The earliest peoples would have learned the benefits – and dangers – of various plants through trial and error and from observing animals eating particular types of vegetation when unwell. This knowledge of herbal medicine was passed down through successive generations and is still used today.
The medicinal effects of plants were carefully documented and classified in medieval Europe. This illustration of a liquorice plant is from The Medieval Health Handbook of 1380.
Modern pharmaceutical-based medicine began in 18.-54, with the invention of the gelatin capsule. The new pharmacists took many traditional medicinal plants, extracted the therapeutic ingredient, processed it, encased it in a gelatin capsule and the modern drug was created. For example, the heart drug digitalis originally came from foxgloves.
The advent of modern drugs virtually killed off traditional herbal medicine. It is only in recent years, as people have become more concerned with the side effects of modern drugs, that there has been a resurgence of interest in herbalism.
Herbal medicine is a holistic therapy in which a person’s lifestyle, environment, personality and emotions are taken into account along with his or her symptoms. Through the ages, different traditions of herbal medicine have developed systems of diagnosis and treatment.
In general, herbal practitioners believe plants have specific properties. Some are cooling, others are warming, some are relaxing, others stimulating and so forth. Different plants are believed to have affinities with different organs and bodily systems and can be used to promote the body’s natural ability to heal itself.
In the West today, herbalists are more likely to choose plants for their medicinal effects as opposed to other more general properties. However, although schools of herbal medicine may differ in methods of diagnosis and treatment, they all still share one important, fundamental belief – that the strength of the sum of the parts is greater than the strength of any of the individual parts of a plant. For this reason, herbalists, unlike pharmacists, use the whole of a plant in their remedies.
Pharmaceuticals are manufactured by identifying the ingredient in a plant that acts against a particular condition or disease, extracting it and processing it into pills or tablets. This results in drugs that act far more powerfully against disease than the original plant could. Main drugs are so powerful that they are poisonous to the human body. This toxicity may lead to unpleasant side effects. For many drugs the line between being therapeutic and poisonous is very narrow and some, especially those used to treat cancers, may only be effective at doses that are also poisonous to the rest of the body.
Herbalists argue that the active ingredient is just one of hundreds of constituents of each plant and that these other constituents dampen the effect of the active one, allowing the plant to be therapeutic without being toxic. A prime example they point to is aspirin, which was originally processed from the bark of the willow tree. It is an effective painkiller and anti-inflammatory drug but its use is often limited because it irritates the lining of the stomach. Willow bark, however, rarely causes such problems – herbalists sometimes use it to treat stomach problems.
As a result, there is a popular view that pharmaceuticals are powerful and have nasty side effects whereas herbal remedies are gentle and have no side effects. This is a fine idea, but it is not altogether true. Herbal remedies share the same active ingredients as many drugs and in fact they can be dangerous it used incorrectly – you should always seek the advice of a qualified herbalist.
Herbal Medicine in Practice
Herbal remedies are prepared in various ways. One of the most common is infusion, known as tisane in France. Here the plant or plants are steeped in hot water for about 15 minutes, in much the same way as brewing a pot of tea. The liquid is strained off and drunk hot or cold. Alternatively, tinctures are made by chopping up the plant and soaking it in a solution of three-quarters water and one-quarter alcohol and leaving it to stand for up to two weeks. The liquid is drained off and taken as medicine by mouth. Herbal remedies can also be used in compresses, poultices, gargles, inhalations, and in creams and ointments.
Various herbal remedies are believed to help ease problems such as muscular tension and joint inflammation which can cause back pain.
