Herbal Therapy

Photo: "Jeremiah says, "You think your herbal potions are better than this? You'll have to prove it to me."

You have to wonder, "Why, after being around for so many centuries, is there any question about the effectiveness of herbs being used for medicinal purposes?"

Using the whole of a plant, or its roots, stems, leaves and flowers has been successful since the Stone Age, and the Chinese had developed quite a mass of information dating back 3,500 years. Estimates today say 75 percent of the world’s population relies upon herbal medicine for basic health care. Ah, but then there is "Progress". In the late eighteenth century, advances in science enabled chemists to isolate and purify active ingredients in herbs. This permitted the ability to manufacture synthetic pharmaceuticals. Then, conventional medical researchers came to believe it was safer and more effective to administer specific doses of the pure active chemical, whether it was synthetic or derived from plants, and the whole industry we call Big Pharma was born.

It should come as no surprise that since the 1950's, pharmaceutical drugs have been declared the only "scientific" treatment choice (especially chemotherapy for cancer), and currently herbal remedies are now described as "not scientific" and therefore dangerous. Too few people are aware that many drugs listed as conventional medications were originally derived from plants. Salicylic acid, a precursor of aspirin, was originally derived from white willow bark. Cinchona bark is the source of quinine, used to fight malaria. The opium poppy, aside from its use in illegal drug trafficing, gives us morphine, codeine, and paregoric, a treatment for diarrhea.

Every couple of years or so you will see herb-bashing reports of such staples as echinacea ( purple coneflower), which, before the discovery and chemical synthesis of antibiotics, was one of the most widely prescribed medicines in the United States. For centuries, herbalists prescribed echinacea to fight infection, but now it gets a bad 'rap', despite the fact that current research confirms it boosts the immune system by stimulating the production of disease-fighting white blood cells.

Like so much else, overdoing its use or using the wrong substance can get you into trouble, but it takes extreme measures to mess it up. Happily, there is no end of information on the Internet to help guide you to proper use of herbs. I recommend two indespensible references:

Therapeutic Herbalism- A correspondence course in Phytotherapy
by David Hoffmann

A Modern Herbal by Mrs. M. Grieve F.R.H.S.

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