3. Introduction
The word ‘drug’ derives from an old European word drogen
referring to dried plants. All drugs, ancient and modern started
with herbs. Over thousands of years, people had to work out
which plants were useful and exactly how to use them. This
information was passed down through history through every
community, and noted in ancient texts from Assyria, Egypt,
India, China, Rome and Greece.
The ancient traditions have now been brought up to date to
take account of modern medical research and in many
countries is practiced by doctors and other health
professionals alongside modern medicine.
This booklet will offer an introduction to herbs that anyone can
use at home. It will be under the following headings
page
1 Why choose herbs? - the key questions!
2 Are herbs safe to try? - “yes – mostly”!
5 What can I try herbs for? - answers from those who have
7 Where to start? - where to find reliable herbs
10 How do I prepare my herbs? - turning a plant into a remedy
11 What dose works for me? - am I getting enough?
14 The story of herbal medicine - where this all began
This book is also an introduction to the Herbal Hub Self Care
series (see the last page of this book for more titles). Here and
also at www.herbalhub.net we will be learning how herbs may
be useful, how we know whether they are useful, when they
are worth trying and when to try something else. At best they
can really make a difference, at worst they rarely do any harm
and you can stop them quickly without after effects.
4. - 2 -
Why choose herbs?
Living creatures have always relied on plants, for food and
also for medicine. Even animals eat plants that have medicinal
rather than food properties and humans around the world
have always used plants as their main source of medicines.
Modern drugs started with plants and even now some are still
extracted from them.
Without hospitals and medical services to fall back on people
found plants with the quickest and best effects to treat illness.
There were common features to treatments being used
around the world: when European settlers moved into the
Americas they found local populations using plants in similar
ways to them.
(see the Story of Herbal Medicine on page 14)
All this of course was before modern medicine transformed
health care. A common question is whether herbs still have
any value today.
Synthetic drugs are often powerful and there is strong
evidence of their results in fighting specific diseases. Herbs
are now mostly used as more gentle treatments and there is
less modern evidence for them. However many herbal
treatments can quickly and safely be tested by personal
experience, and have a plausible scientific case. If used
wisely they can be a very useful complement to conventional
treatment.
Actually there is no need to make a choice between the two.
Both have their place and can be used differently and
sometimes together. In the Herbal Hub we will learn how to do
this safely and effectively.
5. - 3 -
Are herbs safe to try?
Not all things in nature are safe. Most plants produce
chemicals to defend themselves against infections and
predators; some can be poisonous. Those that are grown for
eating usually have these elements bred out so that they are
nice and easy on the body (and on the taste buds!).
By contrast the plants traditionally used for medicines were
often valued because they were provocative: correcting illness
can be hard work and some old treatment plans were robust!
Now that we have modern drugs and surgery for serious
medical treatments we can choose plant medicines that are
more gentle. The ones we discuss at the Herbal Hub have a
long track record of safe use. We even have modern evidence
for this.
Around the world plants are still used very widely as
medicines. Modern adverse drug reporting systems include
reports of negative reactions to herbs as well. The World
Health Organisation International Drug Monitoring Centre in
Uppsala, Sweden collects these from around the world and
reports that they make up around 1% of the total of all
medicine reports and that the vast majority are relatively minor
symptoms. Interestingly in Europe there is both widespread
use of plant-based medicines (‘phytomedicines’) and
mandatory reporting of their adverse effects by professionals
and manufacturers – the levels are still as low. Those who
look at these reports all agree that there is not much of a
public hazard out there. Most serious problems arise with poor
quality products (see below) and the very occasional
individual reaction that no one can predict. Nothing is risk-free
and rare events are always possible, but the safety record for
the prudent use of herbs is very good.
6. There are simple tips that can significantly reduce any risk of
taking herbs.
1) Avoid self care with herbs ...
o when taking powerful prescription drugs (eg. for blood
clotting, heart failure, diabetes, epilepsy, severe
depression and psychosis, AIDs, and after transplant
surgery),
o with kidney failure or liver disease
o within 3 days of admission to hospital.
2) There are some plants that affect drug activity. Grapefruit
juice is likely to increase the effect of some important
medicines. St John’s wort is likely to decrease activity. You
should be particularly cautious in mixing these with any
medication. Other possible interactions exist but are unlikely
to be a risk except for very powerful drugs listed above.
3) Pause herbal remedies if ever you notice an unpleasant
reaction. The main effect of many herbs is on the digestion
and this is where uncomfortable effects can sometimes
occur. Fortunately these effects are mostly temporary: they
may include nausea, upset stomach or diarrhoea.
Headaches and drowsiness or increased urinary flow may
also be experienced. Again these are mostly passing
symptoms and may be reduced by taking herbs after food
rather than before, taking in more water or at a lower starting
dose. However the obvious point is - if you feel
uncomfortable: stop - and maybe seek help from a qualified
practitioner who works with herbs.
4) Do not take herbal remedies longer than you need. For many
everyday cases discussed in the Herbal Hub this may be a
few weeks or less. In cases where benefits are unlikely to
show for much longer it would be wise to seek advice from a
qualified practitioner who works with herbs.
7. 5) Above all choose your herbs wisely. The international
market for herbal remedies is largely unregulated. Be aware
that people really are not watching what you buy much of the
time. There are too many cases where the product does not
match up to the label or where the label is not clear. There
are some cases where this has harmed people. We will be
helping you find reliable herbs on our Herbal Hub site. If you
live in or can get supplies from Europe or Australia or
Canada you can get independently verified herbal products.
In Europe there are registered or licensed herbal medicines
and on this site we list those on the market for each
condition (in the UK initially). In Australia herbal remedies
should be registered under the Therapeutic Goods Act, and
Health Canada licenses herbs as Natural Health Products.
New Zealand is planning similar legislation. In other places
you have to look diligently at the quality of product. Herbal
Hub will produced and update guides to the market in the
USA.
8. - 6 -
What can I try herbs for?
Herbs can be used to help with many everyday problems. In
early days they were the basis of some powerful treatments
for major conditions, because there were no other options.
They have provided the basis for some of our most powerful
modern drugs and also some robust techniques for helping
the body defend itself against diseases. See The story of
herbal medicine at the end of this book.
Now that we enjoy the benefit of medical advances to
diagnose and treat serious conditions we can look to herbs
more as self care and support measures and choose those
that are the safest to use for this purpose.
Simple self care use is where the effect of the herb should be
most evident, sometimes quickly. Below are conditions that
are appropriate for trying herbal remedies and the length of
time that positive results should be seen.
Herbal role
Length of time to
show effects
Easing sore throats, coughs and other
respiratory symptoms
one to three days
Improving digestion and bowel function one to three days
Gentle calming for stress and irritability a few days
Relieving headache a few days
*Discomfort and difficulty in passing water up to a week
Helping provide more energy three or four weeks
Lifting low mood and minor depression three or four weeks
Improving sleep three or four weeks
Relieving period and premenstrual difficulties up to 3 months
Relieving migraines up to 3 months
Relieving arthritic problems up to 3 months
Relieving eczema and other skin problems. up to 3 months
Easing symptoms of the menopause up to 3 months
9. In all cases do check with your health care professional before
proceeding with self care in case the symptoms mask
something more serious, especially if they have lasted for
more than a few weeks or keep recurring; and in all cases
marked with *.
Other uses are harder to check progress yourself. However in
the following cases there is a strong traditional reputation and
they can be recommended if you take the relevant
precautions.
Herbal role Review?
Helping to recover from illnesses* and
when tired and run down
Take additional
convalescent steps if no
improvement in a month
Improving circulatory function in
cardiovascular and diabetic illness*
Do not continue if medical
markers do not improve in
three months
Preventing respiratory infections* Do not continue if expected
seasonal patterns are not
significantly changed
In all cases the use of herbs should be reviewed every 3
months and the question asked: is this good to continue?
If you come across claims that herbs can be used for more
serious conditions than those listed here, be cautious. If you
have a long term illness that you would like to try herbs for
then you should consult with a qualified health practitioner
who uses herbs professionally. In particular you should avoid
products that are sold for the treatment of severe illnesses:
these are almost by definition provided by people with little
medical knowledge or care for your welfare.
10. - 8 -
Where to start?
Before finding your herbs it will help to be clear what you want
them for: read the previous passage and then work out your
health needs as well as possible. There are guides to
individual conditions on the Herbal Hub and much good
reliable information elsewhere. However be cautious about
what you read on the internet – if the site is selling a product
you should double check what it says against independent
sources.
When you have decided what you want the herbs for and how
they may help then you can choose from the following
sources.
6) Retail outlets or on the web. It is important to do your
homework here too. See the Box on page 9 for the
difference between medicines and supplements. If you
are able to find the appropriate medicine then at least you
can be sure of the quality. In the UK these will be marked
by licence or registration numbers on the pack (PL... and
THR .... respectively). They will have permitted claims on
the label to guide you in your choice and full information
leaflets inside the pack. The Herbal Hub lists all herbal
medicines available in the UK. Further national lists in
Europe will follow.
If you choose a supplement you should aim for a reliable
manufacturer with a reputation to maintain, or source
though someone that you trust or has professional
experience. In general be particularly cautious when
buying directly off the web as standards can be seriously
defective on some sites.
You may also choose herbs in their loose dried form. Do
check that they are not too old, faded or musty. Dried
herbs should be stored carefully and renewed at least
annually. When good they should have bright colour and
clean aroma. Some remedies like ginger and garlic can
be sourced as foods – check quality in the usual way.
UK Traditional Herbal
Registration logo
11. Is this herb a supplement, a medicine or something else?
Herbal remedies are regulated in different ways around the world.
Among those whose job it is to protect us from taking the wrong things
into our bodies there has always been the view that what we eat is a
food and what we use to treat illness is a medicine. Because medicines
make changes to the body they need to be much more tightly controlled.
They are expected to satisfy strict requirements on three criteria: that
they work (efficacy), that their risks do not outweigh their benefits
(safety), and that they deliver exactly what the label states (quality).
Foods generally have to be safe for human consumption without the
same strict controls.
Herbs can be both foods and medicines or maybe something in
between! In Europe (including the UK) they have tended to be classed
as medicines if they are used for health purposes. It is now possible to
register a herb as a medicine for minor conditions suitable for self care
on the basis of its traditional use. This replaces the need to prove
efficacy with expensive clinical trials. However other medicine
requirements are the same and the user can be assured that safety is
being actively monitored and that the medicine delivers the exact
material and dose on label.
In the USA by contrast herbal remedies are sold as ‘dietary
supplements’ and are permitted to carry claims that they support a
healthy function in the body. However without the formal requirements
of medicine manufacture good and poor products cannot easily be
distinguished and dosage and other quality standards may be hard to
assure. You need to be diligent to be sure that you obtain reliable
products from recommended manufacturers at an effective dose. There
are also herbal ‘food supplements’ in Europe. Here they will have no
claims on the label and will lack the THR... or PL ... registration number
on the pack.
An inspired blend of these two regimes is in countries like Canada,
Australia and New Zealand where herbal products have to be produced
to medicine quality although are not classified with synthetic medicines.
.
12. 7) Growing or collecting. This takes planning and skills.
Growing will take time, collecting is usually confined to a
few weeks each year.
In both cases you will
also have to know
about drying and
storing your
remedies. In the case
of collecting you will
really need to identify
your plant accurately.
There are cases
where people have
poisoned themselves
by choosing the
wrong plant. Please
use a good plant
identification guide.
You will also need to
learn how to prepare
your remedies – the
following section
should help.
8) A professional consultation. The advantage of seeing a
herbal practitioner, naturopath or other health professional
who uses herbs is that you both get a tailored formulation
and usually get the herbs as well. The Herbal Hub
Personal Advice page will progressively list directories of
herbal experts around the world.
13. - 11 -
How do I prepare my herbs?
If you buy your herbs loose or grow or collect your own you
will need to prepare them as useful remedies. For internal use
the standard ways are to use hot water, either by infusion or
decoction.
1) Infusions are like making tea. The
herb is steeped in recently boiled water,
usually covered to prevent loss of
important volatile constituents. This is
appropriate for leaves and flowers and
powders, where the active principles
are easily extracted.
2) Decoctions are used for plant parts
that are more resistant to leaching their
constituents like wood, bark, and roots.
They are chopped and boiled in water,
either slowly with a cover on, or boiled
down to the required quantity from a
larger volume of water.
It is also possible to use powders mixed
with food and drinks or even inserted into
capsules at home. With powders be careful
that they are fresh as possible: they
deteriorate rapidly.
14. - 12 -
What dose works for me?
This is one of the most debated topics in herbal
medicine! Most people now take doses lower than in
the past and lower than most doses found effective in
modern clinical trials. The question is are people
taking enough to work?
Human experience of herbs evolved when they were
the only medicines available and were needed to treat
severe conditions. Doses often had to be very high.
However even for everyday family remedies the norm
was to hit the condition quite hard.
A typical dose for a family remedy was sometimes
recorded in old household measures as 1oz of dried
herb in 1 pint of water (by infusion or decoction – see
above) with a wineglassful of this taken 3 times a day.
For the more precise reader this converts into the
equivalent of 2-4 grams of dried herb 3 times per day
(depending on extraction rates). If this was taken in
capsule form this could be the equivalent of up to 15
large capsules of dried herb at a time! This is clearly
much more than the usual supplement dose. It is also
far more than taking a teabag in a cup of hot water.
Most modern clinical research also supports relatively
high doses. To meet these in practice many of the
leading herbal medicine companies produce
concentrated extracts in standardized forms. For
example the leading ginkgo medicine is 50 times
more concentrated than the equivalent simple leaf
capsule or tablet. Herbal practitioners will usually use
more concentrated products as well.
However there is also a tradition, notably in Germany,
of using small doses. This sometimes merges with
the very different homoeopathic tradition of using
extremely small doses of fresh plant and promoting
an energetic quality of the plant instead. There are
15. some low dose herbal products manufactured by
companies that service both traditions in Europe. The
manufacturing process may convey some extra
benefits here.
So what to recommend? When using simple herbs for
yourself it is probably better to assume that you may
have to take larger doses to see the full effect.
However it is also advisable to start small and work
up only when you are comfortable to do so. Doses a
quarter of those found in the relevant pages on the
Herbal Hub are quite a good starting point, working
them up as they appear to help, and stopping them in
good time if they do not suit.
The main point to make about dosages however is
that if you have not tried the herb at near its
traditional dose you may not know what it can do.
Unfortunately most users have missed out here.
16. The Story of Herbal Medicine
- 14 -
The modern idea of herbs as ‘supplements’ or as gentle remedies overlooks an
important feature of traditional medicines. For thousands of years they were all
we had! ‘Drugs’ were prepared by our ancestors to treat severe conditions and
those used most were those that had the quickest and most dramatic effects. We
know they could work: some of our modern drugs are direct conversions from
traditional ones.
However to tap the real potential of traditional plant medicines we should
understand that they were used very differently from modern medicines.
Nowadays with all the benefits of scientific research we have become good at
understanding what happens in diseases. In many of them we can get medicines
that target what has gone wrong very precisely.
In all earlier times diseases were seen by how they felt and looked. They
appeared to be disturbances to the usual healthy state. Most early (‘acute’)
symptoms, like fever, inflammation, pain, vomiting, coughing, and diarrhoea were
TRADITIONAL DRUGS MODERN DRUGS
opium poppy morphine, codeine and other pain relief
willow bark.
Meadowsweet
salicylates such as aspirin and NSAIDs
senna, cascara, aloes anthraquinone laxatives
calabar bean physostigmine and eye medicines
foxglove, lily of the
valley
digoxin and related heart drugs
squills, ipecacuanha Emetics (to induce vomiting) and
expectorants (to clear the lungs)
coca cocaine and local anaesthetics
henbane, nightshades,
datura
antiasthmatic drugs, scopolamine,
17. signs that the healthy body was defending itself, the extent of the symptoms
reflecting the vitality of the body as much as the severity of the disease. The first
job of medicine was to understand what the body was trying to say and help it do
its job better. The penalty for getting this wrong was also clear to our ancestors:
badly managed acute symptoms could kill or maim, or if less serious could become
embedded, long-term (‘chronic’) and much harder to treat.
In this last observation our ancestors were not wrong! We often think we should
prevent or suppress acute symptoms. However modern science also confirms that
they all start as defensive responses to infection or damage. We now have much
more chronic disease than we used to.
Traditional medicines were classified by their ability to make defensive responses
more effective and less harmful. For example we now treat fever and inflammation
with anti-inflammatories. By contrast, in almost every culture in the past the aim
was to give remedies to boost the fever and inflammation and help them finish the
job with the least possible distress. Often we can see these as working by
improving circulation: in the past these remedies were classified as ‘heating’
because that was how they felt.
Coughs and mucus production were seen as attempts by the body to defend
itself against noxious influences in the air. Depending on the type of trouble
‘heating’ or spasm-reducing medicines were chosen to improve the defence rather
than suppress the symptoms. Digestive and bowel disturbances were treated with
remedies (like most of the spices) that reduced spasm and pain yet also seemed
to improve digestive performances.
Sometimes remedies were chosen because they seemed to encourage natural
excretions and were used to improve detoxification, as laxatives, diuretics, and
emetics.
18. Many of these remedies were used to nudge or even kick the body into better
defensive performance. Few were used for long and an average traditional
prescription might be for a day or so at a time.
Other remedies were then used to support recovery from illness. People had
greater respect for the message that fatigue sends, the need to convalesce
properly to avoid relapse. Recuperative care could sometimes be quite
sophisticated. There would be a broad spectrum of rest and diet measures
complemented with plants with strong reputations for building strength. We often
refer to the medicines used for this purpose as ‘tonics’.
This last group may be particularly relevant in modern times. Too often we assume
that a disease is cured because it has been hit by an antibiotic, anti-inflammatory
or anti-cancer treatment and forget that there should also be proper attention to
recovery. Herbs can be very useful here. We will find out more in booklets on
treating specific conditions.
Exploring the principles of traditional European, Islamic, Chinese and Indian
medicine offers many more such fascinating insights. We will be elaborating them
in other books in the Herbal Hub series. They are not instant solutions to the
world’s problems. Nor do we advise anyone to tackle serious disease on their own.
However they can offer valuable tips for self-managing everyday ailments that are
less dangerous.
19. MORE FROM
Natural family medicine that has stood the test of time and science!
Take charge of your family health needs with these practical guides to the
most effective things you can do at home:
o CONVENIENT - tried-and-tested approaches to each problem at your fingertips
o USEFUL - organise your progress with your own PERSONAL JOURNAL and step-
by-step plan
o TRUSTWORTHY - check out the evidence with links to the Self Care Llibrary and
other independently rated information sources
o EFFECTIVE - create your long-term recovery plan for managing your symptoms
once and for all, and for building your future health
We have studied the evidence and worked with patients for many years.
These are the best approaches we can find!
Coming up
o Sleep Workbook
work through the best modern and traditional ways to get good sleep
o Back Pain Workbook
an integrated approach to managing back pain - from the experts!
o Fatigue Workbook
learn age-old ‘convalescent’ approaches to restoring strength and energy with the right
balance of rest, exercise, diet and natural ‘tonic’ remedies
o Coughs and Colds Workbook
natural ways to fend off respiratory infections and quickly treat coughs, colds and sore
throats when they happen
o Digestion Workbook
get on top of your indigestion problems, food intolerances, IBS and other bowel upsets
with this organized work plan, and the most valued natural remedies on the planet!
others to follow ...
