Division of Ethnopharmacology, Entomology Research Institute, Loyola College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600034, India.
International Scientific Partnership Programme, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2018 Jun 28;14(1):45. doi: 10.1186/s13002-018-0240-9.
Medicinal properties of the food species are one of the poorly documented and important areas of ethnopharmacology. The present survey quantitatively documented the medicinal foods prescribed by the non-institutionally trained siddha practitioners of Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu.
Field work was carried out between December 2014 and April 2017 using a questionnaire. The illnesses mentioned by the informants were grouped as illness categories on the basis of emic perceptions. Sufficiency of sampling of this survey was assessed by plotting the cumulative number of UR and Shannon-Wiener's index. The indices such as informant consensus factor (FIC), Index of Agreement on Remedies (IAR), and Cultural Food Significance Index (CFSI) were calculated.
This study documented 165 medicinal foods used by 82 non-institutionally trained siddha practitioners of Tiruvallur district, and 73.93% of these preparations were plant based. Among the animal taxa, 82.05% were represented by fish taxa. The illness category gastrointestinal ailments is the majorly cited illness category treated with plant-based formulations. The illness categories viz., gastrointestinal ailments, hemorrhoids, and neural ailments had high consensus under the group of plant-based medicinal foods. In animal-based medicinal foods, kapha ailments had gained 23.07% of UR. The illness categories such as bone fractures, male reproductive ailments, blood ailments, and anabolic had high FIC values.
Deeper studies on different dietary cultures of India may help to derive better interpretations on food-medicine continuum. This study identified some important claims such as the use of citron, pomegranate and Solanum americanum (gastrointestinal ailments), Abutilon indicum, onions and elephant foot yam (hemorrhoids), Boerhavia diffusa (urinary ailments), Moringa oleifera (anemia), Aloe vera (gynecological ailments), Eclipta prostrata (liver ailments), ivy gourd (diabetes), citron (hypertension), Centella asiatica (psychological ailments), spade nose shark (lactogogue), reticulate whipray (wheezing and bronchitis), Katelysia opima (impotence), Indian squid (anemia), and Indian oil sardine (anabolic). More studies on these claims will help identify novel functional foods to add to the field of medical nutrition therapy, with traditional brand identity. Robust studies on the documentation of the traditional knowledge on marine resources will yield a good database for various stakeholders and policy makers.
食用物种的药用特性是民族药理学中记录较少但很重要的一个领域。本调查定量记录了泰米尔纳德邦蒂鲁瓦卢尔区未经机构培训的悉达医生所开的药用食品。
2014 年 12 月至 2017 年 4 月期间，采用问卷调查法进行实地工作。根据本土观念，将受访者提到的疾病分为疾病类别。通过绘制 UR 的累积数量和香农-威纳指数来评估此次调查的抽样是否充分。计算了 informant consensus factor (FIC)、Remedies Index of Agreement (IAR) 和 Cultural Food Significance Index (CFSI) 等指数。
本研究记录了蒂鲁瓦卢尔区 82 名未经机构培训的悉达医生使用的 165 种药用食品，其中 73.93%的制剂为植物制剂。在动物分类群中，鱼类占 82.05%。胃肠道疾病是主要的植物制剂治疗的疾病类别。在植物类药用食品中，胃肠道疾病、痔疮和神经疾病类具有较高的共识。在动物类药用食品中，kapha 疾病类占 UR 的 23.07%。骨折、男性生殖疾病、血液疾病和合成代谢等疾病类别具有较高的 FIC 值。
对印度不同饮食文化进行更深入的研究，有助于更好地解释食物-药物连续体。本研究确定了一些重要的说法，如使用Citron、pomegranate 和 Solanum americanum（胃肠道疾病）、Abutilon indicum、洋葱和 elephant foot yam（痔疮）、Boerhavia diffusa（泌尿系统疾病）、Moringa oleifera（贫血）、Aloe vera（妇科疾病）、Eclipta prostrata（肝脏疾病）、ivy gourd（糖尿病）、Citron（高血压）、Centella asiatica（心理疾病）、spade nose shark（催乳）、reticulate whipray（喘息和支气管炎）、Katelysia opima（阳痿）、Indian squid（贫血）和 Indian oil sardine（合成代谢）。对这些说法进行更多的研究将有助于发现新的功能性食品，以补充医学营养治疗领域的传统品牌身份。对海洋资源传统知识的记录进行强有力的研究将为各利益相关者和决策者提供一个良好的数据库。
