Abstract

Ethnopharmacological relevanceCurrently various scientific and popular sources provide a wide spectrum of ethnopharmacological information on many plants, yet the sources of that information, as well as the information itself, are often not clear, potentially resulting in the erroneous use of plants among lay people or even in official medicine. Our field studies in seven countries on the Eastern edge of Europe have revealed an unusual increase in the medicinal use of Epilobium angustifolium L., especially in Estonia, where the majority of uses were specifically related to “men's problems”.The aim of the current work isto understand the recent and sudden increase in the interest in the use of E. angustifolium in Estonia; to evaluate the extent of documented traditional use of E. angustifolium among sources of knowledge considered traditional; to track different sources describing (or attributed as describing) the benefits of E. angustifolium; and to detect direct and indirect influences of the written sources on the currently documented local uses of E. angustifolium on the Eastern edge of Europe.Materials and methodsIn this study we used a variety of methods: semi-structured interviews with 599 people in 7 countries, historical data analysis and historical ethnopharmacological source analysis. We researched historical and archival sources, and academic and popular literature published on the medicinal use of E. angustifolium in the regions of our field sites as well as internationally, paying close attention to the literature that might have directly or indirectly contributed to the popularity of E. angustifolium at different times in history.ResultsOur results show that the sudden and recent popularity in the medical use of E. angustifolium in Estonia has been caused by local popular authors with academic medical backgrounds, relying simultaneously on “western” and Russian sources. While Russian sources have propagated (partially unpublished) results from the 1930s, “western” sources are scientific insights derived from the popularization of other Epilobium species by Austrian herbalist Maria Treben. The information Treben disseminated could have been originated from a previous peak in popularity of E. angustifolium in USA in the second half of the 19th century, caused in turn by misinterpretation of ancient herbals. The traditional uses of E. angustifolium were related to wounds and skin diseases, fever, pain (headache, sore throat, childbirth), and abdominal-related problems (constipation, stomach ache) and intestinal bleeding. Few more uses were based on the similarity principle. The main theme, however, is the fragmentation of use and its lack of consistency apart from wounds and skin diseases.ConclusionsHistorical ethnobotanical investigations could help to avoid creating repeating waves of popularity of plants that have already been tried for certain diseases and later abandoned as not fully effective. There is, of course, a chance that E. angustifolium could also finally be proven to be clinically safe and cost-effective for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia, but this has not yet happened despite recent intensive research. Documented traditional use would suggest investigating the dermatological, intestinal anti-hemorrhagic and pain inhibiting properties of this plant, if any.

Highlights

  • Our field studies in seven countries on the Eastern edge of Europe have revealed an unusual increase in the medicinal use of Epilobium angustifolium L. during the lifetime of our interviewees, in Estonia and with the majority of uses being related to “men's problems”

  • Among the eight fieldwork sites, E. angustifolium was found to be very popular in Estonia, where six, mainly middle-aged, men reported drinking E. angustifolium infusion because it was good for well-being or potency, and against inflammation

  • While there is far less sociological research on complementary medicine in post-communist countries, our study suggests that even if some of these contexts of its rise partly coincide with Western society – for example, the opportunities entailed in the commercialization of E. angustifolium should not be underestimated in explaining its popularization – there are significant differences

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Summary

Introduction

Our field studies in seven countries on the Eastern edge of Europe have revealed an unusual increase in the medicinal use of Epilobium angustifolium L. during the lifetime of our interviewees, in Estonia and with the majority of uses being related to “men's problems”. In November 2015 the plant (along with Epilobium parviflorum Schreb.) was assessed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) which suggested that it has been used in several countries of the European Union for more than 30 years, fulfilling the requirements for traditional use “in the following indications: Relief of lower urinary tract symptoms related to benign prostatic hyperplasia, after serious conditions have been excluded by a medical doctor” (Obmann and Länger, 2015; see EMA, 2019 for the actualized repository for the ensemble of documents of EMA's Epilobium monograph). While many older sources refer to it as an ancient medicinal plant, some authors suggest that the whole genus was “essentially unknown in the pharmacological and pharmacognostical literature until 1980” when it was advocated by Austrian herbalist Maria Treben (1907–1991) (Vitalone and Allkanjari, 2018)

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