Herbal Medicine I - History of and key figures in Herbal Medicine

Question 1

Basic History

Answer 1

Herbal medicine is the therapeutic use of plants and has formed the basis of traditional medicine systems throughout history:
* The first archaeological evidence of herbal medicine is from Neanderthal graves in Iraq, dating back 40,000years. Herbs were found that are still used in herbal practice today.
* The first recorded evidence comes from Egyptian hieroglyphics and parchments from the Indus Valley dating back more than 4,000years.

Question 2

Hippocrates

Answer 2

Hippocrates of Kos (460 BC–375 BC approx.):
* Known as the ‘father of medicine’ because he established the importance of careful observation, examination and documentation of cases and treatments.
* Hippocrates’ system of healing was the foundation of ancient Greek medicine, which dominated European and Arabic cultures for the next 2,000 years.
* Hippocratic medicine made use of food, herbs and hygiene (clean water etc.).

Question 3

Dioscorides

Answer 3

Dioscorides(30–90 AD approx.):
* Greek physician during the Roman Empire.
* Wrote De Materia medica (About medicinal trees), a five-volume illustrated encyclopaedia of herbal and other medicines used in different cultures across the Empire.
* It remained a key text in medical schools for the next 1,600 years.
* Herbalists and homeopaths still refer to a textbook of remedies as a Materia medica.

Question 4

Galen

Answer 4

Galen (131–200 AD):
* Surgeon to the gladiators, whose injuries allowed him to view the inner workings of the body.
* He developed humoral medicine, a system based on the belief that the human body is comprised of four humours (fluids) —blood, phlegm, bile and black bile.
* Imbalances between the humours led to sickness.
* Humoral medicine was the basis of Western medical thinking until the 18thcentury.

Question 5

Hildegard of Bingen—Saint Hildegard

Answer 5

Hildegard of Bingen—Saint Hildegard (1098–1179):
* A German Benedictine abbess, healer, writer, composer and philosopher.
* Referred to as the ‘mother of German botany’.
* She studied herbs extensively and they formed an integral part of her healing work.
* Hildegard authored Physicaand Causaeet curae ,important works on natural history and the therapeutic use of herbs and other naturally-derived compounds.

Question 6

King Henry VIII

Answer 6

King Henry VIII (1491–1547):
* Best known for his many wives, Henry VIII was also a keen amateur herbalist.
* When the physicians, surgeons and apothecaries (pharmacists) tried to ban herbalists he brought in legislation giving them protection.
* Known as the ‘Quack’s charter’.
* This ancient law gives us the legal basis to practise herbal medicine freely to this day!
* The term ‘quack’ is still used as a derogatory term to describe conventional medics.

Question 7

Nicholas Culpepper

Answer 7

Nicholas Culpepper (1616–1654):
* Physician who served the poor of East London, who couldn’t normally afford the services of trained doctors.
* Published The English physician (1653), written in English (not Latin), allowing normal people access to high quality medical knowledge.
* Still in print today, it provides valuable insight into how herbs were understood and applied in Tudor England.

Question 8

History if Naturopathic ‘Nature cure’

Answer 8

Naturopaths such as Goethe and Steiner, developed therapies based on ‘nature cure’:
* They taught that healing is intrinsic to the body and that successful herbal therapy is based on mobilising the ‘Vital Force’.
* This required lower doses of herbs (higher doses suppress Vital Force).
* For this reason, dosage levels in Western herbal medicine are generally lower than in traditional Indian medicine (Ayurveda) and TCM.

Question 9

Evolution of herbs and modern medicine

Answer 9

• Over the last 200 years, modern medicine has evolved to dominate public healthcare with chemicals gradually replacing herbs and biomedicine gradually replacing traditional theory:
• Until recent times herbs were still the mainstay of doctors e.g. garlic was a topical antibiotic in world war I.
• Many modern drugs are synthesised from traditional herbs e.g. metformin for diabetes, came from goat’s rue —a traditional blood-sugar-lowering herb.

Question 10

The ‘doctrine of signatures’

Answer 10

• The ‘doctrine of signatures’ is a folk belief in all world herbal traditions:
• Plants carry ‘signs’ (appearance, odour, taste, where they grow) of their herbal uses. Strangely there are often parallels.
• Eyebright flowers look like eyes—we still use them for eye inflammation.
• Cinnamon sticks look like fingers and toes. They are excellent for improving circulation to the hands and feet.