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Herbalism HealthHerbsAndNutrition.com > Information > Herbalism About Plants and Herbs Humankind has always used plants to ease its pains. Over thousands of years, our ancestors discovered which plants were medicinally beneficial and which were highly toxic, and courtesy to them, we can now enjoy the benefits of herbal medicines. It is no accident that plants play an important role in contemporary pharmacological research; the substances that interest us are those that the plant itself uses to survive. More than 100,000 of these special substances have been found in the plant world and, because of their complex and diverse chemical structures, they are the basis of many medicines. Remains of seeds preserved in the ancient burial sites substantiate what early doctors and herbalists wrote about the medicinal plants they used. Of late, this herbal folklore handed down over the centuries has been supported by scientific studies that confirm both the safety and efficacy of many of these herbal treatments. History of Herbs
Our knowledge of herbs can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians, whose priests routinely practiced herbal medicine. They discovered simple ways to extract and use the active ingredients within plants. A papyrus, dating from 2000 BC, lists hundreds of medicinal herbs – including many that are still in use today! These manuscripts record the use of perfumes and fine oils, and aromatic oils and gums were an essential part of the embalming process. The Chinese and Indian cultures have always relied heavily on herbal medicine. In China, herbs still play a vital part in health care, and there are schools of herbal medicine and herbal dispensaries in most hospitals. The use of herbs is also part of an all-embracing traditional Indian system of healing known as Ayurvedic medicine or Ayurveda. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates, known as the father of medicine, used to recommend garlic and asparagus for their diuretic qualities, poppy as a way of inducing sleep and willow leaves to relieve pain and fever. Slowly, most of the Asia and Africa were using herbal cures for various diseases. Then, as a result of the trade with these continents, the Western world was able to add a lot of variety to its own herbal medicines war chest (Native Americans had been using their own herbs for a variety of ailments), including the likes of cinnamon, camphor, ginger, ginseng etc. For a long time, however, the use of both local plants and those with more distant origins was based on more or less fanciful beliefs. Throughout the Middle Ages herbal medicine consisted of a mixture of magic, superstition and empirical observation. From the renaissance onwards, scientists came to the fore, rejecting alchemists’ elixirs and other magical remedies. Local plants were carefully collected and widely used to make infusions, decoctions and ointments. These plants make up the major part of the traditional cures that we have inherited. Hence, with the help of science, the medicinal value of herbs, known to earlier civilizations through a combination of keen observation, trial and error, is being rediscovered and confirmed. From the 1930s onwards, advances in chemistry have made it much easier to reproduce the active ingredients in plants. But plants will continue to have a medicinal importance in their own right. Their active constituents may be slightly modified to improve their efficiency or to reduce undesirable side effects, and they are still the bases of drugs that are vital for the treatment of disorders such as cancers and heart diseases or as a means of combating malaria. And they remain the essence of herbal medicine – an area that has still not been fully understood and explored. How do Herbs Work ? For most herbs, the specific ingredient that causes a therapeutic effect is not known. Whole herbs contain many ingredients, and it is likely that they work together to produce the desired medicinal effect. Many factors affect how effective an herb will be. For example, the type of environment (climate, bugs, soil quality) in which a plant grew will affect its components, as will how and when it was harvested and processed. About Herbal Medicine
Herbal medicine is an ancient system of treatment involving the use of plants, or substances extracted from them. Herbal Medicine, also known as Phytotherapy or Botanical Medicine or Phytomedicine, refers to the use of any plant's seeds, berries, roots, leaves, bark, or flowers for medicinal purposes. It is the treatment of illnesses using measured doses of specific plants. A qualified medical herbalist can prescribe plants to be taken internally or used externally in various forms and concentrations, depending on the ailment. Herbal medicine can actually be viewed as a precursor of modern pharmacology as many drugs used by doctors today are also derived from plants, but herbalists use them in their natural, unrefined, un-concentrated form; they consider that in this way their side effects are balanced. Herbal medicines are administered in infusions, liquid medicines, tablets or creams. Herbalists believe there is a natural remedy for every ailment. A Holistic Approach Conventional drug research tends to be focused on identifying a single active constituent in a plant and this approach has yielded a significant number of blockbuster drugs. Herbalists take a holistic approach believing that the whole of the plant should be used, because all the constituents are important, not just the compounds that have been shown to be active. Off course, as said earlier, there seems to exist a mutual side-effect nullifying effect when more active constituents are present in a balanced combination, as in a plant. A herbal medicine consists of hundreds of phytochemicals – plant based compounds that herbalists believe interact in a ‘synergistic’ way. Together they achieve a greater effect than the sum of all their individual effects. An example is common sage, which is found to be much more effective as an inhibitor of acetyl cholinesterase (this is turn helps to maintain memory functions) than any of the pure compounds found in the plant. Advantages of Herbal Medicine Over Conventional Medical Treatments Although herbal remedies can have side effects, and interact with other therapeutic drugs, there is nevertheless, much wisdom in the general approach of herbal medicine and there are usually fewer side effects. Furthermore, there are ailments, such as certain forms of eczema, which appear to respond to herbal remedies where conventional medicine has little to offer. Herbal medicine has a great deal to offer when used to facilitate healing in chronic, ongoing problems. In addition, herbal remedies can be used to treat numerous minor ailments, such as digestive disorders, the common cold, insomnia, headaches, and a host of other problems traditionally treated by nonprescription, over-the-counter medications. Meanwhile, as more and more people begin to question the use of synthetic drugs, and their side effects, the interest in herbalism continues to grow. As many aspects of herbal medicine are being supported by rigorous scientific research, herbalism, which has long been practiced outside of conventional medicine, is becoming more mainstream. Recently, the World Health Organization estimated that more than 80% of people worldwide rely on herbal medicines for some aspect of their primary healthcare. In the last twenty years in the United States, increasing public dissatisfaction with the cost of prescription medications, combined with an interest in returning to natural or organic remedies, has led to an increase in the use of herbal medicines. In Germany, more than 700 plant-based medicines are available and are prescribed by approximately 75% of German physicians. New Herbal Trends
Still, a recent development in herbal medicine is the creation of extracts with higher concentrations of certain active constituents. Further, herbal medicines are now also being incorporated into food. Plant extracts are being formulated to create food products that will help to cure ailments, prevent disease and maintain health. These so called functional foods or ‘nutraceuticals’ will enable people to take herbal medicines in a different way: rather than swallowing a capsule, tablet or tincture, they will be able to consume the herbs in soft drinks, bread or chocolate bars. What is Herbal Medicine Good For ? Herbalists treat many conditions such as asthma, eczema, premenstrual syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, migraine, menopausal symptoms, chronic fatigue, and irritable bowel syndrome, among others. Please refer to our ailments category (Herbal Remedies) or products category to view a comprehensive list of diseases, herbal remedies have cure for. How is Herbal Medicine Sold in Stores ? The herbs available in most stores come in several different forms: teas, syrups, oils, liquid extracts, tinctures, and dry extracts (pills or capsules). Teas are simply dried herbs left to soak for a few minutes in boiling water. Syrups, made from concentrated extracts and added to sweet-tasting preparations, are frequently used for sore throats and coughs. Oils are extracted from plants and often used as rubs for massage, either alone or as part of an ointment or cream.
Tinctures and liquid extracts are solvents (usually water, alcohol, or glycerol) that contain the active ingredients of the herbs. Tinctures are typically a 1:5 or 1:10 concentration, meaning that one part of the herbal material is prepared with five to ten parts (by weight) of the liquid. Liquid extracts are more concentrated than tinctures and are typically a 1:1 concentration. A dry extract form is the most concentrated form of an herbal product (typically 2:1 to 8:1) and is sold as a tablet, capsule, or lozenge. See Also |
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