Polish Invasive Plants as Drug Sources and Pharmaceutical Raw Materials in Disease Management

Abstract Invasive plants pose threats to the environment as they are natural enemies of native plants. However, the ethnopharmacological significance of these invasive plants deserves respect, since some of them are drug sources and pharmaceutical raw materials. In Europe, Poland is one of the countries that has been and continues to be affected by invasive plants, with some of the plants dominating key protected areas. These very invasive plants are also medicinal plants with great potential in providing natural therapeutic compounds that can be used in disease management. This review thus aimed to compile a single study on the ethnomedicinal and ethnoveterinary uses, and data on toxicity, of Polish invasive plants in 23 national parks. The review examined 5 studies on invasive plants, using a PRISMA flowchart. 43 Polish invasive plants from 26 families were recorded, with most species being herbaceous plants and belonging to the Asteraceae family. Leaves and flowers were highly depended on for ethnomedicinal purposes and seeds for ethnoveterinary purposes, with juice preparation and poultice being the most common methods of preparing medicine. Oral administration was also common. About 106 diseases and disease symptoms were managed using invasive plants. Rheumatism, hypertension, diarrhea, haemorrhage, diabetes, wounds, burns, urinary tract infections dental pain, epilepsy, arthritis, asthma, colds, and eczema were managed using diverse invasive plants. In animals, boosting health in livestock could easily be done using invasive plants. Despite these benefits from invasive plants, they possess serious toxic effects like allergies, digestive upsets, kidney damage, reproductive toxicity, skin complications, and even death, when higher doses are taken. This calls for innovative biotechnological measures to extract possible toxic agents in invasive plants, but without compromising the ethnopharmacological significance of these plants. The ability of invasive plants to be used as pharmaceutical raw materials to manage life-threatening diseases elucidates the dire need to consider utilizing them as drug sources in disease management rather than devising measures to reduce their population.