Southeast Asia's Potions (Magical?)

It is said that a curious mind would always wonder about things. Did you ever wondered how medicines ends up over the counters and to doctors?

The ethnobotanists, phytochemists, pharmacognosists, ethnopharmacologists are scientists who study people and their plants, and, the herbalists. The ethnobotanists do their research in tandem with the traditional healers among native populations for the main reason that these traditional healers understands the power of plants; a trade that is normally pass down from generation to generation, hence, expediting the ethnobotonist's research.

Scientists do not only observe people and their healing plants, they also observe animals and its medicine in the wild. Have you ever seen a sick cat and/or dog eating some grass in your backyard? Swans with injured necks eat willow leaves and twigs. Scientists know that that plant contains a pain relieving compounds that are the basis of aspirin. Badgers infested with hair lice dig holes under the elder tree because elder roots contains insecticide compounds.

Providing a means of discovering compounds and new herbal medicines is the research area of zoopharmacognosy. The chemists then take extracts from the raw materials to isolate a plant's pure chemical properties. It will then be tested to discover any possible toxicity, then to define its biological effects. A thorough clinical studies will then begin - first, with animals, and then with human volunteers. If the results are positive, it will then prepared to a medicine i.e capsules, tablets, and liquids. The pharmaceutical laboratories will do the final step to apply to government licencing bodies for permission for the paying public.

Plants play a very important role for pharmacological research. Gazillion plants survives in the wild without any harm - insects don't dare! Have you heard about moringa oleifera, amarantus spinosus, centella asiatica to mention but a very few.

Southeast Asia is not lacking with healing minds. Though may be a little far bit behind, it is there, catching up and making breakthroughs. In Cambodia, farmers includes leaves of noni to their cooking, that I have yet to see here in Malaysia. Vietnam's traditional herbs are tremendous, it is one of the Japanese herbs trader's source market. The Philippines' President Duterte allocated some sizable amount for their tropical medicine research. In Thailand, though Thai consumers are not particularly knowledgeable regarding the negative side effects of chemical drugs, there are a rising level of concern regarding their chemical intake and contamination via food and medicine therefore expects some medicines with natural or fewer chemical ingredients hence incorporating

back their Herbal/traditional medicine that is perceived of having fewer side effects. Malaysia is one of the direct selling meca here in this part of the world. Many direct selling companies here travel all over the world to import good healing products. We now have few local laboratories discovering more plants with healing properties that caters to our own weather and what not. There is one traditional healing herbs company that was inaugurated by Tun Dr. Mahathir in 1993 and is now marketing its products in 25 countries around the world. That company become the first Malaysian multi-level marketing (MLM) to receive the coveted 'Therapeutic Goods Administration' (TGA) Certification from the Department of Health Australia. You see, the best medicine out there is no longer over the counters but with the direct selling companies. Medical doctors, a many of them I know, prescribes direct selling products to their patients, too.

Parasites responsible for an illness always develops a resistance to a synthetic compound. Malaria is a plague that millions die from it every year, so to with dengue. The only way to survive it is for you to have a good antibody for a very good resistance to any illness.

Southeast Asia is not lacking with a pharmacy in the wild. What is lacking is a thorough research that takes an average 10-15 years perhaps even more - from finding a plant in the forest to marketing the end product.

Traditional healing in the distant past or popularly known today as holistic healing was thought more or less a fanciful belief, a mixture of no basis, dangerous, no potency, superstitious and empirical, even hocus pocus; magic elixir. Yes, empirical, indeed. The scientists started it all with empirical, and then to theory and logic for improvisation. That is the medical world that we are in today.

Traditional healing is the fundamental of all healing methods. Any possibilities of healing can go wrong because nothing is definite. We all die one way or the other but, but, until then, we have the responsibility to take good care of our self, hence, our health.

What on earth will not go wrong? If you can fathom the the answer to that question, then, you may also able to fathom the depths of healing.