The Mexican population has resorted to medicinal plants at least once in their life; However, with the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, the alternative to using traditional medicine increased significantly, as this market now covers eight out of 10 (79 percent) permanent consumers.
Roberto Campos Navarro, an academic at the UNAM Faculty of Medicine, explained that in 2020 only 52 percent of the population used “naturist medicine”; in 2021, the figure rose to 58 percent, and by 2022, it became 79 percent, when the population made permanent home remedies to improve their health, mainly in regard to the respiratory tract .
This means that between 2020 and 2022, during the three most acute years of the pandemic, the use of natural product schemes rose 52 percent.
The authorities predict that by 2023 the percentages of consumption in traditional medicine will increase and the academic argued that there are many more Mexicans who have stopped trusting pharmacy products of chemical origin.
“The Public Health Magazine confirmed that 79 percent of the Mexican population thinks that herbal medicine is more effective than other treatments, compared to 21 percent who, although they are not suspicious, do not leave everything in the hands of the herbalist. Even the people who get vaccinated believe in the high efficacy of the herbal medicine”, affirmed Campos.
The UNAM professor added: “The return to nature that the consumer society announces, with a great variety of products of vegetable origin, may not necessarily lead us to preserve tradition or apply treatments in a traditional way, but rather to seek extracts or active principles for the elaboration of supplements or patent allopathic medicines”, he said.
According to the Ministry of Health, in Mexico there are at least 4,500 species of medicinal plants, of which, during the pandemic, three were the most consumed by Mexicans, according to telephone surveys of medical students. of the UNAM, applied at the end of 2022.
In the first place, chamomile appeared, which “the majority of the population reported served as a relaxant” and was consumed “on a recurring basis by almost the entire population”; that is, 100 percent. In second order was the mullein, to counteract respiratory conditions, and which, they indicate, was used by 52 percent of the population.
In last order is the eucalyptus, in the same way with the purpose of alleviating respiratory diseases, with a use of 47 percent of the population in the country.
The Public Health magazine confirmed that 79% of the Mexican population thinks that herbal medicine is more effective than other treatments.
Roberto Campos
Academician of the Faculty of Medicine of the UNAM
Recently, the Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer Varela, said that the Government of Mexico invests 28.3 million pesos in 164 projects to strengthen and practice traditional medicine.
The National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (Conabio) reported the registry of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) of three thousand species of plants with medicinal attributes, out of four thousand that are estimated to exist in the country, and that they represent only 15 percent of the total Mexican flora.
He specified that only 5 percent of these plants have been pharmacologically analyzed and that today 250 are marketed on a daily basis in Mexico and 85 percent is extracted from the wild, without sustainable management.
María Elena Chávez is a flight attendant. During the Covid pandemic, he faced the dilemma between keeping his job or resigning, since, he says, “I was very afraid of getting infected”, until that day came and “the fear was stronger, I was on oxygen, I thought I would die ; I was left with sequelae”.
“A friend contacted me with a traditional doctor, I went to a temascal, they gave me steam baths, with herbs of all kinds; from there I began to feel very well and to this day I continue to go at least once a month”, said the young woman.
Socorro Juárez, who, like her husband, is dedicated to making products of natural origin for human well-being, said that, during the pandemic, indeed, “the number of people who approached traditional medicine and herbal remedies increased a lot.” .
“Cuauhyolot is the brand of our products. This was acquiring greater impact, the boom was quite a lot, but now, with the return to ‘normality’, many of these people stopped attending for various reasons. We make a diagnosis to propose what therapy can be given for the need he has, ”he explained.
This woman, who has been in the field of traditional medicine for a decade, stressed that “here the plants that want to be used for the respiratory tract influence, such as eucalyptus, thyme or whatever the patient requires, but it also influences that they want to heal ”, he concluded.