OVERVIEW, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION OF HERBAL MEDICINE

Definition

Herbal medicine is sometimes called botanical medicine or phytotherapy (from Greek phytos = plant). Herbal medicine is the use of plants, plant parts, their water or solvent extracts, essential oils, gums, resins, exudates or other form of advanced products made from plant parts used therapeutically to provide proactive support of various physiological systems; or, in a more conventional medical sense, to treat, cure, or prevent a disease in animals or humans.

An herb or herbaceous plant is defined botanically as: a plant with a non-woody stem, that dies back and does not usually stay erect in the winter, as distinguished from a shrub or tree.

The functional or practical definition of an herb (especially in commerce) is a plant or plant part, or plant material (e.g., essential oil, gum, or exudate), used for flavor, fragrance, or medicinal purposes.

An herbal medicine is a medicinal preparation made from a plant, and can include the fresh or dried herb or herb part, whole, chopped or powdered, or an advanced form of the herb usually made via extraction by a solvent such as water, ethanol, or an organic solvent (e.g., acetone). Such advanced herbal preparations, often processed in a way that establishes relatively fixed chemical parameters, are often called standardized extracts. These standardized chemicals may be chosen either because they are “marker compounds,” specific or characteristic of a particular genus or species of plant, or because they are scientifically active compounds, as they contribute significantly to the preparation’s specific physiological activity. Marker compounds may be active or inert, and can contribute to physiological activity other than the primary intended use of the extract. Advanced herbal products, usually, but not always, as standardized extracts, are often referred to as phytomedicines.

Many systems of herbal medicine include medicinal mushrooms, which, by biological definition, are not plants but occupy their own kingdom, the fungi. In some systems of traditional medicine, e.g., traditional Chinese medicine, Yoruba medicine, and Unani (adapted from Greco-Persian medicine), animal products are frequently employed in “herbal medicine,” but animal products are not considered in this educational module.

An herbal preparation is by definition chemically complex, as it contains many naturally occurring compounds of the plant or plant part. In contrast, classic plant-derived drugs such as atropine, colchicine, ephedrine, quinine, reserpine, and scopolamine, are single chemical entities. Although they are extracted from plants, they are isolated and purified to make modern conventional drugs and thus cannot technically be considered for equivalent use as the plant forms.


History

Herbal medicine is one of the oldest, if not the oldest forms of healing, starting with the origins of human life. Early hominids no doubt observed animals and employed a form of empiricism to determine the edibility of various plants. Presumably, this led to the use of plants as medicines. The word drug derived from the Dutch word droog, meaning to dry, originates from the use of herbal medicine: plants were dried and used as remedies. The history of pharmacy and medicine parallels to a significant degree the evolution of herbal medicine.

In the current academic setting, many schools of pharmacy and graduate programs in pharmacology offer programs in medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, the study of how plants are developed for use in medicine. There are also academic programs in ethnobotany and social medicine that analyze and incorporate the study of medical systems that actively use botanicals.Interface With Other Health Remedies

Herbs are an integral component in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) where herbal formulations are extensively employed by traditional healers and also included in acupuncture therapies. In fact, most acupuncturists use herbs along with acupuncture and moxibustion, the burning of herbal cones on various acupuncture points on the body, the cones being made of a traditional Chinese herb called mugwort (Artemisia spp.). Additionally, acupuncturists use herbal formulas to help “move energy” in the body, sometimes from the inside to the surface, or in whatever method or direction they deem appropriate, according to the TCM concepts of yin and yang and other traditional concepts of energetics, the idea that herbs have various properties or energies (e.g., five tastes, heating or cooling, bringing energy up or down, etc.).

One of the fundamental aspects of both TCM and Ayurveda, the ancient traditional healing system of India, is that each patient is usually prescribed his or her own custom formula, determined by the practitioner’s assessment of differential diagnosis, i.e., assessment of pulses (many more than commonly measured in the West), tongue, body type, etc. Each formula is then individually prepared for the patient’s constitutional type and current condition. This contrasts with the Western approach of using a standard medication for every case of a specific symptom, syndrome, or disease, usually regardless of the patient’s “type.”

It should also be noted that in both Ayurveda and TCM, herbs are almost always employed in complex formulas, the rationale for which are based on various philosophical and cosmological concepts associated with the respective traditions. This reliance on multiple herb formulas contrasts somewhat with the use of herbs in the West, which usually employs herbs as monopreparations. Ayurvedic doctors use herbs in preparing packs used for therapeutic massages, and combine herbs into oils for cleansing treatments called panchakarma. Kampo, an herbal medical system used in Japan based on TCM, used an herb for each day of the year and has a system based on the use of 365 herbs, instead of the thousands used in TCM.

Some Clinical Applications

Since herbs have been the source of many pharmaceutical drugs and are often approved as nonprescription medications in numerous countries around the globe (i.e., both industrialized and developing countries), the range of clinical applications, as well as uses in self-medication, for herbs are extremely wide.

The following are some salient examples of potential clinical applications of herbs and phytomedicines, where the herbs play either a primary or adjunct role:

Circulatory: may be used for increased peripheral circulation, e.g., in peripheral arterial occlusive disease (intermittent claudication) and Raynaud’s disease; congestive heart failure stages 1 and 2 (increased central circulation and positive inotropic activity of heart); hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis, and hypertension.

Endocrinological: used to treat symptoms of menopause.

Gastrointestinal: used for treatment of digestive upsets, used as stimulant and bulk laxatives, as cholagogues, hepatoprotectants, and for irritable bowel syndrome.

Genito-urinary: often employed as aquaretics and diuretics, and for treatment of cystitis, benign prostatic hyperplasia, vaginal infections, leucorrhea, PMS, and dysmenorrhea.

Neurological: used for anxiety, minor to moderate depression, insomnia, and cognitive disorders like short-term memory loss and demential syndromes associated with aging and early stages of Alzheimer’s. etc

In our subsequent posts, we will keep you informed on various health problems and their herbal remedies.