Herbal medicine introduction
Herbal medicine
involves the use of plants for medicinal purposes. The term 'herb' includes leaves,
stems, flowers, fruits, seeds, roots, rhizomes, and bark, although in many traditions
other naturally occurring substances including animal and mineral products are
also used. There can be little doubt that the use of plants for healing purposes
is the most ancient form of medicine known. Men and women, led by instinct, taste,
and experience, used plants for healing which were not part of their normal diet;
the physical evidence for herbalism goes back some 60,000 years to a Neanderthal
burial site uncovered in 1960.
In China, Huang Di, the legendary Yellow Emperor
is credited with writing The Yellow Emperor's classic of internal medicine (Huang
Di Nei Jing), which lists 12 herbal prescriptions. The authorship of China's first
materia medica (Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing) is credited to the mythical Shen Nong
('divine father'), the Yellow Emperor's predecessor.
The Egyptians are also
renowned for the use of herbs, and official schools for herbalists existed in
Egypt as early as 3000 BC. The Ebers Papyrus, written around 1500 BC and discovered
in 1862, contains around 876 prescriptions made up of more than 500 different
substances. Many of the founders of the ancient Greek schools of medicine owed
their learning to the Egyptians. Hippocrates was tutored by Egyptian priest-doctors,
and his writings mention over 250 medicinal plants. A vast body of Greco-Roman
knowledge of herbs was preserved and enlarged upon by the Arabs. This knowledge,
much of which had been lost to Europe in the Dark Ages, was reintroduced to Europe
when the Crusaders returned from the Middle East. In India too, traditional medicine
incorporated a large number of herbal remedies; the Indian Materia Medica, published
in 1908, listed 2982 medicinal plants. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
many Europeans emigrated to North America. These settlers discovered that the
indigenous Indian population was skilled at using the native plants as medicines
and they began to incorporate them into their own remedies. Many of these new
herbal remedies from the Americas were also brought back to Europe.
Despite
the popularity of herbalism in the West, by the beginning of the eighteenth century,
herbal medicine had begun to fall out of favour with the medical profession, which
considered it to be unscientific and imprecise. In Britain, professional herbalism
survived only through the establishment of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists
in 1864, which is still flourishing today, and is the oldest register of practising
medical herbalists in the world.
Herbal traditions There are three main methods
through which herbal medicines are prescribed. The first is traditional Chinese
medicine (TCM); herbal medicines are an essential part of TCM and are prescribed
according to an individualised diagnosis, much as one would prescribe particular
acupuncture points. Ayurvedic herbs are also prescribed according to the main
underlying principles of Ayurvedic medicine on an individual basis. Western herbal
prescriptions are individually formulated and usually involve a mixture of herbs.
However, western herbal remedies are prepared solely from plant material, whereas
traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic herbs may also use some animal and mineral substances.
Chinese herbs are usually prepared as decoctions; this means that the herbal mixtures
are boiled and a liquid is prepared. Ayurvedic and Western herbs are usually administered
in alcohol-water extracts or tinctures. Standard or patented traditional Chinese
herbal products are available as pills, as are a number of individual Western
herbs. Herbal preparations are increasingly available in health food shops and
pharmacies over the counter to treat a variety of quite specific medical problems
(for instance, the use of St John's Wort in depression).
Reproduced with the
kind permission of BMA Publications from Professor George Lewith's book, Understanding
Complementary Medicine.