Prevalence of Using Medicinal and Edible Plants During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Taif-Saudi Arabia

In early January 2020, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was identified as the agent responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Recently, a high percentage of patients show a high interest in natural medicines. This is mainly due to the general feeling that natural medicines are safer than synthetic drugs. This study is designed to measure the prevalence of medical and edible plants during the (COVID-19) pandemic in Taif-Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was conducted. Data was collected online using a Google forms survey. The online questionnaire was distributed to participants aged 18 years or older, living in Taif city. The data were analyzed by using IBM- SPSS version 25. In this study, we collected data from 325 participants where 76.9% of the participants were females. Considering the use of plants, 25.7% of the participants reported using Cinnamon while 20% of the participants reported using Star anise. Among the users of plants, family and friends were the main advisors of using these plants at 44.62% followed by social media at 23.69%. Moreover, 62.4 % of the participants reported using plants to protect against COVID-19 while 37.5 % reported using plants in relieving the symptoms of COVID-19. There is a significant increase in the trend of using herbs and natural products among Saudi populations, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cinnamon, Star Anise, and pomegranate were the main reported plants to be used by the participants.

Establishment of health risk assessment model for assessing medicinal and edible plants contaminated by heavy metals--take Astragali Radix,Codonopsis Radix and Laminariae Thallus as examples / 中国中药杂志

With the improvement of living standard,the theory of " medicine and food homology" has developed rapidly in the field of diet,medicine and health preservation. In recent years,many literatures have been reported on the active ingredients and pharmacological effects of medicinal and edible plants,but relatively few reports have been reported on their safety investigation. Therefore,to further evaluate the quality and safety of medicinal and edible plants,Astragali Radix,Codonopsis Radix and Laminariae Thallus were selected as our research objects in this study. Moreover,the pollution level and the potential health risk of heavy metals were deeply assessed in different types of medicinal and edible plants. Especially,the contents of chromium,copper,arsenic,cadmium,mercury and lead in these three herbs were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry( ICP-MS),and their health risk level was evaluated by target hazard coefficient method. The results showed that under the international heavy metal limit standard( ISO 18664-2015,GB 2762-2017),the over-standard rates were 25%,77% and 100% in 16 batches of Astragali Radix,26 batches of Codonopsis Radix and 9 batches of Laminariae Thallus,respectively. Besides,the values of target hazard quotients( THQ) for adults and children are 0. 028 244,0. 063 505 and 0. 014 485,0. 032 568 in Astragalus membranaceus and Codonopsis pilosula,respectively,which were higher than the standard values of 0. 02 and 0. 011 25. While,the total heavy metals THQ values for adults and children are 0. 023 734 and 0. 020 287 in Laminariae Thallus,which were much higher than the standard values of 0. 008 0 and 0. 007 5. However,the CR values of As,Cd and Pb in the three herbs were lower than 1×10~(-6). Above results indicated that those six harmful elements have certain health hazards to the exposed population,but there is no potential carcinogenic effect. It can be seen that,there were still presence of the pollution of harmful elements,and it is necessary to establish the reasonable limit standards and quality control methods of medicinal and edible plants in time.

Research progress in antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effect of medicinal and edible plants / 中草药

The medicinal and edible plants (MEP) are edible plants which are characterized with medical care and nutrition value, most of them have the effect of antibacterial and anti-inflammation. The paper reviewed the recently related research, generalized polyphenols, polysaccharides, saponins, and volatile oil from MEP as four main components which are effective in the function. Compared with traditional drugs, MEP are character of safe, non-side effect, low tolerance, and strong specificity, which is worth further research in the application area.