Myanmar Indigenous Medicine

In this age of globalization era, the most important thing for every human beings is exceptionally “Health”. As the saying goes “When wealth is lost, nothing is lost but when health is lost, something is lost”. If we are not healthy enough to deal with our daily facts of life, we will be always lacked behind.
Nowadays, many kind of unprecedented pandemic diseases are spreading all around the world with an astounding speed. In order to confront with the diseases, we Myanmar people have been relying on our unique traditional medicine especially for minor diseases although we can available modern medicines easily in nearby clinic by a physician.
Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous or fold medicine) comprises knowledge systems that developed over generations within various societies before the era of modern medicine.

Human beings have been using indigenous medicine since stone- age. They learned the effectiveness of natural products from the environments. They also struggled to live and evolve to the state of nowadays.
Every country and nation have their own traditional medicine. In some Asian and African countries, up to 80 % of the population relies on traditional medicine for their primary health care needs. Traditional medicines include Ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine, ancient Iranian medicine, Islamic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, traditional Korean medicine, traditional African medicine etc.
Our Country also have our own “Indigenous medicine”. In our country, there are variety of biodiversity such as flora and fauna as well as mineral resources. Mainly, the ingredients of Myanmar indigenous medicine is used from fresh or dry roots, barks, buds, leaves, flowers etc. Myanmar indigenous medicine has flourished over thousands of years and has become a distinct entity. It has been using since Phyu, Bagan, Taunggu, Innwa, KongBaung dynasty and the English colonial period.
Myanmar indigenous medicine is Ayurveda medicine. It descended from Indian practice over 2600 years ago. Ayur means life and Veda means knowledge. The traditional practitioners believe that our body is made up of four fundamental elements. They are
(1) Pathave dat - solidity element (such as bones and muscles).
(2) Tejo dat - heat element (thermal matter that produce heat by digestive progress).
(3) Abol dat - cohesion element (such as blood, urine).
(4) Vayo dat - mobility element (such as air, respiratory tract).
When these four fundamental elements are unbalance or abnormal, we may suffer any kind of diseases. It is important to keep in equilibrium. There are many causes which can destroy the balance of the equilibrium. For example, when a person is over in Tejo dat, he will be deafening, extremely hot, dry skin and get diarrhea. The remedy for these sufferings according to the traditional treatment is to eat the curry of coccinia fruit with tomato and scale fish.
According to Myanmar saying “Food is medicine and medicine is also food”. Food plays a very important role in our daily life. Wrong way of eating foods may lead to long-term or short-term diseases. The food that we eat every day have their own medicinal properties to fight against or prevent the diseases. The food we normally eat everyday may include rice, variety of fruits, vegetables, beans, fishes and meats and so on.

Among them I would like to mention about a fruit called Pineapple. Pineapple is a tropical, perennial, drought-tolerant plant. Pineapple can be consumed fresh, cooked, juiced, preserved and are found in a wide array of cuisines. It has a mix of sweet and tart taste with rich flavour. Fresh pineapple is low in calories. The fruit contains a proteolytic enzyme bromelain that digests food by breaking down protein. It is also an excellent source of antioxidant vitamin: Vitamin C. (100) g of fruit contains 47.8 or 80 % of this vitamin. Since from the earliest time, our ancestors had been using pineapple juice confirmly as a treatment of lung diseases.

Another Myanmar indigenous medicinal plant that I would like to present is neem tree. Neem tree is a fast growing and long living tree. Neem trees are mostly found in upper Myanmar and it is the land mark of region. Every parts of this tree has medicinal value and all parts of this tree can be used. Neem is the flavours of bitter and cool. Neem is used to combat tiredness, cough, fever, loss of appetite, and worm infestations. It heal wounds, reduces high blood pressure and is used to treat arthritis, malaria, diabetes, liver disease and cancer.
Fresh neem leafs are consumed as a side dish of Myanmar people. Neem leaves reportedly remove toxins, purify blood, and prevent the damages caused by free radicals in the body. Neem seed oil has a wide spectrum of uses as an antimicrobial, and can be applied topically to fungal and bacterial skin infections.
In conclusion, Myanmar indigenous medicines are made out of natural products, so it is easy to get the ingredients from everywhere within the country. Technical improvement has to be carried out in the production of more qualified reliable traditional medicine. So, we need to undertake some value added procedures and intensification of present medical properties to a more outstanding level. Also related medical researches has to perform right away in the process of developing our unique indigenous medicine effectively. Let me conclude my presentation here, Thank you very much for your kind attention to my presentation.

References : Old Traditional Medicine Magazines, Google.
Photos Credit : Pinterest

17/1/2022
Sai Kaung Zaw Thant