Herbalism

Early History

The first written records of the use of herbs in healing were made by the ancient Sumerians who jotted down lists of hundreds of medicinal plants on clay tablets. Egyptian hieroglyphs reveal physicians treating digestive disorders [Page 1061]with peppermint and caraway, and there are numerous references in the Bible to a wide variety of herbs. The Emperor Shen Nong of China's Han dynasty was said to have tasted hundreds of herbs to test their medicinal value. In addition to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Kampo, its Japanese adaptation, India's Ayurvedic medical system includes the extensive use of herbs, as do the native healing systems of South America, Africa, and Australia. In North America, Native Americans used approximately 2,500 of the 20,000 native plant species for medicinal purposes, and there was prevalent use of herbs in early colonial America and in Appalachian folk medicine.

Trade and war did much to help spread herbs, plants, and spices to new places, including to Greece, where Hippocrates (the father of Western medicine) included some 400 herbal remedies in his writings. Perhaps the most influential treatise on herbs—and a precursor to all modern pharmacopeias—is the De Materia Medica, written in the 1st century c.e. by the Greek physician Dioscorides, who identified and described the healing properties of more than 500 plants.

In the Middle Ages herbs and plants were the only drugs available, and many of these had to be dried before they could be used. Various parts of the plant (including the root, seed, bark, flower, and leaf) were used for different purposes; they were made into infusions, decoctions, ointments, syrups, and poultices. For example, fennel was prescribed as a cure for colic, headaches, and as an appetite suppressant.

Much of what is known today about the use of herbs in the Middle Ages is derived from Benedictine monks who compiled and copied herb lore in the written form of “herbals.” Many purveyors of this knowledge were “wise women,” some of whom worked within their communities, while others were wanderers.

Herbalism and the Treatment of Disease

The practice of herbalism is as available as backyard gardens, and it was gardeners down through the ages, probably through trial and error, who discovered which plants were safe for consumption and for healing. Those early medieval apothecaries and physicians grew herbs in their own gardens, but so did most ordinary citizens of the time. What people learned about these plants (folk medicine) was passed down from generation to generation in homes and villages.

Herbs can be either farm grown or wild grown. The harvesting of herbs from their natural habitats is called wildcrafting. In addition to the uses mentioned above, herbs can be made into therapeutic teas, tinctures (alcoholic extracts of herbs), essential oils, and inhaled as in aromatherapy.

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