Melbourne Holistic Health Group

Published in /articles/category on 07 July 2009 by Ruth Trickey

Herbal medicine is as old as humanity itself. Evidence that plants may have been used as medicines from as early as 60, 000 years ago came from the discovery of the pollens of common plant medicines at the burial site of a Neanderthal man in a cave in Iraq. Marshmallow, grape hyacinth, yarrow, ephedra, all in use today, were placed beside him, perhaps as decorative offerings, or perhaps for his journey to the afterlife.

According to available knowledge, virtually all peoples throughout the world have used some form of plant medicine. Of those societies which still use herbal remedies as their source of medicine, many seem to share common traits. Almost all have an individual to whom the knowledge of specific plants is entrusted and who will pass on the information only to selected initiates. Many make a distinction between men’s and women’s knowledge and use of medicines.

Over centuries, careful observation revealed that there were optimum times to pick plants and administer medicines according to the phases of the moon, seasons or times of day; and that some parts of the plant were more effective than others. It soon became clear that different plants were more effective when administered in certain ways. Gradually the doctoring and supply of herbs developed into recognised professions: the physician became the early doctor and the apothecary became the pharmacist.

The first recorded herbal text was written in ancient Greece, in the fourth century BC, by Diocles of Carystius, a pupil of Aristotle. Herbals were initially probably written for the apothecaries. In the first century AD, Dioscorides wrote his famous De Materia Medica. The selection of plants, many of them previously unknown, and the precise way he wrote his text made the work so popular that it is still copied and quoted today.

Sufficient numbers of the valuable texts from the Arabs, Greeks, Romans and Egyptians have survived to give a good indication of the practice of herbal medicine by the scholarly and educated. However, much of the early practice of women’s medicine was continued as an oral tradition. It was either passed on from one initiate to another by the priestesses and wise women, to be used in strict accordance with the current law; or in the case of the common and everyday remedies, passed on from mother to daughter. This seems to have been especially true of contraceptive practices.

Birth control, or the absence of, has always had important consequences for women so it is highly likely they have sought to control their fertility throughout all of history. Certainly there is evidence that rates of reproduction have been limited by one means or another since as early as 200 BC. Restrictions in sexual activity and barrier contraceptives were used, and there is also evidence for the use of herbal remedies as contraceptives and abortifacients from as early as the first Egyptian medical documents.

One of the most compelling written pieces of evidence comes from the writings of Soranus, a Greek writer on gynaecology around 100 AD. He distinguishes between a contraceptive, which ‘does not let conception take place’ and an abortive, which ‘destroys what has been conceived’ and comments that ‘it is safer to prevent conception from taking place than to destroy the foetus’. A number of common plants including pomegranate (Punica granatum), the giant fennel (Ferula opopanax), rue (Ruta graveolens), juniper (Juniperus communis) and asafoetida (Ferula asafoetida) were all mentioned as being in common use in Europe.

But while some writers mention the use of these agents, there is little clear advice on the correct dosage, times of administration or even the way to take the remedies. Were they, for instance, to be used as pessaries, or taken orally? John Riddle, Professor of History at North Carolina State University, who has studied these issues extensively, has a possible explanation:

. . . ancient physicians, all those cited thus far being male, did not fully understand the procedures for taking the anti fertility agents. In no account, medical or non medical, is there sufficient detail to permit efficient administration . . . Thus knowledge of anti fertility plants, and how and when to take them, appears from the evidence scant though it is to belong to a female culture. Some of the medicinal plants were also salad plants. The implication . . . is that women were eating plants, such as rue and dill, from the same bowl as men who may not even have been aware of what was going on. One must suppose women knew what to eat, when and how often, and they would appear not to have learned this through books.

Science and medicine have remained sceptical of the effectiveness of plants for contraceptive purposes. In recent times, scientists have found that the seeds of Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota) have contraceptive qualities and stop implantation of the embryo as well as inhibit the production of progesterone. The regular consumption of the common pea, Pisum sativum, is reportedly responsible for the low birth rate in Tibet.

What was once common knowledge about herbal contraception, passed on through word of mouth, is lost to today’s herbalist. Early writings and current use both support the view that herbs taken as contraceptives seem efficient, and may even be relatively safe. Further investigation into their mode of action, the correct dosage and timing of administration may yet provide enough information to enable their confident prescription.

In sharp contrast to contraception, fever management was an important aspect of treatment for the early physicians and a vast body of instruction can be found in the literature. Infectious diseases were a cause of high mortality for all, but particularly for the young and the infirm, and prior to the use of antibiotics, even minor conditions had the potential to cause death. Elaborate systems for the differentiation of febrile conditions were developed which were based on removing the offending environmental agent, and stimulating the individual’s vitality.

Traditional practices for the management of colds, viruses and flus are still recommended by herbalists: acute illness with high temperatures where the person feels cold are treated with Hot herbs and fluids to encourage a subjective sense of heat and to allow the ‘fever to break’. This is in direct opposition to the recommended ‘take an aspirin and go to bed’ advice commonly given today. Herbalists believe that the body attempts to generate heat to overcome viral or bacterial invasion and that assisting this process may shorten the course of the illness.

All traditional medicine has developed a specific language and philos¬ophy on which to base its diagnostic and treatment rationales. Lack of vitality, catarrhal complaints, lymphatic congestion, toxicity or liverishness are all characteristic of herbal medicine, but are often understood by the public: for example, most of us know about being liverish and have an idea of what it means to lack vitality. In many cultures these concepts become so entwined with the language and a common understanding of health and disease that only a thin line exists between ‘commonsense’ and the knowledge of the practitioner. As a result, these concepts become difficult to articulate; they are just ‘known’ and as a result may not be taught or even conceptualised as concise and recurring syndromes.

Constitutional [Holistic] Herb Therapy is widely practised in China, Tibet, India, Japan, and Southeast Asia; its theories and methods have been written about in various Asian languages. The concept is so ingrained in everyday Asian life that herbalists there have not concerned themselves with comparing Constitutional Therapy with other kinds of therapy. As a result, it is not easy to find a book devoted to this subject even in the cultures where it is practised.

Over the past 50 years, herbal medicine in the West has changed its focus from the individual to be more interested in specific constituents of herbs and their impact on diseases. Detailed information is now available on the outcomes of a herbal medicine and it is possible to prescribe precisely for a number of complaints. Partly, this has been related to the increasing use of herbal remedies by medical practitioners in Europe and Japan, but it has also been associated with a lapse in the traditional language and philosophy of herbal medicine on which its rationale for diagnosing and treating disease was originally based.

One of the most basic tenets of the natural practitioner is the focus on the individual; on why there is disease, rather than what disease; on the vitality and constitutional type rather than the strain of bacteria, the type of cancer, the exact level of some blood component. To do anything less is to betray those people who have turned to herbal medicine for a more holistic solution to their health care. It is vital that herbalists retain their traditional understanding of patho physiology. A herbalist without this understanding might just as well be a doctor using herbs.

Sources

Griggs, B. 1981. Green Pharmacy, Hale, London. pp. 5.
Riddle, J.M. 1991. Oral contraceptives and early-term abortifacients during classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, Past and Present 132, pp. 3-32.
Riddle, J.M. 1991. Oral contraceptives and early-term abortifacients during classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, Past and Present 132, pp. 3-32.
Weiss, R.F. 1988. Herbal Medicine, AB Arcanum, Gothenburg, p. 320.
Dharmananda, S. 1986. Your Nature, Your Health, Institute for Traditional Medicine & Preventative Health Care, Portland, pp. 1.
Iyengar, B.K.S. 2001. Light on Yoga, (rev ed), Thorsons, Hammersmith. p. 23
Robson, T. 2003. An Introduction to Complementary Medicine, Allen and Unwin, New South Wales.pp. 76.
Jayasuriya, A. 1994. Clinical Homeopathy: A Complete Course on Homeopathy, Jain, New Delhi. pp. 35.