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”.