Historical perspective of Algerian pharmacological knowledge
- PDF / 651,814 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 65 Downloads / 208 Views
REVIEW
Historical perspective of Algerian pharmacological knowledge Djilali Tahri1,2 · Fatiha Elhouiti1 · Mohamed Ouinten1 · Mohamed Yousfi1 Received: 7 August 2019 / Accepted: 11 November 2019 © Institute of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University 2019
Abstract Many studies have initiated the use of plant species in traditional Algerian medicine taking into consideration that the Algerian flora is the main source of traditional remedies. In fact, Algerian ethnopharmacology was a combination of ancient knowledge inherited from Islamic civilization and purely empirical uses of substances of different origins; plant, animal and inorganic. The study showed the existence of non-systematic knowledge of plants oriented by knowledge in classical medicine and the use of a large number of ingredients separately or in mixture according to very diverse therapeutic formulas. This study presented the different uses of 134 substances of plant origin, 13 of animal origin and 12 of inorganic origin; these substances have enriched among others the Algerian pharmacopoeia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Keywords Ethnobotanical knowledge · Algeria · Ibn Hamadouch · Therapeutic formula
Introduction Traditional medicine in Algeria bears special characteristics since it is formed from combinations of ancient knowledge of Islamic medicine and the purely empirical uses of local populations, which has generated a wealth in the Algerian traditional pharmacopoeia and its pharmaco-medical practices. The drug substances used by Algerians have proved quite successful at curing certain pathological states representing untapped sources of important bioactive products (Bertherand 1859). This ancient pharmaceutical heritage has also resulted in the wide variety of ingredients and therapeutic formulas for one or more diseases according to the availability of medical material using substances of plant, animal and/or inorganic origin with simple preparations within reach of everyone or by magic and theurgic rituals reserved for some healers (Lasry 1937). The knowledge of the Algerian populations in pharmacy have been developed from generation to generation by a classic medical literature, manners and customs that * Djilali Tahri d.tahri@lagh‑univ.dz 1
Laboratoire des Sciences Fondamentales, Université Amar TELIDJI de Laghouat, Route de Ghardaïa BP37G, 03000 Laghouat, Algeria
Department of Biology, Amar TELIDJI University, 03000 Laghouat, Algeria
2
deserve the intention of researchers, despite of the fact that this kind of knowledge has been considered non-rational and not systematic by the ignorance of the therapeutic properties that each of their substances provides, but that does not prevent the fact of the effectiveness of this medicine and that it is worthy of confidence, where does its definition come from the World Health Organization (WHO) as: “the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the mai
Data Loading...
