Bravary Basmalah

Health is commonly thought of as the absence of disease, and indeed it is difficult to discuss one without the other. Equally problematic is the consideration of the health of the body apart from the state of the mind or the spirit, because historically the topics were closely connected, especially before the seventeenth century. Even with these difficulties in mind, it is still possible to focus on certain notions about the health of the human body as a natural state and about how this natural state could be restored or maintained.

One idea about health that unites many cultures, from the classical Indian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, ancient Greek, sub-Saharan African, Semitic, and native American, is the notion that there was a time when the human body existed in a perfect state of health and when no diseases beset it. People lived in harmony with nature, in a childlike state of material plenty and spiritual obedience. Bodily ills came into the world, so many stories go, when a ‘sin’, often one of disobedience, angered divine authority. One thinks of the myth of Pandora's box or the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, as told in Genesis, as examples, but other cultures provide many more such tales. Stories about original sin and the fall from grace are, in short, as common as creation myths in their explanations for why humanity no longer experiences natural health and, in some cases, long physical life.

Such myths carry in them crucial meanings for understanding the history of the body and its health that are with us still. The idea that there was a time when perfect health existed naturally is a powerful one. The author of Genesis wrote of painless childbirth before the Fall, and of, even after it, the remarkable age and sexual prowess of the Patriarchs. These stories also link health, or lack of it, to moral or religious conduct, and often join good health to a vigorous old age.

If perfect bodily health existed once, some argued, it could exist again. The restoration of balance and harmony with nature and with the divine was commonly offered as a way to achieve this restoration. Taoist thought sees good health as a balance between the opposing forces of Yin and Yang, which exist in the individual as well as in the world at large. The ancient Greeks viewed good bodily health as the duty of the aristocracy, along with military service and good governance. Medical texts are among the earliest surviving philosophical writings of the Greeks, indicating an eager audience for this type of advice.

Ancient Greek notions are perhaps the most important for defining how health would be regarded, at least in European and Islamic cultures. Most important is the nearly universal idea of microcosm and macrocosm. Very simply put, the body (microcosm) was thought of as a part of the larger world of nature (macrocosm). The four elements of nature: earth, air, fire, and water, and the four qualities: hot, cold, moist, and dry, found their counterparts within the body in the four humours: blood, which was hot and moist; choler, which was hot and dry; phlegm, which was cold and moist; and melancholy, which was cold and dry. Health lay in balancing these humours within the body through a regimen consisting of diet, exercise, and regulation of the emotions. Moderation and balance in all these natural factors was the road to good health and long life. Indeed, the Greeks counted gymnastics among the liberal arts, along with rhetoric and logic, as activities proper to a gentleman and ones leading to moral virtue.

Roman Stoic philosophers and Christian thinkers who followed after them held physical health in rather less esteem. Stoics sought to free themselves from bodily concerns by philosophical contemplation, while some Christians found value in mortifying the flesh, thereby turning their thoughts to the immortality of the soul. Medieval Islamic culture elaborated the Greek ideal of the healthy, happy aristocrat, and cultivated royal doctors famous for entertaining stories and jokes. It also promoted musicians, all to preserve the health of noble patrons. Medieval scholastic philosophers, rather surprisingly, took up another Islamic pursuit, alchemy. From the thirteenth century the Pope, who ideally ruled for life, patronized Christian alchemists. They argued that the recovery of knowledge about the philosophers' stone (which was known to the ancients) would not only make one rich, but return the body to its pristine state before original sin brought disease and the ravages of old age into the world.

The rage for medical alchemy, which only grew during the Renaissance, brought into focus the importance of philosophical thinking, drawing upon the ideas of many cultures, to the development of notions about bodily health. Rationality, a peculiar obsession of the Greeks, contributed to the separation of bodily concerns from those of the spirit. Although ancient Greek physicians called themselves philosophers, they excluded from philosophical/medical consideration supernatural causes of disease as being the province of magicians, because they were anxious to define their young profession as different, and better, than that of the faith healer. Medieval Christian and Islamic physicians admitted that lack of health could be associated with sin or magic, but dismissed these factors as outside the realm of Aristotelian medical practice. The seventeenth-century thinker Descartes (1596-1650), as part of a larger mechanical philosophy, made a separation between mind and body that was total. For Descartes, and other mechanists who followed after him, the healthy body was nothing more than a well-functioning machine, soulless and subject to chemical and mechanical remedies.

Cartesian medical philosophy not only excluded religious concerns from the proper duty of the learned physician, but also made easy the postulation of ‘mental’ illnesses and ‘mental’ health as being separate from the state of the body. Vitalist views of the body and health did not fade from consideration all at once. Individualized, pastoral-style medical care of the whole person experiences periodic revivals, especially when Westerners study subcontinental and far-Eastern methods of healing. But the notion of the body as a machine emphasized the sameness of all bodies rather than their uniqueness. The remarkable growth in medical technology from the end of the eighteenth century allowed medical scientists to ‘look inside’ the normal, living body and define its typical characteristics as never before. For example, the discovery of auscultation and later the stethoscope made individual patient reports of symptoms less important than the physician's own collection of diagnostic signs. Doctors could listen to the internal sounds made by hundreds of healthy bodies and easily isolate the ‘abnormal’, leading to a kind of medical objectivity never imagined before. The modern diagnostic laboratory of today allows the isolation of ungendered, raceless, classless tissue samples from subjective judgement and, for better or worse, minimizes the patient's own assessment of his or her state of health.

Nostalgia for a lost golden age never disappears from the medical scene, of course. Nineteenth-century Romantic thinkers offered the ‘noble savage’ or the ‘primitive’ hunter-gatherer as an ideal of bodily (and sometimes of moral) health. Even today, experimental studies with animals suggest that living in a state of near-starvation the way our ancestors were forced to do would lead to longer life and greater health — as if such a life would be worth prolonging. ‘Quality of life’ considerations will always be foremost in the mind of the patient, and this is an aspect of health that technologically-based scientific medicine, almost by definition, may appear to neglect. But in the contexts of clinical trials and medical audit the profession increasingly acknowledges the importance of quality of life as a component of outcome assessment.

How then to make the poor condition of body to be come health again? It’s simple to begin with a diagnosis is essential. Until the cause of poor health is known its not easy to establish the correct path to healthy. Nutrition and weight control, giving up smoking, drugs and alcohol are often the first steps. Exercise is essential, including an effort to improve a person's mental health and outlook. A good book instead of the television, a walk in the park instead of computer browsing, a visit to a health club or spa might be helpful. A brief holiday away from family stress might be all it takes to jump start the process.

A lot of medicine can bring health for much people but to find the best is to difficult than saying or proof

We must learn a lot of medicine before we make some decision to take care our body from unhealthy food or medicine it self.

A lot of people do wrong choice just because they want to make their body in perfect condition by some medicine or supplement, un rather case about peoples who went to the hospital and need for some more extra attention or cares during they chose some wrong medicine and supplement for their self. And unfortunately a lot of people still chose that risk alternatives, getting serious and speculating their lives into the deadly decision that they make.

Well, there is their decision and their or maybe your decision it self.

Please make attention with your own body and mind if you want to get some health any way, I mean just make some right chose with your own live

Take the herb medicine that more contain a little risk than the dangerous affect cause the ingredient is from plants. Chose the mostly safe and un dangerous medicine for self and family is more importance than keep your own vanity, try to hear your body need not hear your ego.

Why I lead you to chose plants or herb medicine?, this because plants is more safety way for the whole reason of injury that you have or supplementing your body from un healthy felling. Plants have been used for medicinal purposes for as long as history has been recorded. China, India, Egypt, and Assyria appear to have been the places which cradled the use of herbs, but herbalism was common in Europe by medieval times. Despite the progress in orthodox medicine, interest in alternative medicine, including herbalism, is on the increase in the West — and for 80% of the world herbal medicine is still the only kind to which ordinary persons have ready access.

That’s work and proof enough as long as the historical medicine use and report it
A great variety of plants are used for medicinal treatments. Either the dried plant, or a specific part of it (root, leaves, fruit, flowers, seeds), is formulated into suitable preparations — compressed as tablets or made into pills, used to make infusions (teas), extracts, tinctures, etc., or mixed with excipients to make lotions, ointments, creams, etc. Few herbal drugs are subject to legislative control. Obviously control is needed for poppy capsules (which contain opium), belladonna, digitalis, nux vomica beans (which contain strychnine), and rauwolfia (which contains reserpine). Most herbal remedies are freely available, although rarely have any been investigated with the thoroughness of orthodox medicines. The claims made for many herbal remedies are for trivial or minor ailments, due partly to the strictures put on legal claims for efficacy, and partly because herbalists claim to treat the whole person to restore normal physiological balance, rather than to treat or cure a particular medical illness.

Activities of herbal medicines are often described in very general terms — such as carminative, laxative, demulcent, antitussive, expectorant, sedative, antiseptic, or astringent. Unlike orthodox medicines, which usually consist of a single, isolated principle often synthetic), plants or extracts of plants contain multiple constituents, not all of them active. Herbalists often claim that the admixture of multiple constituents leads to synergism between the active moieties. Similarly, many consider that since plants are natural materials they are safer and will produce fewer side-effects than synthetic drugs. There is little substance or reason in either of these claims.

For example, comfrey (Symphytum officinale) is considered a safe herb and is used as a demulcent. However, it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which are toxic to the liver and can cause liver cancer. Media attention can often cause a major increase in the demand and use of herbal drugs — for example, evening primrose oil, feverfew, Ginko biloba, and ginseng.

One of the problems with herbal drugs, especially those with active principles which have well-defined medicinal effects (e.g. digitalis), is that the amount of active principles varies according to the location where the plant is grown, the prevailing weather conditions, etc., so it is vital in these instances that the crude material is assayed appropriately so that the dosage can be accurately controlled, especially where the therapeutic ratio is low. (Therapeutic ratio is the ratio of the dose causing toxic effects to that required for treatment.)

From time to time new drugs are discovered from herbal sources — for example, taxol, derived from the yew, is an important drug for some forms of cancer. The active principle is extracted and purified from plant material for as long as that process remains economically viable compared with chemical synthesis.

use of natural plant substances (botanicals) to treat and prevent illness. The practice has existed since prehistoric times and flourishes today as the primary form of medicine for perhaps as much as 80% of the world's population. Over 80,000 species of plants are in use throughout the world. Along with acupuncture, herbal medicine is considered primary health care in China, where it has been in documented use for over 2,500 years.

Herbs may be used directly as teas or extracts, or they may be used in the production of drugs. Approximately 25% of the prescription drugs sold in the United States are plant based. Many more herbal ingredients are present in over-the-counter drugs, such as laxatives. Medicines that come from plants include aspirin from willow bark (Salix species) and digitalis from foxglove (Digitalis purpurea).

Scientific interest in herbal medicine in the United States has lagged behind that in the countries of Asia and W Europe; in Germany, for example, one third of graduating physicians have studied herbal medicine, and a comprehensive therapeutic guide to herbal medicines has long been published there. Nonetheless, millions of people in the United States use herbal products to treat a wide variety of ailments or to enhance health. Among the more popular remedies used are ginseng, to increase stamina and as a mild sedative; St.-John's-wort, for mild depression; echinacea, to aid the immune system and alleviate colds; kava, to calm anxiety and treat insomnia; saw palmetto, for enlarged prostate; and ginkgo biloba, to improve short-term memory (see ginkgo). Some people have used botanicals in an attempt to stave off serious illnesses such as AIDS.

This widespread use has prompted demands that herbal remedies be regulated as drugs to insure quality standards. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can require a clinical trial on any herb that has a health claim on its label, but medical testing, which is geared toward observing a particular active component, is difficult to apply to herbs, which may have many interacting ingredients.

Debate over botanicals' validity and safety as medicines and over the appropriate degree of government regulation continues. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, passed in 1994, reclassified herbs as dietary supplements rather than food additives. It forbids unreasonable health claims by the manufacturers, but makes it the FDA's responsibility to prove that a marketed product is unsafe. (In contrast, in prescription and over-the-counter drugs, it is the manufacturer's responsibility to prove safety and effectiveness before a drug can be marketed.)

Another concern surrounding herbal medicine is the availability of wild plants for a growing market; it is feared that the limited supplies of known wild herbs are being threatened by overharvesting and habitat loss. The potential of isolating beneficial drugs from plants, however, has prompted large pharmaceutical companies to contribute to the conservation of the tropical rain forest. Biologists have called for more careful study of medicinal plants, especially regarding their capacity for sustainable harvesting and the effects of cultivation on their efficacy as medicaments.

Herbalism

Herbalism is a traditional medicinal or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts. Herbalism is also known as botanical medicine, medicinal botany medical herbalism, herbal medicine, herbology, and phytotherapy. Sometimes the scope of herbal medicine is extended to include fungi and bee products, as well as minerals, shells and certain animal parts.

Many plants synthesize substances that are useful to the maintenance of health in humans and other animals. These include aromatic substances, most of which are phenols or their oxygen-substituted derivatives such as tannins. Many are secondary metabolites, of which at least 12,000 have been isolated — a number estimated to be less than 10% of the total. In many cases, these substances (particularly the alkaloids) serve as plant defense mechanisms against predation by microorganisms, insects, and herbivores. Many of the herbs and spices used by humans to season food yield useful medicinal compounds.

With only a few exceptions, most herbal treatments have not been tested for safety and efficacy utilizing scientific studies or clinical trials. The scientific and medical communities state that herbal treatments may be risk the well-being or life of the patient when used in lieu of standard medical treatments.

Role of herbal medicine in human society

People on all continents have used hundreds to thousands of indigenous plants for treatment of ailments since prehistoric times. There is evidence from the Shanidar Cave in Iraq that suggests Neanderthals living 60,000 years ago used medicinal plants. A body that was unearthed there had been buried with eight species of plants which are still widely used in ethnomedicine around the world.

The first generally accepted use of plants as healing agents was depicted in the cave paintings discovered in the Lascaux caves in France, which have been radiocarbon-dated to between 13,000-25,000 BCE. Medicinal herbs were found in the personal effects of an "Ice man," whose body was frozen in the Swiss Alps for more than 5,300 years, which appear to have been used to treat the parasites found in his intestines.

Anthropologists theorize that animals evolved a tendency to seek out bitter plant parts in response to illness. This behavior arose because bitterness is an indicator of secondary metabolites. The risk benefit ratio favored animals and protohumans that were inclined to experiment in times of sickness. Over time, and with insight, instinct, and trial-and-error, a base of knowledge would have been acquired within early tribal communities. As this knowledge base expanded over the generations, the specialized role of the herbalist emerged. The process would likely have occurred in varying manners within a wide diversity of cultures.

Indigenous healers often claim to have learned by observing that sick animals change their food preferences to nibble at bitter herbs they would normally reject .Field biologists have provided corroborating evidence based on observation of diverse species, such as chimpanzees, chickens, sheep and butterflies. Lowland gorillas take 90% of their diet from the fruits of Aframomum melegueta, a relative of the ginger plant, that is a potent antimicrobial and apparently keeps shigellosis and similar infections at bay.

Researchers from Ohio Wesleyan University found that some birds select nesting material rich in antimicrobial agents which protect their young from harmful bacteria.

Sick animals tend to forage plants rich in secondary metabolites, such as tannins and alkaloids. Since these phytochemicals often have antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and antihelminthic properties, a plausible case can be made for self-medication by animals in the wild.

Some animals have digestive systems especially adapted to cope with certain plant toxins. For example, the koala can live on the leaves and shoots of the eucalyptus, a plant that is dangerous to most animals. A plant that is harmless to a particular animal may not be safe for humans to ingest. A reasonable conjecture is that these discoveries were traditionally collected by the medicine people of indigenous tribes, who then passed on safety information and cautions.

The use of herbs to treat disease is almost universal among non-industrialized societies. A number of traditions came to dominate the practice of herbal medicine at the end of the twentieth century:

• The herbal medicine system, based on Greek and Roman sources
• The Ayurvedic medicine system from India
• Chinese herbal medicine (Chinese herbology)
• Unani-Tibb medicine
• Shamanic Herbalism

Many of the pharmaceuticals currently available to physicians have a long history of use as herbal remedies, including opium, aspirin, digitalis, and quinine. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 80 percent of the world's population presently uses herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care.Herbal medicine is a major component in all traditional medicine systems, and a common element in Ayurvedic, homeopathic, naturopathic, traditional Chinese medicine, and Native American medicine.

According to the WHO, 74% of 119 modern plant-derived pharmaceutical medicines are used in ways that are similar to their traditional uses. Major pharmaceutical companies are currently conducting extensive research on plant materials gathered from the rainforests and other places for possible new pharmaceuticals.

The use of, and search for, drugs and dietary supplements derived from plants have accelerated in recent years. Pharmacologists, microbiologists, botanists, and natural-products chemists are combing the Earth for phytochemicals and leads that could be developed for treatment of various diseases. In fact, approximately 25% of modern drugs used in the United States have been derived from plants.

• Three quarters of plants that provide active ingredients for prescription drugs came to the attention of researchers because of their use in traditional medicine.

• Among the 120 active compounds currently isolated from the higher plants and widely used in modern medicine today, 75 percent show a positive correlation between their modern therapeutic use and the traditional use of the plants from which they are derived.

• More than two thirds of the world's plant species - at least 35,000 of which are estimated to have medicinal value - come from the developing countries.

• At least 7,000 medical compounds in the modern pharmacopoeia are derived from plants

Herbs in history

In the written record, the study of herbs dates back over 5,000 years to the Sumerians, who described well-established medicinal uses for such plants as laurel, caraway, and thyme. The first known Chinese herb book (or herbal), dating from about 2700 B.C., lists 365 medicinal plants and their uses - including ma-Huang, the shrub that introduced the drug ephedrine to modern medicine. The Egyptians of 1000 B.C. are known to have used garlic, opium, castor oil, coriander, mint, indigo, and other herbs for medicine and the Old Testament also mentions herb use and cultivation, including mandrake, vetch, caraway, wheat, barley, and rye.

Like their predecessors, the ancient Greeks and Romans made medicinal use of plants. Greek and Roman medicinal practices, as preserved in the writings of Hippocrates and - especially - Galen, provided the patterns for later western medicine. Hippocrates advocated the use of a few simple herbal drugs - along with fresh air, rest, and proper diet. Galen, on the other had, recommended large doses of more or less complicated drug mixtures - including plant, animal, and mineral ingredients. The Greek physician compiled the first European treatise on the properties and uses of medicinal plants, De Materia Medica. In the first century AD, Dioscorides wrote a compendium of more that 500 plants that remained an authoritative reference into the seventeenth century. Similarly important for herbalists and botanists of later centuries was the Greek book that founded the science of botany, Theophrastus’ Historia Plantarum, written in the fourth century B.C.

The uses of plants for medicine and other purposes changed little during the Middle Ages. The early Christian church discouraged the formal practice of medicine, preferring faith healing; but many Greek and Roman writings on medicine, as on other subjects, were preserved by diligent hand copying of manuscripts in monasteries. The monasteries thus tended to become local centers of medical knowledge, and their herb gardens provided the raw materials for simple treatment of common disorders. At the same time, folk medicine in the home and village continues uninterrupted, supporting numerous wandering and settled herbalists. Among these were the “wise-women,” who prescribed herbal remedies often along with spells and enchantments. It was not until the later Middle Ages that women who were knowledgeable in herb lore became the targets of the witch hysteria. One of the most famous women in the herbal tradition was Hildegard of Bingen. A twelfth century Benedictine nun, she wrote a medical text called Causes and Cures.

Medical schools began to return in the eleventh century, teaching Galen’s system. At the time, the Arabic world was more advanced in science than Europe. As a trading culture, the Arabs had access to plant material from distant places such as China and India. Herbals, medical texts and translations of the classics of antiquity filtered in from east to west Alongside the university system, folk medicine continued to thrive. Plants were burdened with a mass of both pagan and Christian superstition that often was more important than their actual properties. The continuing importance of herbs for the centuries following the Middle Ages is indicated by the hundreds of herbals published after the invention of printing in the fifteenth century. Theophrastus’ Historia Plantarum was one of the first books to be printed, and Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica was not far behind.

The fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries were the great age of herbals, many of them available for the first time in English and other languages rather than Latin or Greek. The first herbal to be published in English was the anonymous Grete Herball of 1526. The two best-known herbals in English wereThe Herball or General History of Plants (1597) by John Gerard and The English Physician Enlarged (1653) by Nicholas Culpeper. Gerard’s text was basically a pirated translation of a book by the Belgian herbalist Dodoens and his illustrations came from a German botanical work. The original edition contained many errors due to faulty matching of the two parts. Culpeper’s blend of traditional medicine with astrology, magic, and folklore was ridiculed by the physicians of his day yet his book - like Gerard’s and other herbals - enjoyed phenomenal popularity. The Age of Exploration and the Columian Exchange introduced new medicinal plants to Europe. The Badianus Manuscript was an illustrated Aztec herbal translated into Latin in the 16th century.

But the seventeenth century also saw the beginning of a slow erosion of the pre-eminent position held by plants as sources of therapeutic effects. The introduction by the physician. Paracelsus of active chemical drugs (like arsenic, copper sulfate, iron, mercury, and sulfur), followed by the rapid development of chemistry and the other physical sciences in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, led increasingly to the dominance of chemotherapy - chemical medicine - as the orthodox system of the twentieth century.

Biological background

All plants produce chemical compounds as part of their normal metabolic activities. These include primary metabolites, such as sugars and fats, found in all plants, and secondary metabolites found in a smaller range of plants, some useful ones found only in a particular genus or species. Pigments harvest light, protect the organism from radiation and display colors to attract pollinators.

The functions of secondary metabolites are varied. For example, some secondary metabolites are toxins used to deter predation, and others are pheremones used to attract insects for pollination. Phytoalexins protect against bacterial and fungal attacks. Allelochemicals inhibit rival plants that are competing for soil and light.

Plants upregulate and downregulate their biochemical paths in response to the local mix of herbivores, pollinators and microorganisms. The chemical profile of a single plant may vary over time as it reacts to changing conditions. It is the secondary metabolites and pigments that can have therapeutic actions in humans and which can be refined to produce drugs.

Plants synthesize a bewildering variety of phytochemicals but most are derivatives of a few biochemical motifs.

• Alkaloids contain a ring with nitrogen. Many alkaloids have dramatic effects on the central nervous system. Caffeine is an alkaloid that provides a mild lift but the alkaloids in datura cause severe intoxication and even death.

• Phenolics contain phenol rings. The anthocyanins that give grapes their purple color, the isoflavones, the phytoestrogens from soy and the tannins that give tea its astringency are phenolics.

• Turpenoids are built up from terpene building blocks. Each terpene consists of two paired isoprenes. The names monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, diterpenes and triterpenes are based on the number of isoprene units. The fragrance of rose and lavender is due to monoterpenes. The carotenoids produce the reds, yellows and oranges of pumpkin, corn and tomatoes.

• Glycosides consist of a glucose moiety attached to an aglycone. The aglycone is a molecule that is bioactive in its free form but inert until the glycoside bond is broken by water or enzymes. This mechanism allows the plant to defer the availability of the molecule to an appropriate time, similar to a safety lock on a gun. An example is the cyanoglycosides in cherry pits that release toxins only when bitten by a herbivore.

The word drug itself comes from the Swedish word "druug", which means 'dried plant'. Some examples are inulin from the roots of dahlias, quinine from the cinchona, morphine and codeine from the poppy, and digoxin from the foxglove.

The active ingredient in willow bark, once prescribed by Hippocrates, is salicin, or salicylic acid. The discovery of salicylic acid lead to the development of "aspirin", also known as "acetylsalicylic acid". "Aspirin" was originally a brand name, and is still a protected trademark in some countries. This medication was patented by Bayer AG.

Popularity

A survey released in May 2004 by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine focused on who used complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), what was used, and why it was used. The survey was limited to adults, aged 18 years and over during 2002, living in the United States.

According to this survey, herbal therapy, or use of natural products other than vitamins and minerals, was the most commonly used CAM therapy (18.9%) when all use of prayer was excluded.

Herbal remedies are very common in Europe. In Germany, herbal medications are dispensed by apothecaries (e.g., Apotheke). Prescription drugs are sold alongside essential oils, herbal extracts, or herbal teas. Herbal remedies are seen by some as a treatment to be preferred to chemical medications which have been industrially produced.

In the United Kingdom, the training of medical herbalists is done by state funded Universities. For example, Bachelor of Science degrees in herbal medicine are offered at Universities such as University of East London, Middlesex University, University of Central Lancashire, University of Westminster, University of Lincoln and Napier University in Edinburgh at the present.

Types of herbal medicine systems

Use of medicinal plants can be as informal as, for example, culinary use or consumption of an herbal tea or supplement, although the sale of some herbs considered dangerous is often restricted to the public. Sometimes such herbs are provided to professional herbalists by specialist companies. Many herbalists, both professional and amateur, often grow or "wildcraft" their own herbs. Many common weeds have medicinal properties (e.g. dandelion).

In traditional Chinese medicine herbs (which may include animal and mineral parts) are divided into "Superior" (food grade), "Moderate" (to be taken for disease for a short time) and "Inferior" (toxic, short term) grades .Disease is attributed to imbalance between yin and yang energy. Yin and yang refer to polarities that may either support or undermine one another. An example would be rest and activity. Herbal formulas are based upon the organ system which is out of balance, with chief herbs addressing the main complaint, deputy herbs which reinforce the actions of the chief or address other affected organ systems, and servants which may harmonize, balance temperatures or tastes of the herbs, direct them to various parts of the body or assist penetration. Herbal formulas tend to have five to 15 herbs

Some researchers trained in both western and Chinese medicine have attempted to deconstruct ancient medical texts in the light of modern science. One hypothesis that has emerged is that the yin-yang balance, at least with regard to herbs, corresponds to the pro-oxidant and anti-oxidant balance. This interpretation is supported by several investigations of the {ORAC ratings of various yin and yang herbs

Eclectic medicine came out of the vitalist tradition, similar to physiomedicalism and bridged the European and Native American traditions .Cherokee medicine tends to divide herbs into foods, medicines and toxins and to use seven plants in the treatment of disease, which is defined with both spiritual and physiological aspects, according to Cherokee herbalist David Winston.

In India, Ayurvedic medicine has quite complex formulas with 30 or more ingredients, including a sizable number of ingredients that have undergone "alchemical processing", chosen to balance "Vata", "Pitta" or "Kapha."

In addition there are more modern theories of herbal combination like William LeSassier's triune formula which combined Pythagorean imagery with Chinese medicine ideas and resulted in 9 herb formulas which supplemented, drained or neutrally nourished the main organ systems affected and three associated systems. His system has been taught to thousands of influential American herbalists through his own apprenticeship programs during his lifetime, the William LeSassier Archive and the David Winston Center for Herbal Studies

Routes of administration

There are many forms in which herbs can be administered, these include:

• Tinctures (alcoholic extracts of herb, such as echinacea extract)
• Tisanes (hot-water extracts of herb, such as chamomile)
• Topical application of essential oil extracts, as in Oil of Oregano
• Whole-herb consumption
• Inhalation as in aromatherapy

The easiest route of administration which is common among indigenous healers is to chew the plant directly.

The roots of plants like echinacea, the fruit of the plant lycium (goji berry), the seeds of the emetic lobelia and the resins of myrrh have all been ingested directly as medicine.

Standardization and concentration can boost certain plant constituents while losing others.

Risks

A common misconception about herbalism and the use of "natural" products in general, is that "natural" equals safe However many plants have chemical defense mechanisms against predators that can have adverse or lethal effects on humans, for example poison hemlock and nightshade, which can be deadly, although they are not sold as herbs. Herbs can also have undesirable side-effects just as pharmaceutical products can. These problems are exacerbated by different controls over purity and inconsistent information on dosage due to the status of herbs in the United States as dietary supplements which are technically not supposed to have medicinal functions

Standardization of purity and dosage is not mandated in the United States but even products made to the same specification may differ as a result of biochemical variations within a species of plant. Furthermore, if given in conjunction with drugs, there is danger of 'summation', where the herb and the drug have similar actions and add together to cause an 'overdose' or reduction in the effects, particularly with the Cytochrome P450

There is a danger that herbal remedies will be used in place of other medical treatments which have been scientifically tested for safety and efficacy, resulting in the development or worsening of a medical condition which could have been better prevented or treated. There is also a danger that an herbal remedy may itself cause harm which is unanticipated due to a lack of a full understanding of its composition and biochemical effects

Effectiveness

The gold standard for pharmaceutical testing is repeated, large-scale, randomized, double-blind tests. Some plant products or pharmaceutical drugs derived from them are incorporated into mainstream medicine. To recoup the considerable costs of testing to the regulatory standards, the substances are patented by pharmaceutical companies and sold at a substantial profit

Most herbal traditions have accumulated knowledge without modern scientific controls to distinguish between the placebo effect, the body's natural ability to heal itself, and the actual benefits of the herbs themselves .Many herbs have shown positive results in in-vitro, animal model or small-scale clinical tests. The few randomized, double-blind tests that receive attention in mainstream medical publications are often questioned on methodological grounds or interpretation. Likewise, studies published in peer-reviewed medical journals such as Journal of the American Medical Association receive more consideration than those published in specialized herbal journals.

Herbalists tend to use parts of plants, such as the roots or leaves but not isolate particular phytochemicals^. They argue that the synergy of the combined substances enhances the efficacy and dilutes toxicity^. Unfortunately, this assertion is difficult to prove. Pharmaceutical medicine on the other hand prefers single ingredients on the grounds that dosage can be more easily quantified.

Dosage is in general an outstanding issue for herbal treatments: while most conventional medicines are heavily tested to determine the most effective and safest dosages (especially in relation to things like body weight, drug interactions, etc.), there are few established dosage standards for various herbal treatments on the market. Furthermore, herbal medicines taken in whole form cannot generally guarantee a consistent dosage or drug quality (since certain samples may contain more or less of a given active ingredient.

The issue of regulation is an area of continuing controversy in the EU and USA. At one end of the spectrum, some herbalists maintain that traditional remedies have a long history of use, and do not require the level of safety testing as xenobiotics or single ingredients in an artificially concentrated form. On the other hand, others are in favor of legally enforced quality standards, safety testing and prescription by a qualified practitioner. Some professional herbalist organizations have made statements calling for a category of regulation for herbal products. Yet others agree with the need for more quality testing but believe it can be managed through reputation without government intervention

Evidence-based herbal medicine

In 2004 the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of Health began funding clinical trials into the effectiveness of herbal medicine

Surveys of a scientific approach to herbal medicine can be found in the books Evidence-based herbal medicine, and Herbal and traditional medicine: molecular aspects of health.

Name confusion

The common names of herbs (folk taxonomy) may not reflect differences in scientific taxonomy, and the same (or a very similar) common name might group together different plant species with different effects. For example, in 1993 in Belgium, a formula created by medical doctors including some Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) herbs for weight loss, one herb (Stephania tetrandra) was swapped for another (Aristolochia fangchi) whose name in Chinese was extremely similar but which contained higher levels of a renal toxin, aristolochic acid; this quid pro quo resulted in 105 cases of kidney damage^. Note that neither herb used in a TCM context would be used for weight loss or given for long periods of time.

In Chinese medicine these herbs are used for certain forms of acute arthritis and edema.

Standards and quality control

The legal status of herbal ingredients varies by country.

In the United States, most herbal remedies are regulated as dietary supplements by the Food and Drug Administration. Manufacturers of products falling into this category are not required to prove the safety or efficacy of their product, though the FDA may withdraw a product from sale should it prove harmful. The National Nutritional Foods Association, the industry's largest trade association, has run a program since 2002, examining the products and factory conditions of member companies, giving them the right to display the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) seal of approval on their products.

In the UK, herbal remedies that are bought over the counter are regulated as supplements, as in the US. However, herbal remedies prescribed and dispensed by a qualified "Medical Herbalist", after a personal consultation, are regulated as medicines.

A Medical Herbalist can prescribe some herbs which are not available over the counter, covered by Schedule III of the Medicines Act Forthcoming changes to laws regulating herbal products in the UK, are intended to ensure the quality of herbal products used

Some herbs, such as cannabis, however, are outright banned in most countries for various reasons. Since 2004, the sales of ephedra as an herbal supplement is prohibited in the United States by the FDA

Drug interactions

In consultation with a physician, usage of herbal remedies should be clarified, as some herbal remedies have the potential to cause adverse drug interactions when used in combination with various prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals.

Dangerously low blood pressure may result from the combination of an herbal remedy that lowers blood pressure together with prescription medicine that has the same effect. In particular, many herbs should be avoided during pregnancy

at Thursday, July 03, 2008