History
of Herbal Medicine - மூலிகைமருந்தின் வரலாறு
மூலிகைமருந்தின் குரு அகத்தியர் கண்டது
15000 வருடத்திற்கு முந்தையை வரலாறு படைத்தது
Introduction
Herbal Medicine, sometimes referred to as Herbalism or Botanical Medicine, is
the use of herbs for their therapeutic or medicinal value. An herb is a plant
or plant part valued for its medicinal, aromatic or savory qualities. Herb
plants produce and contain a variety of chemical substances that act upon the
body.
Herbalists use the leaves,
flowers, stems, berries, and roots of plants to prevent, relieve, and treat
illness. From a "scientific" perspective, many herbal treatments are
considered experimental. The reality is, however, that herbal medicine has a
long and respected history. Many familiar medications of the twentieth century
were developed from ancient healing traditions that treated health problems
with specific plants. Today, science has isolated the medicinal properties of a
large number of botanicals, and their healing components have been extracted
and analyzed. Many plant components are now synthesized in large laboratories
for use in pharmaceutical preparations. For example, vincristine (an antitumor
drug), digitalis (a heart regulator), and ephedrine (a bronchodilator used to
decrease respiratory congestion) were all originally discovered through
research on plants.
History of Herbal Medicine
Herbal medicine is the oldest form
of healthcare known to mankind. Herbs had been used by all cultures throughout
history. It was an integral part of the development of modern civilization.
Primitive man observed and appreciated the great diversity of plants available
to him. The plants provided 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 its knowledgebase. They methodically
collected information on herbs and developed well-defined herbal
pharmacopoeias. Indeed, well into the 20th century much of the pharmacopoeia of
scientific medicine was derived from the herbal lore of native peoples. Many
drugs commonly used today are of herbal origin. Indeed, about 25% of the
prescription drugs dispensed in the United States contain at least one
active ingredient derived from plant material. Some are made from plant
extracts; others are synthesized to mimic a natural plant compound.
Undisputedly, 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 white
willow bark and the meadowsweet plant. Cinchona bark is the source of
malaria-fighting quinine. Vincristine, used to treat certain types of cancer,
comes from periwinkle. The opium poppy yields morphine, codeine, and paregoric,
a treatment for diarrhea Laudanum, a tincture of the opium poppy, was the
favored tranquilizer in Victorian times. Even today, morphine-the most
important alkaloid of the opium poppy-remains the standard against which new
synthetic pain relieves is measured.
Prior to the discovery and
subsequent synthesis of antibiotics, the herb echinacea (which comes from the
plant commonly known as purple coneflower) was one of the most widely
prescribed medicines in the United
States. For centuries, herbalists prescribed
echinacea to fight infection. Today, research confirms that the herb boosts the
immune system by stimulating the production of disease-fighting white blood
cells.
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
Stone Age man in Iraq.
These three medicinal herbs continue to be used today. Marshmallow root is a
demulcent herb, soothing to inflamed or irritated mucous membranes, such as a
sore throat or irritated digestive tract. Hyacinth is a diuretic that
encourages tissues to give up excess water. Yarrow is a time-honored cold and
fever remedy that may once have been used much as aspirin is today.
In 2735 B.C., the Chinese emperor
Shen Nong wrote an authoritative treatise on herbs that is still in use today.
Shen Nong recommended the use of Ma Huang (known as ephedra in 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 many allergy, sinus, and cold-relief medications
produced by large pharmaceutical companies.
The records of King Hammurabi of Babylon (c. 1800 B.C.)
include instructions for using medicinal plants. Hammurabi prescribed the use
of mint for digestive disorders. Modern research has confirmed that peppermint
does indeed relieve nausea and vomiting by mildly anesthetizing the lining of
the stomach.
The entire Middle
East has a rich history of herbal healing. There are texts
surviving from the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India that
describe and illustrate the use of many medicinal plant products, including
castor oil, linseed oil, and white poppies. In the scriptural book of Ezekiel,
which dates from the sixth century B.C., we find this admonition regarding
plant life: "..and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and leaf thereof
for medicine." Egyptian hieroglyphs show physicians of the first and second
centuries A.D. treating constipation with senna pods, and using caraway and
peppermint to relieve digestive upsets.
Throughout the Middle Ages,
home-grown botanicals were the only medicines readily available, and for
centuries, no self-respecting household would be without a carefully tended and
extensively used herb garden. For the most part, herbal healing lore was passed
from generation to generation by word of mouth. Mother taught daughter; the
village herbalist taught a promising apprentice.
By the seventeenth century, the
knowledge of herbal medicine was widely disseminated throughout Europe. In 1649, Nicholas Culpeper wrote A Physical
Directory, and a few years later produced The English Physician.
This respected herbal pharmacopeia was one of the first manuals that the
layperson could use for health care, and it is still widely referred to and
quoted today. Culpeper had studied at Cambridge University
and was meant to become a great doctor, in the academic sense of the word.
Instead, he chose to apprentice to an apothecary and eventually set up his own
shop. He served the poor people of London
and became known as their neighborhood doctor. The herbal he created was meant
for the layperson.
The first U.S. Pharmacopeia
was published in 1820. This volume included an authoritative listing of herbal
drugs, with descriptions of their properties, uses, dosages, and tests of
purity. It was periodically revised and became the legal standard for medical
compounds in 1906. But as Western medicine evolved from an art to a science in
the nineteenth century, information that had at one time been widely available
became the domain of comparatively few. Once scientific methods were developed
to extract and synthesize the active ingredients in plants, pharmaceutical
laboratories took over from providers of medicinal herbs as the producers of
drugs. The use of herbs, which for most of history had been mainstream medical
practice, began to be considered unscientific, or at least unconventional, and
to fall into relative obscurity.
Herbal Medicine Today
The World Health Organization
(WHO) estimates that 4 billion people, 80% of the world population, presently
use herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care. Herbal medicine is
a major component in all indigenous peoples’ traditional medicine and a common
element in Ayurvedic, homeopathic, naturopathic, traditional oriental, and
Native American Indian medicine. WHO notes that of 119 plant-derived
pharmaceutical medicines, about 74% are used in modern medicine in ways that
correlated directly with their traditional uses as plant medicines by native
cultures. Major pharmaceutical companies are currently conducting extensive
research on plant materials gathered from the rain forests and other places for
their potential medicinal value.
Today, the U.S. Pharmacopoeia,
with its reliance on herbal compounds, has been all but forgotten. Most modern
physicians rely on the Physician's Desk Reference, an extensive
listing of chemically manufactured drugs. It is important to note that each
entry in this enormous volume, in addition to specifying the chemical compound
and actions of a particular drug, also includes an extensive list of
contraindications and possible side effects.
Rather than using a whole plant,
pharmacologists identify, isolate, extract, and synthesize individual
components, thus capturing the active properties. This can create problems,
however. In addition to active ingredients, plants contain minerals, vitamins,
volatile oils, glycosides, alkaloids, bioflavanoids, and other substances that
are important in supporting a particular herb's medicinal properties. These
elements also provide an important natural safeguard Isolated or synthesized
active compounds can become toxic in relatively small doses; it usually takes a
much greater amount of a whole herb, with all of its components, to reach a
toxic level. Herbs are medicines, however, and they can have powerful
effects. They should not tee taken lightly. The suggestions for herbal
treatments in this book are not intended to substitute for consultation with a
qualified health care practitioner, but rather to support and assist you in
understanding and working with your physician's advice.
Substances derived from the plants
remain the basis for a large proportion of the commercial medications used
today for the treatment of heart disease, high blood pressure, pain, asthma,
and other problems. For example, ephedra is an herb used in Traditional Chinese
Medicine for more than two thousand years to treat asthma and other respiratory
problems. Ephedrine, the active ingredient in ephedra, is used in the
commercial pharmaceutical preparations for the relief of asthma symptoms and
other respiratory problems. It helps the patient to breathe more easily.
Another example of the use of an
herbal preparation in modern medicine is the foxglove plant. This herb had been
in use since 1775. At present, the powdered leaf of this plant is known as the
cardiac stimulant digitalis to the millions of heart patients it keeps alive
worldwide.
There are over 750,000 plants on
earth. Relatively speaking, only a very few of the healing herbs have been
studied scientifically. And because modern pharmacology looks for one active
ingredient and seeks to isolate it to the exclusion of all the others, most of
the research that is done on plants continues to focus on identifying and
isolating active ingredients, rather than studying the medicinal properties of
whole plants. Herbalists, however, consider that the power of a plant lies in
the interaction of all its ingredients. Plants used as medicines offer
synergistic interactions between ingredients both known and unknown.
The efficacy of many medicinal
plants has been validated by scientists abroad, from Europe
to the Orient. Thanks to modern technology, science can now identify some of
the specific properties and interactions of botanical constituents. With this
scientific documentation, we now know why certain herbs are effective against
certain conditions. However, almost all of the current research validating
herbal medicine has been done in Germany,
Japan, China, Taiwan,
and Russia.
And for the most part, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
which is responsible for licensing all new drugs (or any substances for which
medicinal properties are claimed) for use in the United States, does not
recognize or accept findings from across the sea. Doctors and government
agencies want to see American scientific studies before recognizing the
effectiveness of a plant as medicine. Yet even though substantial research is
being done in other countries, drug companies and laboratories in the United States
so far have not chosen to put much money or resources into botanical research.
The result is that herbal medicine does not have the same place of importance
or level of acceptance in this country as it does in other countries.
Common Herbs and Herbal
Preparations
Herbs are available in a variety
of forms, including fresh, dried, in tablets or capsules, or bottled in liquid
form. You can buy them individually or in mixtures formulated for specific
conditions. Whatever type of product you choose, the quality of an herbal
preparation-be it in capsule, tablet, tea, tincture, bath, compress, poultice,
or ointment form-is only as good as the quality of the raw herb from which it
was made.
Generally, herbs fall into two
categories: wild-grown and farm-grown. A wild-grown herb is one that grows
naturally, without human intervention. As a result of natural selection, plants
tend to be found in places with conditions that optimize their growth. For
example, horsetail grows best in moist, swampy areas, while arnica thrives at
high altitudes in alpine meadows. The process of gathering herbs from their
natural habitats is called wildcrafting.
The disadvantage of wild-grown
herbs is that there is no guarantee the plants haven't been exposed to
chemicals and pesticides. Herbs harvested from a meadow, for example, may have
been exposed to chemical drift from a crop-dusted farm nearby. Exhaust fumes
from passing traffic may have settled invisibly on plants growing near a
country road. Water-loving plants, like horsetail, may be rooted in the bank of
a polluted stream.
Because of the possibility of
contamination, unless you are very sure of the source of wildcrafted herbs,
organic herbs grown commercially may be a better choice. Organic farm-grown
herbs are becoming increasingly available, as more and more herb farms are
being established. With careful management, organic herb farms can provide a
steady supply of quality herbs to the consumer.
To produce top-quality products,
herb farmers require a great deal of specialized knowledge. For maximum
potency, it is important that particular herbs be harvested at the optimum
moment. For example, echinacea is gathered in the spring, winter, and fall, but
not in summer, when the plant's energies are concentrated on growth and
flowering.
Responsible farmers use compost
and organic matter to fertilize and replenish the health of the soil. For
obvious reasons, we favor the use of certified organically grown herbs,
produced without the use of synthetic fertilizers or chemical pesticides. As of
this writing, not all states have agencies inspecting and certifying organic
growers, so to be sure you are getting pure, pesticide-free herbs grown without
chemical contamination, check the label for the words "certified
organic" before you make a purchase. The name of the certifying agency
should be specified on the label. Two reliable organizations that certify
organic products are the Organic Growers and Buyers Association and California
Certified Organic Farmers. Organic products grown in the states of Washington and Texas
should be certified organic by the Department of Agriculture of the relevant
state. As of this writing, federal legislation on requirements for labeling a
product "organic" has been passed, but is not yet being fully
implemented. Once it is, it should be easier to be sure that you are buying a
genuine organic product. Hopefully this will take place in the next few years.
Administering Herbal
Treatment
Herbs and prepared herbal
compounds are available in different forms, each of which has its own
particular characteristics. Your health food store will have individual herbs
as well as complex herbal formulations, including raw herbs, tinctures,
extracts, capsules, tablets, lozenges, and ointments. Here's a look at what's
available.
Tinctures
If the label says tincture, the preparation contains alcohol. In a
tincture,
alcohol is employed to extract and concentrate the active properties of the
herb. Alcohol is also a very effective natural preservative. Because a tincture
is easily assimilated by the body, it is a very effective way to administer
herbal compounds. Tinctures are concentrated and cost-effective. However, the full
taste of the herb comes through very strongly in a tincture. Children-and
adults, too-may find the taste of some herbs unpleasant. Goldenseal, for
example, is bitter-tasting.
Another concern when using
tinctures is the presence of the alcohol. If you wish to lessen the amount of
alcohol in a tincture before giving it to your child, mix the appropriate dose
with one-quarter cup of very hot water. After about five minutes, most
of the taste of the alcohol will have evaporated away, and the mixture should be
cool enough to drink.
Extracts
Extracts can be made with alcohol, like tinctures, or the essence of the herb
can be leached out with water. When purchasing a liquid extract of an herb, the
only way to be certain of the extraction process (alcohol or water) is to read
the label. Extracts offer essentially the same advantages and disadvantages
that tinctures do. They are the most concentrated form of herbal treatment and
therefore the most cost-effective. They are easy to administer, but have a
strong herbal taste.
Capsules and Tablets
Capsules and tablets contain a
ground or powdered form of raw herb. In general, there seems to be little
difference between the two in terms of clinical results. Because finely milled
herbs degrade quickly, it is important that herbs be freshly ground and then
promptly encapsulated or tabeleted, within twenty-four hours of being powdered.
When making your selection, read the label to make sure fresh herbs have been
used in the product. With the exception of certain herbal concentrates in
capsule form, both capsules and tablets tend to be much less strong and potent
than tinctures and extracts.
Teas
There are many delicious blends of herbal teas on the shelves of your health
food store; they need no introduction here. You'll find loose herbs ready for
steeping, herbal formulations aimed at specific conditions, and convenient
pre-bagged teas. Some are just for sipping; some are medicinal. When your child
is ill, a comforting cup of herbal tea (medicinal or not) is a wonderful way to
give additional liquids.
Lozenges
Herbal-based, nutrient-rich, naturally sweetened lozenges are readily available
in most health food shops. You'll find cold-fighting formulas, natural cough
suppressants, some with decongestant properties. Many are boosted with natural
vitamin C. Choose lozenges made without refined sugar.
Ointments, Salves, and
Rubs
From calendula ointment (for
broken skin and wounds) to goldenseal (for infections, rashes, and skin
irritations) to aloe vera gel (to cool and speed the healing of minor burns,
including sunburn) to heat-producing herbs (for muscle aches and strains),
there's a wealth of topical herbal-based products on the market. Your selection
will depend on the condition you are treating.
