Thursday, May 27, 2010

Herbs and Wound Care

Why are herbal cures rare in wound healing? There are some reports of products well tried and rested--don't get me wrong. The main complications in most wounds are lack of blood flow, infection, and edema. Edema makes wounds more painful, it comes in the way of blood flow and oxygen supply to the wounds. And of course it makes walking and standing more tedious.

Simple techniques help to maintain edema. Doctors prescribe water tablets too. Much is understood in the physiology, so why don't we have simple herbal solutions? Of course they need to be safe and effective. Uncomplicated experiments can help to establish these goals. We need Herbal Pharmacologists in the wound healing lab. And given the knowledge of local herbs in most countries, interested Pharmacologists could give us cheap and effective solutions to a common, but difficult problem to resolve.

Plants have evolved over many millenia withstanding varied and even harsh environments. In doing so, their genetic programming is likely to have altered its code and ability to survive. We should look to nature while gazing through the window of the lab.

Raj Mani
Editor-in-Chief
IJLEW