Medical plants in Turkey in focus of the Japanese

ANTALYA - Anatolia News Agency

Japanese academic Koori Goto visits facilities and searches medical plants. AA photo

An academic from Japan’s Gunma University is researching plants which have for centuries been used as medicine in various parts of the country.

Koori Goto, who serves as general surgery specialist at the university, has been researching medical plants in many countries around the world for 15 years. Since 2000 she has traveled to Turkey five times. Goto said she had learned of the famous doctor Galenos, who lived between 120-200 A.D., and cured patients using medical plants in Bergama.

In her work Goto discovered that there had been medical plants growing in Anatolia for centuries, according to books Galenos wrote on medical plants. Although medical plants had been used in healing practices in Japan up until 20 to 30 years ago, they do not draw much attention today.

“I want to visit Anatolia, which is very rich in terms of plants, and reveal those plants. I am searching if these plants could be used as medicine again. I will collect my research in a book and present to the public,” she said.

“Plants in Anatolia have been used in many fields of health since the ancient age. It makes me surprised that Turks top the list of chemical medicine use despite all these medical plants in the country. For example, I thought that sage tea was very popular among Turkish people but I see that it is not. This kind of tea has countless number of benefits in the treatment of many diseases such as stomach, skin and muscles,” Goto said speaking about her research.

In recent years measures had been taken in Japan against the growing use of chemical medicines in recent years, but they have been insufficient. “Chemical medicines sometimes cause addiction later. This is a problem not only for people but also for the country’s economy,” she said.