve absorption and transport in the human body.

Why then, is phytotherapy classified as an alternative medication?

The word "alternative" in the term "alternative medicine" is frequently attributed to healing methods without any scientific basis. However, some treatments are in fact based on beliefs. In developing countries, like in Cameroon, the traditional healers usually combine plant extracts, "prayers" and several practices. And that is wrongly called phytotherapy. That is why the term allopathic or rational phytotherapy has arisen for the scientific herbal medicine to set it apart from the traditional plant healing passed on from a generation to another. The confusion is dangerous as many would opt for "conventional" medicine instead.

Phytotherapy, the most ancient medication is still useful today. It is therefore unjustly called "alternative…". And if there is truth in an old saying that nature has grown a herb for every illness then we can believe that many unstudied plants might have some secrets for the medical world.

More information:

Kouokam J. Calvin, is with the Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University Email address: calvin.kouokam@molbiol.umu.se

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