The Roots of Modern Herbalism
In recent years the American medical establishment has been rocked by a resurgence of interest in natural remedies. For centuries, acupuncture, herbalism, aromatherapy, massage therapy, and meditation have been used, often successfully, to cure various ills and maintain the health of people around the globe. Yet in 1950s America there was a significant shift away from these more traditional remedies, and modern western medicine began to enjoy a virtual monopoly over the treatment of America’s diseased. Have a sore throat? Take an antibiotic. Think a headache is coming on? Take an aspirin. Need to drop some weight or pick up some energy? Try amphetamines. Want to calm down? A tranquilizer will help you relax. America was preparing to send a man to the moon in a capsule. Thus it was only logical for us to assume that we would soon be able to cure the common cold, flu, acne, and various catastrophic illnesses with time-release capsules. However, the reemergence of "alternative" medical practices has reintroduced once-respected, viable options for those seeking treatment outside the more well-known realm of allopathic medicine.
Herbalism is one of the most notable of these treatments from days past enjoying a renewed interest. One need only listen to the radio or visit a grocery store to learn about the many natural products marketed to improve one’s health: garlic pills ("Garlique"), ginseng extract ("Ginsana"), and gingerroot and mushroom teas are a few examples. Natural juice bars have sprouted up in cities across America. The term "juice bar" may not sound so unnatural until it is revealed we’re not speaking of frozen juice on a stick. These juice bars are urban watering holes where one can be energized for a busy day by quaffing a glass of freshly pureed wheat grass mixed with other herbals, a "healthy" alternative to a potentially scalding cup of ulcer-creating and jitter-inducing coffee.
The renewed respectability of "herbalist" as a profession is reflected in the increased enrollment in naturopathic institutions of higher learning such as Seattle’s Bastyr University, and the national accreditation awarded such institutions. National recognition of this kind would have been difficult to secure even a decade ago. Paradoxically, herbalism is the oldest medical practice known to man. In fact, prior to World War II, herbal medications were listed side-by-side with chemical drugs in the U.S. Pharmacopaeia, the official listing of accepted medicines. Even today, nearly fifty percent of the thousands of drugs commonly used and prescribed are either derived directly from a raw plant source or contain chemical imitations of a plant compound. The list is impressive:
An herbalist is a person who collects, studies, and uses plants—generally in a medicinal manner (an herb doctor), while an herbologist is one who collects and studies the uses of herbs/plants. The term "herbologist" is not found in Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate, yet the word herb comes from the Latin meaning grass or green crop and logy comes from a Greek root meaning to speak or discourse upon. The practice of herbalism stretches far beyond these simple explanations of herbalist and herbologist, however. Herbalism involves not only the simple act of using herbs to counteract the detrimental affects of disease, but a belief in the balance of the whole person as well. At or near the beginning of texts on herbs, a brief explanation of "health," much like the following usually emerges: "Health is a reflection of the balance between the different aspects of ourselves (body, mind, soul) and our environment, our experiences, our associations and our food. There cannot be sickness in any of these categories without its being reflected to some degree in all of the others."
Like Native American healers, herbalists explain that the energy forces within nature are present in nature’s "fruits" and can be strengths from which individuals draw energy to realign, balance, or heal the body. Herbs discharge their energy within the body and deliver their potent effects on more than one level at a time. Therefore, an individual may not seek the advice of an herbalist simply to cure an ill, but may regularly take a certain herb in order to maintain his or her health. Today, in many areas of the world, women still automatically take gingerroot tea when their menstruation approaches in order to ward off the accompanying cramping, and many people enjoy a cup of chamomile tea before bed to relax the nerves.
It is impossible to discover the specific point in time that herbalism made its entry onto the world stage of medicine because in many areas of the world no written record of the uses of herbs can be found. Yet it is undeniable that herbs are an integral part in the heritage of medicine. Herbal medicine is the oldest form of therapy practiced by mankind, and much of this medicinal use of plants seems to have been based on a highly-developed "dowsing" instinct, which led the healer of the tribe to the right plant and taught him or her its use. To a modern mind the idea may seem bizarre, but wild animals certainly possess such an instinct, seeking out plants which will supply the nutrients they need and unerringly avoiding those which will poison them. These dowsing powers would explain the astonishing continuity of medicinal plant usage in the days before there were written records, or in tribes who have never known them, since the chain of oral traditions must have broken over and over again by death, or by the scattering or obliteration of the tribe.
From the earliest Stone Age tribal medicine man to the present-day practitioners, herbalism has been a science—the first science in man’s history. To call herbalism a "science," however, allows us to forget how imperative it was for primitive man to learn the many attributes of the plants in his environment. For him, it was not a hobby, it was a matter of life and death to know which plants were poisonous, which helped with heart burn, which counteracted constipation, and which aided in arresting the flow of blood from an open wound.
The world’s first university, opened by the priests of Amun in the city of On in the Egyptian delta in 2000 BC, was concerned solely with the science of healing. The students were recruited from all parts of Egypt and resided in barracks built of dried mud and thatched with palm fronds in the precincts of the great temple. The course lasted four years and students defrayed the cost by working for five hours each day in the temple workshops. The training was standardized and students were taught to diagnose by question and observation, in much the same manner as they are today.
Archeological discoveries such as dried flowers and roots found in ancient burial plots suggest that cave women were probably the first herbalists or herb doctors. Surely these women must have observed animals using certain plants as medicines as we have all seen our modern pets do (dogs, for example, seek out grass in order to purge themselves). The cave women working alongside their men must have been responsible for the health and well-being of their offspring and administered plants as curatives. This knowledge was passed down from mother to daughter for millennia from the time of foraging to the time when crops were planted.
Although a tremendous chasm of time exists between the age of human cave dwellers and the men and women of great civilizations who built structures such as the pyramids, we must remember that about the cave dwellers’ herbal habits we may only theorize. On the other hand, hard evidence exists that suggests there was a formalization of herbal uses as early as 3000 BC. The Ebers Papyrus (circa 2000 BC, translated and named after the 19th century German, George Ebers) is a list of remedies with the appropriate spells and incantations, and refers to the Egyptian God of Medicine Imhotep, who existed around 2980 to 2900 BC. Isis, twin sister and wife of Osiris, God of Agriculture, is the Egyptian Goddess of Herbalism. Isis was a great magician as well as a great herbalist, and by means of the "series of invincible spells" which she was taught by Thoth, and by the use of the secret name of the Sungod Ra, she could vanquish every sorcerer, destroy the effect of all incantations, and even raise the dead. According the hieroglyphs of the Ebers papyrus, the doctors of Egypt seemed to have practiced a combination of herbalism and faith healing with just a touch of magic thrown in.
Another major contributor to modern herbalism is the Chinese herbal tradition, which is grounded in veneration of ancient emperors. Perhaps the most legendary emperor, with respect to the size of his contribution to medicine, was Shen-nung, who lived in 2700 BC. This man is reputed to have had an irresistible curiosity for the power of plants, and as a result, ingested any new plants he saw. He would carefully note the effects the plants had on his body, a body wonderfully suited for just such research because it is said his abdominal walls were so thin he could observe the workings of his body on the herbs he ate. Attributed to Shen-nung is one of the earliest known herbals, a kind of pharmacopoeia called the Pen Tsao, which is still respected by healers today.
Certainly the earliest people to seek plants as curatives thought the task the most natural act, much as we accept the need to drink water as a life-giving necessity. Over the years, the knowledge of the use of herbs fell to certain families within tribes and communities. Lineages of herb doctors were generated as a result. In this way, the deeper knowledge of herbs became a special, and in some regions of the world, religious power, and decreased the common knowledge of herbs to a choice few. When someone in the community required medical assistance, the current medical (herbal) expert was called on to develop a cure. In many ancient societies, it was believed that the gods bestowed on the herb doctors the knowledge required to administer a healing tea or poultice, and the physical cure, whether it be a rub, tea, mash, or inhalant, contained parts of the bodies of the gods themselves. Therefore, it was the religions of the people that eventually held the power of healing, and this power was passed through the centuries by the priests, who were eventually replaced by modern academic minions.
An evolution has taken place over the millennia in the attitude toward the use and acceptability of herbs as medicine. Most striking about this evolution is the lack of change in the curatives themselves. The tonics and remedies used by today’s herbalists and naturopaths vary little from the recipes noted by the most ancient manuscripts. The volatile evolution has occurred in the overall acceptability of herbs as cures "for what ails you." While in some areas herbalism has remained an honored profession, herbalists in parts of the world have been persecuted as dangerous citizens, labeled witches and devils. Today, in response to the failures of modern medicine, which many people distrust as diseases such as AIDS and various strains of the influenza virus continue to afflict the lives of millions worldwide despite its efforts, traditional cures with herbs have come racing back into the limelight.
Bibliography
Mindell, Earl. Earl Mindell’s Herb Bible. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
Mitton, F. and V. Mitton’s Practical Modern Herbal. New York: Arco Publishing, 1982.
Moore, Michael C. and Lynda J. The Complete Handbook of Holistic Health. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1983.
Tierra, Michael, ed. American Herbalism: Essays on Herbs & Herbalism by Members of the American Herbalist Guild. Freedom: The Crossing Press, 1992.
----------. The Way of Herbs: Simple Remedies for Health and Healing. Santa Cruz: Unity Press, 1980.