Paresis-paralysis herbal drug formulas of the folk healer Prasit Keawmanee

Abstract

Abstract

            This research aimed to study the drug formulas in the paresis-paralysis treatment of Prasit Kaewmanee, 84 years old, the Nakhon Si Thammarat folk healer. The medicinal recipes, tastes, and therapeutic uses were recorded using the computer software in a tabular form, then consider the properties of the drug and process the frequency according to 9 tastes. The results showed that all 12 formulations consisted of a total of 111 herbal drugs. The formula with the most components is 51 medicinal drugs for the patients with stiff tongue syndrome that had only been less than 3 months. The formula with the less components was only 2 herbal drugs for the patients with fainting, catching in the tongue, hardened chin (It's a hard tongue symptom that doesn't have a tip numbness or weakness of the toes). On average, 1 formula contains 14.7 herbal drugs.  The drug used consists of up to 5 formulas, namely Epsom salts, as a laxative, followed by drugs that are included in 4 formulas, namely Black Cumin (Nigella Saliva Linn.), as a the blood nourishment. There are 16 herbal drugs in 3 formulas, 26 herbal drugs in 2 formulas, and 67 herbal drugs in 1 formula and 3 most commonly used medicinal tastes, ranked 1, 2 and 3 as bitter, spicy and astringent, 29.91, 28.13 and 9.38 percent, respectively. The properties of the drug cover the properties of every drug formula. Because one drug has properties covering many aspects, therefore, the analysis of the properties of the drug to be consistent with the properties of the formula will become the drug that corresponds to all the symptoms of the disease. Formula that uses less drugs for paralytic ileus show that the drug properties correspond to the symptom, while the many drugs formulation corresponds to a combination of many symptoms. It can be seen that the arrangement of medicines according to the recipes that the folk healers have recorded is a Tacit Knowledge which deserves to be developed into explicit knowledge for the benefit and cost in the development of evidence-based pharmacopoeia.