Frequency of herbal medicinal products use in southeastern Serbia

Abstract

The trend of herbal medicine use continues even today, despite the growing number of different synthetic, conventional drugs and the huge progress of the pharmaceutical industry. In recent decades, there has been an increasing use of different herbal medicinal products in the prevention of diseases, treatment of chronic and recurrent conditions and diseases, and for maintaining good health. The aim of our paper was to determine the of their use HMP in the area of southeastern Serbia. The survey method was applied through a pre-compiled questionnaire in the Zaječar, Sokobanja and Aleksinac cities. The results of the research showed that there were 70 different HMP, which were most often used preventively (32.00%), while the rest were used in hypertension (23.50%), prostate hyperplasia (8.50%), diabetes (6.53%), depression (4.60%) and glaucoma (3.90%). The composition of the used products included 84 different herbal species, the most common of which were Citrus x aurantium L. (5.90%) and Cucurbita moschata Duchesne (3.60%). When it comes to prevention and/or treatment of diseases, statistical analysis showed that the respondents living in the Aleksinac and surrounding used more plant species compared to people from Sokobanja and Zaječar, while there was no difference between the respondents in the number of HMP used. Respondents who did not have prescribed synthetic drugs, used HMP for the purpose of prevention in a higher percentage.

It can be concluded that the respondents mostly use HMP as preventive means, but they also use them as an accompanying therapy. It can be concluded that herbal medicinal products are mostly used as preventive means, but also as an accompanying therapy.