Abstract
Since a magic “polypill” – the “Environment-Sleep-Emotion-Exercise-Diet” intervention [E(e)SEEDi] was discovered in 2018, it plays a pivotal role in control and prevention of human disease due to improvement of immunity by healthy lifestyle. It can be said that it is applicable, as long as one is a human and survival. However, do plants also need the magic “polypill”? When plants need a suitable environment, rational internal exercise, and balancing nutrients (fertilizers, herbicides, nutrients, pesticides, and others), do they also need sleep? And have also emotions like humans? These are interesting questions. Currently, obvious climate change threats herbal cultivation in both China and the globe, in particular the pandemic and post-COVID-19 era. Only when we understand and confirm that plants also need sleep and have emotions, can we better protect medicinal plants and promote herb cultivation and healthy growth, since traditional Chinese herbs have a good efficacy in combating cardiovascular disease.
Keywords: climate change, emotion, herbal cultivation, medicinal plant, sleep
Although it has a long history of more than 2000 years, with the exception of acupuncture and moxibustion, there are still few clinical studies and trials of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) or herbs treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD) published in international top journals (Hao et al., 2017). From the past decade to now, there have finally been some breakthroughs, for example, qili qiangxin capsules and others for chronic heart failure (Li et al., 2013; Pan et al., 2023), Wenxin Keli for arrhythmia (Hua et al., 2015), Tongxinluo for cardiovascular protection in acute myocardial infarction (Xu et al., 2020), and Chinese herb medicine for hypertension (Lai et al., 2022). Moreover, the exact clinical efficacy of TCM has received wide attention in the globe, in particular the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, TCM has been highly evaluated by World Health Organization (WHO) due to a good clinical efficacy, such as Lianhuaqingwen capsules.
Since a magic polypill – the E(e)SEEDi was discovered and finally published in European Heart Journal in 2018 (Hu, 2018), it plays a more and more pivotal role in the prevention and treatment of both major viral infectious diseases (mVIDs) and major non-communicable diseases (mNCDs) due to improvement of lifestyle and human immunity. As a virtual pill, it covers “the Essential 5”, that is “Environment-Sleep-Emotion-Exercise-Diet”. And it can be said that it is applicable, as long as one is a human, and as long as one is survival. However, do plants also need the E(e)SEEDi– “the magic polypill” (Figure 1)? It means that when plants need a suitable environment, a rational internal exercise, and a balancing diet (fertilizers, herbicides, nutrients, pesticides, and others), whether they also need sleep or not? And do plants also have emotions like humans? These are interesting questions. In fact, “crying crops and chattering grasses” are obvious emotional response of plants to their own environments according to recent studies (Khait et al., 2023; Veits et al., 2019; Marris, 2023), for example, “water-stressed or injured plants emitting high-pitched sounds”.