Handbook of Arabian Medicinal Plants

272 Pages·1994·103.17 MB·\272

by  Shahina A. Ghazanfar (Author)

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IINNTTRROODDUUCCTTIIOONN ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 11
TTrraaddiittiioonnaall MMeeddiicciinnee ................................................................................................................................................................ 22
DDiiaaggnnoossiiss .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 33
BBoonnee SSeettttiinngg .................................................................................................................................................................................... 33
CCuuppppiinngg .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 33
CCaauutteerriizzaattiioonn .................................................................................................................................................................................. 33
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SSPPEECCIIEESS DDEESSCCRRIIPP11''IIOONNSS ........................................................................................................................................................ 88
RREEFFEERREENNCCEESS ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 222200
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OOFF VVAARRIIOOUUSS CCOONNDDIITTIIOONNSS AANNDD DDIISSEEAASSEESS ...................................................................... 223311
GGEENNEERRAALL IINNDDEEXX ...................................................................................................................................................................... 224411

INTRODUCTION
And of pure now purer aire
Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
Vernal delight and jqy, able to drive
All sadness but despair; now gentle gales
Fanning thir odoriferous wings dispense
Native pe1'fumes, and wisper whence they stole
Those baumie spoils. As when to them who sail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past
Mozambic, off at Sea North-East winds blow
Sabean Odours from the spide shore
Of Arabie the blest, with such delay
Well pleas'd they slack thir course, and many a League
Cheerd with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles.
(John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IV)
Not too long ago traditional medicine was the only type of care available to a large section of
the people of the Arabian Peninsula, but in the last two decades modem medicine bas become
accessible even to many of the remote villages. It is my experience that though the more
·serious· diseases are taken to hospitals, common colds, coughs, headaches, fevers, stomach
upsets and other minor ailments are often treated at home with herbal remedies or by other
methods of traditional medicine. In many instances both modem and traditional medicine may
be tried, or if one fails the other will be tried -but where modem medicine achieves results,
traditional medicine tends to disappear.
On the Arabian Peninsula there are no schools or formal training for teaching traditional
medicine. The methods of cure and herbal prescriptions are generally not written down. These
skills are passed from one generation to the other through apprenticeship and once forgotten may
not be revived again.
Herbal clinics have been established in several of the Gulf countries and in a few clinics
other traditional forms of medicine are also practised. However, these clinics are not as popular
as the hospita1s and the herbal remedies are frequently imported from Africa, India or Pakistan.
My purpose in assembling and compiling this book is twofold: first, to document and
preserve the existing knowledge of the use of plants in a region where social patterns are
changing so rapidly that there is every danger of losing traditional ways, and second, to
eq>basize the need for preserving social and cultural patterns and their close relationship with
the~. It is also my hope that the species used regularly. and especially those which
are endemic and localised in their distribution, will be investigated for their chemical
constitueus. They may possess physiologically active compounds of use to both traditional and
modem medical care.
2 INTRODUCTION
TRADITIONAL MEDICINE
Several traditional systems of medical treatment are used in the Arabian Peninsula. In addition
to the use ofplaIIs as medicines (AI Tadawee bil A'ashiab), bone setting (AI Tajbeer), cupping
(AI Ifajam/lh) and cauterization (Wasm, Qal) are also practised. In any of these, specific
medicinal plants and foods may be used as part of the treatment.
Since reference to these different forms of traditional medicines is made in the text of this
book, I will briefly review each in tum.
Diagnosis
God created peoplL and plonts. They inhobit different plllces and they possess
different qualities. For examplL palm trees (dale palm) grow only in hot
climates, in desert regions; they possess the property of hotness and dryness.
Human beings also differ in where they come from. in their appearance,
customs and qualities. The Universe contains four qualities of elLments:
humidity, heat, cold and dryness. HumidiJy indicales water, heat indicales the
sun, cold also indicales water, and dryness indicales the earth. (Interview
with a Herbal healer, Oman 1990.)
In the Arabian Peninsula diagnosis of disease or "condition" in traditional medicine is based on
the Iunoral system of Greco-Arab medicine or Unani tibb. Unani tibb, which is also practised
in India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and other parts of Southwest Asia, is a derivative of the
classical Greek medical system. In this system, four elements (earth, water, air and fire) are
related to four bodily humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile). In addition, a concept
offour .~. (bot, cold, dry and wet) are integrated with the original Greek system (Foster
& Anderson 1978). The bodily humors are assigned qualities, thus blood is bot and moist,
phlegm is cold and moist, yeUow bile is bot and dry and black bile is cold and dry. A healthy
body is regarded as baving a certain equilibrium between the four humors and an imbalance of
any of the four results in sickness. Hippocrates (c. 460-357 BC) descnbed the four humors
(Chadwick & Mann 1950):
The human body contains blood, ph/Lgm, yellow bilL and blllck bilL. These
are the things which make up its constitution and cause its pains and health.
Health is primarily thllt state in which these constituent substances are in
correct proportion to each other, both in strength and quality and are mixed
Mlell. Pain occurs when one of the substances presents either a deficiency or
an excess or is separated in the body and not mixed with the others.
The concepts of Greek medicine were acquired by the Arabs through the works of
Dioscorides (1st C. AD) and Galen (AD 131-201). During the 5th century Galen's works were
translated by the Nestorians and taken with them to Persia (Iran). They also translated several
Indian medical books from Sanskrit. With the spread of Islam and during the 9th to 13th
~es medical works were translated itto Arabic and developed and adapted by scholars into
the Arabian system of medicine (Foster & Anderson 1978). Arabian physicians such as AI Razi
(Rhazes, AD 865-925), Ibn Sina (Avicetma, AD 980-1037), Abu AI Kassim AI Zahrawi
(Ablcasis, b. AD 936), Ibn Rusld (Averroes, b. AD 1200) and Ibn AI Naffs (AD 1210-1288)
INTRODUCTION 3
cootnbuted to medical knowledge. Several of their works were translated into Latin and passed
into Europe (Gruner 1930, Khairallah 1946, Khan 1986, Shabine 1971).
In Unani tibb foods and drugs are also classified according to the four qualities and are
prescribed to correct the imbalance created by disease. Classification of food is also present in
Ayurvedic InJian (Karup 1983), Malayan (Laderman 1987), Latin American (Goldwater 1983)
and Chinese (pei 1983) medical systems. hI Oman and Saudi Arabia, foods are sometimes
classified as being "heavy" or "light". "Heavy" foods may also be considered "hot" and are
usually not eaten during hot weather. "Light" foods mayor may not be eaten in hot weather.
Bone Setting (AI Tqjbeer)
The healers classifY bone fractures as "real fractures" when a bone is broken right through and
'cracks" when the fracture is llOt through the bone. The position of the fracture is detected by
rubbing the affected part and the position corrected by further rubbing. A preparation using the
resin of Acacia spp., seeds of Tamarindus indica or lentils mixed with egg is used as a plaster.
Acacia resin is preferred since it does not irritate the skin, but lentils and egg mixture is quick
to prepare and is also widely used. The herbal plaster is applied after the bone is corrected and
bound with cloth before it dries. TIle linlb is stabilised with wooden planks on either side of the
limb and tied with a cloth. Healing takes from six to eight weeks and checked when the bandage
becomes loose. If the setting is defective the healer may break the bone again and repeat the
plastering. Extracts of plants are applied (Olentioued in the text) to help with this procedure.
Fractures of the spine, pelvis and shoulder are treated similarly, with the back supported by long
sticks of wood and bed rest reconunended. For bone dislocations (pelvis, shoulder, lower jaw)
Acacia resin or myrrh with egg white is used. During the period of recovery a special diet of
honey (date or bee honey) is prescribed. With the accessibility of hospitals, traditional bone
setting is becoming less popular. The bone setters may also refer their patients to hospitals for
multiple fractures or if the hone is not healing properly.
Cupping (AI/!ajamah)
Cupping is an old traditional method of curing specific diseases and ailments which are believed
to have been caused by "bad blood" in the body. Chronic pain in the legs, headaches, obesity,
and paralysis of the lower limbs are often treated with cupping. The procedure involves making
superficial cuts with a razor blade Oll the back of the neck or below the knee and then placing
a cow hom or glass cup (facing downward) on it. The sawn end of the hom (AI Mal)jum) or cup
is placed Oll the cut and a vacuwn is created by a small fire or the air is sucked out. Bees wax
is placed around the Mal)jum to secure the vacuum whicb may be kept for up to an hour. The
blood which oozes out is considered "black blood" and is thrown into a pit in the ground. Al
IJajamah may be repeated several times till all "black blood" is removed.
Cauterization (Wasm)
Cauterization and the use of beat therapy were known to the Egyptiam as early as 3000 BC. It
has also been used by the ancient Greeks and pre-Islamic Arabs. The use of cautery was greatly
developed by the Islamic Arabic physicians, and in particular by Abu AI Kassim AI Zahrawi
(Abulcassis), who in his hook Al Tassrif described various techniques, instruments and about
fifty diseases which could be treated by cauterization.