Research Journal of Medicinal Plants
OPEN ACCESS
ISSN 1819-3455
DOI: 10.3923/rjmp.2016.
Review Article
Ethnobotany: Challenges and Future Perspectives
Ibrahim M.S. Eldeen, Mohd. A.W. Effendy and Tengku S. Tengku-Muhammad
Institute of Marine Biotechnology, University Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia
Abstract
Ethno-science is a term used to encompass studies describe local people s interaction with the natural surroundings. This including
ethnoecology and ethnobotany among others. Ethnobotany has been constructed not to be limited only to plant but also to include
studies of algae, lichens and fungi. It is strongly linked with taxonomy, pharmacognosy, phytochemistry, ecology and conservation
biology. Ethnobotany with no doubt remains the main revenue contributing to both orthodox and traditional medicine. A number of
useful drugs have been developed based on ethnobotanical approaches. However, for most of the investigated plant-derived molecules
the mechanism of actions are unknown or merely assumed and specific structure activity relationships have rarely been determined. This
situation suggest a focus on a new trend of studies to implement polypharmacological approaches on complex herbal mixtures and
extracts. This imply that medicinal plant study should be deviated from targeting a single molecule policy in order to produce useful
healthcare products. Issues regarding protection and biopiracy have emerged recently as a results of the growing economic focus of
biological prospecting based on traditional knowledge. This including concerns about indigenous rights, cultural knowledge and
traditional resources. End users of these information are often third parties who have no direct link with the indigenous communities.
This situation fuel the need for socio-ethnobotany, a new sub discipline of ethnobotany that deals with the question of how indigenous
people can be compensated for sharing their ethnobotanical knowledge. This article aims to highlight issues related to ethnobotany,
current challenges and future perspectives.
Key words: Ethnobotany, traditional and complementary medicine, medicinal plants
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Citation: Ibrahim M.S. Eldeen, Mohd. A.W. Effendy and Tengku S. Tengku-Muhammad, 2016. Ethnobotany: Challenges and future perspectives. Res. J. Med.
Plants, CC: CC-CC.
Corresponding Author: Ibrahim M.S. Eldeen, Institute of Marine Biotechnology, University Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu,
Terengganu, Malaysia Tel: +(609)6683952 Fax: +(609)6683952
Copyright: © 2016 Ibrahim M.S. Eldeen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Competing Interest: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.
Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its supporting information files.
Res. J. Med. Plants, 2016
based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to
different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the
maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis,
improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness
(http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/traditional/definition
s/en/). Whereas the term Complementary Medicine (CM)
according to the WHO strategy referred to a broad set of
health care practices that are not part of that country s
own tradition or conventional medicine and are not fully
integrated into the dominant health-care system. However,
both terms are used interchangeably for traditional medicine
in some countries (http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/
traditional/definitions/en/)6. Based on these definition,
ethnobotany should be categorized under alternative and
complementary medicine, since the claimed properties are
subjected to scientific validations and therefore deem to be
explicable.
Ethnobotanist were previously more ecological oriented
discipline, focusing on interrelationships and interactions
between components of a limited ecological zone. This view
has been shifted to a wider angle when researchers started
considering plants as integral parts of the ecosystem in
which they are found from socio-economic and cultural
perspectives. This current framework of study in ethnobotany
emphasizes different skills and disciplines to
be
enrolled in a team work mission including botanists,
anthropologists, pharmacologists, molecular biologists and
medical practitioners7. Ethnobotany as a discipline is
currently oriented towards the exploration of new plant
resources, collecting of genetic materials, drug discovery and
products development8. In recent years, the discipline of
ethnobotany has become increasingly associated with the
search for medicines. This search for herbal medicines and
phytonutrients continues to expand rapidly across the world
with many people now resorting to these products for
treatment of various health challenges in both developing
and developed countries. It worth mentioning that these
herbal remedies become available not only in drug stores but
also in food stores and supermarkets9-11. As a result, many
herbal products are undergoing a transition from classic
herbal teas to standardized extracts in Europe, North America
and Australia12-14. In these developed countries, the most
important among many other reasons for seeking herbal
therapy is the belief that it will promote healthier living.
Herbal medicines are therefore, often viewed as a balanced
and moderate approach to healing and recently represents a
substantial proportion of the global drug market9,10.
Pan et al.15 provided another proof for the growing interest
in herbal medicine industry, the researchers stated that:
INTRODUCTION
The term ethnoscience originated from a combination
of ethnology and science. It has been used in different
disciplines related to local community based knowledge
and practices including ethnoastronomy, ethnoecology,
ethnobotany,
ethnomedicine,
ethnopharmacology,
ethnozoology, ethnoagronomy and other related
disciplines1,2.
Ethnobotany as a term1 was first used by John
Harshberger in 1895. He defined the term as the use of plants
by aboriginal peoples. Since then, several definitions were
utilized to refer to ethnobotany such as: Folk botany, the
description of the various methods by which local people
utilize plants, the study of direct interrelations between
humans and plants and recently the term was defined as the
science of people s interaction with plants 3.
Ethnobotany is without a doubt, a multi disciplinary
subject. The growing interest in ethnobotany can be observed
through the increased number of journals such as Journal of
Ethnobiology, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Ethnobotany,
Ethnobotany Research and Applications and the range of
university courses that contain modules associated with
different aspects of ethnobotany, especially the medicinal
uses of plants4.
Ethnobotanical-based selection of plants has gained in
popularity as a means to identify which plants contain
relevant compounds for exploitation. This economic focus of
biological prospecting, including the use of patents and other
intellectual property mechanisms has highlighted important
issues concerning indigenous rights, cultural knowledge and
traditional resources4. This situation led to the emerge of
what the so called socio-ethnobotany, a new sub discipline
of ethnobotany that deals with the question of how
indigenous people can be compensated for sharing their
ethnobotanical knowledge5. This article aims to highlight
issues related to ethnobotany, contributions, challenges and
future perspectives.
ETHNOBOTANY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
During an opening remarks at the International Forum
on Traditional Medicine in China, (Macao 19 August, 2015),
Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health
Organization stated that modern medicine and traditional
medicine make unique contributions to health but both also
have their limits and short comings.
Traditional medicine based on the WHO strategy6 was
defined as the sum total of the knowledge, skill and practices
2
Res. J. Med. Plants, 2016
Herbs have been shown to be capable of producing a wide
range of undesirable or adverse reactions some of which
are capable of causing serious injuries, life-threatening
conditions and even death. In many countries, herbal
medicines and related products are introduced into the
market without any mandatory safety or toxicological
evaluation10. Ekor17 reported that over the past decade, the
use of herbal medicines represents approximately 40% of all
healthcare services delivered in China. And the percentage of
people who have used herbal medicines at least once in
Australia, Canada, USA, Belgium and France is estimated to
be between 48-75%. This rapid increase of interest towards
herbal medicine raise major concerns about the need for
effective scientific evaluation of safety and toxicity of these
crude materials. Although, some products, such as
certain standardized herbal extracts have undergone
extensive clinical investigation and subjected to systematic
review/meta-analysis, however, that still does not help much
when it comes to large scale due to the complex nature of the
herbal products and the variation between manufacturers
methods. Efficacy and safety measures should be extract
specific for preparations of the same herb with a very similar
profile of constituents32. A number of cases have been
reported on adverse effects and toxicity caused by herbal
products. One of these cases was an incidents reported by
Ekor17 during investigation on Yoyo Cleanser bitters, a herbal
remedies that is widely used in Nigeria. The known herbal
product has gained so much public acceptance over time and
continues to enjoy increased patronage among consumers.
The study revealed that this herbal formula was capable of
elevating plasma levels of liver enzymes and inducing
hypokalemia after 30 days of administration in rats17. More
efforts and attentions are seriously needed to validate safety
and efficacy of herbal products and to provide a guidelines on
proper utilizations.
Chinese traditional medicine has been a novel basis of drug
development in China. Up to 2007, China has collected 3563
extracts, 64715 compositions and 5000 single compounds
from 3000 Chinese herbs together with about 130 kinds of
chemical drugs obtained.
As the global use of herbal medicinal products continues
to grow and many more new products are introduced into the
market, public health issues and concerns surrounding their
safety are also increasingly recognized. Although some herbal
medicines have promising potential and are widely used,
many of their pharmacological properties remain unverified.
This makes knowledge of their potential toxicity and adverse
effects very limited16. It has become essential, therefore to
furnish the general public including healthcare professionals
with adequate information based on scientific findings to
facilitate better understanding of the risks associated with the
use of these products and to ensure their safety, efficacy and
suitable quality17.
ETHNOBOTANICAL LEADS AND POTENTIAL FOR
BIOPROSPECTING
Plants produce economically important organic
compounds such as oils, resins, tannins, rubber, gums,
waxes, dyes, flavors and fragrances, pesticides and
pharmaceuticals5. As indicated earlier, many of the
medicines used and/or currently in use such as: Aspirin,
codeine, ipeacac, pilocarpine, pseudoephedrine, quinine,
reserpine, scopolamine, theophylline and vinblastine. etc.,
have been derived from medicinal plants based on
ethnobotanical research programs8. It is estimated that among
the total flowering plants occur in the tropical regions of the
world, only few in percentages were studied for their
pharmaceutical potentials. Following this direction,
Subramoniam18 stated that all chlorophyll-a bearing plants
have pharmaceutical potential. This statement was made
based on the recently reported anti-inflammatory activity in
chlorophyll-a and its related products. Recently, many of
the reputed pharmaceutical companies have produced a
number of herbal preparations based on ethnobotanical leads
for different purposes. Few examples of these products and
their botanical sources are given in Table 1.
Intellectual property rights and biopiracy: Information
about the uses of specific species of plants in a community is
usually obtained via interviews of individuals or groups of
people and the scope of this information may vary based
on the methods used. The economic focus of biological
prospecting based on these indigenous knowledge, including
the use of patents and other intellectual property mechanisms
has highlighted important issues concerning indigenous
rights, cultural knowledge and traditional resources. This
situation raises important questions about the contribution of
ethnobotanical research to the local communities as being
the primary sources of these knowledge4. Invasion of
unprotected indigenous resources including traditional
knowledge which has been termed biopiracy, represents
CHALLENGES AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES OF
ETHNOBOTANY AND HERBAL MEDICINE
Issues regarding safety and quality control: The increasing
interest on plants and their ethnobotanical bioperspecting
were in general based on the perception that herbal remedies
or drugs are always safe. This infact is a false assumption.
3
Res. J. Med. Plants, 2016
Table 1: Botanical name, family, ethnobotanical leads, verified biological activities and herbal products produced from some medicinal plants
Botanical name
Family
Ethnobotanical leads
Acacia seyal Del.,
Mimosaceae
Acacia nilotica (L.)
subsp., kraussiana
and Acacia senegal
Albizia adianthifolia Fabaceae
Acacia gum has been used for healing
wounds. Smoke bath using wood of
A. seyal is used for body relaxation,
cosmotic purposes and to cure arthritis19,20
Roots used for inflammation. Powdered
(Schumach)
bark taken as snuff for headaches,
W.F. Wight.
stomachache22
Albizia julibrissin
Used for inflammation, skin ulcers and
Durazz.
wounds in traditional Chinese medicine
Albizia jublibrissin used to nourish the
heart and calm the spirit23
Achillea millefolium Asteraceae
Aanti-asthmatic, antihemorrhoidal,
gastrointestinal diseases, diuretic,
anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic24
Camellia sinensis
Theaceae
Stimulant, treats conjunctivitis, diuretic,
(L.) Kuntze
tonic skin conditions, relieves
green tea
inflammation, allergies24
Prunus africana
Rosaceae
Bark used for chest pain, diarrhoea and
(Hook.f.) Kalkm.
fever. Extracts of powdered bark
Pygeum africanum
traditionally drunk as tea for genito-urinary
extract (PAE)
complaints, allergies, inflammation, kidney
diseases, malaria25
Terminalia sericea
Combretaceae Root decoctions used for stomachache,
Burchel ex Dc.
diarrhoea and swollen painful eyes. Bark
used for treating diabetes and wounds26
Rosa canina L.
Rosaceae
The dry powder of. Fruit (rose hip) is a
popular herbal remedy for arthritis in
Denmark28
Dracaena cinnabari Asparagaceae Dragon s blood resin used for wound
Balf.f.
healing, dysentery diseases, fevers and
ulcers in the mouth. The root yields a
gum-resin, used in gargle water as a
stimulant, astringent and in toothpaste29
Aloe barbadensis
XanthCombination of extracts from aloe, plum
(L.) Burm.f.
orrhoeaceae
fruit extract, flaxseed extract, cinnamon
bark extract, pineapple extract fruit extract,
green tea leaves30
Balanites aegyptiaca Balanitaceae
Veneral diseases, rheumatism, digestion
(L.) Del.
problems, dysentry and bilharzias21
Capparis decidua
Capparidaceae Jaundice, rheumatic arthritis and to treat
(Forssk.) Edgew.
swells31
major challenges facing efforts to integrate modern and
alternative medicine approaches. Researchers have sometimes
sought patents for compounds that had already been used for
centuries. A recent clear example for this conflict of interest
may be observed with the discovery of a promising
anticancer agents isolated from Guiera senegalensis, a plant
common in the Sahel and widely used by Mali s Dogon
people33. Therefore, establishment of a guideline for
protection of cultural knowledge and intellectual property
rights could provide a significant control on ethical utilization
and dissemination of cultural knowledge for both academic
researchers and industrial applications.
Verified biological activities
Commercial product
Anti-hypertensive, antispasmodic,
anti-inflammatory and anti-platelet
aggregatory activity21
Acacia liquid extract, Acacia gum
capsules Mayas a cream produced
from smoke and wood extract of
A. seyal used for cosmetic purposes
Aminogenesis (Age control
Anti-glycation serum
Antioxidant, anti-tumor and
anti-inflammatory properties. Extracts
of A. julibrissin has been found to
possess antidepressant effects in mice23
Anti-inflammatory, painkiller, digestive,
antimicrobial, CNS depressant, diuretic24
Menosgrass, demograss plus,
demograss, L-carnachof mix
Antihypercholesterolemic, anti oxidant,
antimicrobial24
Sbelttix, peso exacto, hoodia slim
Pygeum has been used to improve
symptoms of benign prostatic
hypertrophy
Pygeum africanum extract (PAE)
has become the primary course of
treatment for enlarged prostate
Anolignan b isolated from the root
possessed COX inhibitory effects and
remarkable antimicrobial effects
against Gram-positive bacterai26,27
Cosmelene® of terminalia is a type
of cosmetic fluid extract designed
anti-aging and firming products
related to the fibroblast energization
induced by sericoside
Extracts of rose hip exhibited very good Rose hip powder, rose hip
inhibition of both COX-1 and 2 and seed supplements, vitamin C with
found effective against osteoarthritis28
rose hip
Anti-inflammatory wound healing, Dragon s blood resin
cytotoxic activities and inhibition of cell
prolifereation29
Scientific evidence for the cosmetic or
therapeutic effectiveness of aloe vera is
limited and frequently contradictory30
Aloe vera
Antimyco-bacterial and COX-1 and 2
inhibitory effects21
Strong antiinflammatory effects with
weak anti-microbial properties21
Balanites oil, Balanites fruit pulp
Rishta-capparis decidua in brine
(kerda in brine)
Lack of information on mechanism of actions of herbal
drugs and disease-gene network: Other challenges face
study on ethnobotany and herbal medicine are lack of
scientific and technological approaches to indicate
pharmacodynamic properties and mechanism of actions of
ethnobotanical based-herbal drugs. This may due in part to
the complexity of herbal ingredients, unknown targets in
human body and the mechanism of action underlying the
herbal medicine efficiencies34. This situation support the
movement towards implementation of polypharmacology
approach as an emerging paradigm for drug discovery
based on the new philosophy of drug design which has
4
Res. J. Med. Plants, 2016
been transformed from One drug one target to One
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
drug multiple targets . This phenomena includes either a
This study was funded by the Fundamental Research
Grants (FRGS grant vot:59321) managed by Research and
Innovation Affairs and Research Management Centre (RMC),
University Malaysia Terengganu.
single drug acting on multiple targets of a unique disease
pathway or a single drug acting on multiple targets
pertaining to multiple disease pathways35. Mapping the
polypharmacology network onto the human disease-gene
network would reveal the drug targets and the related
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CONCLUSION
Indigenous knowledge and ethnoscience need to be
integrated with biotechnological approaches to provide
scientific validation of the end products and to achieve
sustainable management of natural resources. Modern
and traditional health care often exist side by side but
seldom cooperate. Pharmacological screening including
implementation of polypharmacological approaches are
necessary to provide better understanding and justification
of mechanism of actions based on the new philosophy
of multiple molecules-multiple targets-multiple diseases.
The economic focus of biological prospecting, including
the use of patents and other intellectual property
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indigenous rights, cultural knowledge and traditional
resources. There is an urgent need for both global and
local legal frameworks to regulate bioprospecting activities
and to eliminate biopiracy. Socio-ethnobotany is one of
the new developments in ethnobotany deals with the
question of how indigenous people can be compensated
for sharing their ethnobotanical knowledge with the
industrialized world. Bioprospecting based on ethnobotanical
approach for medicinal plant research could lead to the
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6