What is Herbal Medicine?
Herbalists were the original Physicians, the word Physician comes from the Greek word ‘Physis’ meaning ‘Nature’, to heal with nature’.
Herbal medicine is a medicine made from plants, either the whole plant or sometimes parts of it, leaves, flowers, fruit, roots or bark.
The medicine can either be given as:
A tea (the dried or fresh leaves & flowers)
A decoction (roots, barks, berries boiled to make a tea)
A tincture (plant material is macerated in alcohol for 4 weeks, often a moon cycle to draw out the medicine)
Powders (dried & ground plant material)
Capsules (dried plant material within the capsules
Topical creams & ointments
Oxymels (Honey vinegar) & vinegars
and most importantly, through our diet, the plant foods we eat are medicine too, which is why culinary herbs have traditionally been added to meals.
The choice is endless, meaning the prescription can be tailored to the client.
Photo by: Karl Blossfeldt
Plant medicine has been the main source of medicine used by people for thousands of years. While many conventional drugs or their precursors are derived from plants, there is a fundamental difference between administering a pure chemical drug and the same chemical that lies within a plant.
For example; Dandelion is a diuretic, very useful in clearing the bladder from infection & reducing blood volume through urination, thus reducing blood pressure. However, overuse of diuretics can deplete the body of essential minerals, such as potassium. Rather cleverly, Dandelions contain potassium to replenish the body. The plant, therefore, contains the whole package, avoiding side effects, always with the aim to heal.
THE HISTORY OF HERBAL MEDICINE
Herbal Medicine is an ancient traditional practice and has been practised all over the world within every community.
Ayurveda in India, TCM in China, Kampo in Japan, Galenic in Europe - Graeco-Roman, Sowa-Rigpa medicine of Tibet, Unani Tibb in Arabic medicine to ceremonial practices, healing circles and traditional healers in tribes.
The earliest evidence of herbal medical prescriptions dates back to 3000 BCE in the Kingdom of Sumeria, ruled by Hammurabi of Babylon, approximately 2000 years before the Christian era.
Photo by: Karl Blossfeldt
WESTERN HERBAL MEDICINE
Hippocrates, born in 460 BC, the great Greek physician, ‘Father of modern medicine’ layed the foundation of modern medicine. Apart from being a physician, he was instrumental in bringing about the concept of ethics in the realm of medicine. The famous document "The Hippocratic Oath" is still today sworn on in ceremony by all medical schools across the world, where medical graduates agree to the commandments of the Hippocratic Oath, it requires a new physician to swear to treat to the best of their ability and ensure humane ethical practice.
Hippocrates declined that disease is a result of punishment by the Gods, from curse or witchcraft. Instead, he believed that the human body possessed four fundamental qualities, hot, cold, dry, moist and that it was composed of four humors - blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Further, he envisaged that disturbance of the humors caused disease & it is the physician's duty to bring this balance back in a person.
The western four humour theory is similar to that of which developed in other continents; the five element medical system of chinese medicine, the Indian medical system Ayurveda of the 5 elements and the doshas & the native american medicine wheel of four directions.
“THE ART OF MEDICINE SO LONG,
THE LIFE SO SHORT”
‘PLANT MEDICINE FOR THE PEOPLE’.
Western herbal medicine has itself developed over the centuries and links can be traced back to Graeco-Roman, Arabic, European and North American cultures.
In the 17th century we saw a shift in plant medicine in the West.
Nicholas Culpeper, an English botanist, herbalist, physician and astrologer, was one of the first to translate Latin documents, discussing medicinal plants for the lay person into English. To this, we owe a great thank you, because without this translation, traditional herbal medicine in the west may have been lost.
Herbalism was predominantly spread by word of mouth, passed down from grandmothers & grandfathers educating the next generations. Sharing basic knowledge of herbal remedies to cure sickness in the family & a village healer for more serious ailments.
Photo by: Karl Blossfeldt
Since the twelfth century, many physicians have wanted to eradicate the tradition of self-healing, to ensure its safety & to form the basis of a business. With the cooperation of the church, physicians harassed healers, preventing them from passing along their medical knowledge, preventing documentation.
Culpepers aim was to change this and to make medical treatments more accessible to lay persons, by educating them about their health. Ultimately his ambition was to reform the system of medicine, by questioning current methods & to pass on the hippocratic theory of the four humours. This was also well documented by Galen, a Greek physician in the Roman empire, 2nd century AD.
Culpeper deliberately chose to publish his translations into English as a self-help medical guide, this was used by the poor who could not afford the medical help of expensive physicians. His publication 'The English Physician', was deliberately sold very cheaply, eventually becoming available worldwide and has been in print continuously since the 17th century.
The systematisation of the use of herbals by Culpeper was a key development in the evolution of modern pharmaceutical drugs, most of which have plant or fungal origin.
Artemisinin ~ Sweet wormwood (Artemisia Annua) - in the treatment of Malaria.
Aspirin ~ Salicylic acid from Willow bark (Salix alba) - Pain relief
Atropine ~ Deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) - For the treatment of Bradycardia.
Digoxin ~ Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) - Heart arrhythmia
Metformin ~ French Iliac, Guanidine (Galega Officinalis) - Diabetes
Morphine & Codeine ~ Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum) - Pain Relief
Myriocin ~ (Mycelia sterilia fungus) antibiotic and immunosuppressant - treatment of autoimmune condition multiple sclerosis.
Penicillin ~ Mold - Antibiotic
Qualaquin ~ Quinine (Cinchona officinalis) - Antimalarial drug, treatment of babesiosis
Sudafed ~ (Ephedra Sinica) - Decongestant & stimulant
Paclitaxel / Taxol ~ Yew tree (Taxus baccata) - Cancer treatment (Chemotherapy)
Vincristine and Vinblastine ~ Madagascar periwinkle plant (Catharanthus roseus) - Alkaloids used as intravenous chemotherapy agent, for cancers like Hodgkin’s disease and neuroblastoma.
Herbal medicine was and still is in some respects a huge part of community. It is an ancient old traditional practice that has developed over thousands of years.
There will always be a foundation of traditionalism to Western herbal medicine, however, modern herbalism also includes current scientific research, which is ever evolving.
Medical Herbalists are trained in pathology, pharmacology, biochemistry and clinical examination skills, just as conventional GPs are.
