| Abstract [eng] |
Final Master‘s thesis by G.Kislauskaitė „Analysis of medicinal plant utilization in Tytuvėnai regional park”. Scientific supervisor doc. dr. J. Labokas; Biomedical Sciences Institute of the Faculty of Medicine at Vilnius University (Center for Pharmacy and Pharmacology). Aim of the research: conduct an ethnopharmacological study in the Tytuvėnai Regional Park and systematize the residents knowledge regarding medicinal plants, herbal products, and their usage. Research tasks: to investigate the most commonly used medicinal plants and their preparations by the residents of the Tytuvėnai Regional Park for treating illnesses, alleviating symptoms, and other purposes; to determine the indications for which the residents of the Tytuvėnai Regional Park use medicinal plants and their preparations; to ascertain which preparations derived from medicinal plants are produced by the residents of this area; to assess the correspondence of the indications for the use of medicinal plants and their preparations as identified by the residents of the Tytuvėnai Regional Park with those described in WHO monographs. The research methods employed include semi-structured interviews with residents, statistical analysis and a comparative approach. Data processing was conducted using Microsoft Excel and IBM SPSS Statistics software. Data for the study was collected in the Tytuvėnai Regional Park during the months of September and October 2023. A total of 50 respondents participated in the study, comprising of 76% women and 24% men. Participants were selected using the "snowball sampling" principle, where new respondents were included in the study through those who were already participating in the research. The results and conclusions of the study revealed that residents of the Tytuvėnai Regional Park utilized 42 different species of plants for therapeutic purposes. The most frequently cited families were Lamiaceae (26%) and Asteraceae (15%). It was revealed that garden thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) was the most used medicinal plant among the residents, mentioned 48 times, followed by the littleleaf linden (Tilia cordata Mill.), that was mentioned 40 times. It was found that the residents of the Tytuvėnai Regional Park usually used natural substances to: boost their immune system (21%), treat respiratory diseases (19%), gastrointestinal diseases (19%), sleep disorders (16%) and urogenital diseases (7%). During the study, it was also determined that respondents most frequently used and treated themselves with herbal teas (39%), consumed tablets/capsules (19%), and used essential oils (12%). Comparing all mentioned herbal materials with WHO monographs, it was also found that out of 42 species of plants, 20 species (47%) were described in WHO monographs. Nine discrepancies in usage indications were identified. |
