The Importance of Medicinal Plants and A Brief History of Pharmaceutical Medicine

If there’s anything of this world that leads me to believe there’s an intelligent, organised creator/source, it’s the fact that we can treat virtually every condition known to man with a natural, or naturally-based, product. I’m fascinated by the idea that every plant has it’s medicinal use (as suggested by Paralaceus – the renowned 15th century physician) and convinced that each and every illness and disease has it’s perfect natural cure.

Medicinal plants have been used to treat illness and disease for thousands of years. Even now, they are economically important, being used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, perfumery, and food industries. In recent years we’ve seen a explosion in the number of natural products and beauty products containing natural extracts, although claims are often wildly exaggerated to increase revenue. Many natural products are more expensive and difficult to source, with a far shorter shelf life, so using them in large enough amounts to create  effective products is costly..

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It is not known why plants contain the answer to so many of man’s needs, but our environment not only feeds us and provides us with nutrients and vitamins, essential to our growth and general well-being, it also magically presents us with the keys to our biggest problems in life: illness and disease. At this point in time, only around 10% of the vast range of plant species has been discovered by man, meaning the potential for many more effective cures is there, just waiting to be discovered and utilised.

Many plants contain active constituents of known medical benefit, and often these chemical substances are impossible to create synthetically, or just too expensive to create for synthetic production to be economically viable. There are at least three hundred natural chemical substances used in medicinal preparations today, one example being flavonoligans from Milk Thistle fruit – which is cultivated in South America – being used in a drug to treat liver disease. Indeed, the world relies heavily on man-made chemicals produced from medicinal plants. Active substances are first isolated, and then extracted to be used by drug companies in pharmaceutical products. It’s fair to say that most of the medicines you’ve been prescribed for the various illnesses you’ve succumbed to over the years will have had a natural foundation.

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However, whereas we now turn to regulated doctors for prescribed forms of chemically produced medication, we once visited traditional herbalists – the wise-women, shamans or witches, and in later centuries a local apothecary – for natural cures to ill health. Over the centuries man made use of medicinal plants, even when unable to rationally explain their effects, and it’s possible that disease and the initial discovery of natural cures played a huge part in creating the superstitions and myths believed by ancient peoples. For early man, the search for a cure was an instinctive self-preservation technique, and these first efforts to ensure the survival of the human race formed the basis for all future medicine and healing.

In addition to medicinal plants, there are many more that are used as such by themselves, in teas, extracts, or tinctures. There are several hundred, perhaps even thousands, of species of plant used in traditional folk remedies, taken by our ancestors in days of old, and by many living in the modern world.

All drugs are currently classified as either hard or soft, with most natural medicines falling into the soft category. This is because they tend to have a mild action, with effects occurring over a longer period, whereas synthetic varieties have a more rapid action. Consequently, natural products are more beneficial in cases of non-acute illness, and are better used to protect against natural diseases, for treating chronic diseases, or for aiding progress when in recovery. They can also be used very effectively in therapeutic treatment.

However, not all natural medicines have a mild action, with many being poisonous when ingested in the wrong quantities. For this reason it’s very important to consult a qualified herbalist before beginning any kind of self-medication.

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The History of Pharmaceutical Medicine

It was in the 15th century that the knowledge of medicinal plants and medical practice became more widespread, in the form of compilations, known as herbals. This period coincided with the discovery of the New World, when Brazil was claimed for Portugal. Europeans were as interested then as they are now in medicinal plants and their uses, and quickly began importing new species, and medicinal products, such as balsam and tropical drugs. These plants were grown in Europe’s botanical gardens and the products were sold in apothecaries, many of which were located in monasteries.

Indeed, right up until the 19th century, there was no doubting that ‘materia medica’ was the supreme form of medical practise. Evidence of this is provided in the form of the many vessels, jars, and pots used for storing drugs and medicines, discovered over the years, and all that’s been written about them.

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However, there came a time when it was envisioned there would eventually be a day when medicinal plants would no longer be necessary: in 1805, Frederich Wilhelm Serturner isolated the opium alkaloid morphine. This discovery laid the foundation for the development of pharmaceutical chemistry, and the late 19th and early 20th century saw a huge swing in the direction of synthetic medicine in what was called a ‘victory over nature.’ Traditions stretching back thousands of years seemed set to die out forever. But, as time went on, it became apparent synthetic products caused many side-effects and, of the many hundreds of synthetic medicines that have been created since that time, only aspirin has survived with it’s reputation mainly intact (and even this has been questioned in recent years). Aspirin is, in fact, a semi-synthetic version of a well-known drug obtained from willow bark.

The last decade has seen a return to natural medicine by many westerners, particularly women, and largely thanks to the ‘new age’ movement, which has taken the US and the UK by storm. I believe this is a step in the right direction and feel it’s important that we take more responsibility for our personal health, particularly preventative care.

It would be nice to think that health authorities will take the time in future to fully investigate the possible uses of each and every planet on found the planet, and remember to revere nature, and to understand that we humans will not only never be victorious over her, but depend on her for all the answers we seek.

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