Overview on Practical Herbal Medicine

Significance The Middle East region has a well established tradition in using herbal drugs to treat different health conditions. The Egyptian herbal market displays a variety of drugs that are being sold and used for improving human health with no regulations. These uses can be either supported by scientific evidence or totally unfounded claims.

Objectives To explore the many aspects of the rich traditional Egyptian herbal medicine To investigate public convections about effectiveness of herbal medicine To apply knowledge gained during the course in evaluating the usefulness of herbal formulas To isolate science from meth regarding folk medicine To investigate if and how the Egyptian drug market benefited from the region folk medicine.

Assignment Each team of students is assigned a common disease and is required to Explain the etiology and symptoms of the disease Identify the most common herbs used in its treatment (name, part used, mechanism of action). Visit a local herbalist (A’ttar) and obtain a herbal formula that he usually prescribes to treat the disease (ingredients, price, dosage) Identify a phytopharmaceutical drug/supplement in your local pharmacy (Name, ingredients, price, dosage, Indications and side effects) Due on April 18th

Student output A brief power point presentations of key findings A Typed Microsoft word file of the detailed work A sample of the herbal formula obtained from “a’ttar” The insert (pamphlet) or packaging of the pharmaceutical products

Presentation 10-15 minutes Start with brief description of the disease Include the followings: Most common herbs used for this disease (name, part used, geographical origin) The price and ingredients for “a’ttar “ herbal formula in Arabic and English Students own evaluation of the “a’ttar” formula The name and ingredient of a similar pharmaceutical product Students evaluation of the pharmaceutical product

Word file Background of the disease represented by a scientific diagram Short monographs of common medicinal plants used in the treatment (including those mentioned in the “a’ttar” formula Details of your field visits (date, location and a description of the conversation) A breakdown of the “attar” formula by identifying scientific name of each ingredient and the role it plays in the prescription Your comments on the effectiveness and safety of the “attar” formula A break down of the pharmaceutical drug by ingredients Your comments on its effectiveness, safety and labeling References must be included