Plant Based Medicine

In the past few years the awareness about the importance of nutrition in maintenance of health and prevention of disease has been enhanced (Clifford, 2000), making the science of nutrition a significant part of preventive medicine.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) more than 80% of the world’s population , mostly in developing countries depends on traditional plant based medicines for their primary health care needs ( WHO, 1993). Herbs have provided us some of the very important life saving drugs used in the armamentarium of modern medicine. Among the estimated 4,00,000 plant species, only 6% have been studied for biological activity and about 15% have been investigated for phyto-chemicals ( Cragg et al, 1997).

Soybeans in the diet

Cow urine is used in treatment of spleen disorders, indigestion and arthritis. It improves the digestion and is helpful in modulating the immunity in man as well as animals. It is considered as a bio-enhancer (Garg and Chauhan, 2003). It acts as an Antidote to poisonous effects inside the body or products. It is antiseptic, disinfectant, cures toxic effects and called Sanjivani in Ayurveda. It is a powerful pesticide (Chauhan et al., 2001).

2.1 Studies on nutrient composition of treatment diets

Mubarak (2005) studied effect of some domestic traditional processes, on the nutritional factors of mung bean. Germination and cooking processes caused significant decrease in fat and ash contents. Germination resulted in greater retention of all minerals compared to other processes. Sharma et al. (2011) studied the biochemical estimation of raw and processed soyabean. Most processing techniques increased the protein content, while soaking reduced the protein content. Soaking and germination decreased the fat and fiber, whereas roasting alone increased the fiber, ash, carbohydrate contents. Odiba (2011) analyzed raw and toasted (at 30, 40, 50, 60 minutes) soyabeans for dry matter, ash, crude protein, crude fibre, ether extract and nitrogen free extract. The crude protein in raw soybean decreased with increase in toasting

Birds were fed diets containing 0, 20, 40 and 60% raw soyabeans and orally dosed with 0, 9 or 12 mg T2 toxin per kg body weight. A significant increase in feed consumption was reported as raw soyabean increases in the diet. However, during the dosing period, birds had a tendency to decrease feed intake. Hen day egg production was significantly reduced when birds were fed 60% raw soyabean.

Kim et al. (2015) conducted an experiment on male mice which were randomly assigned into 4 treatment groups after 10 week period of diet-induced obesity. Four treatment groups were, a control group, a high-fat diet group, a high-fat diet group with ethanol extract from black soyabean testa (BBC), and a high-fat diet group with orlistat. BBC treatment significantly decreased feed intake. Zou et al. (2012) investigated the effect of partial replacement of brown fish meal (BFM) by fermented soyabean meal (FSBM) in diets of Chinese soft shelled turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis). In 120-day feeding experiment, the turtles were fed with 3 experimental diets in which 0%, 4.72% and 9.44% BFM protein was replaced by 0%, 3% and 6% FSBM, respectively. The feeding rate, specific growth rate and feed efficiency ratio were significantly lower than those of the control group