MEDICINAL PLANTS USE, ABUSE, AND EFFECTS

MEDICINAL PLANTS USE, ABUSE, AND EFFECTS.

Medicinal plants have been used for the treatment of various diseases from time immemorial and have found wide usages in the production of modern drugs.

According to Sofowora (1982), a medicinal plant is one whose one or more of its organs contains substances that can be used for therapeutic purpose or which are precursors for the synthesis of useful drugs.

Examples of medicinal plants are Azardirchata indica (Neem plants, Dongoyaro), Mangifera indica (mango), Myristica fragrans (nutmeg), Piper guineense (African black pepper), etc.

Few days ago, I read some scientific articles reporting the research works done by different Workers (including my Colleagues) on the phytochemical analysis and cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of some medicinal plants.

Phytochemicals are secondary metabolites of plants that have protective or disease preventive properties and they include; alkaloids, antocyanins, ascorbic acid, caroteniods, flavonoids, lycopene, steroids, tannins, terpenoids, etc. They are present either in the leaves, stems/roots, seeds of these plants and give them the potential to be used as medicines.

Using Allium cepa assay, all the tested medicinal plants extracts have inhibitory and mitodepressive effects on the A. cepa roots, despite their therapeutic properties.

Last night, it dropped into my mind that the Son of man has been eating and drinking sugary foods for the past months and my body needs an "agent of desugaring." I opted for an herbal mixture (Herbal mixtures are decoctions prepared from different medicinal plants) gifted to me by my Mother when my body was doing somehow two weeks ago in combination of other pharmaceuticals.

The manufacturer's instructions stated adult like me should take 4 teaspoons daily. Instantly, I remembered the above result that I have read, I "jejely" took 2 teaspoons. I don't want anything to tamper with my cells and tissues 😂.

In conclusion, though all these medicinal plants that are used in the preparation of these herbal mixtures have therapeutic effects, taking of high doses (especially doses of more than the manufacturer's instruction) of them can cause serious problems and damage on cells and tissues in the body.