Medicinal smokes

Abstract

All through time, humans have used smoke of medicinal plants to cure illness. To the best of our knowledge, the ethnopharmacological aspects of natural products' smoke for therapy and health care have not been studied. Mono- and multi-ingredient herbal and non-herbal remedies administered as smoke from 50 countries across the 5 continents are reviewed. Most of the 265 plant species of mono-ingredient remedies studied belong to Asteraceae (10.6%), followed by Solanaceae (10.2%), Fabaceae (9.8%) and Apiaceae (5.3%). The most frequent medical indications for medicinal smoke are pulmonary (23.5%), neurological (21.8%) and dermatological (8.1%). Other uses of smoke are not exactly medical but beneficial to health, and include smoke as a preservative or a repellent and the social use of smoke. The three main methods for administering smoke are inhalation, which accounts for 71.5% of the indications; smoke directed at a specific organ or body part, which accounts for 24.5%; ambient smoke (passive smoking), which makes up the remaining 4.0%. Whereas inhalation is typically used in the treatment of pulmonary and neurological disorders and directed smoke in localized situations, such as dermatological and genito-urinary disorders, ambient smoke is not directed at the body at all but used as an air purifier. The advantages of smoke-based remedies are rapid delivery to the brain, more efficient absorption by the body and lower costs of production. This review highlights the fact that not enough is known about medicinal smoke and that a lot of natural products have potential for use as medicine in the smoke form. Furthermore, this review argues in favor of medicinal smoke extended use in modern medicine as a form of drug delivery and as a promising source of new active natural ingredients.

Ethno-gynecological knowledge of medicinal plants used by Baluch tribes, southeast of Baluchistan, Iran

“…Parvin et al (2010) reported smoke containing polar phenolic compounds displayed the best antimicrobial activities. The advantages of smoke-based remedies are rapid delivery to the brain, a more efficient absorption by the body and lower costs of production (Mohagheghzadeh et al, 2006). Furthermore, no reported study is available on the antimicrobial properties P. atlantica.…”

Preliminary investigation of the central nervous system effects of ‘Tira‐capeta’ (Removing the Devil), a cigarette used by some Quilombolas living in Pantanal Wetlands of Brazil

“…The use of cigarettes composed of a mixture of two or more plants to treat neurological disorders is common in some countries (Mohagheghzadeh et al, 2006). The mixture of several plants, which is the usual practice in Asian traditional medicine, brings some advantages, such as the use of low doses of each plant, decreasing the possibility of toxicity.…”

“…by smoke, which is the popular form of use of 'Tira-capeta' by Quilombolas. The advantages of smoke-based remedies are the rapid delivery to and more efficient absorption of active principles into the brain (Rang et al, 2004;Mohagheghzadeh et al, 2006), justifying the rapid effect reported by the users, which is, in general, limited to the time spent smoking the cigarette. It is worth mentioning that oral administration, as used in the present study, induced stimulatory effects such as seizure in a short time.…”

Beyond Turf and Lawn: Poaceae in This Age of Climate Change

“…A plethora of research has been published, very recently, and I cite just a few here to provide some scope on the richness of information available for study [72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84]. Make no mistake that some of the studies cited are motivated by economics and proiteering, as the planet is scoured for 'new' plant materials that can become the 'next' food, nutraceutical, medicine or biotechnology product.…”