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Botanical (Herbal) Medicine

OVERVIEW

Botanical (Herbal) Medicine is the use of plants as medicine.  Many plant substances are powerful medicines that are safe and effective when used properly.  A resurgence of scientific research in Europe and Asia is demonstrating that some plant substances are superior to synthetic drugs in clinical conditions. 

HISTORY

Plants have served as one of the main sources of medicine since before human societies had written history.  In some countries, such as India and China, the use of medicinal herbs has enjoyed an unbroken lineage since the beginning of recorded history.  In these cultures herbal medicine has developed into a science as literally thousands of years of records document the specific uses, successes and failures of herbs and herbal formulas.  These countries still enjoy a rich herbal medicine tradition, with a large portion of the population depending on herbal and other traditional medicines as their primary medicine.  Reliance on herbal and traditional medicines is also the norm for most of the developing world.  Current research is finding certain herbal remedies more effective for difficult epidemics such asMalaria and AIDS in Africa. 

In Europe and North America herbal medicine has had a more difficult road.  Herbal traditions in the “west” share the same ancient beginnings.  Very highly developed systems were documented in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Persia and the Middle East.  Herbal medicine was popular in Europe off and on, but was wiped out during the dark ages, by the Inquisition, and by several other political shifts that made the knowledge and use of plants unpopular and dangerous.  Each time knowledge and wisdom of the use and combination of herbs was lost. Each resurgence in the use of herbal medicine in Europe required quite a bit of “starting over”.  In North America, the native peoples had herbal traditions, as did some of  the European settlers. 

Until the discovery of antibiotics, herbal medicine was in common use in America.  The discovery of antibiotics marked the beginning of the “miracle drug” age and a major shift in thinking around medicine.  For many decades it appeared that drugs would become the answer to all health problems, and herbal medicine was both abandoned due to lack of interest, and suppressed by the political lobby of the new medical paradigm. 

Recently natural and particularly herbal medicines are being “re-discovered” in the United States  (most everyone else has continued using them through all these years).  Pharmaceutical drugs are showing limitations, and problems.  Herbal medicine is being recognized again as the safe and effective therapy that it offers. 

According to the World Health Organization, over 25% of modern drug medicines are derived from plants with similar traditional uses.  In most countries worldwide (including Europe) Herbal medicines are used by a significant portion of the population. 

I have been trained extensively in the use of European, North American, and Chinese Herbs.  I have trained with herbalists in Boulder Colorado, Seattle, and Peru as well as working with  many teachers from around the world that have taught at various Herbal courses and conferences I have attended.  Additionally I come from a long line of botanists and plant lovers.  My grandmother was known in her hometown of Houston for “jumping over ditches to teach school children about some plant or another”.  I am an avid gardener, and often make herbal medicines for myself from my garden or ethical wildcrafting in the woods.