Herbal medicine is the oldest form of healthcare known to mankind. Herbs have been used by all cultures throughout history. Was an integral part of the development of modern civilization. Primitive man observed and appreciated the great diversity of plants available. Plants provide food, clothing, shelter and medicine. Much of the medicinal use of plants seems to have been developed through observations of wild animals, and by trial and error. As time went on, each tribe added the medicinal power of herbs in their area to their knowledge base. Who methodically collected information on herbs and developed pharmacopoeias herbal well-defined. In fact, well into the 20th century most of the pharmacopoeia of scientific medicine is derived from the herbal traditions of native peoples. Many drugs used today are of plant origin. In fact, approximately 25% of prescription drugs dispensed in the United States contain at least one active ingredient derived from plant material. Some are made from plant extracts, while others are synthesized to mimic a natural plant compound.
Arguably, the history of herbology is inextricably intertwined with that of modern medicine. Many drugs listed as conventional medications were originally derived from plants. Salicylic acid, a precursor of aspirin was originally derived from willow bark and the plant meadowsweet. Cinchona bark is the source of quinine to combat malaria. Vincristine, used to treat certain types of cancer, comes from periwinkle. Morphine poppy produces opium, codeine and paregoric, a treatment for diarrhea Laudanum, a tincture of opium poppy was the favored tranquilizer in Victorian times. Even today, morphine, the most important alkaloid of opium poppy-remains the standard against which new synthetic pain relief measures.
Before the synthesis and discovery of antibiotics, the herb echinacea (which comes from the plant known as purple coneflower) was one of the most widely prescribed in the United States. For centuries, herbalists prescribed echinacea to fight infection. Today, research confirms that the herb stimulates the immune system by stimulating the production of disease-fighting white cells from blood.
The use of plants as medicine is older than recorded history. As mute witness to this fact marshmallow root, hyacinth, and yarrow have been found carefully tucked around the bones of a man of the Stone Age in Iraq. These three herbs are still used today. Marshmallow root is a demulcent herb, soothing to inflamed or irritated mucous membranes, such as sore throat or digestive tract irritation. Hyacinth is a diuretic that stimulates the tissues to give the excess water. Yarrow is a long-standing cold and fever remedy that once may have been used much as aspirin is today.
In 2735 BC the Chinese Emperor Shen Nong wrote an authoritative treatise on herbs that is still in use today. Shen Nong recommended Ma Huang (ephedra known as the Western world), for example, against respiratory distress. Ephedrine, extracted from ephedra, is widely used as a decongestant. You'll find it in its synthetic form, pseudoephedrine, in allergy to many, but cold medicines and relief produced by big pharmaceutical companies.
The records of King Hammurabi of Babylon (c. 1800 BC) include instructions for the use of medicinal plants. Hammurabi prescribed the use of mint for digestive disorders. Modern research has confirmed that the mint in effect, to relieve nausea and vomiting by mildly anesthetizing the lining of the stomach.
Throughout the Middle East has a rich history of herbal healing. There are texts that survive from the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt and India that describe and illustrate the use of many medicinal plants such as castor oil, linseed oil, poppy and white. In the biblical book of Ezekiel, which dates from the sixth century before Christ, we find this warning on the life of plants: ".. and its fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing." Egyptian hieroglyphs show physicians of the first and second centuries AD treat constipation with senna pods, and using caraway and peppermint to relieve digestive disorders.
Throughout the Middle Ages, botanicals grown at home were the only drugs available, and for centuries, no self-respecting household would be without a well-kept garden of herbs and is used widely. For the most part, the tradition of herbal healing passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. Mother teaches daughter, the village herbalist taught a promising apprentice.
In the seventeenth century, knowledge of herbal medicine was widely disseminated throughout Europe. In 1649, Nicholas Culpeper wrote a Physical Directory, and some years later produced the English physician. This respected herbal pharmacopoeia was one of the first manuals that the layman can use for health care, and is still widely referred to and quoted today. Culpeper had studied at Cambridge University and was intended to become a great doctor, in the academic sense of the word. Instead, he opted for an apprentice apothecary and eventually set up his own workshop. She served the poor of London and is known as the medical ward. The herbal products that he created was for the layman.
The first U.S. Pharmacopeia was published in 1820. This volume includes an authoritative list of herbal medicines, with descriptions of their properties, uses, dosage, and purity testing. Be reviewed regularly and became the legal standard for medical compounds in 1906. But as Western medicine evolved from an art than a science in the nineteenth century, the information he had at one time were widely available, was the domain of relatively few. Once the scientists have developed methods to extract and synthesize the active ingredients in plants, pharmaceutical companies took over herbal suppliers and producers of drugs. The use of herbs, most of the story had been current medical practice, began to be considered unscientific, or at least unconventional, and fall into relative obscurity.
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