Earl L. Mindell, RPh, PhD with Virginia Hopkins, MA
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| Echinacea
Taken at the first sign of a cold or flu, echinacea will help boost the immune system. Many herbalists like to combine echinacea with goldenseal and astragalus.
Hyssop
This ancient herb has been used for at least two millennia to treat sore throats, chest colds, and laryngitis. In the 1800s, herbalist Culpeper prescribed hyssop for ear infections and "all griefs of the chest and lungs." It's an excellent aid for getting tough mucus moving up and out of the body. |
Andrew Pengelly
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 PAs have been associated with veno-occlusive disease and virtually all herbs that contain them are scheduled and unavailable to herbalists in Australia. This includes comfrey (Symphytum spp.), borage (Borago officinalis), coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara), liferoot (Senecio
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O senecionine—a pyrrolizidine macrocyclic diester aureus) and lungwort {Pulmonaria officinalis). PAs from comfrey include symphytine, intermedidine and symlandine—these do not contain the macrocyclic diesters.
Few therapeutic effects have been postulated for PAs. |
Gary Null
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| Rescue Remedy" is the best known of these, and it is recommended and used by many professional nurses and herbalists. These are available at health food and vitamin stores. They help pets, too. These go beyond aromatherapy.
Bilberry. Bilberry is even higher in antioxidants than blueberry.
Black Cohosh. Tincture of black cohosh can be part of an effective treatment for depression. This herb has proven benefits for women suffering from symptoms of menopause.
Burdock Root. Burdock is a diuretic and diaphoretic herb. It is one of the best blood purifiers, and a skin disease remedy.
Calendula. |
| This has often been recommended by herbalists for vaginal yeast infections and skin infections.
Muira puama. This one is used as an aphrodisiac.
Raspberry Leaf. As an astringent, raspberry leaf is useful in a wide range of cases, including diarrhea, leucorrhoea, and other loose conditions, often a result of the difficulty in proper food digestion associated with aging. It's also used for relief from oral problems, such as mouth ulcers, bleeding gums, and inflammations. As a gargle it will help sore throats.
Rosemary. |
| These include chiropractors, herbalists, naturopaths, medical doctors, homeopaths, and nutritionists. They should be certified, and insured as well, and must understand how to work with you. Do not be afraid to ask all the questions you have to to get the information you want. This is your right, and your responsibility to yourself.
You may consider the following issues when you are shopping for an alternative practitioner:
• Are you seeking a practitioner who believes in noninvasive diagnostic treatments, i.e., administered intravenously or orally? |
Andrew Pengelly
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| Lobelia is a relaxant and bronchodilator originally made famous by Thomson and the Physiomedical School of herbalists; however, its use in Australia is now restricted to medical practitioners.
Quinoline alkaloids
This is an example of a bicyclic ring system with the fusion of benzene and pyridine rings. Biosynthetically they are related to indole alkaloids since both groups are derived from the same two precursors, tryptophan and loganin—a monoterpene iridoid (Samuelsson 1992).
Quinine, 6-methoxycinchonine C20H24N2O2, is found in Peruvian bark, Cinchona spp. |
| I am indebted to some of the great scientists and herbalists who have inspired me with their knowledge of the subject, making the job of learning phytochemistry much easier for the non-chemist—teacher, student and practitioner alike. I refer especially to Terry Willard, Jean Bruneton, G. E. Trease and W. C. Evans, Varro Tyler, Kerry Bone, Jim Duke, Peter Waterman and—in the field of essential oils—Arthur Tucker and Joy Bowles (with apologies to the many worthy individuals I have omitted). I highly recommend the publications of these pioneers—many are listed in the references. |
| To the scientist or pharmacist a plant's constituents may be regarded as an unholy mixture of mainly unwanted chemicals, to be refined with the objective of identifying and isolating an 'active principle'. herbalists on the other hand aim at a holistic approach— one that values the sum or totality of a plant's constituents—even those considered by the pharmacist to be worthless. In order to study the activity of a given herb, it is often necessary to purify it or isolate a specific compound—an example of the reductionist approach that characterises the biomedical model. |
| Increasingly, the public—and particularly the medical establishment—are demanding herbalists and other complementary therapists provide scientific evidence for the efficacy and safety of their practices. While this is an admirable objective, it cannot be achieved overnight, given the complexities of the herbs themselves, the variety of formulas and prescribing methods available and the difficulties in adapting medical models to the herbal practice. |
| Last but not least I am indebted to all the readers, students and herbalists who, over the years, have given me such positive feedback that I was compelled to write this second edition.
1
INTRODUCTION TO PHYTOCHEMISTRY
Introduction
The field of medicine has long been divided between so-called 'rationalist' and 'vitalistic' principles. While the rationalist/scientific model has held sway (at least in the Westernised nations) for the last couple of centuries, vitalistic concepts of health and healing have made a comeback in the recent decades. |
Dr. Richard Schulze and Sam Biser
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| The old herbalists knew the power of these herbs was dramatic, but this has been whittled down by the herbalists of today with their talk about isolating one or more active ingredients. They've lost the big picture of what the entire herb can do — or else they just don't want to know.
The herbs I talk about for the bowel, like the aloes or cascara sagrada or senna, these are emodin-containing herbs. The chemical emodin is a bitter principle that stimulates the liver and aloe stimulates the bowel to work better. |
| This is the same mistake made by today's so-called professional herbalists and wholistic medical doctors — and it's why these people can't cure the diseases I did — and don't even know where to start.
I watched herbs heal thousands of people worldwide from every disease known; not just colds and flus, but from the killer diseases like Cancer, Parkinson's Disease, Alateral sclerosis, Diabetes, even terminal AIDS. And many more.
These are diseases which medicine considers incurable. So do most herbalists.
I watched herbs destroy those diseases and rebuild the patients' health. |
Christian Ratsch
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 This is based on the assumption that the herbalists of ancient Greece were as intelligent and resourceful as the herbalists of pre-Conquest Mexico. (Wasson et al. 1998,44)
The cosmopolitan Cyprus grasses (Cyperus spp.) are often infected with the fungus Balansia cyperi, which produces psychoactive alkaloids as metabolites. (Woodcut from Gerard, The Herball or General History of Plants, 1633)
362 According to Zander (1994,420*), the grass is originally from North America and became naturalized in the Mediterranean region only after the conquest of the New World! |
Mark Blumenthal
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 A survey of medical herbalists in the U.K. reported a mean average of 4.8 months of treatment is necessary before patients with PMS symptoms respond to chaste tree (Christie and Walker, 1997). For anovulation and infertility, a treatment duration of five to seven months may be necessary. For amenorrhea lasting longer than two years, a treatment period of up to 18 months may be required (Pizzorno and Murray, 1999; Boon and Smith, 1999; Brown, 1994). For most other conditions, symptoms usually start to diminish within one to two months. |
Dianne Onstad
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 Health Benefits
The fruits are sold by herbalists in Camagiiey for the purpose of making a depurative syrup; the decoction is taken as a treatment for liver complaints.
Santol
(Sandoricum koetjape) General Information
Native to Malaya and parts of former Indochina, the medium-sized santol tree occurs in two main forms, one with sweet fruit and leaves, which wither yellow, the other with sour fruit and leaves, which turn to red. The fruit is globose or oblate, with wrinkles extending a short distance from the base, 1 Vi to 3 inches wide, and yellowish to golden, sometimes blushed with pink. |
David Hoffman, FNIMH, AHG
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 This is the antithesis of the vital-ist worldview held by most herbalists and naturopaths, who would rather see the relationship between "plants and those using them" characterized as coevolutionary mutualism.
THE HEALING POWER OF NATURE
In light of the issues just discussed, let us look at some of the principles of naturopathic medicine. The healing power of nature is the inherent self-organizing and healing process, present in all living systems, that establishes, maintains, and restores health. |
Doris J. Rapp, M.D.
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 HERBAL
AMERICAN herbalists GUILD (AHG) 770.751.6021 FAX: 770.751.7472 1931 Gaddis Road, Canton, GA3011. [email protected]. AHG professional members list and for publications and herbal education program.
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF MEDICAL ACUPUNCTURE AND ORIENTAL MEDICINE (AAMA), 4929 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 428, Los Angeles, CA 90010 323.937.5514.
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ORIENTAL MEDICINE (AAOM) 888.500.7999 , 610.266.1433 433 Front Street, Catasauqua, PA 18032.
HEALERS
HEALING TOUCH INTERNATIONAL, www.healingtouch.net. SHEALY, C. NORMAN, M.D., Ph.D. www.selfhealthsystems.com. |
Mark Blumenthal
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| In a recent survey of Western medical herbalists, licorice ranked as the 10th most important herb used in clinical practice. While licorice root is commonly taken in combinations for treatment of catarrhs of the respiratory tract, cough and sore throat, as well as for dyspepsia, a few clinical studies have investigated its effects on aphthous, duodenal, and gastric ulcers. |
| In a recent survey of Western medical herbalists, licorice ranked as the 10th most important herb used in clinical practice. While licorice root is commonly taken in combinations for treatment of catarrhs of the respiratory tract, cough, sore throat, and dyspepsia, a few clinical studies have investigated its effects on aphthous, duodenal, and gastric ulcers.
Primary Uses
Catarrh of the upper respiratory tract; oral ulcers; gastric and duodenal ulcers. |
| Schedule III herb recommended to be limited for use by medical herbalists only (Denham, 1998).
U.S.: Dietary supplement (USC, 1994) and approved OTC drug ingredient, for bronchodilation (25 mg/dose orally up to 6 times per day, no limit on duration of use) and as a nasal decongestant (nasal spray) (21 CFRa-d).
Clinical Review
Seven studies conducted on the herb ephedra (327 total participants) are summarized in the Table of Clinical Studies on Ephedra. One study on a preparation containing only powdered ephedra measured cardiovascular effects and pharmacokinetics (White et al., 1997). |
David Hoffman, FNIMH, AHG
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| Many herbalists are profoundly concerned about any potential impact of their activities on natural communities. The term "wildcrafting" has been used to describe a harvest of wild plants that takes into account ecological balance so that it does not threaten the survival of the plant species. Keeping in mind ecological principles, a wildcrafter ideally harvests wild plants in a sustainable manner, or with the goal of increasing their number and health. |
Mark Blumenthal
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| Licorice ranks as the 10th most important herb for Western medical herbalists and in Unani traditional medicine clinics in Pakistan (Bergner, 1994; American Institute of Unani Medicine, 1999). In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), licorice root is the most commonly-used herb, though it is almost always used in combination with other herbs (Leung, 1999).
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Photo © 2003 stevenfoster.com
Description
Licorice root consists of the dried roots and rhizomes of Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (syn. G. glandulifera Waist. & Kit. |
David Hoffman, FNIMH, AHG
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| It is time for herbalists to lose what might be described as our ghetto mentality, a sense of inferiority developed through years of cultural disdain for and active suppression of our therapeutic modality. However, this will also entail abandoning our negative, knee-jerk reaction to the "system," which often takes the reprehensible form of an arrogant condemnation of medical doctors and a delusion of standing on higher moral ground. On the other hand, those working within the established scientific, medical, and legislative communities must acknowl-
Table 1.1. |
| One of the names for an herbalist in ancient Greece was rhizotomoi, because herbalists collected rhizomes. I've been suggesting to all my herbal friends that we should be called radicles, after the growing tip of a plants root. A plant radicle is one of the strongest things in nature. Just think of little shepherd's purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) cracking through sidewalks!
The depth of this relationship goes far beyond social and economic issues to the actual life-sustaining mechanisms of planetary ecology. |
| There is an important contraindication to the use of Essiac that is rarely mentioned, even by well-trained herbalists who should be able to see it. Essiac consists of a combination of four herbs, burdock root (Arctium lappa), slippery elm bark (Ulmus rubra), sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella), and turkey rhubarb (Rheum palmatum). One of these components, sheep sorrel, is a rich source of oxalic acid. Intake of oxalic acid or its salts increases the risk of developing kidney stones. In all of the propaganda surrounding Essiac, I have seen no mention of this problem. |
| These herbalists are obviously applying some set of guidelines in order to whittle down 500,000 possible plant remedies to a more manageable figure, but what are they? There are a number of useful ways to group the relevant criteria, but three categories are most helpful in Western herbalism:
1. Assessing the impact of herbs upon the body and mind
2. Applying nontherapeutic criteria, such as aesthetics, economics, and ecology
3. |
Michael T. Murray, N.D.
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 The herb collectors vary from uneducated natives and self-proclaimed "herbalists" to skilled botanists. The mode of harvesting varies as well, from hand labor to the use of sophisticated equipment. But the mode of harvesting is not as important as the time: a plant should be harvested when the part of the plant being used contains the highest possible level of active compounds. Again, this is ensured by the use of analytical techniques.
Drying
After harvesting, most herbs have a moisture content of 60 to 80 percent and cannot be stored without drying. |
Janet Zand, LAc, OMD, Allan N. Spreed, MD, CNC, James B. LaValle, RPh, ND
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 Jewelweed should be available at herb shops and through qualified herbalists. If you wish, you can use alternate applications of jewelweed juice and herbal or homeopathic calendula liquid or gel three times daily until the itching and discomfort are relieved.
HOMEOPATHY
¦ In keeping with the basic principle of homeopathy— "like cures like"—Rhus toxicodendron, which is homeopathic poison ivy, will help relieve itching quickly. Take one dose of Rhus toxicodendron 12x or 6c three to four times daily until symptoms lessen. |
| But if you wish to emulate yesterday's herbalists, here's how to make your own herbal ointment.
In a double boiler (preferably ceramic or glass), heat 2 ounces of vegetable lanolin or beeswax until it becomes liquid. Once this base is melted, add 80 to 120 drops of each herbal tincture you want in your salve. Mix them together and pour into a glass container. Refrigerate the mixture and allow it to harden. If you prefer, you can use a very strong herbal tea made with your own fresh or dried herbs instead of a store-bought tincture. Keep a record of your recipes for later use. |
| HERBAL TREATMENT
¦ Massaging burdock-root oil, available in health-food stores, into the scalp has long been used by herbalists in the treatment of seborrhea. This can be mixed with an equal amount of calendula oil for its soothing properties.
HOMEOPATHY
¦ Mezereum is good if the skin is intensely itchy, with thick, leathery crusts. Take one dose of Mezereum 12x or 6c three times daily for three to five days.
¦ Psorinum is the remedy for intolerable itching with oily skin due to overactive sebaceous glands. |
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