Donald R. Yance, j r.,C.N., M.H., A.H.G., with Arlene Valentine
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 If the doctor says the patient is just wasting time and money with an organic diet and medicinal herbs, should the patient abandon responsibility for her long-term health and well-being?
For many people, serious problems and conflicts arise when their conventional doctor disapproves of their interest in natural therapies. |
| Most Chinese medicinal herbs and their combinations have been used for many hundreds of years, and I use many of them in my own practice. I am always astounded, therefore, when someone (sometimes a physician treating one of my patients) claims there is no evidence or proof that herbs are beneficial; that they may, in fact, be potentially dangerous; and are, in any case, a waste of money.
Fu-zheng
One Chinese herbal system, called fu-zheng, is widely used in Chinese hospitals as an adjunct to radiation and chemotherapy for cancer; in more progressive U.S. |
Robyn Landis
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 Pharmacognosists may insist that medicinal herbs are not foods or nutritional supplements, because anything used to treat disease or improve health must conform to the definition of the word drug. Pharmacognosists also typically see no difference between natural and synthetic substances.
Unfortunately, though we'd like to hope otherwise, classifying herbs as "drugs" may be the only way herbs will ever get studied, taught, and covered by insurance in this country. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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 We felt calm and peaceful, appreciative of nature's bounty— particularly her medicinal herbs. We felt alive. Rejuvenated. Young.
CHAPTER 2
SEVENTY Secrets i for r«ii
HERE I AM, 72-AN AGE THAT seemed ancient when I was a boy. How times have changed. Nowadays, experts say that seventysomething isn't old. A person has to be at least 80 to be considered elderly. So the older I get, the older "old" is. I like that.
Of course, being 72,1 know I'm no longer a young whippersnapper. For example, sometimes I have trouble remembering things. That's normal. |
Robyn Landis
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| Other Beans—The soybean is emerging as a phytochemical winner, as shown above, but kidney beans, chickpeas, and lentils have saponins (a type of compound also found in many medicinal herbs), which may slow cancer-cell production and spreading.
Tomatoes—Lycopene (a carotenoid, in the same family as beta-carotene, among others) is an antioxidant, so it protects against cell damage. It is linked to reduced growth of colon and bladder cancer cells in mice, may reduce risk of prostate cancer and prostate disease, and may also lower risk of cardiovascular disease. |
Michael Castleman
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 Journals have created the impression that using medicinal herbs is a fairly risky thing to do. Statistics compiled by the American Association of Poison Control Centers tell a different story. During two recent (and typical) years, pharmaceuticals caused 974 deaths and 6,978 major nonfatal poisonings. Plants caused just 2 deaths and 53 major poisonings. Herbal medicines caused virtually no problems. The most hazardous plants were not herbal medicines but ornamentals: jade, holly, poinset-tia, schefflera, philodendron and dieffenbachia. |
Robyn Landis
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| Dong quai is mildly warming and, although bitter, still tastier than many of the medicinal herbs, so it makes an okay tea or broth. It's a member of the umbellifer, or carrot, family. It also can be found in capsules and tinctures.
Dong quai regulates the menstrual cycle and does relieve a wide variety of menstrual and menopausal complaints. It is an antispasmodic and appears to be effective in cases with low estrogen levels. To deal with menopausal symptoms, dong quai is traditionally used for an estrogen-like effect. |
| In our culture, we eat a relatively bland diet, using the fewest spices and medicinal herbs of just about any culture around the world. Therefore, most of us haven't built up a tolerance that allows us to accommodate medicinal amounts when necessary. Chilies are a regular staple in most other cultures' cuisine; for example, the four-star rating system for "hot" food in American Thai restaurants is actually the bottom of a ten-star system in Thailand. |
John Heinerman
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 Lowers Cholesterol, Relieves Arthritis
Not all uses generally ascribed to medicinal herbs come from indigenous folk healers and makeshift herbalists. Nor is the full potential for some herbs to be found in the plethora of herb books currently inundating the health food market these days. Skullcap is a case in point to be more carefully studied by those who think they know something about this herb, but, in reality, may know very, very little.
Various Japanese scientists have been investigating the remarkable capabilities of this herb in regard to the heart and joint inflammation. |
| According to Science for April 18,1975, from which some of this information comes, better than 60% of the Aztec medicinal herbs evaluated by scientists proved to be as efficacious as the claims made for them from ancient native sources.
Nasturtium Is a Marvelous Expectorant
This winding ornamental really helps break up mucus congestion in the breathing passages and the lungs during colds and flus. |
Ruth Winter, M.S.
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 Several thistles were used as medicinal herbs, including holy thistle. Holy thistle is a native of Greece and Italy and is an annual. Sow thistle, a vile-smelling weed, appeared in English medicine in 1387 and was mentioned frequently since then as a tonic. It is used in "organic" cosmetics. THREONINE • An essential amino acid (see); the last to be discovered (1935). Prevents the buildup of fat in the liver. Occurs in whole eggs, skim milk, casein, and gelatin.
THUJA OIL • See White Cedar Leaf Oil.
THUNDER GOD VINE • Tripteryqium wilfordii HookF. Lei Gong Tang. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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| I consider the FDA prejudiced against medicinal herbs.
While I grow saw palmetto in my Garden of Youth, for my own daily dose, I use a commercial standardized extract. Hair loss hasn't been a big problem for me, but I can't help thinking that all the saw palmetto I've been taking may be giving my genes a little hair-preserving boost.
If you'd like to try saw palmetto for hair preservation or restoration, I'd use the dosage recommended for prostate trouble—160 milligrams twice a day. Several brands of commercial capsules provide that dose. |
Robyn Landis
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| Still, botanical medicine is usually part of naturopathic therapy, and NDs are the only health-care professionals licensed specifically to treat using medicinal herbs, and the only physicians who are expressly trained to do so.
Homeopathic medicine—Homeopathy is a system of medicine whose fundamental approach to the patient is holistic, but whose healing methods are highly specific. Medicines may be made from plants, animal substances, or chemicals and are diluted according to a precise process until very little of the original substance remains. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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 Foods and traditional medicinal herbs clearly have healing properties, including the ability to prevent cancer.
CanUer Sores
Early American settlers introduced myrrh to the New World. Although most of us associate myrrh with the Christmas tale of the Three Wise Men's gifts to the baby Jesus, these early settlers weren't carrying myrrh for religious purposes. They used it as a treatment for canker sores and other kinds of mouth sores, according to Walter Lewis, Ph.D., and Memory Elvin-Lewis, Ph.D., both professors at Washington University in St. |
John Heinerman
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 Remember that wormwood is an herbal drug, as are goldenseal root, chaparral and some of the other medicinal herbs cited in this text. And they should be used with care only when needed, and not taken indiscriminately.
YARROW
(Achillea millefolium)
Brief Description
Yarrow is a perennial herb found the world over in waste places, fields, pastures, meadows and along railroad embankments and highways where it should never be picked on account of the chemical spraying that's routinely done to keep the weeds down. |
Textbook of Natural Medicine 2nd Edition Volume 2Michael T. Murray, ND
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| Phytoestrogens
Plant estrogenic substances or "phytoestrogens" are components of many medicinal herbs with a historical use in conditions which are now treated with synthetic estrogens. They may be suitable alternatives to estrogens in the prevention of osteoporosis in menopausal women (see Ch. 170 for further description).
A semi-synthetic isoflavonoid similar in structure to soy isoflavonoids has been approved in Japan, Hungary, and Italy for the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis.56 The compound, ipriflavone, has shown impressive results in a number of clinical studies. |
| Phytoestrogens are found in many medicinal herbs with a historical use in conditions which are now treated by estrogens. Phytoestrogen-containing herbs offer significant advantages over the use of estrogens in the treatment of menopausal symptoms. While both synthetic and natural estrogens may pose significant health risks, phytoestrogens have not been associated with these side-effects. |
| Handbook of medicinal herbs. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. 1985: p 222
28. Brady LR, Tyler VE, Robbers JE. Pharmacognosy. 8th edn. Philadelphia, PA: Lea & Febiger. 1981: p 480
29. Whitehouse LW, Znamirowski M, Paul CJ. Devil's claw (Harpagophytum procumbens): no evidence for anti-inflammatory activity in the treatment of arthritic disease. Can Med Assoc J 1983; 129: 249-251
30. McLeod DW, Revell P, Robinson BV. Investigations of Harpagophytum procumbens (Devil's claw) in the treatment of experimental inflammation and arthritis in the rat. Br J Pharmacol 1979; 66: 140P-141P
31. |
National Women's Health Network
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 Other phytoestrogens occur in some medicinal herbs, but these are different from the phytoestrogens in food plants, and, in terms of safety, we should treat them differ-endy (see chapter 8, "Herbs," and chapter 16, "Alternatives to Hormone Replacement Therapy").
In Asia, consumption of such legumes as soybeans, other beans, lentils, and peas provides 25 to 45 mg of total isoflavones a day, compared with Western countries where average consumption is less than 5 mg a day. |
Textbook of Natural Medicine 2nd Edition Volume 1Michael T. Murray, ND
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| Araliaceae, including Eleutherococcus senticosus, are among the most ancient and esteemed of all medicinal herbs. Their use in Chinese herbal medicine dates back more than 4,000 years.1"3 References in ancient documents to members of the Araliacea family were imprecise, giving rise to some confusion in modern interpretation. However, the value of eleuthero as a medicinal agent was certainly known to the Chinese, as evidenced by the following ode plants, with leaves resembling horse chestnut and young shoots resembling ginseng. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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| Here are a dozen very important medicinal herbs that I'd suggest buying as standardized products. (If for any reason you can't buy the standardized products, it's certainly fine to use these—with the exception of ginkgo—as bulk herbs.)
Calendula. Buy it as a salve to treat bruises, cuts and scrapes.
Camomile. A tincture provides a reliable sedative and can be used to make a stomach-settling tea.
Echinacea. The flowers and roots stimulate the immune system to help fight disease.
Evening primrose. This flower produces a valuable seed oil that's too difficult to extract at home.
Ginkgo. |
Textbook of Natural Medicine 2nd Edition Volume 1Michael T. Murray, ND
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| Immunotherapy with Chinese medicinal herbs. J Clin Lab Immunol 1988; 25: 119-129
Introduction 489
Small intestine 489
Bacterial overgrowth 489
Colon 490
Constipation 490 Diverticular disease 491 Dysbiosis 492 Parasites 493
Intestinal dysbiosis and dysfunction
Michael T. Murray, ND Joseph E. Pizzorno Jr, ND
INTRODUCTION
Overgrowth of inappropriate bacteria in the various segments of the intestines is becoming recognized as a significant, but rarely recognized, cause of chronic disorders not only of the intestines but also of other systems of the body. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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| That's why Commission E, the German expert panel that judges the safety and effectiveness of medicinal herbs for the German government, approves milk thistle seeds or seed extracts as supportive treatment for cirrhosis and chronic inflammatory liver conditions.
Other studies show that the compound silymarin, which is found in milk thistle, helps protect the liver from many industrial toxins, such as carbon tetrachloride.
Even if you don't have liver damage or liver disease, milk thistle helps improve liver function by helping the liver remove toxins from your body. |
| That's why, whenever I teach a three-day class on medicinal herbs, I treat my students to a dramatic little demonstration. I find a poisonous plant, usually poison ivy. I apply its juice to the sensitive undersides of both of my wrists. A minute or two later, I wipe one wrist with a ball of crushed jewelweed leaves and stems. Three days later, the wrist that I didn't treat with jewelweed shows the typical itchy, blis-tery poison-plant rash. The wrist rubbed with jewelweed invariably shows much less of a rash, and sometimes none at all.
My friend Robert Rosen, Ph.D. |
| Here's another true story: A television crew out of Baltimore was doing a feature on medicinal herbs in my herb garden one Friday afternoon. The interviewer spotted some comfrey and asked what it was good for. I answered,
"Sores and other wounds, especially indolent ulcers—that is, slow-healing sores."
I started to move on, but then I remembered that I had an indolent ulcer on my right shin. It was a sore, scabbed over, with raised edges, that wasn't getting any worse but certainly wasn't showing any signs of healing, either. It had remained basically the same for weeks. |
| It marked my conversion from a botanist to an ethnobotanist focused on medicinal herbs.
The Battelle project was a dream come true for me, but it began as quite a nightmare for Peggy. We had a nearly four-year-old son and a six-month-old daughter, Celia, and here I wanted to pull up stakes and move us from BeltsviUe to Panama—in a howling snowstorm, no less. Somehow, though, we survived the trip, as well as six weeks in a fleabag hotel in the Panama Canal Zone. |
Sheldon Saul Hendler
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 John's wort had never been, prior to 1988, a major star in the world of medicinal herbs. In fact, because it grows as an aggressive weed, many have considered it to be quite a nuisance. Hypericum infestation of the pasture and range lands of California led to serious financial losses in 1930. Economic loss from the effects of this weed is now slight because of a certain beetle which took a liking to it and now keeps its growth under control.
St. |
| The future of medicinal herbs is looking brighter all the time.
Aconite
(Warning: Highly Toxic)
Aconite, also known as monkshood and botanically as Aconitum napel-lus, has been a long time favorite in Chinese traditional medicine, Mexican folk medicine and homeopathic medicine. It is claimed to be effective in treating cancer, heart disease, kidney disease and diseases of the liver and spleen, among other ailments. Homeopathic physicians use it in low doses to treat flu, congestive disorders, colds and rheumatism.
Aconite is a very toxic herb. |
National Women's Health Network
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| Small and large companies market so-called "natural" hormones or "alternative" products to these women, even though there is little evidence supporting the efficacy or safety of medicinal herbs to treat menopausal symptoms.
LMAf 1 tK 1 n K r, t
-esee--
Menopause, Natural and Not
Each woman experiences menopause differently.
When Martha Correll hit age forty-two, her life got complicated. "Let's just say I had PMS, cramps, periods, hot flashes, insomnia, and a toddler," she says now. "It was a really hot summer, and at first I thought it was just the weather that was bothering me. |
Sheldon Saul Hendler and David Rorvik
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 They are also found in such medicinal herbs as "Sangre de drago" (Croton lechleri).
Procyanidins are also known as leucocyanidins. Procyanidins and prodelphinidins comprise a class of polyphenolic compounds called proanthocyanidins. Whereas procyanidins are oligomers of catechin and epicatechin and their gallic acid esters, prodelphinidins are oligomers of gallocatechin and epigallocatechin and their galloylated derivatives. Proantho-cyanidins are also known as condensed tannins.
ACTIONS AND PHARMACOLOGY
ACTIONS
Pycnogenol has antioxidant activity. |
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