Seraj Syeda, Jahan Farhana Israt, Chowdhury Anita Rani, Monjur-Ekhuda Mohammad, Khan Mohammad Shamiul Hasan, Aporna Sadia Afrin, Jahan Rownak, Samarrai Walied, Islam Farhana, Khatun Zubaida, Rahmatullah Mohammed
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh.
Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. 2012 Oct 1;10(1):26-34. doi: 10.4314/ajtcam.v10i1.5. eCollection 2012.
The Bedes form one of the largest tribal or indigenous communities in Bangladesh and are popularly known as the boat people or water gypsies because of their preference for living in boats. They travel almost throughout the whole year by boats on the numerous waterways of Bangladesh and earn their livelihood by selling sundry items, performing jugglery acts, catching snakes, and treating village people by the various riversides with their traditional medicinal formulations. Life is hard for the community, and both men and women toil day long. As a result of their strenuous lifestyle, they suffer from various types of pain, and have developed an assortment of formulations for treatment of pain in different parts of the body. Pain is the most common reason for physician consultation in all parts of the world including Bangladesh. Although a number of drugs are available to treat pain, including non-steroidal, steroidal, and narcotic drugs, such drugs usually have side-effects like causing bleeding in the stomach over prolonged use (as in the case of rheumatic pain), or can be addictive. Moreover, pain arising from causes like rheumatism has no proper treatment in allopathic medicine. It was the objective of the present study to document the formulations used by the Bede traditional practitioners for pain treatment, for they claim to have used these formulations over centuries with success. Surveys were conducted among a large Bede community, who reside in boats on the Bangshi River by Porabari village of Savar area in Dhaka district of Bangladesh. Interviews of 30 traditional practitioners were conducted with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire and the guided field-walk method. It was observed that the Bede practitioners used 53 formulations for treatment of various types of pain, the main ingredient of all formulations being medicinal plants. Out of the 53 formulations, 25 were for treatment of rheumatic pain, either exclusively, or along with other types of body pain. A total of 65 plants belonging to 39 families were used in the formulations. The Fabaceae family provided 7 plants followed by the Solanaceae family with 4 plants. 47 out of the 53 formulations were used topically, 5 formulations were orally administered, and 1 formulation had both topical and oral uses. 8 formulations for treatment of rheumatic pain contained Calotropis gigantea, suggesting that the plant has strong potential for further scientific studies leading to discovery of novel efficacious compounds for rheumatic pain treatment.
贝德人是孟加拉国最大的部落或原住民群体之一，因偏好居住在船上而被普遍称为船民或水上吉普赛人。他们几乎全年都乘船在孟加拉国众多的水道上穿梭，靠售卖各类物品、表演杂耍、捕蛇以及在不同的河边用传统药物配方为村民治病为生。这个群体的生活很艰苦，男女都整日劳作。由于他们艰苦的生活方式，饱受各种疼痛之苦，并且开发出了一系列用于治疗身体不同部位疼痛的配方。在包括孟加拉国在内的世界各地，疼痛是就医的最常见原因。尽管有多种药物可用于治疗疼痛，包括非甾体类、甾体类和麻醉类药物，但这类药物通常有副作用，比如长期使用会导致胃部出血（如风湿性疼痛的情况），或者会上瘾。此外，像风湿引起的疼痛在西医中没有合适的治疗方法。本研究的目的是记录贝德传统行医者用于治疗疼痛的配方，因为他们声称这些配方已经成功使用了几个世纪。在孟加拉国达卡区萨瓦尔地区波拉巴里村附近邦希河上以船为家的一大群贝德人群体中进行了调查。借助半结构化问卷和实地引导走访法，对30位传统行医者进行了访谈。据观察，贝德行医者使用53种配方治疗各类疼痛，所有配方的主要成分都是药用植物。在这53种配方中，有25种专门用于治疗风湿性疼痛，或者与其他类型的身体疼痛一并治疗。这些配方中共使用了属于39个科的65种植物。豆科提供了7种植物，其次是茄科，有4种植物。53种配方中有47种是外用的，5种是口服的，1种既外用又口服。8种治疗风湿性疼痛的配方含有牛角瓜，这表明该植物具有很大的潜力，可用于进一步的科学研究，以发现治疗风湿性疼痛的新型有效化合物。
