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Medicine made from plants has several advantages compared to the chemical one. They have better quality, less side effect.
The medical plants have several active materials, which chemically have different molecular formula. If a part of the plant is used, the active materials interact. So, the quality shown is the result of the interactive materials.
In “Drugs Used in the Chemotherapy of Protozoal Infections” a book titled the Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, Lelie T. Webster Jr. stated that even the molecular formula of the quality materials in a plant is different; generally it has the same nucleus. The materials having the same nucleus have the same quality with difference in the size and power. Sometimes, they have different quality so that when mixed, it could be more powerful or less powerful.
Let’s have quinine leather for example. This has several alkaloids such as kinina, sinkonina, kinidina, and sinkonidina. Since all this materials have the same nucleus, i.e. kinolina, they have the same quality, i.e. as antipiretika (fever release), analgetic (pain release), anti malaria, and anti heart aritmia (anti different heartbeat). It is only their power or size that are not the same. The side effect is the same, i.e. dizziness and ringing sound in ears caused by kinina but still the power or size are different.
It can be concluded that the natural medicine has a better quality and a less side effect since it is the final result of all the material interaction.
This does not happen in a pure chemical material since the quality and side effect are purely from the chemical material and there is no interaction.
We can prove those facts by this example:
If we use pulai pandak root and reserpina (the content of pulai pandak root) to cure high blood pressure disease, we can see that taking pulai pandak root gives a better quality and less side effect compared to reserpina. It takes 1 g pure reserpina, while pulai pandak root only need 250 mg. Pulai pandak root is ¼ mg fewer than reserpina. It shows its effectiveness.
There is a fact that if 4 portion of verodoksin, one content of Digitalis leaves, is mixed with 6 portion of digitoksin, one content of Digitalis leaves also, the curing power is the same as 10 portion of digitoksin. We can see that the mixing is more effective than the single digitoksin and the side effect is also less. This proves that Digitalis leaves, which consist of verodoksin and digitoksin, are more effective than pure digitoksin. Similar to pulai pandak root, the side effect is less than a pure single digitoksin.
From those facts we can conclude that medicine made from plants is more effective and less in the side effect compared to the pure chemical medicine.
Djoko Hargono
The Indonesian Medical Observer
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