An-Najah Staff

Background: Medicinal plants are increasingly utilized for treating various human ailments and diseases worldwide. This has been stimulated by several factors including the notion that plant remedies are safer and sometimes more effective than synthetic drugs. There has also been a worldwide growing interest to study medicinal plants for use in treating various diseases. Palestine (the West Bank and Gaza Strip) is unique and diverse in its geographical location and its cultural characteristics, including traditional Arabic Palestinian Medicine especially herbal medicine and the use of medicinal materials for curing illnesses. This article presents a systematic review on Traditional Arabic Palestinian Herbal Medicine (TAPHM) with special emphasis on the West Bank and Gaza based on previous ethnpbotanic and ethnopharmacological studies of different societal groups on the basis of their knowledge of traditional medicine; i.e., practitioners or healers, “attarine”, and persons with acknowledged knowledge of traditional medicine at their communities. The article was therefore, partly, aimed at studying the current status of the Palestinian herbal medicine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, determining medicinal plants still in use, their primary health care importance at the household level, economic value, conservation status, and their healing potentials.
Methodology: An ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants was carried out over the period 2004–2007 in the Palestinian Authority (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip). The study popu- lation comprised 735 informants (healers, attareen, and people known in their communities to be knowledgeable in tradi- tional medicine) (582 in the West Bank, and 153 in Gaza). Semistructured questionnaires and interviews were employed to collect ethnobotanic information. Informants were asked to name medicinal plants they knowand use, and precisely describe their methods of preparation and use. Questions addressed to the informants were mainly focused on the purpose of plant application, parts used, the manner of their preparation and administration, forms of use, procurement method, place of collection, date/season of collection, method of storage, and period of storage. Indices on fidelity levels (FLs), relative popularity level (RPL), and rank-order priority (ROP) were calculated to indicate the healing potential of plants used.
Results and discussion: Many plant species (288 species of which 279 were in the West Bank, and 120 in the Gaza Strip, belonging to 90 families and 241 genera), are still in use in traditional medicine in the Palestinian communities, for treating various human diseases [1,2]. The following plants were the most commonly used medicinal plants in the West Bank and Gaza on the basis of the total number of informants who mentioned the plant for any medicinal uses: Salvia fruticosa, Allium sativum, Matricaia aurea, Anisum vulgare, and Trigonella foenum-gracum. The most important diseases, based on the total number of species used for their treatment in the study area, were: those of the digestive system (178 species), skin, hair, and wounds (144 species) [1–4]. Of about 279 plants mentioned by the informants in the West Bank, 211 (75,6%) were mentioned by =three informants. Of the 120 plant species mentioned in the Gaza Strip, 83 (69.2%) were mentioned by three or more informants. On the basis of their primary uses, 56 of these plants were reported to relieve gastric disorders, 33 for skin disorders, and 27 for the respiratory system, in the West Bank, while in the Gaza strip, 10 were reported to relieve respiratory and urinary systems disorders. Indices on FLs, RPL and ROP were calculated for the plants mentioned by =three informants. Plants were classified in two groups: ‘popular’ (RPL = 1) or ‘unpopular’ (RPL < 1). 7 of the plants mentioned in the West Bank were classified as popular: Matricaria aurea, Majorana syriaca, Salvia fruticosa, Allium sativum, Olea europaea, Trigonella foenum- graecum, and Mentha spicita. The remaining 204 species were classified as ‘unpopular’. Seven plants mentioned in Gaza were classified as popular in this study: Matricaria aurea, Anisum vulgare and Peroselinum sativum. The remaining 76 species were classified as ‘unpopular’ 
Conclusion: In conclusion, it has become imperative that practical measures should be taken to conserve medicinal plants in Palestine and preserve traditional knowledge associated with them. Such measures include: promoting safe and effective use of traditional medicine including herbal medicine and preserving indigenous traditional medicine knowledge and protecting natural resources by developing a national policy and regulations that define the role of traditional herbal medicine in national health care delivery systems, ensuring the development of regulatory and legal mechanisms for promoting good quality herbal medicines and good practice. Measures also include increasing the availability and affordability of herbal medicine and promot- ing its sound use by providers and consumers. Other practical measures also include the establishment of national research centers in traditional medicine including herbal medicine, carrying out training courses for practitioners, and establishing ethnobotanic conservation sites, especially at botanic gardens, and a field gene bank.