Médicaments et aliments : approche ethnopharmacologique = Medicines and foods : ethnopharmacological approach

The therapeutic value of Bitters in the withdrawal treatments of addicts in the Vat Buddhist Monasteries of Thaïland and Burma in the light of recent pharmacological knowledge. There are many populations, even in antiquity, which have used narcotic drugs and hallucinogens. These substances were employed on religious-magical occasions or to facilitate the interpretations of dreams and the diagnosis of pathology. Therefore, practices which could be useful for detoxication can be searched for in traditional medicine. The authors analysed some withdrawal practices which are adopted in Thaïland and Burma. These procedures give priority to bitter substances. After a brief study of the pharmacological action of these bitters the authors conclude that these substances are useful in the physical-pathological circumstances which characterize withdrawal in addicts. (Résumé d'auteur