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Herbal medicine: how to treat yourself with plants
Herbal medicine is called herbal therapy (from the Greek phyto = plant and therapeia = care).
It is a therapy which uses plants or galenic forms derived from plants excluding the principles of pure extraction isolated from plants. Thus many galenic forms can be used: herbal teas (infused, decocted, etc.), powders, dry extracts (nebulisates, lyophilisates, etc.), liquid extracts, etc.
Across the world, all ethnic groups have a traditional pharmacopoeia made up of a dozen medicinal plants selected for their effectiveness over the centuries and passed down from generation to generation. This knowledge of medicinal plants has formed into pharmacopoeias, which are collections of knowledge and practices linked to the therapeutic indications of these plants.
The learned medicines of written tradition, Greek, Arab-Persian, Ayurvedic and Chinese based their transmission of medical knowledge on these pharmacopoeias. In Europe, the knowledge of medicinal plants was formalized with Greek medicine developed by Hippocrates from the 4th century BC. In the Middle Ages, Arab-Persian medicine took up the bases of Greek humoral theory and l ‘developed by incorporating plants from Ayurvedic medicine. These Arab-Persian treatises were then translated into Latin from Andalusian Spain in the 13th century and formed the basis of European medicine. In other regions of the world, such as Africa or the Americas, the transmission of knowledge has been mainly oral.
How to know if a plant is medicinal ?
In France, plants are considered medicinal when they are included in the list of medicinal plants of the French Pharmacopoeia. Brought back from the Americas like cinchona, from Africa like cola nut or from China like ginseng, these exotic plants have been gradually integrated into the French Pharmacopoeia. During the second half of the 20th century, few new plants obtained the status of medicinal plants in France. However, over the past fifteen years, new plants have entered this list. These are plants from the overseas departments, which have provided around fifty new plants from the traditions of these overseas communities. At the same time, around sixty Chinese plants were also included in this list and were the subject of control monographs at the European Pharmacopoeia. For its part, Africa conceals many interesting medicinal plants, widely used at the traditional level and often well studied scientifically, but whose use has not yet been recognized by local or international institutional bodies.
Why treat yourself with medicinal plants ?
Man has always sought in nature the means to heal himself.
Although medicine has made tremendous progress through chemistry and recently through biology, drugs that are developed to treat severe illnesses are often ill-suited to chronic conditions that start out mildly and then get worse and worse. the bed of much more serious problems. This disproportion between the evil and the remedy has become blatant. Too many drugs, developed to treat serious diseases, then spread to the population of small chronically ill patients who thus benefit from their shock effectiveness, but also suffer from the risks and undesirable effects which are attached to them. In pharmacology the law of “who can do more can do less” does not apply.
Herbal medicine has its place in this gap between the end of the means. It has its place with therapeutic effects that may be less powerful at the moment, but less problematic in the long term and that it is possible to maintain over long periods without difficulty.
The objective of the phytotherapy articles on the Soin et Nature blog is to promote the recognition of common medicinal plants in the world, some of which already have a regulatory status in certain countries, in order to be able to diversify our therapeutic arsenal with plants, many of which have made their mark. evidence in their respective cultures and in scientific validation studies.
Much more used by popular medicine, milk thistle will have to wait until the beginning of the 16th century before therapists finally take it into consideration . However, from the eighteenth century, the virtues of milk thistle, as diverse as they are, were thrown away by practitioners. Whatever. The twentieth century will restore the image of this repudiated plant. A little history The name milk thistle … Read more
Benefit of the earth nicknamed “sovereign essence”, ginseng has been considered for millennia throughout the Far East as THE plant sent by the gods to help men since their creation. This vegetable gnome, this homunculus having captured telluric energies is, whatever the date of its first use, considered as a panacea (of the goddess Panakeia , daughter of Asclepius god of medicine, … Read more
Petite, vivace et rustique, l’alchémille ne peut prétendre à la sensualité et la luxuriance de certaines autres plantes. Cependant, elle se distingue par sa capacité à recueillir la rosée dans ses feuilles. Cette eau, plus qu’une simple rosée, est également une eau végétale excrétée par la plante elle-même, nommée « eau céleste ». En raison … Read more
Bearberry is one of the great omissions from medical literature throughout antiquity. The Middle Ages fared little better, considering that the earliest documents relating to it date back only to the 12th century: some English books mention its use, and it is even mentioned in a 13th-century Welsh herbarium entitled Les médecins de Myddfai (The … Read more
The belief of the Ancients was based on the idea of a plant that was not born from a seed. A plant with ashen leaves, a flavour reminiscent of soot and the smell of smoke, with a vaporous, evanescent appearance that evokes a blurred silhouette just like smoke rising from the bowels of the Earth… … Read more
Host of the countryside, the hawthorn likes the edge of forests where it seems to be on guard, both in the direction of open and covered places where, then, we see it teaming up with large deciduous or coniferous trees. But it is undoubtedly none to the hedge that it is, with the black thorn, … Read more
Who does not remember these Mediterranean landscapes where the dark cypress raises its narrow mourning columns against the violent blue of the sky? Before embellishing the Côte d’Azur and playing the useful role of a rampart against the wind and sand, the cypress took root in Asia Minor , where its presence is recorded in an old Assyrian … Read more
Burdock, in addition to its medicinal implication in the daily life of men , has also been a plant linked to the spiritual domain. Already, 2000 years ago, Pliny indicated that it was one of the favorite plants of the Druids. Later, we will find it in the procession of solsticial plants and those that we throw (among others) into the … Read more
Like any solar plant , echinacea offers medical matter its flower head, the culmination of this plant, but also what is diametrically opposed to it, namely, a ruffled root strain. Although arriving late in Europe (1930s), echinacea, the study of which began after World War II, particularly in Germany, have since revealed some of their secrets . A little history … Read more
Scabies is a skin condition that most commonly affects humans. The responsible parasite attacks the epidermis by making sort of furrows in it as a nest. Then the female parasite chooses them to lay the eggs. This then causes itching . Gradually, lesions form on the skin. Namely, that this type of disease is contagious. In other words, it can be transmitted from person to … Read more
Heavy legs are a common syndrome , especially in women, and usually worsened with the heat of summer. If the hereditary factor exists, venous insufficiency is not inevitable. Herbal medicine indeed offers a range of remedies to relieve this phenomenon and the pain caused. Origins and symptoms of heavy legs and venous insufficiency Caused by valve dysfunction *, venous insufficiency is a poor … Read more
Once the euphoria of the first summer days has worn off, France is preparing to face the devastating heat waves . We fear the extreme discomfort and damage to the skin, hair and health in general. Ah if only we had a magic wand! We would hypnotize the weather so that it remains favorable to us indefinitely. While we greatly … Read more