Krzysztof Jędrzejko, Michał Maniara

Rośliny żródłem leku stomatologicznego
2006-10-01

Plants as the source of dental medicines. The present article addresses problems relevant to two disciplines: floristic studies and pharmacy. The subject matter of this study involves the areas of the application of phytotherapy in dental treatment as well as of the search and recognition of potential sources of natural medicines. The article presents botanical and pharmaceutical characteristics of 208 species of plants representing various geographical areas and climatic zones of the world. Special emphasis has been paid to those already practically applied in different fields of allopathic and homeopathic medicine. An integral part of this article is the bilingual (Polish-Latin) systematic index of medicinal plants finding practical application in dental therapy and prophylactics worldwide. The index is the first original and, at the same time, synthetic presentation of the research addressing this area of study in the Polish literature of the subject. It also offers a database of floristic information of paramount importance. Its contents have been compiled in effect of extensive bibliographical research and as a result of a thorough study of particular sources. The collection of species included in the index demonstrates the possibilities and potential range of the search for sources of effective natural medicines which could find direct application in dental treatment. The article provides an insight into the practical uses of the listed species in dental medicine in worldwide, both in the space of official medicine and in the areas of folk/traditional therapeutics. The pharmacological characteristics as well as the applications of individual species and of particular materials derived thereof (organs, extracts) are described by the literature of the subject. Specific data concerning the varied medicinal properties of each of the listed species is readily found in the bibliographical sources provided at the end of the text. The information offered there is centrally relevant to dental treatment of such disorders as pulp diseases, parodontopathy, mucosal inflammations of the oral cavity, xerostomia, and many others. Similarly, the literature of the subject provides specific findings concerning the applications of the plants listed in the index as analgesics, or as components of dental impression materials used in dental prosthetics.