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by Arnold Kuntz Ph. D. (Author)
The purpose of the paper is not to develop the history of empirical antimicrobial therapy, but only to recover the valuable results of ancient healing prescriptions that have led to current remedies. The origin of the particular history of healing with plants is lost in the dawn of mankind's history. People have always tried to understand and heal the diseases, just as they have tried to understand the human-nature relationship. We could say that they approached illness in a philosophical manner, seeking the causes and remedies in everything that meant life. In the past, people were more attentive, more patient and time was redeemed differently. They were ardent observers of the environments and were able to make amazing connections between the smallest details. How ancient people, without any medical device or epidemiological resources, masterminded the therapy strategies is beyond our understanding. A first observation of the ancient way of life is that they traveled far less than today with some notable exceptions of ocean voyagers and the commodity exchanges were not so extended, therefore they had had to use the local products to prepare their healing recipes. Undoubtedly plants, almost always wild plants, and animal products were widely used with more or less efficiency. For many of them, outstanding studies demonstrated their scientific value.Many health care professionals draw a distinct border between allopathic medicine and complementary and alternative medicine, claiming the ascendance of reductionist approaches or, contrary, the naturalistic approaches. For some time, there is a more balanced point of views in identifying favorable aspects of both ways and taking advantages in health care provision. Accurate studies about the efficacy complementary and alternative medicine methods of are scarce until now, but the positive perception of patients toward this way of healing, even for pediatric patients, will, inevitably, force us to analyze more carefully this field.The chapter is not intended to be encyclopedic, but a synthesis of commercial plant products proven by substantial evidence as having biological activity in human infectious diseases. Further, research articles on plant extracts with antimicrobial activity have been reviewed to find evidence that supports plants value in infectious diseases. Since this chapter is dedicated to health care professionals, in the following sections, the plant products are systematized according to their clinical conditions, without intending to cover all herbs and all infectious diseases. Phytotherapy and chemotherapy applications in infectious diseases will be described separately as there are differences in the healing process underlying these methods.
