Herbal Medicine Uses for Respiratory System Disorders and Possible Trends in New Herbal Medicinal Recipes during COVID-19 in Pasvalys District, Lithuania

Zivile Pranskuniene, Ruta Balciunaite, Zenona Simaitiene and Jurga Bernatoniene
Additional contact information
Zivile Pranskuniene: Department of Drug Technology and Social Pharmacy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu pr. 13, LT-50162 Kaunas, Lithuania
Ruta Balciunaite: Institute of Pharmaceutical Technologies, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu pr. 13, LT-50162 Kaunas, Lithuania
Zenona Simaitiene: The Museum of History of Lithuanian Medicine and Pharmacy, Rotušės 28, LT-01100 Kaunas, Lithuania
Jurga Bernatoniene: Department of Drug Technology and Social Pharmacy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu pr. 13, LT-50162 Kaunas, Lithuania

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-13

Abstract: Despite some preliminary studies of the available herbal medicine preparations and their curative effects on COVID-19, experts still fear that unproper use of such homemade medicines could do more harm than good to people relying on unproven alternatives of questionable efficacy. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety of herbal medicines used for respiratory system disorders in the Pasvalys district during the COVID-19 pandemic in Lithuania. An archival source was also studied, looking for possible recipes for the treatment and prevention of respiratory diseases in Lithuanian traditional medicine, emphasizing the safety guidelines. The survey was conducted using the deep interview method. The respondents mentioned 60 species of medicinal plants from 29 different families used for the treatment and prevention of respiratory system disorders (for cough mostly, 51.70% of all indications). Twenty eight out of 60 plant species were not included in the European Medicines Agency monographs and only 50% of all included species were used as indicated by the European Medicines Agency for respiratory system disorders. The trends in the ethnopharmacological choices of modern consumers and the analysis of archival sources can be a great source of ideas for new herbal-based pharmaceutical preparations for COVID-19 symptoms in Lithuania considering the safety recommendations.

Keywords: herbal medicine; COVID-19; respiratory system disorders; Lithuania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/8905/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/8905/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:8905-:d:868985

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().