ANDI Centre of Excellence for Biomedical and Biomaterials Research, University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius; Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Science University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius.
ANDI Centre of Excellence for Biomedical and Biomaterials Research, University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius; Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Science University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2018 Mar 1;213:111-117. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2017.10.006. Epub 2017 Oct 10.
The Mauritian endemic flora has been recorded to be used as medicines for nearly 300 years. Despite acceptance of these endemic plants among the local population, proper documentation of their therapeutic uses is scarce. This review aims at summarising documented traditional uses of Mauritian endemic species with existing scientific data of their alleged bioactivities, in a view to appeal for more stringent validations for their ethnomedicinal uses.
A comprehensive bibliographic investigation was carried out by analysing published books on ethnopharmacology and international peer-reviewed papers via scientific databases namely ScienceDirect and PubMed. The keywords "Mauritius endemic plants" and "Mauritius endemic medicinal plants" were used and articles published from 1980 to 2016 were considered. 675 works of which 12 articles were filtered which documented the ethnomedicinal uses and 22 articles reported the biological activities of Mauritian endemic plants. Only materials published in English or French language were included in the review. Available data on the usage of Mauritian endemic plants in traditional medicine and scientific investigation were related.
We documented 87 taxa of Mauritian endemic plants for their medicinal value. Endemic plants are either used as part of complex herbal formulations or singly, and are prescribed by herbalists to mitigate a myriad of diseases from metabolic disorders, dermatological pathologies, arthritis to sexually transmissible diseases. However, these species have undergone a limited consistent evaluation to validate their purported ethnomedicinal claims. As the World Health Organization Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023 emphasises on moving traditional medicine into mainstream medicine on an equally trusted footage, the re-evaluation and modernization of Mauritius cultural heritage become necessary.
With a consumer-driven 'return to nature', scientific validation and valorization of the herbal remedies, including efficacy and safety are, therefore, important. This review reports the scarcity of research on validating the efficacy and safety of medicinal endemic plants. This calls for the use of optimised methodologies to investigate the claims of therapeutic effects resulting from the use of these traditional medicines.
毛里求斯特有的植物群已被记录为近 300 年来的药用植物。尽管当地居民接受了这些地方性植物，但对其治疗用途的适当记录却很少。本综述旨在总结毛里求斯特有物种的已记录传统用途，并结合其据称生物活性的现有科学数据，以期呼吁对其民族医学用途进行更严格的验证。
通过分析发表在民族药理学书籍和国际同行评议论文上的科学数据库（即 ScienceDirect 和 PubMed），进行了全面的文献调查。使用了“毛里求斯特有植物”和“毛里求斯特有药用植物”这两个关键词，并考虑了 1980 年至 2016 年发表的文章。其中有 675 项研究，筛选出 12 篇记录了民族医学用途的文章和 22 篇报道毛里求斯特有植物生物活性的文章。本综述仅纳入以英语或法语发表的材料。对毛里求斯特有植物在传统医学中的使用和科学研究中的可用数据进行了相关。
我们记录了 87 种毛里求斯特有植物的药用价值。特有植物要么作为复杂草药配方的一部分使用，要么单独使用，由草药医生用于治疗从代谢紊乱、皮肤病、关节炎到性传播疾病等多种疾病。然而，这些物种的药用价值仅经过有限的一致评估，以验证其声称的民族医学用途。正如世界卫生组织 2014-2023 年传统医学战略所强调的，将传统医学纳入主流医学，需要同样的信任，因此，对毛里求斯文化遗产进行重新评估和现代化是必要的。
随着消费者对“回归自然”的需求，草药疗法的科学验证和优化变得非常重要，包括疗效和安全性。本综述报告了验证药用特有植物疗效和安全性的研究匮乏。因此，需要使用优化的方法来研究这些传统药物使用所带来的治疗效果的声称。
