Infectious causation of some acute diseases was recognized early in the 1800s as a result of conspicuous chains of transmission. The infectious nature of smallpox, measles, and chicken pox was recognized by medical experts and the general public decades before the microscope led Koch, Pasteur, and other early microbe hunters to the first cause-and-effect linkage of bacteria with disease during the 1870s and 1880s. Before the identification of microbes, the concept of infection was less tangible, and the distinction between infection (the invasion and growth of a disease-causing entity in the body) and contagion (the spread from one body to another) was often blurred. But infection was invoked to refer to diseases caused by something that grew inside people and could be transmitted to others to continue the process.
No special training was needed to witness the chains of transmission of many respiratory tract diseases, only a moderately observant eye. Parents noticing chicken pox in their child’s playmate would see chicken pox in their own child within a couple of weeks, and then chicken pox in another playmate within a couple of weeks after that. They wouldn’t have to be a Pasteur to realize that something was growing inside the bodies of their kids and being transferred from child to child. Though the viruses that caused these diseases were not seen with a microscope until the middle of the twentieth century, a half century after Pasteur, the medical texts before Pasteur’s time already had the causation and transmission right for these diseases. These texts had it wrong, however, for every other category of infectious disease.
At the end of the nineteenth century, after the microbe hunters of Pasteur’s time had observed some of the bacteria that cause diarrheal diseases, the writers of medical texts were still arguing about whether the bacteria caused the diarrheal diseases or were just innocent bystanders. The confusion can be seen in the standard American medical text of the 1880s, A Dictionary of Medicine. “Asiatic cholera” to be infectious, but transmission rather than infection was emphasized. “Simple cholera” was considered nontransmissible. This distinction probably arose because Snow’s work left little doubt that epidemic cholera—which could be traced to south Asia and was therefore termed Asiatic cholera—was waterborne. Snow deduced that the cause of the disease must be some organism that could multiply inside people, be shed in the feces, and be transmitted in fecally contaminated water and food. No one had done similar work on “simple cholera,” which probably included what are now recognized as several different diseases characterized by watery diarrhea. So those who favored noninfectious explanations for diarrheal disease could justify relinquishing only the epidemic cholera. The Dictionary noted the presence of the typhoid bacterium in typhoid patients but attributed typhoid fever to transmissible “typhoid poison” rather than transmission of the organisms themselves.
Why were acute diarrheal diseases recognized so much later than the acute diseases of the respiratory tract? A simple exercise can reveal part of the answer. When you go to work, school, or wherever you mingle, study the people next to you. Look and listen for signs of respiratory tract infection. If someone is infected with, say, one of the rhinoviruses that cause the common cold, you will have a good chance of detecting it. You may see or hear them sneeze. If they talk, you may hear the telltale muffling of nasal congestion. Then look and listen for signs of diarrheal disease. It’s not so easy. Other avenues of information are also restricted. Say you see a
not-so-close acquaintance who looks a little peaked and ask, “Feeling all right?” You might get the response, “Oh, I’ve got a cold.” But how many times have you heard “Oh, I’ve got diarrhea”? People prefer not to broadcast information about such matters. It tends to be reserved to very close friends and family. It is not surprising that infectious causation of diarrheal diseases, being reinforced by less evidence from common experience, was generally accepted later than infectious causation of acute respiratory tract diseases.
Infectious causation of diarrhea was probably also more difficult to recognize than infectious causation of respiratory tract diseases like chicken pox because many people who are infected with diarrheal pathogens show no symptoms at all. Diarrheal diseases also can be transmitted over long distances—for example, by fecally contaminated water. So if one is assessing whether diarrheal diseases are a result of something growing in a person and being transmitted to other people, one will often find seemingly contradictory information. If one chooses as a study subject someone who acquired an infection from an asymptomatic person or through the water supply, no direct contact with diarrhea may be apparent, no matter how careful and thorough the study.
Acceptance of infectious causation of vector-borne diseases was delayed for similar reasons. If a disease is transmitted by a mosquito, an observer might track down every contact of a sick person without turning up another person who has the disease. That is just what happened in a study of yellow fever in Barcelona. In 1822 the French government was still trying to learn the lessons of the Haitian revolution that had occurred two decades before. The Haitians were successful in large part because yellow fever killed thousands of French soldiers while leaving Haitians relatively unscathed. Wanting to figure out the problem before their next clash with yellow fever, the French government sent Nicholas Chervin to Barcelona to determine whether yellow fever was contagious. Chervin’s careful studies documented that many people who came down with yellow fever had no contact with anyone else who had yellow fever. He concluded, logically enough, that yellow fever was not transmissible between people. He did not consider other possibilities for long-distance transmission. If one does not entertain the full range of possibilities, one may miss the right answer. Infectious causation of vector-borne diseases remains obscure if one does not consider the possibility of vector-borne transmission. The Cuban epidemiologist Carlos Finlay did so six decades later, correctly implicating Aedes mosquitoes as the vector for yellow fever. Still, the idea of infectious causation of yellow fever was often rejected out of hand. In 1898, for example, an official bulletin of the U.S. Marine Hospital Service stated that “one has not to contend with an organism or germ which may be taken into the body with food or drinks but with an almost inexplicable poison so insidious in its approach and entrance that no trace is left behind.” When one isn’t on the right track, problems do seem inexplicable. Acceptance of yellow fever’s infectious cause finally occurred a few years later, after Walter Reed’s commission published the results of its experimental transmission of yellow fever to humans.
“Oh, I’ve got diarrhea” would be an unusual response to a casual “How are you?” but “Oh, I’ve got a venereal disease” may never have been given. That kind of information is withheld even from close friends and family—sometimes especially from close friends and family. One might try looking and listening for evidence of sexually transmitted infections among casual acquaintances, but as with diarrheal diseases, telltale signs are lacking. Sexual transmission also introduces a novel source of crypticity. Because few people have sex in public and most do not go around broadcasting their sexual activities, knowledge about who has had potentially transmissible contact with whom is lacking.
Not surprisingly, the infectious causation of sexually transmitted diseases was also recognized later than that of respiratory diseases. The Dictionary of Medicine attributed gonorrhea to causes such as too much physical disturbance of the genitalia by too much sex or masturbation. The presence of Neisseria gonorrheal which had been discovered five years earlier, was mentioned but was interpreted as possibly being that of an innocent bystander. Syphilis was referred to as “a specific contagious, noninfectious disease; communicable by contact of the poison with a breach of surface, or by hereditary transmission.”
*18\225\2*

Lesser Known and Novel Ethnomedicinal plants Used by Kawar
Tribe
The present enumeration include family, botanical name, local name and herbarium collection number. Uses are supplemented with phytochemical and pharmacological data.

ASCLEPIADACEAE

Pergularia daemia (Forst) Chiov., Dudvel, 937.

Root extract mixed with cow milk is used as purgative. The leaf juice is valued as an expectorant. The fruit decoction is considered as antipyretic.

Plant contain bitter resins, glucosides and alkaloids. The glucoside possess physiological action on uterus similar to pituitrin and several sterols.
ASTERACEAE

Blumea eriantha DC., Dhanota, 2003

Herb boiled in water and warm water bath is prescribed for rheumatism and inflammations.

Ruangrungsi et al. isolated two new flavonoids from B. baalsamifera.

BORAGINACEAE

Trichodesma indicum (L.) R. Br., Bhooipala, 944.

One cup extract taken internally to cure skin diseases. It is applied on skin infections.

Incanine, Incanine-N-Oxide, Nikanine, Nikanine-N-Oxide, Supinine, Trichodesmine, Trichodesmine-N-Oxide alkaloids present. Hexacosane, Et-hexacosonate and 21,24-hexacosadi-enoic acid isolated.

COMBRETACEAE

Combretum ovalifolium Roxb., Madvel, 865.

Terminal panicle crushed and applied as a local antiseptic and antibiotic.

Cyanogenic glycosides, Saponins, Tannins, Alkaloids and Amines are present in different species of Combretum.
CELASTERACEAE

Celastrus paniculatus Willd., Peng, 4267.

Decoction of fruit taken internally to cure tuberculosis.

Sesquiterpene Ester, Alkaloids – Celpanin, Celapanigin, Celapigin present.

ERIOCAULACEAE

Eriocaulon quinquangulare L, Pungare, 3461.

One cup decoction of entire plant is prescribed three days after the menstrual cycle to cure sterility in female even if it persists after cycle.

Species of Eriocaulon contains 6-Hydroxy Flavonols, Quercetagetin, Patuletin, Quercetin, P-coumaric acid, Sinapic acid, ferulic acid and tannins.

FABACEAE

Desmodium velutinum (Willd.) DC, Dayampurka, 767.

Decoction of plant taken internally to cure abdominal troubles like diarrhoea, dysentery and stomach ache.

Tryptamine, Bufotenine, Gramine alkaloids present. a5 sterols isolated by Behari and Varshney. Isoflavones – Genistein, 2′-hydroxygenistein, dalber-gioidin, diphysolone, kievitone, phytoalexin and antifungal isoflavonoid Democarpin I (-)-(6aR; 11aR)-1, 9-dihydroxy-3methoxy-pterocarpin isolated from Desmodium gangeticum by Ingham and Dewick, 7-methyl ether of Apigenin-6-C-Glucoside isolated from D. caudatum.

LAMIACEAE

Pogostemon plectranthoides Desf., Bintalakeri, 7856.

Dried powder of this aromatic herb mixed with stem bark powder of Ailanthus excelsa. It is used as a narcotic snuff.

Cinnamic Aldehyde, Sesquiterpenes of Guianolide group and essential oils present in the species of Pogostemon.

Alkaloids were isolated from A. excelsa by Cordell et al. Bark contain c25H3408 1:2-deoxy-13-Formyl dianthinol and B-sitosterol. Antimicrobial activity is reported.

LYTHRACEAE

Woodfordia fruticosa (L.) Kurz., Lalzilbooli, 2248.

Root extract mixed with jaggery, pellets are prepared and given to cure leucorrhoea.

Octacosanol, IS-sitosterol, Chrysophanol-8-O-B-D-glu-copyranoside isolated from flowers (Chauhan eta/., 1979). Novel C-glycoside of gallic acid called Norbergenin present. Leaves yield Lupeol, S-sitosterol, betu-lin, urosolic acid.

MORACEAE

Bark boiled with the herb (Tenagocharis latifolia). The mixture is given in cough and asthma.

F. religiosa is a sacred plant of Hindus. Detailed phytochemical and pharmacological work has been done on this plant. Chemical analysis reveals the presence of Phytosterols, Saponins, Sapogenins. Parasympatholytic activity present in the plant.

POLYGONACEAE

Polygonum plebejum R.Br., Mangalgota, 783.

Extract given to man for 21 days to cure sterility. The causes of sterility was not specified by the tribals.

Polygonum species contain Raphides (Ca-oxalate), Cyanogenic glycosides, Leucoanthocyanins, Saponins, Qui-nones, Vitexin, 3′-hydroxy-resveratorol-3-glucoside, Flavones, 5C-glycosyl compounds, Orientin, Iso-orientin, Saponaritin, Flavonols, Kaemferols, Quercetin-3-B-L-arabinos”ide, Isoamyla-mine, Protocatechunic acid, Rhapontigenin reported. Antitumor and antimicrobial evaluation of P. densif/o-rum, P. hydropiperosides, P. lapathifolium, P. saggittatum, P. scandens are reported by Fransworth et al. Hydropipe-roside, a novel coumaryl glycoside and an unidentified b-lactone was reported from P. hydropiper. P. lapthifolium is effective against Staphylococcous aureus.

SOLANACEAE

Physalis minima L, Pophati, 3292.

Fruits are edible as vegetable. The plant extract fried with a copper piece to lessen constipation.

Alkaloids, Withaphysalin A,B,C and Flavonoids isolated by Raffauf, Glotter et ah., Ser.

STERCULIA CEAE

Helicteres isora L, Muradseng, 982

Fruits extract given to children in stomach ache and colic pain.

Diosgenin isolated by Barik et al. Esters-Tetratracontanyl and tetracontanoate reported. Tannins and mucilage present.

TAMARICACEAE

Tamarix eriocoides Rottel., Sonafar, 4643.

Extract given to women suffering from veneral diseases (gonorrhoea in particular).

Gypsum, Tannins, Coumarins, Flavonols isolated from various species of Tamarix. Polyphenols present in T. troupii & T aphylla. The Manna of Bedouins a pharmaceutical product is isolated from T.

VERBENA CEAE

Vitex negundo L., Nirgudi, 4361.
Plant parts (leaves, stem, peduncles, etc.) boiled in water and the decoction is prescribed for arthritis, inflammation and rheumatic pain. For Bronchitis the decoction js taken at frequent intervals.

Flavonoids, Flavone, Iridoid, Glucoside, Furanoeremophi-lane isolited. The bronchial relaxing effect was reported by Dayrit et al. In British pharmacopeia the plart is used as stimulant and diuretic.

VISCACEAE

Viscum  articulatum Burm., Bandha, 1574.

Extract is given to cure peptic tumour/ulcer.

Ethylamine, b-phenyl, Tyramine – alkaloids present. Tanninsl Cyclitols, D-pinitols, DL-inositol, Myoinositol, L-que-brachito-b-phenyl-ethylamine, Lupeol, Acetylcholine, Propionyl choline isolated from Viscum album. 2′-Hydroxy’4′, 6′-di-methoxy-chalcone-4-glucoside isolated in V. album. This species possess lecitms action on human erythrocytes. It has hyqtensive and depresant activity.
*25\218\2*

The commonest gastrointestinal diseases in India are diarrhea primarily due to infection or food poisoning. Other diseases could be that of large bowel, stomach, oesophagus, liver or pancreas. However, in developed countries cancer is the principal cause of gut-related deaths, the commonest being that of large bowel (colon) and rectum. Diet has been implicated in the occurrence of these cancers, without being much of use in the treatment.
All gastrointestinal diseases are not fatal, however all have significant effect on the poor health of subjects directly.
Common gastrointestinal diseases are:
1. Vomiting and acute diarrhea
2. Dyspepsia
3. Constipation
4. Gall stones
5. Appendicitis
6. Malabsorption and celiac disease
7. Diverticulosis
8. Pancreatitis
9. Liver diseases.

Acute gastrointestinal conditions
Diet has a major role to play in vomiting and acute diarrhea. It needs replacement of fluids and electrolytes. Oral rehydration fluid which consists of sugar, salt, lemon and water is recommended to replace fluid. Other fluids like coconut water, buttermilk, soups and cold drinks are recommended along with semi-solid, low residue bland diet.
The most frequently used dietary pattern in acute gastrointestinal conditions is the 4-hourly feeding of cold milk, with 6-meal progressive diet from full liquid to semi-solid.

Chronic and Non-acute Disorders of the Upper Gastrointestinal Tract
Frequent feedings are important in the case of chronic disorders of the upper gastrointestinal tract where gastric acidity is a factor. Patients feel more comfortable with less spices and bland food. A soft, low-fibre diet is suitable for all non-acute disorders of gastrointestinal tract.
*1/356/5*

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