Mala consuetudo

Le concept de coutume est une création des juristes occidentaux permettant de convertir les usages autochtones dans les termes de l’ordre juridique dominant. Si la contrainte de l’État est décisive dans la formulation de la coutume, faut-il penser qu’en Europe aussi elle fut une création étatique, les peuples ne participant guère à son épanouissement ? La mala consuetudo médiévale témoigne d’un rapport de force si bien qu’il faut restituer la pratique des usages, l’action du peuple dans la redéfinition des coutumes. L’article considère le contenu de l’expression médiévale comme une catégorie de pensée et la transpose dans l’Antiquité romaine afin de revenir sur le processus de création des consuetudines. Si la consuetudo romaine est bien une création du pouvoir, les communautés auxquelles elle s’applique parviennent aussi à contenir son périmètre. Sa pérennité tient sans doute en partie au fait qu’elle a été perçue ensuite comme un privilège communautaire.The concept of custom is a creation of Western lawyers allowing for the conversion of indigenous uses into the terms of the dominant legal order. If the State’s constraint is ultimately decisive in the formulation of custom, does that mean in Europe too it was essentially a State creation, with the peoples hardly participating in its existence? The mala consuetudo is a matter of power relations, so that it is necessary to emphasize the impact of practices, of popular action on the shaping of customs. This article considers the content of the medieval expression as a category of thought and transposes it to Roman antiquity in order to reconsider the development of consuetudines. If the Roman consuetudo was indeed a creation of power, the communities to which it applied managed to contain its perimeter. Its durability is probably due in part to the fact that it was perceived as a community privilege.

Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, and Nutraceutical Profile of Carissa Species: An Updated Review

Carissa, a genus of the Apocynaceae family, consists of evergreen species, such as shrubs as well as small trees that are native to Asia, Africa, and Oceania’s subtropical and tropical regions. Most of the Carissa species are traditionally used to treat various diseases, such as chest pain, headaches, gonorrhoea, rheumatism, syphilis, oedema, rabies, stomach pain, hepatitis, cardiac diseases, and asthma. The pharmacological studies on Carissa species revealed its antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer, cardioprotective, antipyretic, analgesic, wound healing, anticonvulsant, antiarthritic, adaptogenic, anti-inflammatory, and antidiabetic activities, thus validating its use in indigenous medicine systems. The review article summarised the comprehensive literature available, including morphology, indigenous uses, bioactive composition, nutraceutical, and pharmacological activities of Carissa species. A total of 155 research papers were cited in this review article. The Carissa fruits are rich in dietary fibre, lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamin C, and macro- and micro-elements. A total of 121 compounds (35 polyphenols (flavonoids and phenolic acids), 30 lignans, 41 terpenoids, 7 steroids, 2 coumarins, and 6 cardiac glycosides) have been extracted from C. spinarum, C. carandas, and C. macrocarpa. Among all chemical constituents, lupeol, carissol, naringin, carisssone, scopoletin, carissaeduloside A, D, J, carandinol, sarhamnoloside, carissanol, olivil, carinol, 3β-hydroxyolean-11-en-28,13β-oilde, ursolic acid, and carissone are the key bioactive constituents responsible for pharmacological activities of genus Carissa. The gathered ethnopharmacological information in the review will help to understand the therapeutic relevance of Carissa as well as paving a way for further exploration in the discovery of novel plant-based drugs.

Diversity, Distribution, Indigenous uses and Conservation of Medicinal Plants in Naina Devi Sacred Shrine and Surroundings, Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, North Western Himalaya

The paper records the indigenous uses of medicinal plants found in the surroundings of the Naina Devi Sacred Shrine, Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh. Frequent monitoring of habitats, populations and extraction trend of medicinal plants, rehabilitation of the natural habitats, restoration of the degraded sites, monitoring and management of the invasive species, education and awareness for the local inhabitants and people’s participation in conservation of medicinal plants have been suggested.

PHARMACOGNOSTIC AND PHYTO-PHYSICOCHEMICAL EVALUATION OF Solanum xanthocarpum Serb. & Wendl.

Medicinal plants are the backbone of Traditional systems of medicine like Ayurveda and Siddha. Solanum xanthcarpum (Solanaceae) (SX) is one of the most widely used medicinal herbs in Ayurvedic Pharmacopia. Me- dicinal plants have been of age-long remedy for human diseases because they contain components of therapeutic value. Plants are rich sources of ecologically developed secondary metabolites, which are potential remedies for different ailments. Kantakari (SX) of the family Solanaceae is one of the ‘dasamoola' and widely used drugs in Ayurveda. Dasamoola means a combination of ten plant roots together. It comprises roots of five big or major trees (Brihat panchmoola) and roots of five small trees or major herbs (Laghu panchmoola). Various studies indicated that SX contains steroidal glycoalkaloid solasodine, β-solamagrine and solasonine. The indigenous uses of plants also indicate anti-inflammatory, Antispermatogenic, Antidiabetic, Antiasthmatic, Molluscidal activity, useful in in- fantile atopical dermatitis, Cytoprotective, anticancer, insecticidal, insect repellent properties and diuretic activities. Therefore, the present investigation was intended to evaluate the preliminary phytochemical characters of this plant. The data and results of Phytochemical studies in the present study would facilitate discovery for the synthesis of more potent drugs. Keywords: Solanum xanthocarpum, Dasamoola, ethnobotanical uses, pharmacognosy, pharmacological activities,

A Review of the Phytochemistry, Ethnobotany, Toxicology, and Pharmacological Potentials of Crescentia cujete L. (Bignoniaceae)

Crescentia cujete is an economical and medicinal plant of wide indigenous uses including hypertension, diarrhea, respiratory ailments, stomach troubles, infertility problems, cancer, and snakebite. Despite these attributes, C. cujete is largely underutilized, notwithstanding the few progresses made to date. Here, we reviewed the available findings on the ethnobotany, phytochemistry, toxicology, and pharmacology, as well as other economic benefits of the plant. The information on the review was gathered from major scientific databases (Google scholar, Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science, PubMed, Springer, and BioMed Central) using journals, books, and/or chapters, dissertations, and conference proceedings. The review established the antidiabetic, antioxidant, acaricidal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, antivenom, wound healing, neuroprotection, antiangiogenic, and cytotoxic properties from aqueous and organic (particularly ethanol) aerial parts attributed to several secondary metabolites such as flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, phenols, cardiac glycosides, phytosterols, reducing sugar, and volatile oils. Economically, the fruit hard outer shell found applications as musical tools, tobacco pipes, bowls, food containers, and bioethanol production. While most of the current studies on C. cujete are mainly from Asia and South America (Philippines, Bangladesh, India, etc.), part of the persistence challenge is lack of comprehensive data on the plant from in vivo pharmacological studies of its already characterized compounds for probable clinical trials toward drug discovery. Consequently, upon this, modern and novel translational studies including the concept of ‘-omics’ are suggested for studies aiming to outfit more comprehensive data on its therapeutic profiles against pathological markers of diseases and to fully explore its economic benefits.

'Remember Aesi':

In this article I draw upon a definition of ‘dialogical memorial’ offered by Brad West to offer an experimental artist's brief that outlines the various ways that a contemporary monument to the colonial artist, Adelaide Eliza Scott Ironside (1831-1867), could ‘talk back’ to the nineteenth-century statues of her contemporaries, and ‘converse’ with more recent acts of history making. In contrast to the familiar figure of the individual hero, which we associate with the statuary of her age, I suggest a group monument that acknowledges the intimate intergenerational female network which shaped Aesi's life and also ‘re-presents’ – a term coined by the historian Greg Dening – several native born and convict women from the Georgian, Regency and Victorian eras who influenced her life. Instead of elevating Aesi upon a plinth, I recommend grounding this group monument on Gadigal country and planting around it many of the Australian Wildflowers she painted in ways that draw attention to the millennia-old Indigenous uses of the same plants. And finally, by situating Aesi’s monument in the Outer Domain (behind the New South Wales Art Gallery in Sydney’s Botanic Gardens and to the east of the Yurong Pennisula, near Woolloomooloo Bay), in an area where she once boldly assumed centre stage before a large male audience in a flamboyant moment of her own theatrical history-making, I argue that this memorial will have the capcity to speak for itself in ways that challenge the underepresentation of colonial women in Sydney's statuary, abd, as West suggests, do much to ‘alter the stage on which Sydney's colonial history 'is narrated and performed’. [i] Greg Dening, Performances, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1992, p37.