about medicine plant

Introduction

Plant medicines are the most widely used medicines in the world today. A full eighty-five percent (85%) of the world's population employs herbs as their primary medicines. And while drugstore shelves in the US are stocked mostly with synthetic remedies, in other parts of the world the situation is quite different. In Germany, pharmacies dispense herbs prescribed by physicians.

For 5.1 billion people worldwide, natural plant-based remedies are used for both acute and chronic health problems, from treating common colds to controlling blood pressure and cholesterol. Not so long ago, this was true in the US as well. As late as the early 1950's, many of the larger pharmaceutical companies still offered a broad variety of plant-based drugs in tablet, liquid and ointment forms.

Plants are the original source materials for as many as 40% of the pharmaceuticals in use in the United States today. This is to say that either the drugs currently contain plant-derived materials, or synthesized materials from agents originally derived from plants. Some medicines, such as the cancer drug Taxol (from Taxus brevifolia) and the anti-malarial quinine from Cinchona pubescens and are manufactured from plants.

Herbal Use 60,000 Years Ago

Neanderthals lived from about 200,000 years ago until roughly 30,000 years ago in Europe and western Asia. They coexisted with modern humans for most of the period but then mysteriously vanished. Physical evidence of use of herbal remedies goes back some 60,000 years to a burial site at Shanidar Cave, Iraq, in which a Neanderthal man was uncovered in 1960. He had been buried with eight species of plants, seven of which are still used for medicinal purposes today.

On September 19, 1991, one of the most extraordinary discoveries of our Century took place in Austria’s Otzal Alps, when two hiker

s discovered an ice mummy preserved by freezing. The analysis of samples of organic tissues has determined that the Iceman lived between 3350 and 3100 B.C.

The Ice Man died approximately 5200 years ago. At death he was between 40 and 50 years old and suffered from a number of medical conditions. He turned into a mummy accidentally almost immediately by the freezing weather conditions that turned him into the Ice Man. The Ice Man's possessions have given scientists a better look at what life was du

ring the Neolithic Age in Europe.

Drugs Are Often Dangerous

The results of this synthetic drug explosion have been unfortunate. Today, drugs prescribed in hospitals constitute the number six cause of death among American adults. This exceeds deaths due to crack, handguns, and traffic accidents combined. Add to that figure the number of adult and child deaths attributable to over the counter and prescription drugs given outside of hospitals, and the figures are even worse.

Synthetic Drugs Are Foreign To The Body

The same cannot be said about synthetic drugs. These agents are most often alien to the chemistry of the human body, and are separate and apart from the careful crafting of evolution. Synthetic drugs often act in the body as irritants and toxins, upsetting the balance of whole systems, producing side effects that can be lethal. By contrast, the regular and judicious use of herbs to protect and promote health and as medicines to help treat common ailments is an enlightened approach to personal well-being.

Plants Can Be Dangerous Too

Plants can also pose a danger to human health. Drink a tea made from oleander leaves or chew a mouthful of foxglove and and you'll be dead in a hurry. On the other hand, if you use any of the thousands of healthful herbs that have been utilized as traditional medicines over the past few millenia, in dosage ranges that have been determined by centuries of trial and error, you are likely to benefit without side effects.

Drugs Of Plant Origin

Senna alexandrina, a shrubby perennial native to Arabia, was introduced as a laxative to Europe by Arab physicians in the ninth century. Preparations of the plant and its cathartic pods are still widely used today in popular brands of drugstore laxatives.

Mentha (mint) species are the natural sources of menthol, an aromatic alcohol which is also known as peppermint camphor. Menthol is an active ingredient in topical preparations to relieve itching and as a mild local anesthetic to soothe soreness and ease muscular tension. Menthol is commonly used in lozenges for sore throats, and is added to inhalers to treat upper respiratory disorders and open congested sinuses. Peppermint oil, which can still be found in drugstores, is a centuries-old remedy for quelling an upset stomach.

Gaultheria procumbens, or wintergreen, is a source of methylsalicylate, which is widely used in topical ointments and liniments to relieve muscular pain, and for lumbago, sciatica and rheumatic conditions.

Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy, yields a sap of narcotic opium, from which the potent pain killer morphine is made. Seeds and capsules discovered in the four thousand year old archaeological remains of Swiss lake-dwellers suggest the use of the plant for its narcotic juice. In the eighth century Persian caravans bore both opium and its methods of euphoric use to India and China. In 1546 a French naturalist named Belon drew European attention to widespread opium abuse among Turks. Opium dens proliferated in Europe throughout the 1800's, while the opium trade became an enormous industry. Simultaneously, opium and its products heroin and morphine established themselves among drug users and in the field of medicine. Both uses continue to this day. In modern medicine, morphine and its analogues remain unsurpassed pain killers.

Digitalis purpurea, the purple foxglove, is a popular garden plant cultivated as a source of digitoxin, a cardiac drug which increases the strength of heart beat while decreasing its rate. The plant was recommended for medicinal purposes in the seventeenth century, and has appeared in the French Pharmacopoeia since its first printing in 1818. Digitoxin is used in the treatment of congestive heart failure and other cardiac disorders. Digitalis lanata, the woolly foxglove, is cultivated commercially as a source of digoxin, a cardiotonic used for the same purposes as digitoxin.

On a trip to Burma in 1930, an Indian named M. Manal discovered that elephants in captivity were often fed a particular type of root reputed to produce a calming effect. Intrigued, Manal brought samples of the plant back to India, where he conducted tests on its properties. The plant, Rauwolfia serpentina, named after famous 16th century German physician and explorer Leonhart Rauwolf, demonstrated both tranquilizing and anti-hypertensive properties. These effects were due to the presence of the alkaloid reserpine. In 1934 Serpina, the world's first-ever anti-hypertensive drug, was launched. Today reserpine is used both as an antihypertensive and as a sedative to relieve some types of psychiatric disorders.

Ecuadorian Cinchona pubescens , a fast-growing evergreen, as well as other species of cinchona, stand among the greatest life-saving medicines of all time. According to legend this plant was brought to light in the 1620's when Ecuadorean physician Juan del Vega used a Quichua native remedy known as "quina bark" on the Countess of Chinchon, wife of the Viceroy of Peru, who had contracted malaria, a potentially fatal disease caused by a protazoan in the stomach of the female Anopheles mosquito. The Countess recovered, and "quina bark" became known as "Countess bark." Word of the cure spread, and cinchona was popularized by an apothecary's assistant named Robert Talbor in the late 1660's. Over the next 150 years a huge trade in cinchona bark developed. In the early 19th century, the Dutch established cinchona plantations in Java. In 1820, quinine was isolated from cinchona, and a successful treatment for malaria was established. Today cinchona is cultivated in several tropical regions, and the approximately 10,000 tons of bark harvested annually yields 500 tons of quinine and related alkaloids quinidine, cinchonine, and cinchonidine.

The Other Side Of Plant Medicines

On this web site, you will encounter a great deal of information about the non-pharmaceutical side of plant medicines. Today, you can acquire botanicals at pharmacies, natural product stores, and supermarkets. The proliferation of plant medicines is steadily on the increase. Today, plant medicines account for over $60 Billion in sales worldwide, according the the World Health Organization.

On this site, you can learn about kava, maca, tamanu, Rhodiola rosea, Tongkat Ali, and a plethora of safe, effective plant medicines. In this way, you will become better informed, and will learn to more fully appreciate the critically important role that plant medicines play in health and culture