Traditional Medicine in Asia

Traditional Medicine in Asia
patients and of documentation. In order,
therefore, to assess the extent of adverse
reactions, it is desirable to undertake
multicentric studies on the adverse effects
of some commonly used herbal medicinal
preparations in the field situation, in
particular at primary health care, level
through a judicially devised open-ended
questionnaire. Such a study would throw
more light on the problems of safety of
herbal medicines.
Efficacy: Clinical Research
Since herbal medicines have been in use
over several centuries, they are regarded as
useful and efficacious in the treatment of
ailments. While the original herbal remedy
may often have been found by chance,
several substances of doubtful merit have
no doubt entered traditional practices. Some
of the ancient recipes contain such amazing
and often preposterous substances like
pearls, musk, crocodile’s dung, horns of
antelopes, extracts of ants and so forth. It is
therefore necessary to separate the grain
from the chaff.
Most physicians in the past millenium
have relied upon traditional materia
medica based on empiricism. There is a
possibility that for every therapeutic regimen
of some significance, there would be
several others, acceptable to the practising
physicians of those times which may
appear incredible to the present-day
scientific community. The modern scientific
community may raise such questions as
how to differentiate the good from the bad
and how to differentiate a truly effective
therapeutic remedy from misguided
enthusiasm.
Applying modern concepts and
methodology, the basis of all treatment
regimes should be experimentation. The
essential elements of all scientific evaluation
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are critical observations, hypothesis,
carefully designed experimentations and
valid conclusions. Through this process
alone can rational therapeutics progress.
Application of the science of statistics
to clinical experimentation is now
recognized as essential for valid conclusions
from experimentations. In most instances,
patients vary in their responses to the same
medication. The disease process itself may
have such wide variation. Prof. Bradford Hill
therefore put forward the concept of
controlled clinical trials which demands, i)
Two or more groups of patients observed
at the same time and differing in the
treatments, ii) Constructing the groups by
random selection (randomization), iii) Use
of placebo or inert medication, and iv)
Comparison of two or more types of
treatment or treatment regimens by
applying appropriate statistical methods.
The objectives of the clinical evaluation
of herbal medicines are, i) Establishing
scientific validity for herbal medicines used
by traditional practitioners, ii) Studying
plants considered medicinal and available
locally in abundance, and iii) Searching
for drugs from medicinal plants for chronic,
refractory or specific diseases for which
there is no satisfactory treatment presently
available in modern medicine. Some
examples of such diseases are atherosclerosis
and hyperlipidaemia, bronchial
asthma, immunological disorders,
rheumatoid arthritis, urolithiasis, metabolic
disorders like diabetes mellitus, acid peptic
disease, ulcerative colitis, liver diseases,
fertility control, malignant malaria, mental
diseases, rejuvenation of the elderly
(cognitive disease), including Alzheimer’s
disease, etc. 8
In the case of the first objective, clinical
evaluation using conventional scientific
methods is all that is necessary to prove
the claims of herbal medicines. There is no