The Magic of Medicinal Herbs
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They are among the oldest plants on earth, botanically speaking. They are the thin thread that links us to our ancestors, no matter what part of the world they came from. They knew and used and loved these very same herbs that we still grow today. They grow all over the world and have always been a part of man's life. Herbs around the world are not only used as medicinal herbs and culinary herbs, they are a way of life. Every day they go into the food we eat and beverages we drink and they are just considered a natural ingredient. You may make a cup of sage tea once a week for the medicinal benefits of it or chamomile tea for the baby's colic, but they easily become part of the way we live our life. All the culinary herbs have medicinal value. If people used more of the culinary herbs, particularly in the fresh form...lots of them in your diet all the time as seasonings, you would get all their nutritive values. Plus, you get the antioxidant characteristics we are hearing so much about. You get vitamins and minerals (in minute amounts) in the doctrine of signatures from the medicine plants. Early herbalists believed a leaf that had spots on it was used for a lung problem, a kidney shaped leaf was used for a kidney problem. Many of those things are true. Many are diuretic and so could possibly be used to rid the body of unwanted toxins, before they were able to cause more serious illnesses, that become much more difficult to deal with in more advanced stages. Historically, people did not diagnose themselves and treat themselves with herbs. You went, in the Latin culture, to the curanderos/curanderas or the herb woman or herb man. You did not treat yourself though and this is where people get into trouble. They diagnose themselves and then they go to the health food store and buy all these things they do not know a enough about. That was never the way they were suppose to be used. It was usually someone who had learned from a very knowledgeable source, a wise-person or the town pharmacist, or physician. The first rule in herbal medicine, is that you have to believe that it is going to help you. If the perception is that you're going to be better, then you certainly are. You can relax and the headache goes away. Those kinds of things (herbs used as placebos) are interesting but not harmful. None of it has been lost. The South American Indians, the Mayas, the Incas, the Aztecs and the Egyptians, the Greeks. Of course, some of the people who have had little contact with the outside world, such as tribes in South America and some of those very small tribes and plants that are indigenous just to those areas...if they died out, both the plants and the people, one is in as much danger of being lost, as the other. There's still lots of plants, particularly in South America, in the rain forests, in Africa and in the Orient. All of them have not been documented, however, we know where these people are in the rain forests and about the plants that are being lost. It is not believable to say, that we think there is no information regarding the most endangered plants being lost, but in Western culture, very little is lost. Also, the fact that in medicinal herbs, the root, the bark, the leaves, or the seeds have different properties at different times in their development. After they mature, there's a change in the structure of the root, so they do not develop some of their medicinal qualities until they are dried...or the time of year, that they are harvested. All of these phases of growth and development have a tremendous amount to do with the efficacy of the plants, parts of the plants involved and the areas of the body that they function best, when applied. Then another whole world opens up when people realize that the plants around them, that were just flowers, or plants, or trees, have a herbal use in other parts of the world. Any plant that is considered useful to man, is considered a herb. It is almost the entire spectrum of plants...something like 255,000 or so, herbs and plants on earth. It is truly amazing to think that nature has bestowed such a wonderful gift on mankind. Surely, it was an oral tradition at one time and in some parts of the world still is. So many parts of the world depend on the plants for medicine...,and this is all through the shamans and the witch doctors and the curanderos. But, the herbs used for medicine have been printed many, many times over the centuries. Other herbs, like yohimbine, which can help in male sexual functioning, and wild yam, which can help in female problems, as it is high in natural steroidal saponins - these herbs, and others, are thought by many to be a path to be explored before human growth hormone, HGH, or testosterone or estrogen replacement therapies are used. No matter where we go, in this world, the land has already built in a medicine chest, store house of food products, flavor enhancers, appetite suppressants, thirst quenchers, really everything the human body requires to survive and thrive. It is a wonderful thing and all we need are the eyes and knowledge to see and use these precious offerings that are literally at our fingertips. |
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