 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
Herbal Medicines and RemediesHerbal medicine, also referred to as Medicinal Botany, herbal medicine, herbology, botanical medicine and phytotherapy, is a traditional medicine or folk remedy practice based on the usage of plants, herbs and plant extracts. The bio informatics related to this subject could be referred to as Med Botanics. Using the healing properties of plants and their extracts is an ancient practice. People on every continent have used thousands, of indigenous plant medicines and remedies for the treatment of various ailments dating back to prehistory. There is some evidence suggesting Neanderthals living 60,000 years ago in current day Iraq utilized plants for medicinal purposes. Discovered Neanderthal burial sites show they were buried with eight species of plants). These same plants are still widely used in ethnomedicine around the world. The first accepted usage of plants as healing agents was shown in cave paintings discovered in the Lascaux caves in France, which have been carbon dated to 13,000 - 25,000 BC. Anthropologists theorize that over time, with trial and error, a small base of medicinal knowledge would have been acquired in early tribal communities. As this knowledge base expanded over time, the specialized roles of the herbalist emerged. This process would have occurred in varying manners in a wide variety of cultures. Plants have an almost limitless ability to synthesize aromatic substances, most are phenols or their oxygen substituted derivatives like tannins. Most are secondary metabolites, at least 12,000 have been isolated (less than 10% of the total). In many instances, these substances serve as plant defense mechanisms against predation by microorganisms, insects, and herbivores. Many of the herbs and spices used by people to season food are useful medicinal compounds. The usage of and search for drugs and dietary supplements derived from plants have accelerated in recent years. Pharmacologists, microbiologists, botanists, and natural products chemists are scouring the Earth for phyto-chemicals and leads to be developed for treatment of numerous diseases. In fact, approximately 25% of modern pharmaceuticals used in the US have been derived from plants. The usage of herbs to treat diseases is almost universal in non-industrialized societies. Many traditions came to dominate the practice of herbal medicine in the Western world at the end of the twentieth century: * The Western, based on Greek and Roman sources, * The Ayurvedic from India, and * Chinese herbal medicine (Chinese herbology). Many of the pharmaceutical products currently used by Western doctors have a long history of use as herbal remedies, including opium, aspirin, digitalis, and quinine. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 80 percent of the world population use herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care. Herbal medicine is a major component of all traditional medicine and a common element in Ayurvedic, homeopathic, naturopathic, traditional Chinese medicine, and Native American Indian medicine. According to the WHO, 74% of 119 modern plant-derived pharmaceuticals are used in ways correlating directly to their traditional usages. Major pharmaceutical companies are conducting extensive research on plant materials gathered from the rainforests and other places for possible new pharmaceutical products. The Emu, has been held in high regard and revered by the Australian Aboriginal people for hundreds of years as a very important source of medicine, food, and clothing. Emu oil was used by the aboriginal peoples to reduce pain and swelling of joints, arthritis and muscle pain relief, improve the healing of wounds and burns, reduce itch and to reduce the inflammation from insect bites. Emu oil was also in use to relieve sunburn, dry skin, cracked lips and skin irritations. The aboriginal people introduced Emu oil as a healing aid to the early Australian explorers and settlers. Emu oil soon became a valued addition to the settlers medicine cabinet and is still being used today in modern Australia. Aborigines would wrap the oily skin around the sick person and place them in the sun allowing the oil to liquefy and penetrate the skin. |
