The New Nation - Internet Edition

Jamayet Ali

Methi is an aromatic cold season (Rabi) crop and is fairly tolerant to frost and very low temperature. It is indigenous to the countries bordering the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, extending to Central Asia; an independent centre of origin exists in Ethiopia. It has been cultivated as a condiment and a pot-herb in India and North African countries for centuries. The herb is grown also for fodder and for improving the soil in the Mediterranean countries, southern Russia, India, California and some other tropical countries. In ancient Greece and in Italy it was grown for the spring forage and for medicinal purposes.

Botanical name of Methi is Trigonella joenum-graecum Linn. Though it is not cultivated in our country, it is available in shops of towns and even in shops of hats and bazaars of rural Bangla. Methi is propagated by seeds. It is grown either pure or as a mixture with other crops. It has been employed in certain regions of Egypt, as an additive to maize flour in the preparation of bread. The main object of the addition is to obtain a cohesive mass. Methi is used as a condiment and for flavouring food preparations. It has a strong odour and an unctuous farinaceous taste with slight bitterness. It may be eaten raw or cooked. It has a constituent of curry powders. In Egypt, ground seeds are mixed with wheat-flour for making bread. In Switzerland, it is used for flavouring cheese. Roasted seeds are used as a substitute for coffee in some 'parts of Africa. In USA, seeds are used in the preparation of chutneys and in various spice blends. Methi extract is used as a flavouring ingredient of imitation maple syrup. Leaves, both fresh and dried, are eaten as a vegetable. Leaves are also used as fodder for cattle. In North Africa and also in some Mediterranean countries, the plant is grown for hay. The plant is a soil renovator and has been tried as a green manure crop in some parts of USA and also in Uzbekistan.

The analysis of a sample of seeds gave the following values: moisture, 13.7; crude protein, 26.2; fat, 5.8; fibre, 7.2; other carbohydrate, 44.1; and ash, 3.0 g IIOOg. The values for some of the mineral constituents of the seed are: calcium, 160.0; P, 370; Fe, 14.1 ; Na, 19.0; and K, 5.30 mg /100 g. The vitamins present in the seeds are: carotene, 96 fl.; thiamine, 0.34 ; riboflavin, 0.29; nicotinic acid, 1.1 mg 1100g. Germinating seeds contain pyridoxine, calcium and vitamin C. The seeds also contain 6·8 percent fatty oil with a foetid odour and bitter taste. The seed yields a yellow dye and enters into the composition of an imitation of carmine. The yellow decoction produces a fine permanent green with sulphate of copper ( The Wealth of India, Raw Materials)

Medicinal Properties: The seeds are hot, with a sharp bitter taste; tonic, antipyretic, anthelmintic; increase the appetite; astringent to the bowels; cure leprosy, "vata", vomiting bronchitis, piles; remove bad taste from the mouth; useful in heart disease (Ayurveda). The plant and seeds are hot and dry; suppurative, aperient, diuretic emmenagogue; useful in dropsy, chronic cough, enlargements of the spleen and liver The leaves are useful in external and internal swellings and burns; prevent the hair falling off. (Yunani)

Fenugreek seeds are considered carminative, tonic, and aphrodisiac. several confections made with this article are recommended for use in dyspepsia with loss of appetite, in the diarrhoea of puerperal women, and in rheumatism. An infusion of the seeds is given to small pox patients as a cooling drink. the seeds being toasted afterwards infused are used by Native practitioners in Southern India for dysentery. In the Konkan, the leaves are used both externally and internally on account of their cooling properties. The use of fenugreek as a medicinal agent is now obsolete in Europe and the United States. Formerly, the seeds were employed in the preparation of emollient cataplasms, fomentations and enemata, but were never given internally.

The powdered seeds are still used in veterinary practice. The seeds contain the alkaloid trigonelline ( Indian Medicinal Plants, K.R. Kirtikar & B.D. Basu, 700)

Medicine: Fenugreek is rich in medicinal values. Sanskrit writers describe the seeds as carminative, tonic and aphrodisiac. Several confections made with them are recommended for use in dyspepsia with loss of appetite in the diarrhoea of puerperal women and in rheumatism (U.C.Dutt).

Muhammadan writers describe the plant and seeds as hot and dry, suppurative, aperient, diuretic, emmenagogue, useful in dropsy, chronic cough and enlargement of the spleen and liver. A poultice of the leaves is said to be of use in external and internal swellings and burns, and to prevent the hair falling off. The flour of the seeds is used as poultice, and is applied to the skin as a cosmetic. The oil of the seeds is also used for various purposes (Dymock). The seeds are aromatic, carminative, tonic and galactagogue. They are used externally in poultices for boils, abscesses and ulcers and internally as emollient for inflammations of the internal tract. they find application also in veterinary medicine, and are used in poultices, ointments and plasters and form a constituent of 'condition powders' for cattle, horses and sheep. Seeds are used to render musky hay and compressed fodder palatable. The aqueous extract of the seeds show antibiotic activity against micrococcus pyogenes var. aureus (Chopra, Nayar & Chopra, 248)

Ainslie informs us that the seeds are much prescribed by native practitioners in dysenteric complaints, being commonly toasted and given in infusion. In the Punjab the seeds are used in fomentation, and are prescribed for colic, flatulence and dysentery (Stewart).

Made into a gruel they are given as a diet to nurses to increase the flow of milk. In Western India the leaves are employed both externally and internally on account of their cooling properties.

Dymock states that they have an aperient action in "bilious states of the system" In European medicine, Methi at one time enjoyed as high a reputation as it now holds in Hindu and Mohamrnadan Materia Medica. Its mucilaginous seeds, "silique" of the Roman peasants, were valued as a food and supposed to possess many medicinal virtues.

Though officinal in most of the Pharmacopaeias of the eighteenth century. Methi is now obsolete, as a medicine in Europe.

Special Opinions: "The seeds made into a gruel are used as a stimulant and tonic." (Surgeon-Major A.S.G. Jayakar, Muskat). "Boiled well with milk it is given internally in bleeding piles. The leaves fried with ghee are used in dysentery" (Surgeon-Major D.R. Thomson, M.D., CIE. Madras). The leaves applied as a poultice are much used in cases of confusion" (Hospital Assistant Lal Mahomed, Hashangabad, Central Provinces.) (Dictionary of the Economic Products of India)

Professor Muhammad Aman Ullah

Allah has created mankind and for the benefit of mankind He has created the universe with entire completion and perfection. So, any thing that naturally exists in the universe is for the need of mankind. However, Allah has created plant kingdom for human and animal livelihood and also for their treatment of diseases. There are plants of particular properties for the treatment of particular diseases and these group of plants are called medicinal plants. So, if we know the proper use of medicinal plants with its remedial actions we can make our treatment easily and successfully with the best use of them.

In ancient times, plants, herbs and shrubs were used only as medicinal agents for the treatment of diseases and healing of wounds. Medicines prepared from different plants are being used orally considered to be non-toxic having no side effects like synthetic drugs. Toxic plants still to-day, are considered to be used for healing of wounds successfully. Now-a-days, with the development of Unani and Ayurved system many drugs have come into the market from plants origin for the treatment of various diseases side by side alongwith the allopathic drugs.

Besides, considering the importance of finding new remedies for incurable diseases like Cancer, AIDS and Diabetes are being discovered from plant origin by some research institutions. In this regard, research programmes have been taken up by BCSIR and Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka with the collaboration of BIRDEM, Shaman Pharmaceutical, San Francisco and National Cancer Institute, Maryland, USA. A number of plant materials from different parts of Bangladesh also have been studied for their antidiabetic, anticancer, and anti-HIV properties by toxicologist of the Bangladesh National Herbarium (BNH) Dhaka, under a separate agreement (as· per report at a seminar on Medicinal Plants for Health by Prof. M. Mosihuzzaman, Chairman, BCSIR, Dhaka).

In Bangladesh National formulary of "Unani" and "Ayurved" have been formulated by the Bangladesh National Unani and Ayurvedic Board. There are ample scopes for development of medicines from plant material in Bangladesh and for these aspects due facilities may be provided to the Unani and Ayruved enterprises by the authorities concerned.

Medicines of plant origin with formulary of Unani and Ayurved systems have been well developed and popularized in China, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Maximum percentage of the populations of those countries are getting treatments of their illness by these system of medicines quite successfully .

Meicinal plants are valuable for preparing medicines for the treatment of various types of diseases. So, proper steps should be taken to conserve and cultivate different types of medicinal plants in our country like other countries in the sub-continent. India, China, Malaysia and other Asian countries have vast projects to conserve and cultivate medicinal plants in their countries. Whereas, ruthless deforestation and ignorance of general people are mainly responsible- for the depletion of existing important medicinal plants of our country which also endangers the ecological system of the over-all environment. Nevertheless, plant kingdom has a vital role in the balance of system of the environment both local and worldwide as a whole. However, a plan for national gardens for cultivation of medicinal plants may be taken by the Government. Ministry of Forest may take necessary steps to conserve and cultivate medicinal plants with a separate department by engaging knowledgeable personnels in the field those who have degree from the Unani and Ayurved Colleges. We desire and hope, Forest Ministry will take the initiative to implement the plan in collaboration with the Ministries of Land and Health for the acquisition of land and recruitment of persons respectively.

Private concern also can take this profitable plan for cultivation of medicinal plants side by side with the government. A good number of people can be employed with jobs for livelihood in this sector as well as a huge amount of foreign- exchange can be earned by exporting medicinal plants to the foreign countries. However, there should be Herbarium Museum along with the gardens of the medicinal plants for their identification with the description of the medicinal properties.

However, misconceptions regarding the Traditional Asian Medical System (TAMS) should be removed. Practitioners of Unani and Ayurved systems receive full medical training covering same length of time in the degree course as modem doctors do. Qualifying Doctors obtaining degree from the Unani and Ayurved Colleges should be appointed at hospitals and clinics in the country for giving easy treatment to the people at a minimum cost through government and private concern.

However, towards the treatment pf the traditional Asian Medical System is being modernised with the development of science and research works are going on In this sector to make the system as Modem Asian Medical System (MAMS).

MTW (McAlpine, Thorpe and Warrier), a leading international consulting firm of Great Britain, provides information of Unani & Ayurvedic medicines to the European countries which is a project jointly sponsored by the Government of India and the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. Through this, Unani & Ayurvedic medicines are getting recognition and popularity in Western countries as well as India earns foreign exchange through exporting these system of medicines. Export and Industrial Development Division (EIDD) of the Commonwealth Fund has taken a project for exportation of Unani & Ayurvedic medicines from Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe.

As Unani and Ayurvedic medicines have no harmful side-effect like modern allopathic medicines which are gaining popularities for safe treatment and thereby demand of these systems of medicines are increasing and thus these types of pharmaceutical industries can serve for the benefit of mankind producing quality products.

(This paper was presented at the International Conference on "Holistic Approach of Unani Medicine In Lifestyle Diseases" on 6 November 2007 at Aligarh Muslim University, India).

If your heart were to stop suddenly, you'd think a hospital would be the safest place to be. Maybe not.

An alarming new study, released today in the New England Journal of Medicine, says that in about a third of cardiac arrest cases nationwide, hospital staffs do not respond quickly enough, which increases the risk of brain damage and death, and may contribute to the deaths of thousands of Americans every year.

Watch the full report tonight on "World News with Charles Gibson" at 6:30 p.m. ET

Click here to ask one of the authors of this new study a question about hospital heart care.

On television a "code blue" is called, and doctors and nurses come running with a defibrillator to shock the heart back to life. But in actuality, hospital staffs often don't move that fast, and the consequences can be chilling.

If you get prompt defibrillation within two minutes of cardiac arrest, your changes of surviving are nearly 40 percent. But delay defibrillation - even by a few minutes - and your chances tumble to 22.2 percent.

Today's study, which looked at 6,789 cardiac arrest cases at 369 hospitals, showed that hospital staffs took longer than two minutes nearly one-third of the time. Now compare those statistics to the more than 50 percent of patients who survive heart attacks while in a crowded airport or a casino, where defibrillators are readily available. Delays in hospitals were most common at night and on weekends. Patients in smaller hospitals with fewer than 250 beds, and in units without heart monitors, are in especially grave danger. What's the solution to this problem in hospitals nationwide? Researchers say hospitals should conduct resuscitation drills to keep their staffs sharp, and they should also invest in newer equipment.