An overview of Turkish folk medicine; past and present

Plants have become a unique source for the mankind either as food or medicine. No doubt this relationship initiated instinctively to satisfy the inner man, while later they noticed the healing potential of plants. This had been the beginning point of traditional medicines worldwide. Among the ca. 300.000 plant species have been identified on the earth so far, only a fraction (ca.120.000) has been reported to be used as food or remedy. The remaining part has still waited for discovery of their beneficial effects on human health. The metabolite composition of the plants has attracted the scientific community rather than plants itself. However, random screening of plants for potential health benefits without any evidence is a tedious task. Investigation planning based on the traditional use of plants has become one of the solutions to overcome this problem. Thenceforth 1985 increasing numbers of scientific field surveys have been conducted throughout Turkey for the documentation of folkloric utilization of plants against disease symptoms. However, due to the impact of modernization in society accessibility of reliable information has become problematic day-by-day. Moreover, increasing number of migrations from rural areas to urban to improve the living conditions makes difficult to find informants in countryside. In order to rescue this valuable information before complete vanishing, several alternative survey techniques have been attempted. In this study, reports on Turkish folk medicine which have been conducted so far will be evaluated. Based on the data obtained, past and present situations will be discussed.