AN OVERVIEW OF ETHNOVETERINARY MEDICINE
Life is a property of the planet rather than of individual organism(s)
- Harold Morowitz
The era of treating ethnoveterinary medicine and any other ethno knowledge system with suspicion and labelling it as myth, superstition and witchcraft, is long gone. The role of ethnoveterinary medicine in livestock development is beyond dispute . A great number of professionals from varied fields have over the past 30 years recognised, valued, documented and ethnocentrically studied the potential effectiveness of the traditional animal health care practices embodied in native and local communities. A glance at the existing literature reveals that the traditional knowledge embodied in ethnomedicine, constitute yet an untapped resource of potentially useful information for possible deployment in sustainable animal health management systems in rural and peri-urban communities all over the world particularly India, as we hold still a substantial knowledge base in our community.
Traditional medicine constitutes an evolutionary process as communities and individuals continue to discover practices transforming techniques. Many modern drugs have their origins in ethnopharmacology and traditional medicine. Traditions are dynamic and not static entities of unchanging knowledge.
India is well known for its rich traditional systems of medicine with a very long history i.e. Siddhayurveda, Unani and Amchi (Tibetan) besides a vast reservoir of living traditions in ethnomedicine. The medical pluralism in India offers observational opportunities for the bedside hits and leads for several unmet medical needs. Such leads can be facilitated by reverse pharmacology as drug discoveries for integrative medicine.
Every living body, from one cell bacterium to million cell plants, processes diverse chemical compounds for their survival and subsistence. Bioactive compounds in plants are secondary metabolites eliciting pharmacological/toxicological effects.
Typical reductionist approach of modern science is being revisited over the background of systems biology and holistic approaches of traditional practices. Scientifically validated and technologically standardized botanical products may be explored on a fast track using innovative approaches like reverse pharmacology and systems biology, which are based on traditional medicine knowledge.
The use of fire to boil, steam, vaporise, condense, extract useful secondary compounds from plants, is fundamental in phytopharmacology and these compounds could be used in a greater variety of ways. Now we have evidence to proclaim that traditional herbal knowledge is phenomenal and will serve to sustain ‘one health’ of the planet.
- Zoopharmacognosy:
It appears that the fundamentals of perceiving the medicinal properties of a plant by its taste, smell, and texture have their roots deep in our primate history. A major turning point in the evolution of medicine is likely to have been the advent of language in early humans, which enabled people to share and pass on detailed experiences about plant properties and their effects against disease.
Removal of the disease-fighting prophylactic properties of some of these secondary plant compounds from the diet through modern refining technologies, may have contributed to a rise in certain illnesses that otherwise would have been kept in check. This development may have driven humans toward the greater use of some plants specifically as medicine and the use of others as “food–medicine.”
- Hidden connections - We are interconnected:
Fritjof Capra, an astrophysicist, writes in his book ‘The hidden connections ‘that no individual organism can exist in isolation. Animals depend on the photosynthesis of plants for their energy needs; plants depend on the carbon dioxide produced by animals, as well as on the nitrogen fixed by the bacteria at their roots; and together plants, animals and micro-organisms regulate the entire biosphere and maintain the conditions conducive to life. But all our education tries to isolate everything from one another’. He has a valid point to note.
The era of treating ethnoveterinary medicine and any other ethno knowledge system with suspicion and labelling it as myth, superstition and witchcraft, is long gone. The role of ethnoveterinary medicine in livestock development is beyond dispute . A great number of professionals from varied fields have over the past 30 years recognised, valued, documented and ethnocentrically studied the potential effectiveness of the traditional animal health care practices embodied in native and local communities. A glance at the existing literature reveals that the traditional knowledge embodied in ethnomedicine, constitute yet an untapped resource of potentially useful information for possible deployment in sustainable animal health management systems in rural and peri-urban communities all over the world particularly India, as we hold still a substantial knowledge base in our community.
Traditional medicine constitutes an evolutionary process as communities and individuals continue to discover practices transforming techniques. Many modern drugs have their origins in ethnopharmacology and traditional medicine. Traditions are dynamic and not static entities of unchanging knowledge.
India is well known for its rich traditional systems of medicine with a very long history i.e. Siddhayurveda, Unani and Amchi (Tibetan) besides a vast reservoir of living traditions in ethnomedicine. The medical pluralism in India offers observational opportunities for the bedside hits and leads for several unmet medical needs. Such leads can be facilitated by reverse pharmacology as drug discoveries for integrative medicine.
Every living body, from one cell bacterium to million cell plants, processes diverse chemical compounds for their survival and subsistence. Bioactive compounds in plants are secondary metabolites eliciting pharmacological/toxicological effects.
Typical reductionist approach of modern science is being revisited over the background of systems biology and holistic approaches of traditional practices. Scientifically validated and technologically standardized botanical products may be explored on a fast track using innovative approaches like reverse pharmacology and systems biology, which are based on traditional medicine knowledge.
The use of fire to boil, steam, vaporise, condense, extract useful secondary compounds from plants, is fundamental in phytopharmacology and these compounds could be used in a greater variety of ways. Now we have evidence to proclaim that traditional herbal knowledge is phenomenal and will serve to sustain ‘one health’ of the planet.
It appears that the fundamentals of perceiving the medicinal properties of a plant by its taste, smell, and texture have their roots deep in our primate history. A major turning point in the evolution of medicine is likely to have been the advent of language in early humans, which enabled people to share and pass on detailed experiences about plant properties and their effects against disease.
Removal of the disease-fighting prophylactic properties of some of these secondary plant compounds from the diet through modern refining technologies, may have contributed to a rise in certain illnesses that otherwise would have been kept in check. This development may have driven humans toward the greater use of some plants specifically as medicine and the use of others as “food–medicine.”
- Zoopharmacognosy:
It appears that the fundamentals of perceiving the medicinal properties of a plant by its taste, smell, and texture have their roots deep in our primate history. A major turning point in the evolution of medicine is likely to have been the advent of language in early humans, which enabled people to share and pass on detailed experiences about plant properties and their effects against disease.
Removal of the disease-fighting prophylactic properties of some of these secondary plant compounds from the diet through modern refining technologies, may have contributed to a rise in certain illnesses that otherwise would have been kept in check. This development may have driven humans toward the greater use of some plants specifically as medicine and the use of others as “food–medicine.”
- Hidden connections - We are interconnected:
- You believe or not – Microbes virtually run the world:
Microbes make up 80 percent of all biomass, says microbiologist Carl Woese. In one –fifth of a teaspoon of seawater, there are a million bacteria (and 10 million viruses), Craig Venter says, adding, “if you don’t like bacteria, you’re on the wrong planet.
This is the planet of bacteria.” That means that most of the planet’s living metabolism is microbial. When James Lovelock was trying to figure out where the gases come from that make the Earth’s atmosphere such an artefact of life (the Gaia hypothesis), it was microbiologist Lynn Margulis who had the answer for him. Microbes run our atmosphere. They also run much of our body.
The human microbiome in our gut, mouth, skin, and elsewhere, harbors three thousand kinds of bacteria with 3 million distinct genes. (Our own cells struggle by only eighty thousand genes or so.) New research is showing that our microbes-on-board drive our immune systems and important parts of our digestion.
- Life is made of simple elements :
Multiple chemical bonds are essential to formation of complex biochemical structures, and carbon (C) nitrogen (N) and Oxygen (O) are the only atoms that regularly form multiple bonds. We know that light elements make the strongest chemical bonds. It is therefore not surprising that these three elements, together with the lightest element, hydrogen (H), are the major atoms of biological structure. The other two major atoms of biological systems are phosphorus (P) and sulphur (S). These elements have unique chemical characteristics because of the great versatility of their compounds.
- Healthcare - Wellness :
Healthcare system should be accessible, affordable to the patients (owners) and must ensure health and wellness.
Make the service(s) and resource(s) easily accessible -Accessibility
Every resource and service should be affordable -Affordability
Intervention should result in - Predictable Outcome
The health intervention should lead to either one or more of the following- preventive, promotive, curative and reparative action - Promote Wellness.
- Herbal bioenhancers:
Herbal bioenhancers are active phytomolecules that increase the bioavailability, bioefficacy and biological activity of various drugs when coadministered at low concentrations. These valuable compounds reduce the dose, increase the treatment rate, decrease the treatment duration, drug resistance or related adverse reactions which have economical implications in livestock and pet medicine. Eventhough the concept of herbal bioenhancers are known for years, the underlying mechanisms remains unclear. The main mechanisms involved are related to drug absorption (effect on solubility, drug efflux and transport proteins, increased permeability in gastrointestinal system) and drug metabolism (inhibition/induction of drug metabolysing enzymes, thermogenic effect).
- Reverse pharmacology: systems biology approach
Using systems biology in combination with reverse pharmacology is a novel way for the discovery of novel biological active compounds and targets as well as for proving the occurrence of synergy and prodrugs. A key factor for coming to evidence-based herbal medicine will be the quality control. Metabolomics is a very promising tool for this purpose.
While biotechnological advances, genomics and high throughput screenings or combinatorial and asymmetric syntheses have opened new vistas in drug discovery, the industry is facing a serious innovation deficit. Critics suggest that “we have become high throughput in technology, yet have remained low throughput in thinking”.
Discovering reliable ‘living tradition’ remains a major challenge in traditional medicine. In many parts ‘little traditions’ of indigenous systems of medicine are disappearing, yet their role in bioprospecting medicines or poisons remains of pivotal importance
Traditional herbal knowledge and experiential database can provide new functional leads to reduce time, money and toxicity - the three main hurdles in the drug development. We begin the search based on herbal medicine research, clinical experiences, observations or available data on actual use in patients as a starting point. We can use principles of systems biology where holistic yet rational analysis is done to address multiple therapeutic requirements. Since safety of the materials is already established from traditional use track record, we undertake pharmaceutical development, safety validation and pharmacodynamic studies in parallel to controlled clinical studies. Thus, drug discovery based on herbal medicine follows a ‘Reverse Pharmacology’ path from ‘Clinics to Laboratories’.
- Use of ethnoveterinary medicine (evm) to rationalize antibiotic usage:
EVM was used as an alternative approach to management of acute mastitis, thus avoiding the use of antibiotics. The EVM preparation for acute mastitis was done as per the procedure suggested by the author (Punniamurthy) . This protocol has also been published by NDDB as a booklet “Ethnoveterinary Formulations for Important Ailments in Bovines”.
A combination of Aloe Vera (250 g) leaves, Curcuma longa (50 g) and calcium hydroxide (20 g) were blended together to form a reddish paste. One handful (approximately seventy-five grams) of this paste was mixed with 150 ml of clean water to make it thin. Udders of the affected animals were cleaned, washed with water and milk stripped out completely. The mixture was then applied topically thoroughly covering the entire udder with the firm application of palm pressure. The application was repeated 7–10 times a day for 3–5 days.
- Mastitis control: a sustainable model for the developing world: success story
EVM provided a cost effective and efficacious alternative to conventional allopathic treatment which has helped in significantly reducing the use of antibiotics. A total of 48, 469 of acute mastitis cases in 24 milk unions were treated using EVM alone of which 78% (38 045) reported complete clinical recovery .
Antimicrobial activity of EVM preparation and probable mode of action have also been reported Punniamurthy et al (2017). The cost for a complete treatment course was around INR100 . Wherever the procedures for preparation and application were followed judiciously, the success rates were above 90%. Lower success rates could be attributed to improper preparation and application procedures and use of inferior quality ingredients as per Rana et al (2019) NDDB India. This is a success story of a traditional knowledge validated in a unique mode and taken back to the community and is effectively used across the country saving crores of Rupees to the farming community directly reduced the use of antibiotics in livestock production and also providing clean milk to the consumers.
Select References
· Azmir,J et al (2013) Techniques for extraction of bioactive compounds from plant materials: A review. J.Food Engg. 117 426-436 · Calabrese, E.J., Mattson, M.P. How does hormesis impact biology, toxicology, and medicine ?. npj Aging Mech Dis 3, 13 (2017) · Dairy Knowledge Portal - Ethnoveterinary Formulations- NDDB (2018). Retrieved from https:// ww.dairy knowledge.in sites/default/ files/pdfs/ EVM_ Brochure_ Eng.pdf.5. · Lee, J., Jo, D. G., Park, D., Chung, H. Y. & Mattson, M. P. (2014).Adaptive cellular stress pathways as therapeutic targets of dietary phytochemicals: focus on the nervous system. Pharm. Rev. 66, 815–868 · Nair, M.N.B., Punniamurthy, N., Mekala, P., Ramakrishnan, N., Kumar, S.K. (2017) Ethno-veterinary Formulation for Treatment of Bovine Mastitis. J of Vet. Sci. 3(S1): 25–29 · Patwardhan B and ADB Vaidya (2010) Natural Products drug Delivery: Accelerating the clinical candidate development using reverse Pharmacology. Ind J Exp Biology 48 220-227 · Punniamurthy, N. (2009) Ethnoveterinary Medicine (EVM) - using fresh herbals for livestock healthcare at farmers’ level. African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines, 6, 474. · Punniamurthy, N., Ramakrishnan, N., Nair, M.N.B., Vijayaraghavan, S. (2017a) In-Vitro Antimicrobial Activity of Ethnoveterinary Herbal Preparation for Mastitis. Dairy and Vet Sci J. 2017; 3(2) · Punniamurthy, N., Sujatha P.L., Preetha, S.P.,Rama Krishnan, N. (2017b) Analysis of the mechanism of action by molecular docking studies of one ethno-veterinary herbal preparation used in bovine mastitis. Int. J. Appl. Natural Sci. 6(5): 23–30. · Rana, S K A V Hari Kumar, Pankaj Dutta, K S N Leela Surendra, Vijay S Bahekar, Ponnanna N M, G K Sharma (2019) Mastitis control: a sustainable model for the developing world. 2019 IDF Animal Health Report • Issue(13) p 23-26 · Velavan S. (2015) Phytochemical Techniques - A Review. World Journal of Science and Research. 1(2): 80-9 · X., Liang, Z., Du, J., Wang, Z., Mei, S., Li, Z., Zhao, Y., Zhao, D., Ma, Y., Ye, J., Xu, J., Zhao, Y., Chang, J., Qin, Y., Yu, L., Wang, C., and Jiang, C. (2019). Herbal decoctosome is a novel form of medicine. Sci China Life Sci 62, 333–348 · WHO - UN Interagency Coordination Group (IACG) on Antimicrobial Resistance Final Report (2019) No time to wait: securing the future from drug-resistant infections. Retrieved from https:// www.who.int/antimicrobial-resistance/interagency-coordination group/IACG_final_report.
About the Author
Dr. N.Punniyamurthy - MVSc, PhD
Chief Veterinary Officer & Co-Founder,
Animeta AgriTech (YourFarm).
CONSULTANT _NDDB AH GROUPProf. Emeritus, Trans-Disciplinary University, Bangalore
Former Prof. & Head, Ethnoveterinary Herbal Res. Centre,
Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University.
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