Abstract:
Improper diet habits and lethargy for exercises are mentioned widely for the causes of obesity1. Though the causes were found and many programs have been conducted, the obesity is still a challenging problem all over the world. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to identify causes of obesity in ancient Unani concept through the modern interpretation. The ancient physician Avicenna mentioned in his book ?Canon of Medicine� that functional disorder in the Natural faculty (Quwat e Tabai�yya ) is one of the main causes for the obesity with the above said causes2. According to the Unani or Greek concept the system called ?Natural faculty� which governs digestion, metabolism, nutrition and growth of the body. A functional disorder in the natural faculty may occur due to weakness in the organs of natural faculty or due to emotional disturbances such as anger, sadness, jealousy etc. 2. A systematic search was carried out using many ancient texts including ?Avicenna�s Canon on Medicine�, Unani Materia Medica text and scientific research journal articles located in the PUBMED journals. The review was aimed to collected published data on utilization of herbs to reduce obesity. Articles in 61 journals were cited in the systematic reviews and 58.3% research based on animal studies, 33.3% clinical research found on humans and another 8.3% was on the literary review of the anti-obesity herbs. These researches exhibit that there was a significant reduction of weight found after the herbal treatment on the obese mice or obese human. From this review it was found that 95.8% herbs possess the action of strengthening the Natural faculty or gastro intestinal tract (GIT). Out of this 54.2% of herb or part of a herb used in this research had the action of carminative effect on GIT and 45.8% herb or herb part used here had the actions of carminative and strengthening effect on GIT. Hence it was concluded that according to Unani concept a special attention should be focused to enhance the right functions of the natural faculty by carminatives medicines such as cumin etc. when treating obesity by regulating diet and exercise.
