| The information was gathered from Chinese works on medicinal herbs, such as Bensky & Gamble (1993), Liu and Bau (1980), Hsu (1986), and from the author's own experience.
Gifts of Forest and Field, from One Thousand American Fungi by Charles Mcllvaine, 1902
Amanita Muscaria (unn.:fr.) pers.:hooker
(musca=fly, amanita=Galen's name for an ancient edible species, perhaps after Mt. Amanus)
Fly Agaric
Synonyms
Agaricus muscarius Pers. Other Common Names
Fly amanita; in Japan it is called "beni-tengu-take" (scarlet long-nosed goblin mushroom) (Ott, 1976). |
Simon Mills and Kerry Bone
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 Anti-free radical damage of chronic glomerulonephritis with febrifugal and diuretic medicinal herbs. Chung Kuo Chung Hsi I Chieh Ho Tsa Chih 1993; 13(8): 464-6, 452
47. Shantanova LN, Mondodoev AG, Lonshakova KS, Nikolaev SM. Pharmacotherapeutic effectivity of plant nephrophyte polyextractions in cases of mercuric chloride necronephrosis. Rastitel'nye Resursy 1996; 32(1-2): 110-117
48. Bao ZD, Wu ZG, Zheng F. Amelioration of aminoglycoside nephrotoxicity by Cordyceps sinensis in old patients. Chung Kuo Chung Hsi I Chieh Ho Tsa Chih 1994; 14(5): 271-273, 259
49. Zhang G, El Nahas AM. |
Prevention Magazine
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 Of course, if you are pregnant or have serious health problems, be sure to talk to your doctor before using medicinal herbs.
Herb Benefits
Anise Eases hot flashes and other menopausal problems. Helps relieve gas.
Chamomile Good for indigestion and gas and for easing sore throat.
Echinacea Strengthens the immune system.
Fennel Eases hot flashes and other menopausal problems. Helps settle the stomach.
Feverfew Helps prevent and relieve migraines.
Garlic Helps lower cholesterol and high blood pressure and reduces the risk for heart disease. |
Gale Maleskey
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 An Herbal Medicine Chest
Two other medicinal herbs that can inhibit outbreaks of the herpesvirus are echinacea and licorice.
Echinacea is a potent antiviral and antibacterial herb that strengthens your immune system by stimulating white blood cell production. It increases levels of a chemical in your body called properdin, which activates a certain part of your immune system that destroys viruses.
Moreover, echinacea raises levels of interferon, another immune system chemical that blocks the replication of herpesvirus proteins, says Dr. Kowalsky. |
Barrie R Cassileth, Ph.D.
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 Herbal Medicine
Figure 11 Increasing numbers of medicinal herbs are readily available.
Vinca rosea, a variety of the periwinkle plant, grows bright pink on the East Indian island of Madagascar. It has long been used there as an herbal remedy for diabetes. The periwinkle was brought to North America for scientific study in the late 1940s, and researchers in Canada and the United States identified its chemical structure. When a promising component of the plant was found to destroy cancer cells in a test tube, it was subjected to further study in animals. |
Ralph Golan, M.D.
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 Because it is much sweeter than sugar, it can mask the bitter flavor of medicinal herbs taken in tea form.
Recommended dose for oral use: powdered root, 1 to 4 grams a day; fluid extract, 1 teaspoon before meals three times a day; solid extract, Vi teaspoon before meals; deglycyrrhizinated licorice powder or tablets, 250 milligrams three times a day.
Warning: Due to its cortisol-like effects, excessive doses of licorice can cause hypokalemia (low potassium levels), fluid retention, and high blood pressure (these side effects do not apply to the deglycyrrhizinated form). |
Barrie R Cassileth, Ph.D.
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| Garlic Garlic is among the best studied of all medicinal herbs in history. Volumes of information document its effectiveness as a preventive and treatment for many problems. Whether fresh, dried, or commercially prepared, garlic's antibiotic action destroys fungal, viral, and bacterial infections. It helps prevent colds, flu, and other infections, and appears to work also as a chemo-preventive, lowering the incidence of stomach cancer. Cardiovascular benefits include garlic's ability to lower high blood pressure, reduce blood cholesterol, and control excessive blood clotting. |
Stephen T., M.D. Sinatra
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 Most other medicinal herbs were not given any credibility, despite the fact that many common pharmaceuticals originated from plants and barks. Herbal treatment was belittled and even scorned. Nevertheless, as my comfort level with botanicals grew, I decided to use them in my practice.
There is a large volume of literature on the medicinal properties of plants and herbs. My purpose in this brief section is to raise your awareness about how to use botanicals as an alternative or adjunctive path in health and healing. |
Gale Maleskey
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| Certain medicinal herbs such as echinacea can also boost immunity as well as heal and strengthen damaged gum tissue. Here's how the supplement lineup can help keep your gums and teeth in tip-top shape.
Combine Vitamin C with Bioflavonoids
One important nutrient that can help heal red, swollen gums is vitamin C. This antioxidant boosts your immune system, brings down inflammation, and speeds up wound healing. In fact, a deficiency of vitamin C can lead to gingivitis, which may cause teeth to become loose and even fall out. |
Kathi Keville
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 Nature's Therapy \
Most medicinal herbs contain many natural compounds that play off one another, producing a wide variety of results. Even medical science does not always understand how the compounds work together, or even exactly what they all are. As botanist Walter Lewis, Ph.D., and microbiologist Memory Elvin-Lewis, Ph.D., put it in their book Medical Botany: "Nature is still mankind's greatest chemist, and many compounds that remain undiscovered in plants are beyond the imagination of even our best scientists. |
Christopher Hobbs
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 As an aid for deciphering older names in other works on fungi or medicinal herbs, I have included a taxonomic history with authorities (when available). The authority who first described a species is usually added to the end of the Latin binomial the first time the name occurs, but not with subsequent occurrences. In this book, the authorities are also included in the main headings for individual mushroom monographs, as well as in the comprehensive Table 12 on page 189. |
Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
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 Actually, of course, it is the use of medicinal herbs, not just medicine, that goes back that far.
Herbs are also a field with a future in cancer. Conventional medicine has become impersonal, expensive and highly toxic. Millions of people around the world are rejecting this approach or find themselves unable to pay for its overrated wonders.
In the light of the crisis within Western medical science, the United Nation's World Health Organization (WHO) has called on doctors to create a "New Medicine," combining the wisdom of indigenous cultures with Western, scientific techniques. |
Mark Stengler, N.D.
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 Without question, goldenseal is one of the more popular medicinal herbs, but this has had an unfortunate ecological impact. Due to the tremendous demand for herbal supplements by the public, goldenseal has become endangered in a number of different states. As a result, some suppliers are cultivating goldenseal in an attempt to meet retail demand.
There are some good alternatives if goldenseal is unavailable. First on my list is Oregon grape root, which contains berberine along with a number of alkaloids not found in goldenseal. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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 CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs by James A. Duke (Boca
Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 1985). Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients Used in Food,
Drugs, and Cosmetics, 2nd ed., by Albert Y. Leung and
Steven Foster (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1995). A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and
Central North America (Peterson Field Guides) by Steven
Foster and James A. Duke (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
2000).
The Green Pharmacy by James A. Duke (Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Inc., 1997).
The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook by James A. Duke (Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Inc., 2000). |
| With more time on my hands, I began dreaming of a big garden filled with all the medicinal herbs that I could grow in rural Maryland.
But I hesitated because for several years, I'd been deeply involved in a medicinal herb garden in the Peruvian Amazon—the ReNuPeru garden, maintained by the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research (ACEER). This nonprofit organization runs workshops on rainforest plant conservation, and I teach some on medicinal rainforest plants.
Botanically, the Amazon is an amazing place—the most diverse, least understood forest on earth. |
Thomas Bartram
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 In Maria's own words: "At a time when the majority of mankind has moved away from life's natural ways, when illness, caused by a changed attitude to life threatens, we should turn again to medicinal herbs which God in His goodness has provided for us since time immemorial. As Abbe Kneipp (famous European herbalist) says: 'There is a plant for every illness'."
TREMOR. Practitioner: Datura stramonium. 5 drops tincture twice daily as initial dose, increasing dose by 2 drops per day every 3 days until effective. Stabilise at 10 drops twice daily. Background treatment of Skullcap and Oats. |
| Active, out-going enterprise for the harvesting and supply of medicinal herbs. Supports complex technologies behind the production of high-quality specialities which have gained world-wide reputation. Herbs grown in their natural surroundings. Strict quality control. Liquid food supplements prepared at low-temperature process of extraction. Extensive research programme. Plant situated at the foot of the Bavarian Alps. Products include Floradix, Borage oil capsules, Siberian Ginseng capsules, Garlic and Hawthorn and Mistletoe capsules, and a wide range of herb teas and preparations. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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| By comparison, based on the statistics I've seen, medicinal herbs kill fewer than 50 people a year. Many of these deaths can be attributed to college kids foolishly taking Chinese ephedra (ma huang) as an intoxicant, not knowing that in very high doses—much higher than any responsible herbalist would recommend—this herb can cause potentially fatal heart problems.
To put the number of herb-related deaths in perspective, consider that about 100 people a year die from serious allergic reactions (anaphylactic reactions) to peanuts, shrimp, and other foods. |
Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
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| In fact, the study of non-human discoveries of medicinal herbs has emerged as the field of "zoopharmacognosy." This was even the subject of a session at the 1992 American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) annual meeting. Many wild animals (to quote Science) have been observed "practicing medicine without a license." Some examples:
• Chimpanzees seek out a sunflower-like plant to kill nematodes and other parasites.
• Monkeys "regulate their fertility through judicious
HERBS dietary practices. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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| Duke's Anti-Aging Elixirs
• SerotoNut Spread
• Lean, Mean Bran Muffins
1 SPEND A GOOD DEAL OF MY time teaching (and learning) about the Amazon's unparalleled wealth of medicinal herbs through workshops sponsored by the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research (ACEER). ACEER is a struggling nonprofit, and from time to time, I've pondered various ways of raising funds for the organization.
One idea that keeps running through my mind is an on-site weight-loss clinic: Dr. Duke's Lose-Weight-in-a-Week Peruvian Amazon Retreat. Don't laugh. |
Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
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| Immunotherapy with Chinese medicinal herbs. I. Immune restoration of local xenogeneic graft-versus-host reaction in cancer patients by fractionated astragalus membranaceus in vitro. J Clin Lab lmmunol.l988;25:119-23.
2. Jiang J and Xiao Q. Handbook of planta medica. Beijing: People's Health Publishers, 1986.
3. Zhang ZL, et al. Hepatoprotective effects of astragalus root. J Ethnopharmacol.l990;30:145-9.
4. Humphries MJ, et al. Augmentation of murine natural killer cell activity by swainsonine, a new antimetastatic immunomodulator. Cancer Res.l988;48:1410-5.
5. Dennis JW, et al. |
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.
Y
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. |
John Heinerman
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 For years he has used medicinal herbs to cure diseases in hundreds of Navajo patients. One of his favorite remedies is barberry root bark for fevers of all kinds. Ross digs around the base of a barberry shrub, uses his pocket knife to cut away a few of the roots, but leaves the rest so the bush won't die. He then scrapes away slivers of the outside bark until there is the equivalent of one-half palm full. This he throws into an old coffeepot partly filled with about 1-1/2 pints hot water and lets the mixture percolate on low heat for about 20 minutes. |
| 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. 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. |
| Otherwise, most medicinal herbs should be left alone. There are, however, some very qualified exceptions to this fundamental rule.
EXCEPTION ONE: Plants of definite nutritive value may be used on a fairly consistent basis, because their rich blend of vitamins, minerals, trace elements, amino acids, enzymes, and hormones afford the body solid protection against potential illnesses. Such herbs might include: alfalfa, beet root, chamomile, dandelion, evening primrose, flaxseed, ginger, hops, kelp, marshmallow, nettle, onion, parsley, radish, stinging nettle, turmeric, watercress and yarrow. |
Nontoxic, Natural and EarthwiseDebra Lynn Dadd
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| Dried medicinal herbs (leaves, flowers, roots) certified organically grown or wildcrafted.
Willow Rain Herbal Goods. Organically grown and wildcrafted herbal tinctures and salves.
Natural herbal remedies
+ ]eanne Rose Herbal BodyWorks. Herbal-tea blends and an herbal medicinal oil made from sixty-five herbs that is effective for cuts, scratches, burns, itches, and hurts. Also an herbal inhaler for stuffy nose and headache. All made from organically grown herbs when available. Beauty Without Cruelty Seal of Approval.
+ Oak Valley Herb Farm. |
Thomas Bartram
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| As a result of modern scientific investigation and treatment in which medicinal herbs made an important contribution, what was once a high gullet cancer area was resolved into one of the success stories of modern medicine.
Tannin has long been identified as a cancer-causing chemical, supported by findings of a high incidence of the disease among those who consume large quantities of tannin-containing beverages such as tea. Milk binds with tannin and is advised in tea-drinking where lemon is not taken. |
Robyn Landis
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 Unlike many medicinal herbs, astragalus is actually fairly tasty and makes an excellent base for soups. If you don't think so, adding bouillon or broth base usually helps.
Dried, sliced astragalus root, which looks like rough yellow tongue depressors, can be purchased at most Asian grocery stores. We recommend checking a major Chinese grocery, perhaps in your city's international district if there is one, because the astragalus there will be much less expensive than at an herb pharmacy. |
Ralph W. Moss PhD
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 Each household had its herb garden and a stock of remedies, some common, some private family recipes, stored away for various purposes. medicinal herbs were generally gathered in the fall, along with the other crops. In addition, there was usually a wise woman or two in the community who had the "healing tetch," and who specialized in treating difficult cases.
Initially, the colonists found themselves surrounded by a baffling array of unfamiliar flora and fauna, and an equally baffling set of diseases. |
| A 1998 MarketFacts survey showed that many more Americans would take medicinal herbs if they knew more about them. In this respect Americans are merely catching up with the Germans, Indians, Chinese and many other people who rely on herbs for a good part of their health care. They are also returning to the health habits that dominated our country's history from the time the Pilgrims landed until well into the 20th century. |
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