Botanicals:
Herbal Materia Medica - Wild Edibles & Medicinals - Flower Essences - Aromatherapy - Healing Foods
Herbal Materia Medica - Wild Edibles & Medicinals - Flower Essences - Aromatherapy - Healing Foods
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. (John Muir)
Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light. (Theodore Roethke)
The secrets are in the plants. To elicit them you have to love them enough. (George Washington Carver)
Botanical Medicine
Botanical medicine comprises plants - or substances that come from plants, such as bark, seeds, roots, and stems - that are used to treat or prevent disease. Plants have been used in this way in all cultures from pre-history on.
The vital relationship humans have with plants is as old as time. Our history upon the planet has depended upon and deeply interwoven with our connection to the plant kingdom. Archeological excavations dated as early as 60,000 years ago have found remains of medicinal plants, such as opium poppies, ephedra, and cannabis.
In many early cultures, knowledge of a plant's curative properties came through the practice of Shamanism, which is a kind of spirit medicine still practiced in many parts of the world. Some Shamans communicate with certain plants ("plant teachers") to access knowledge about other plants and healing techniques.
There seems to be an intuitive connection between humans and plants that enables some sensitive individuals, under special circumstances, to tune in to the healing potential residing in plants.
What are the first written records? As the knowledge from Shamanism and other practical experimentation grew, herbalists began to catalog their knowledge of medicinal plants.
One of the oldest written records on medicinal plants, dated 1500 B.C., is the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus. In India, the Charaka Samhita, dated 700 B.C., documented the uses of more than 300 medicinal plants.
Are plants healers or non-living compounds? Throughout history, humans believed that the "vital spirit" of the plant contributed to its therapeutic effect. But in the early 1800s, scientists isolated morphine from opium, which led to the belief (in the West at least) that a single, non-living compound in a plant was responsible for its healing properties.
This, in turn, helped create the biomedical model of pharmacotherapy that still remains in medicine today. In this model, plants are seen simply as the source of a single chemical that targets a single receptor site or other part of the body and fixes the individual's health problem, much as a mechanic might use a wrench to fix an automobile.
This "machine" model of living systems can be useful, but it is clearly inadequate to explain the complexity of the human system. Humans display properties that are not reducible to the component parts, unlike parts of a machine. Likewise, the healing effects of plants cannot always be reduced to a single element.
Are plants used in pharmaceuticals today? Eventually most scientists believed that there was no need to use plants themselves in drugs because chemists could synthesize compounds that were more potent (and often more toxic) than the natural products offered by nature. Now, most pharmaceuticals are synthetic compounds.
But note that the structure of synthetic pharmaceuticals often resembles natural molecules. And as prominent botanical researcher Joanne Raskin noted in her 2002 study, 11 percent of the 252 drugs considered essential by the World Health Organization are exclusively derived from flowering plants.
What were the political, economic, and scientific impacts? Viewing plant medicines as simply sources of chemical compounds instead of vital spirits had profound political, economic, and scientific impacts.
Once the therapeutic effects of plants were attributed to inert chemicals, certain medical practitioners, who increasingly wanted to portray their profession as a rational and scientific endeavor, sought to distance themselves from the "superstitious" and intuitive practices of herbalists and other traditional healers. In the United States, the teaching of herbalism in the curricula of medical schools was prohibited and whole schools were closed in the 1930s.
Between 1990 and 1997, the use of botanical medicines increased by 380 percent in the United States. By 2010, the global retail sale of botanical dietary supplements amounted to more than $25 billion, according to Nutraceuticals World. Outside the United States, the World Health Organization reports that 75 to 85 percent of the world's population continues to rely on botanical medicines dispensed by traditional healers for primary healthcare, as they have always done.
The vital relationship humans have with plants is as old as time. Our history upon the planet has depended upon and deeply interwoven with our connection to the plant kingdom. Archeological excavations dated as early as 60,000 years ago have found remains of medicinal plants, such as opium poppies, ephedra, and cannabis.
In many early cultures, knowledge of a plant's curative properties came through the practice of Shamanism, which is a kind of spirit medicine still practiced in many parts of the world. Some Shamans communicate with certain plants ("plant teachers") to access knowledge about other plants and healing techniques.
There seems to be an intuitive connection between humans and plants that enables some sensitive individuals, under special circumstances, to tune in to the healing potential residing in plants.
What are the first written records? As the knowledge from Shamanism and other practical experimentation grew, herbalists began to catalog their knowledge of medicinal plants.
One of the oldest written records on medicinal plants, dated 1500 B.C., is the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus. In India, the Charaka Samhita, dated 700 B.C., documented the uses of more than 300 medicinal plants.
Are plants healers or non-living compounds? Throughout history, humans believed that the "vital spirit" of the plant contributed to its therapeutic effect. But in the early 1800s, scientists isolated morphine from opium, which led to the belief (in the West at least) that a single, non-living compound in a plant was responsible for its healing properties.
This, in turn, helped create the biomedical model of pharmacotherapy that still remains in medicine today. In this model, plants are seen simply as the source of a single chemical that targets a single receptor site or other part of the body and fixes the individual's health problem, much as a mechanic might use a wrench to fix an automobile.
This "machine" model of living systems can be useful, but it is clearly inadequate to explain the complexity of the human system. Humans display properties that are not reducible to the component parts, unlike parts of a machine. Likewise, the healing effects of plants cannot always be reduced to a single element.
Are plants used in pharmaceuticals today? Eventually most scientists believed that there was no need to use plants themselves in drugs because chemists could synthesize compounds that were more potent (and often more toxic) than the natural products offered by nature. Now, most pharmaceuticals are synthetic compounds.
But note that the structure of synthetic pharmaceuticals often resembles natural molecules. And as prominent botanical researcher Joanne Raskin noted in her 2002 study, 11 percent of the 252 drugs considered essential by the World Health Organization are exclusively derived from flowering plants.
What were the political, economic, and scientific impacts? Viewing plant medicines as simply sources of chemical compounds instead of vital spirits had profound political, economic, and scientific impacts.
Once the therapeutic effects of plants were attributed to inert chemicals, certain medical practitioners, who increasingly wanted to portray their profession as a rational and scientific endeavor, sought to distance themselves from the "superstitious" and intuitive practices of herbalists and other traditional healers. In the United States, the teaching of herbalism in the curricula of medical schools was prohibited and whole schools were closed in the 1930s.
Between 1990 and 1997, the use of botanical medicines increased by 380 percent in the United States. By 2010, the global retail sale of botanical dietary supplements amounted to more than $25 billion, according to Nutraceuticals World. Outside the United States, the World Health Organization reports that 75 to 85 percent of the world's population continues to rely on botanical medicines dispensed by traditional healers for primary healthcare, as they have always done.
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Additional Resources:
https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/
https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/