Asia Life Sciences

One of the most widely discussed solutions to solving the problem of having an unwanted abortion is pregnancy abortion. In some countries, for social, economic or legal reasons, women seek to perform this operation under conditions of discretion: the use of plants to induce abortion is often taken for solution. Thus, in this work, using an envelope addressed to women from the Rabat-Salé-Kenitra region (Morocco) we were interested in developing a catalog of plants taken as abortives, their mode of use and their toxicity. The results show that 19 species, raged in 12 orders and 12 botanical families, are used for this purpose. Ingestion or infusion of the plant are the most used modes of use. The family Aséraceae is the most used, followed by those of Apeaceae, Lamiaceae, Punicaceae and Liliaceae. In addition, the majority of plants do not contain abortive substances; on the contrary, they are all toxic either by the chemical nature of their compounds or by excessive use of the plant.

In Morocco, treatment with aromatic medicinal plants (AMPs) is very common, but, as in many developing countries, this type of therapy is responsible for 4% of victims poisoned by plants. It is therefore important to give information on the chemical composition of the most commonly used plants. In this present work, based on the results of bibliographic work, we give a chemical characterization of the aromatic medicinal plants used in Morocco via their chemical compounds. The results show that the chemical components of AMPs are very numerous and diverse and vary from one species to another. Some of these components could be therapeutic but it is very rare to have a plant having components which are all usable without risks in traditional medicine