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| Thai Wildlife > Elephant |
Traditional Herbal Remedies for Thai Elephants
By TSCWA members Dr Aleksija Neimanis MSc (Biology), PhD (Veterinary) and Pranee Thongnoppakun BSc (Animal Science).
Background
Humans and elephants share a long history, as the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) was first domesticated at least 4.000 years ago (Lair, 1997). In Thailand, humans have used elephants for centuries for logging and heavy labour. However, with the 1989 ban on logging and the dwindling wild elephant population, the majority of Thai elephants have become tourist attractions.
Historically, elephants in Thailand originated from either the northeast or northwest of Thailand. Today, most of them have been relocated to tourist destinations: those from the northeast are in camps around Pattaya and those from the northwest are around Chiang Mai.
A handler known as a mahout looks after and trains each elephant. The mahout, as the primary care-giver, is responsible for the health and well-being of the elephant. Veterinary medicine, as practised today, is a relatively new profession, yet mahouts have been caring for elephants for centuries.
Even with modern veterinary medicine, minimal veterinary care for elephants and the resources to pay for the care are available. Therefore, mahouts have had to rely on traditional herbal remedies for the treatment of a variety of elephant ailments. Herbal medicine is deeply rooted in Thai culture and continues to be well-documented and studied. However, a comprehensive evaluation of natural remedies used for Thai elephants has not yet been recorded.
The Thai Society for the Conservation of Wild Animals (TSCWA) established a mobile elephant veterinary unit to service over 100 elephants in the greater Pattaya area. The Society has also worked with elephant camps in the north of Thailand and has access to Karen hill tribes in northern wildlife sanctuaries. These working relationships afford the TSCWA a unique opportunity to interact with mahouts and document their traditional herbal remedies.
This study was therefore undertaken to survey Thai mahouts, collate information on existing herbal remedies for elephants and identify those with potential benefit. In the absence of veterinary care, this information may provide an inexpensive alternative for relief of common ailments. It will also serve as the basis for future research and can give the TSCWA the opportunity to combine herbal remedies with modern veterinary medicine to maximize elephant health and welfare.
Materials and Methods
Elephant handlers throughout Thailand were interviewed on their use of herbal medicine. Interviews were conducted at five elephant camps in the greater Pattaya area, six camps around Chiang Mai, two villages in Surin, four Karen villages in the northwest and at the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang. A total of 372 mahouts were employed at the elephant camps, but we limited our interviews to those that used herbal medicine and could provide us with new information i.e. many mahouts at one camp often used the same herbal remedy.
Fifteen mahouts, one elephant camp manager, six traditional veterinarians and one elephant veterinarian practising modern medicine therefore provided information on herbal remedies for elephants. A standard questionnaire was followed for each interview.
Each person was asked about his use of herbal remedies for a given list of common elephant ailments. For each remedy, plant name, part of plant used, method of preparation, administration, dose and frequency of treatment were recorded. Wherever possible, plants were photographed and samples were collected. Scientific names were determined for as many plants as possible.
During the interview, each mahout was asked his opinion on traditional versus modern veterinary medicine and the traditional veterinarians were questioned about their view of the status of the Thai elephant in the future. The condition and management of elephant camps were observed and general abilities of the mahouts were noted.
Results
Eighty-three different traditional herbal remedies for eye problems, wounds, abscesses, musth, bloat/colic, inappetance/not drinking, diarrhea, external and internal parasites, edema and weakness were documented for elephants. Remedies also included minerals and eleven animal species or their products. The managing director of Pattaya Elephant Village had experimented with plants used in human herbal medicine and provided us with a list of elephant remedies he found effective. Because his remedies have not been traditionally used for elephants, we have listed them separately.
Of the 78 plants used in the remedies, we were able to determine the scientific name for 66 of them using Smitinand (1980) and Craib (1931) as primary resources. The remaining 12 plants were likely called by local vernacular names.
Discussion of Results
Traditional herbal remedies
The majority of traditional remedies are simple, single ingredient preparations. Many ingredients are borrowed from human herbal medicine (e.g. tamarind, turmeric, Neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss. var. siamensis) and asafoetida), whereas others have evolved by observing elephants feeding in the forest. Observant mahouts noticed that elephants consistently ate the same plant whenever certain symptoms were displayed (e.g. Shorea obtusa and S. siamensis during colic).
Through generations, this knowledge was honed and traditional veterinarians specialised in it. The six traditional veterinarians that we spoke with provided us with the most information, as they were able to give us more complicated, multiple ingredient formulas in addition to the numerous simple remedies. Some mahouts used traditional remedies, but had to get them from these veterinarians, as they did not possess the knowledge themselves.
Of the 372 mahouts in elephant camps, only 15 provided us with information on herbal treatments. The remaining mahouts either used the same remedies (i.e. the same few remedies were often employed by many mahouts in the camp), or more often, the mahouts preferred western veterinary medicine because of the convenience. No effort to gather, prepare and administer herbals was required.
Two ailments were consistently treated by the same methods throughout Thailand. Inappetance/refusal to drink was always treated with oral tamarind and salt to stimulate thirst. Musth was always dealt with by tying up the elephant, decreasing food, giving lots of water and often feeding wax gourds (Benincasa hispida).
All other complaints were treated with a variety of remedies, although some were common to both the NE and NW of Thailand. For instance, Acacia rugata and shells were used in both areas to treat eye problems and we found packages of pre-made "strength" pellets (Mong Poh Seng) in Chiang Mai and Pattaya elephant camps.
The remainder of the treatments varied from place to place, but the same general ingredients were common to a given area. For example, Azadirachta indica A. Juss. var. siamensis was widely used against ectoparasites by people from the northeast, whereas Entada scandens was the equivalent remedy in the northwest. As expected, the plants used reflected the local abundance and this accounted for many of the differences in remedies between areas.
Critical evaluation of herbal remedies For plants with scientific names, traditional uses, studied medicinal properties and known active ingredients.. The growing interest in ethnoveterinary medicine has helped to drive the research on herbal plants used for treatment of humans. As a result, elephant remedies with ingredients common to human medicine are often well-documented and well-studied.
However, the elephant, with its unique physiology, is also prone to a variety of ailments specific to this species. For instance, bloat/colic is a complaint primarily restricted to hindgut fermenters. In cases caused by excessive gas production, carminatives known to human medicine such as Kaempferia galanga and Zingiber cassumanar are employed. However, other remedies developed from observation of elephants also seem efficacious, but the mode of action is usually unknown. Still other remedies appear to have no scientific basis behind them.
Some have evolved from originally effective treatments that can no longer be used (e.g. feeding Pang Lao, or fermented rice from the making of Thai whiskey, has been replaced by spitting Thai whiskey externally over the elephant for internal problems like bloat/colic). Other treatments may be associated with superstitious learning (e.g. the elephant was going to improve anyway, therefore the treatment appeared effective and became incorporated into the knowledge passed down) or they may provide a placebo effect. Some may simply provide the elephant with extra care and attention from the mahout. This may improve the psychological well-being of the elephant, which may in turn impact physical health. A critical discussion of individual remedies follows.
Eye problems
Many eye remedies involve chewing and spitting substances into the elephants' eyes. For the most part, this appears counter-intuitive, as saliva is laden with bacteria. However, the remedy may provide a local irritant, causing the eye to start tearing. If the problem was originally caused by foreign particles in the eye, the objects would then be flushed out. For example, the Karen use cayenne pepper for eye complaints. When questioned, they admitted that this was painful, but it also irritated the eye and thus flushed any debris away. Scientific studies have also shown that cayenne is antibacterial. Both Piper betel and Allium sativum have also been shown to possess antimicrobial activity. This would explain their effectiveness and other plants, unstudied thus far, may contain similar chemicals. The final eye remedy involving elephant feces is contra-indicated and should be avoided.
Wounds
Many of the plants used in wound treatments have not been studied scientifically and warrant further research. However, Curcuma longa, Piper betel and Capsicum frutescens are known to be antibacterial and thus beneficial. C. longa also has anti-inflammatory properties and C. frutescens is a skin analgesic. The use of honey on wounds is similar to a practice in western veterinary medicine where sugar is placed wounds with antibiotics. In treatment #1, Thai whiskey is used. It contains both alcohol and formalin and these ingredients may help to disinfect the injury site. However, spitting the alcohol on the elephant's body also introduces oral bacteria into wounds. The Karen apply poultices and mixtures to injuries by pounding the wound with a soaked cloth on a stick. This may stimulate local circulation to bring in white blood cells, nutrients and various inflammatory mediators to assist with wound healing. The remedy (#3) involving cattle feces and human urine appears to be contra-indicated and is not recommended.
Musth
Management of musth primarily involves restraining bull elephants and attempting to decrease their body condition. Bulls in good condition have prolonged periods of musth, therefore decreasing food during musth should shorten this period. Gourds (Benincasa hispida) are often fed to bulls and in Nepal, these fruits have been used as abortifacients and are believed to have oxytocic properties (Joshi, 1984). Although we could not find any published scientific studies on gourds, they may possess some hormone-like components.
The exact hormonal mechanism responsible for musth is unknown, but testosterone and rostenedione ratios during musth are the inverse of ratios during non-musth periods (Niemuller and Liptrap, 1991). Therefore, if gourd components mimic hormones, this may explain their use. Papaya trees are also fed to bulls in musth. One mahout explained that the sap was toxic and it made the bull feel ill, thereby lowering its aggression level. This may be true, but the treatment is somewhat inhumane and not recommended. Other useful management strategies involve frequent baths and minimizing stress to keep the bull from getting excited and uncontrollable.
Bloat/colic
As previously mentioned, many remedies have unknown modes of action because they evolved from the observation of elephant feeding habits in the wild. However, a few plants have been studied. Kaempferia galanga, for example, has been shown to relax the smooth muscles of the small intestine. This would treat cramp symptoms in colic. Acacia auriculaeformis and Mimosa pudica have anthelminthic activities which may improve colic brought on by gastrointestinal parasites. M. pudica, Murraya koenigii and Areca catechu have all been demonstrated to be antibacterial and may help gastroenteritis caused by bacterial infections.
Citrus aurantifolia is anti-inflammatory and may ease symptoms of enteritis. Although we could not find published research on carminative properties of Kaempferia galanga, Zingiber cassumanar and Tamarindus indica, these plants have been used extensively for this purpose in human herbal medicine. Relief of excessive gas would mitigate bloat and colic symptoms and explain the efficacy of these herbs.
Z. cassumanar and T. indica are also claimed to have laxative properties, which would again relieve some colic symptoms. Historically, Pang Lao (the fermented rice used to make Thai whiskey) was fed to elephants with colic and traditional veterinarians claimed that this was very effective. However, Pang Lao is too difficult to get today, therefore Thai whiskey has replaced this remedy. The whiskey is applied externally, rather than internally, and therefore has no scientific basis, other than it may feel cool as it evaporates. Rectal exams to relieve impaction are performed by some mahouts, similar to practices in western veterinary medicine.
Inappetance/not drinking
As mentioned, this complaint is universally treated with oral tamarind and salt. Both ingredients promote thirst and tamarind is believed to be a laxative. This simple remedy is thought to be highly effective by mahouts and its widespread use supports this claim. Future trials by the TSCWA on the efficacy of this treatment can easily be performed.
Diarrhea
Diarrhea is often treated by allowing the elephants to medicate themselves in the forest and by providing lots of water. The trees commonly fed to diarrheic elephants have not been studied to determine their antidiarrheal properties, therefore further research should be conducted. One folk remedy involves feeding a porcupine stomach and mulberry leaves in a coconut to elephants. The traditional veterinarian that employs this treatment claimed that the porcupine was used because it ate up to 32 different things in a day. By feeding the porcupine stomach, the elephant received 32 different ingredients. If there is any truth to this, the remedy would be highly variable depending on what the porcupine last ate and there are better, simpler alternative treatments.
External parasites
Many of the external parasite remedies possess activities that have been scientifically documented. Azadirachta indica A. Juss. var. siamensis is antimalarial, Murraya koenigii and Piper betel are antifungal and antibacterial and Sida rhombifolia is also bactericidal. A. indica, P. betel and Ricinus communis have all been widely used as insecticides. These properties likely explain the efficacy of these plants and mahouts that use them claim they work very well. We had a case of lice that the TSCWA veterinarian suggested be treated with A. indica. It apparently worked, but the elephant became re-infested because of contact with other infected elephants and fomites. Herbal treatment of external parasites warrants further investigation by TSCWA veterinarians, as it appears to be effective and would be economical for treating entire elephant camps to eradicate the problem.
Internal parasites
Although internal parasites are common findings in domestic elephant fecal exams (TSCWA veterinarians, pers. comm.), this was a rare complaint and only two remedies with questionable scientific basis were provided. Murraya koenigii may contain effective components against parasites because it is both antibacterial and antifungal and may kill higher organisms as well. However, the method of administration into the eyes will not allow the active ingredient to reach systemic levels high enough to kill internal parasites.
Edema
Only one remedy was provided and no research has been done to explain the efficacy of the ingredients. Edema can be caused by a wide variety of problems, including heart failure, hypoproteinemia, lymphatic obstruction and increased capillary permeability. It is possible that some of the active ingredients may remedy one of the above causes, but an all-encompassing cure for edema seems impossible.
Weakness
General tonics were widely used for elephants. They were administered in two situations:
1. Following physical exhaustion after working hard.
2. During the dry season when food nutritional quality was poor.
Many of the treatments contained ingredients that simply provided calories and energy to the elephant (e.g. sugar, honey, boiled rice, bananas, duck egg yolk). Two plants, Tinospora crispa and Piper nigrum, have been shown to have nerve stimulant effects, which would help the elephant to overcome its exhaustion. Opium used by the Karen has analgesic, hypnotic and narcotic properties and would enable the elephant to ignore exhaustion. Not only is this treatment now illegal, but it does not solve the underlying problem of exhaustion. A pre-made pellet supplied for domestic livestock was used by mahouts in two camps. As elephants are moved out of forests and into more urban tourist centres, any supplementation of the diet with nutrients and energy found in most of these tonics would be beneficial.
Comparing Herbal Medical Practices in the Northeast and the Northwest
As previously mentioned, differences in flora accounted for some of the variation between northeastern and northwestern remedies. However, cultural background also played a large role, as Karen mahouts had very different practices from northwestern Thai mahouts. For example, the Karen relied heavily upon spiritual rituals such as incantations in addition to the herbals. The Karen also divulged that they have used things such as human bones, bear gall bladders and opium. This perhaps reflects their insular lifestyle, for the most part removed from the rest of Thailand.
Another large difference between the Karen and Thai mahouts was the attitude towards herbal medicine. A reoccurring theme throughout most of Thailand was the rapid loss of herbal knowledge within this generation of mahouts. With the introduction of western medicine and the modernisation of rural villages, young mahouts are no longer interested in continuing herbal remedies. In the Karen villages, however, mahoutship is still a revered occupation and youths are eager to learn herbal medicine from their elders.
During this study, we also observed differences in general management and conditions of elephant camps in Chiang Mai versus Pattaya. In general, the northern environment surrounding Chiang Mai was better suited for elephant husbandry. Camps were situated in close proximity to forests and the climate was cooler. General foot and nail condition was better in the northern camps, probably due to the better footing (rugged terrain in the north versus soft dirt and dust around Pattaya). Unfortunately, as more elephants are moved out of forest environments and into tourist areas, their environment becomes less suitable, predisposing elephants to more ailments. Lack of forest also makes gathering herbals difficult, precluding treatment with herbal remedies. Although mahouts around Pattaya knew of herbal treatments, the plants needed to prepare the remedies are only found in the Northeast.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Not surprisingly, many of the herbal ingredients used for elephants have a documented scientific basis. The simple fact that these remedies have survived over time lend credibility to their efficacy. However, like any medical modality, herbal medicine cannot cure all ailments. Therefore, we believe a mix of both effective traditional remedies and western veterinary medicine would maximise elephant health and welfare and optimise the use of limited resources. Further research and experimentation on the efficacy of herbal remedies is highly recommended, provided the remedies are humane, legal and will not harm the elephant.
Unfortunately, as with many traditional practices throughout the world, the use of herbal remedies for elephants is disappearing with modernisation. However, the importance of preserving this knowledge is recognised and a number of Thai groups are gathering information on herbal remedies. We hope that research into herbal medicine and its efficacy continues, so that centuries of wisdom are not lost within the coming years.
Acknowledgements and Bibliography
Funding for this study was generously provided by the World Society for the Protection of Animals. Dr. Somporn of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Chiang Mai University assisted with determination of scientific plant names, Mr. Preecha Rattanaporn, chief of Salawin wildlife sanctuary, provided access to Karen villages and Patuu, an employee in Salawin sanctuary, was invaluable as a translator with the Karen. The TSCWA staff and volunteers provided generous assistance throughout the project. A final expression of gratitude must be extended to the mahouts, elephant camps and veterinarians who generously gave us their time and shared their knowledge with us.
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