Brahmi Fatiha, Kampemba Mujinga Florence, Guendouze Naima, Madani Khodir, Boulekbache Lila, Duez Pierre
Laboratory of Biomathemativs, Biochemistry, Biophysics and Scientometry, Faculty of Natural and Life Sciences, University of Bejaia, Bejaia 0600, Algeria.
Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Lubumbashi, Lubumbashi B.P. 1825, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Diseases. 2025 May 20;13(5):160. doi: 10.3390/diseases13050160.
In many African areas, herbal products still represent a significant source of healthcare. However, a major gender bias is evident in the literature, as most of the work is carried out by male researchers, collecting data from male traditional practitioners, and thus often neglecting women's specific health issues. This warrants a detailed review of the current knowledge about the major medicinal plants historically and still used for women's health. This study aims to compile and critically analyze published data on the use of traditional herbal remedies by African women in addressing specific health conditions, in order to evaluate the potential of traditional medicine as a viable alternative or complementary approach to modern healthcare for women globally. Data were retrieved from databases by combining the following relevant keywords: "abortion, adverse, Africa, attendant, birth, botanical, delivery, developing, drug, ethnomedicine, ethnopharmacology, folk, gynecological, healing, infertility, herb, indigenous, lactation, medicine, native, obstetric, phytomedicine, plant, pregnancy, remedy, side, sub-Saharan, traditional, treatment, women". More than 125 studies, carried out across 12 African nations, revealed that up to 80% of African women resort to herbal medicines. An estimated 200 medicinally important plant species are reported to be utilized by women in different African countries, including Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. These herbs have many applications, mostly focused on infertility, pregnancy, painful menstruation, breast feeding, breast cancer, and contraception. Interestingly, according to their occurrence of usage, the plants most commonly reported for these conditions that are important to women are ambivalent plants (i.e., used both as foods and medicines) that include Roscoe, L., L., and L. Even though most women, in most African countries, do use traditional medicine, the amount of work published remains quite limited and no data are available in many countries. Therefore, it is desirable to expand African studies in this direction.
在许多非洲地区,草药产品仍是医疗保健的重要来源。然而,文献中存在明显的性别偏见,因为大多数研究工作是由男性研究人员开展的,他们从男性传统从业者那里收集数据,因此常常忽视女性的特定健康问题。这就需要详细回顾一下目前关于历史上以及当下仍用于女性健康的主要药用植物的知识。本研究旨在汇编并批判性分析已发表的关于非洲女性使用传统草药疗法治疗特定健康状况的数据,以便评估传统医学作为全球女性现代医疗保健的可行替代方法或补充方法的潜力。通过组合以下相关关键词从数据库中检索数据:“堕胎、不良影响、非洲、护理人员、分娩、植物学的、分娩、发展中、药物、民族医学、民族药理学、民间、妇科的、治愈、不孕、草药、本土的、哺乳期、医学、本地的、产科的、植物医学、植物、怀孕、疗法、副作用、撒哈拉以南、传统的、治疗、女性”。在12个非洲国家开展的125多项研究表明,高达80%的非洲女性求助于草药。据报道,在包括贝宁、喀麦隆、科特迪瓦、埃及、埃塞俄比亚、加纳、肯尼亚、马里、尼日利亚、南非、坦桑尼亚和津巴布韦在内的不同非洲国家,女性使用约200种具有药用价值的重要植物物种。这些草药有多种用途,主要集中在不孕、怀孕、痛经、母乳喂养、乳腺癌和避孕方面。有趣的是,根据其使用情况,这些对女性重要的病症中最常被提及的植物是具有双重用途的植物(即既用作食物又用作药物),包括罗斯科属植物等。尽管在大多数非洲国家,大多数女性确实使用传统医学,但已发表的相关研究数量仍然相当有限,而且许多国家没有相关数据。因此,有必要在这个方向上扩大非洲的研究。