Medicinal plants: the Cuban experience

Recognized as one of the most profound knowledge on the therapeutic use of medicinal plants in Cuba, Dr. Francisco Morón has deployed for years various research confirmed as one of the most authoritative voices on this issue in our country.

There is no reference to a specific date, no doubt from the beginning of the colonial era in the late fifteenth century, it was an essential part of the European medicine of that era. Then, as globally, the development of chemical synthesis from the second half of the nineteenth century and the emergence of the pharmaceutical industry gradually replaced that plants and herbal medicines by synthetic or semisynthetic drugs flooding the market.

It aims to present traditional herbal medicine and other resources outside the popular medicine. The rapid development of new chemical drugs has been very positive for human and animal health, but the abandonment of herbal medicines, supported by the interests of big pharmaceutical industry, was a big mistake by the medical community. This massively avoided using herbal remedies used by ancient physicians, using “safer and with greater effect” medicines, the large majority are far from having such attributes tested. Viewed dialectically, medicine of the twentieth century denied its development resources on herbal medicines that preceded it since its origin.

There are three fundamental ways:

• Ethnobotanical Surveys and identifying the species, its indications and use them to solve health problems are an important way.
• The permanent and systematic botanists with the Cuban flora have led to the identification of species, endemic or with therapeutic potential.
• Another important element is the information from surveys conducted in other countries for strengthening the use of a species, where coincides with ours, or incorporate new applications if they are validated.

Herbal medicines preparation provides the highest quality in the therapeutic use when the plants were collected, among other things can prevent errors in identifying the species you want to use. It can also facilitate the administration compared to the plant in its traditional manner.

There is none in which so far has been proven scientifically this property. In the case of diseases like cancer, should be tested at least it improves survival in patients with new therapeutic procedures for taking interest. Such studies require rigorous and costly preclinical research, and then in clinical trials exceed or equal the best performance in treatment protocol for the disease known so far.

This research is a multidisciplinary and multisectoral nature since it was organized National Medicinal Plants Research, which began in 1991 and has had continuity in the Program Branch of Natural and Traditional Medicine (MTN) MINSAP since 1997.

In short, let's say we have progressed to develop herbal medicines for the health system, which involves studies on pharmaceutical, chemical, pharmacological, toxicological, botanical, biological agriculture and finally clinical trials. The goal is to test the efficacy of herbal medicines and place in the health system.