Abstract
The application of traditional medicinal plants as anti-inflammatory remedies has been practiced in Sri Lanka for thousands of years. Although there is a rich reserve of indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants, the preservation and the scientific validation of these claims are still in its infancy. Thus, the study was carried out in one of the administrative areas of Sri Lanka known as Gampaha District to assess the significance and contribution of medicinal plants in inflammatory conditions. The data were collected through semistructured and open-ended interviews from 458 volunteers. Ethnobotanical data were analyzed using the relative frequency of citation (RFC), family importance value (FIV), and use value (UV). Out of the total participants, 50.7% claimed the use of medicinal plants for the treatment of inflammatory conditions such as fever, cough, asthma, swellings, and pain in the joints. A total of 43 medicinal plants belonging to 28 plant families were mentioned, out of which Coriandrum sativum (RFC = 0.23) was the most cited species. The most cited plant family was Fabaceae, and the family importance value was highest in Apiaceae. The majority of the nonusers of the herbal remedies mentioned that they would shift to herbal products if scientific information is available on the efficacy of these products.
Highlights
Inflammation is a pathophysiological response to injury, infection, or irritants and is characterized by heat, redness, pain, swelling, and disturbed function of the organs
Gampaha District is located in the Western Province of Sri Lanka (Figure 1) and has an area of 1,387 km2. e district is divided into 13 divisional secretariat divisions, which are further subdivided into 1,177 grama niladhari divisions. ere are 1,784 villages, and the total population of the district is reported as 2,280,860 [9]
Ese people diagnose the inflammatory conditions by their signs and symptoms rather than specific laboratory tests. e knowledge of the herbal remedies had transferred through generations, while the media have contributed in promoting the usage of herbal therapeutics (Table 1)
Summary
Inflammation is a pathophysiological response to injury, infection, or irritants and is characterized by heat, redness, pain, swelling, and disturbed function of the organs. A number of studies revealed the ability of plant extracts or plant secondary metabolites to control the levels of various inflammatory cytokines or inflammatory mediators including IL-1, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α [2], NF-κB, NO, iNOS, COX-2 [3], and 5-LO [4]. Plants and their products have been systematically used in Sri Lanka for treating illnesses for over a thousand years. There has been a dearth of published information on ethnobotanical studies on anti-inflammatory remedies within the Sri Lankan context
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