Do Folk Medicinal Practices of Bangladesh Have any Scientific Value? an Appraisal of Phytotherapeutic Practices of a Rural Folk Medicinal Practitioner

Abstract

Folk medicine (FM) is practiced by part-time or full-time folk medicinal practitioners (FMPs) in Bangladesh, utilizing for the most part plant-based remedies as their modus operandi for treatment of practically all ailments suffered by the Bangladesh people. FM is not unique to Bangladesh; it is present in practically every country of the world under different names or guises like home remedies, herbal remedies, etc. With time, FM can even take on a more formal form in which cases they are known as Ayurveda and Siddha (in India), Unani (in Greece) or Kampo (in Japan). People of Thailand are said to use herbal remedies since the Sukothai period (12381377) [1]. However, the use of plants as medicines dates back to much earlier times. Radiocarbon dating shows that plants were cultivated in ancient Babylon (present Iraq) more than 60,000 years ago [2]. It is possibly safe to say that human beings have suffered from ailments since their very advent and have tried to cure such ailments possibly from the earliest human ancestors about 6-7 million years ago – the Australopithecines [3]. It is to be taken into account that the great apes and other animal species instinctively partake of some plants for medicinal purposes [4], and the earliest hominids could have easily caught onto this ‘cure’ system.