Mazzei Rosalucia, Genovese Claudia, Magariello Angela, Patitucci Alessandra, Russo Giampiero, Tagarelli Giuseppe
Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems in the Mediterranean, National Research Council, Via Cavour 4-6, 87036 Rende, Italy.
Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems in the Mediterranean, National Research Council, Via Empedocle, 58, 95128 Catania, Italy.
Plants (Basel). 2024 Feb 22;13(5):589. doi: 10.3390/plants13050589.
Plant-based remedies have been used since antiquity to treat menstrual-related diseases (MD). From the late nineteenth to the early to mid-twentieth century, Italian folk remedies to treat "women's diseases" were documented in a vast of literature sources. The purpose of this paper is to bring to light the plant-based treatments utilized by Italian folk medicine to heal clinical manifestations of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea and menstrual disorders in an attempt to discuss these remedies from a modern pharmacological point of view. Moreover, we compare the medical applications described by Hippocrates with those utilized by Italian folk medicine to check if they result from a sort of continuity of use by over two thousand years. Out of the 54 plants employed in Italian folk medicine, 25 (46.3%) were already documented in the of the for treating MD. Subsequently, a detailed search of scientific data banks such as Medline and Scopus was undertaken to uncover recent results concerning bioactivities of the plant extracts to treat MD. About 26% of the plants used by Italian folk medicine, nowadays, have undergone human trials to assess their actual efficacy. At the same time, about 41% of these herbal remedies come back to in different countries. Active principles extracted from plants used by Italian folk healers could be a promising source of knowledge and represent strength candidates for future drug discovery for the management of MD.
自古以来,植物疗法就被用于治疗与月经相关的疾病(MD)。从19世纪末到20世纪初至中叶,大量文献资料记载了意大利治疗“妇女疾病”的民间疗法。本文旨在揭示意大利民间医学用于治疗经前综合征(PMS)、痛经、闭经和月经紊乱临床表现的植物疗法,试图从现代药理学角度对这些疗法进行讨论。此外,我们将希波克拉底描述的医学应用与意大利民间医学使用的应用进行比较,以检查它们是否源于两千多年来某种使用上的延续性。在意大利民间医学使用的54种植物中,有25种(46.3%)在《希波克拉底文集》中已有治疗MD的记载。随后,对Medline和Scopus等科学数据库进行了详细检索,以揭示有关植物提取物治疗MD生物活性的最新结果。如今,意大利民间医学使用的植物中约有26%已经进行了人体试验以评估其实际疗效。与此同时,这些草药疗法中有约41%在不同国家有相关记载。从意大利民间治疗师使用的植物中提取的活性成分可能是一个有前景的知识来源,并且是未来用于治疗MD的药物发现的有力候选者。