Botanical Medicine Health Article

Definition

Botanical medicine is a vital component of the healing arts that draws on the accumulated and developing knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants in the prevention and treatment of disease. Botanical medicine includes medical herbalism, a healing art that relies on the synergistic and curative properties of plants to treat symptoms and disease and maintain health, and pharmocognosy, the study of natural products. Botanical medicine is an important component of numerous traditional medical systems and therapies, including traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Ayurvedic medicine, naturopathy, indigenous and shamanic medicine, homeopathy, flower essence therapy, and aromatherapy. Botanical medicine has survived for many thousands of years in some form and in all cultures throughout the world. The study of the plant lore of these various cultures is known as ethnobotany.

Plants have been used since prehistoric times as medicinal remedies applied in various ways to provide relief from irritations as minor as a mosquito bite to situations as catastrophic as the plague. In modern medicine, some drugs are derived from plants, and many of these medicines are used in ways that are similar to their traditional uses. Many more drugs in modern medicine, however, are synthetic, and part of the reason for this trend is economic: plants can rarely be patented, so a pharmaceutical company will not gain the exclusive right to sell a plant-derived medication even after expensive research and marketing. Also, the processing of plants into a medicine cannot be as easily standardized and controlled as the manufacturing of a synthetic. As a result, the efficacy and safety of only a relative few of the traditionally used botanical remedies have been verified by clinical research. Approximately only 5,000 of the estimated 500,000 known species (including subspecies) of plants have been identified and studied for their medicinal properties.

Origins

The knowledge of the healing properties of herbs has been preserved from the time of the clay tablets of the ancient Sumerians over 5,000 years ago, to the sacred texts and pharmacopoeias of the Hindu and Chinese cultures, to the works of Greek and Roman physicians preserved by Byzantine scholars, to the European folk herbalists and physicians such as Nicholas Culpeper and, more recently, to the Native American herbalists. One of the earliest records of botanical medicine is the Pen T'Shao Kang Mu, a work attributed to China's Yellow Emperor around 2500 B.C. Another is the Ebers papyrus, an Egyptian medical text dating from 1,550 B.C. The Rigveda, an ancient Hindu scripture, lists more than 1,000 medicinal plants used in the ancient Ayurveda system of medicine, already well developed by 1000 B.C. Theophrastus, who lived from 327–285 B.C. is considered the first scientific botanist; he recorded the use of more than 500 medicinal plants. The Greek physician Dioscorides produced what has been called the first true herbal text, or herbal, the De materia medica in the first century A.D. By the Middle Ages, the monks in medieval European monasteries were working to preserve this ancient knowledge by copying texts and cultivating extensive gardens of medicinal plants. European folk medicine was passed from generation to generation through oral tradition, and later, with the introduction of the printing press, the information became more widely available in popular written texts. Colonists brought their herbal knowledge and plant specimens to settlements in North America and learned from the indigenous Americans how to make use of numerous additional plants native to the New World. The first record of Native American herb use is the manuscript of the Native Mexican physician Juan Badianus in 1552.

The use of herbs for medicinal purposes has been developed over the centuries by personal experimentation, local custom, anecdote, and folk tradition. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 80% of the global population continues to rely on medicinal plant preparations to meet primary health care needs. For example, a 2003 study found that traditional Arabic herbal medicine is still practiced in the Middle East. The specific chemical constituents of herbs and their unique medicinal action is the subject of ongoing scientific experimentation.

Benefits

Botanical medicines, when administered properly and in designated therapeutic dosages, can be effective, trigger fewer side effects for most patients than pharmaceutical drugs, and are generally less costly than prescription pharmaceutical drugs.

The benefits of botanical medicine may be subtle or dramatic, depending on the remedy used and the illness being addressed. Herbal remedies usually have a much slower effect than pharmaceutical drugs. Some herbal remedies have a cumulative effect and work slowly over time to restore balance, others are indicated for short-term treatment of acute symptoms. Botanical medicine may be especially beneficial when administered to help with chronic ongoing symptoms.