Understanding Herbal Medicine

Ever since the birth of mankind, there has been a relationship between life, disease, and plants. Primitive men started studying diseases and treatments. There is no record that people in prehistoric times used synthetic medicines for their ailments, but they tried to make use of the things they could easily procure. The most common thing they could find was their in environment i.e. the plants and animals. They started using plants and found that majority of plants were suitable as food, whereas other were either poisonous or medicinally useful. By their experience, this knowledge of herbal remedies was transferred to generation as folk medicine. So, the history of herbal medicine is as old as human history.

Herbal medicine is still the mainstay of about 75–80% of the world’s population, mainly in developing countries, for primary health care because of better cultural acceptability, better compatibility with the human body and lesser side effects. It is estimated that approximately one-quarter of prescribed drugs contain plant extracts or active ingredients obtained from or modeled on plant substances. Aspirin, atropine, artemisinin, colchicine, digoxin, ephedrine, morphine, physostigmine, pilocarpine, quinine, quinidine, reserpine, taxol, tubocurarine, vincristine and vinblastine are a few important examples of what medicinal plants have given us in the past. Most of these plant-derived drugs were originally discovered through the study of traditional cures and folk knowledge of indigenous people and some of these could not be substituted despite the enormous advancement in synthetic chemistry. Consequently, plants can be described as a major source of medicines, not only as isolated active principles to be dispensed in standardized dosage form but also as crude drugs for the population.

Today in many countries modern medicine has displaced plants with many synthetic products but almost 30% of pharmaceutical preparations are still obtained directly or indirectly from plants. The modern era has seen some decline in use of medicinal plants and their extracts as therapeutic agent, particularly in developed countries, many of which either been discarded by the medical profession or now given in the form of isolated compound. The strategy of isolating the active principles from the medicinal plants and manufacturing a pharmaceutical preparation then became popular. Modern medicines and herbal medicines are complementarities being used in areas for health care program in several developing countries including India. Of late, the interest in the plant products surfaces all over the world due to the belief that many herbal medicines are known to be free from side effects. It is the fact that the discovery of the new synthetic drug is time-consuming & an expensive affair. The utility of the synthetic drug is always accompanied with its single or multiple adverse effects and in some cases, the curves are not available.

Herbs had been used by all cultures throughout history, but India has one of the oldest, richest and most diverse cultural living traditions associated with the use of medicinal plants. In the present scenario, the demand for herbal products is growing exponentially throughout the world and major pharmaceutical companies are currently conducting extensive research on plant materials for their potential medicinal value. In many journals, national and international, increasing number of research publications based on herbal drugs.

Plants have provided mankind a large variety of potent drugs to alleviate suffering from diseases in spite of spectacular advances in synthetic drugs in recent years, some of the drugs of plant Origin have still retained their importance. The use of plant-based drugs all over world is increasing. In spite of the tremendous advances made in the modern medicine, there are still a large number of ailments for which suitable drugs are yet to be found. Today, there is an urgent need to develop safer drugs for the treatment of inflammatory disorders, diabetes, liver diseases, and gastrointestinal disorder. Hence, there is a growing interest in the pharmacological evaluation of various plants used in Indian traditional systems of medicine.

However, the folkloric use of crude drugs is often empirical and is based on observation from clinical trials without experimental support. The need for exhaustive systemic research into indigenous drugs cannot be overemphasized.

The History of Herbal Medicine

Medicinal plants have been used for medicinal purposes long before recorded history. For example, ancient Chinese and Egyptian papyrus writings describe medicinal plant uses. Indigenous cultures (e.g., African and Native American) used herbs in their healing rituals, while others developed traditional medical systems (e.g., Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine) in which herbal therapies were used systematically. Scientists found that people in different parts of the globe tended to use the same or similar plants for the same purposes.

In the early 19th century, when methods of chemical analysis first became available, scientists began extracting and modifying the active ingredients from plants. Later, chemists began making their own version of plant compounds, beginning the transition from raw herbs to synthetic pharmaceuticals. Over time, the use of herbal medicines declined in favor of pharmaceuticals.

Herbal Medicine Today

Recently, the World Health Organization estimated that 80% of people worldwide rely on herbal medicines for some aspect of their primary health care. In the last twenty years, in the United States, increasing public dissatisfaction with the cost, efficacy and potential of side-effect of prescription medications, combined with an interest in returning to natural or organic remedies, has led to an increase in the use of herbal medicines. In countries such as Germany and Switzerland, roughly 600 to 700 plant-based medicines are available and prescribed by approximately 70% of physicians.

How do Herbs Work?

For most herbs, used in herbal medicine, the specific ingredient that causes a therapeutic effect is not known. Whole herbs contain many ingredients, and it is likely that they work synergistically to produce the therapeutic effects. Many factors affect how effective a herb will be. For example, the type of environment (climate, bugs, soil quality, altitude, etc.) in which a plant is grown will affect its constituents. In addition, how and when it was harvested and processed will also influence the quality of the resulting herbal extract.

How are herbs used?

For the reasons described in the previous section, herbalists prefer using plant extracts from the whole herb or various parts such as roots, flowers, seeds, etc., rather than extracting single active ingredients from them. Herbal extracts have many components and are usually too complex to manufacture synthetically by the pharmaceutical industry.

These components contained in medicinal herbs work together to produce therapeutic effects, while at the same time moderating potential side-effects often associated with pharmaceutical preparations. Several herbs are often used together to enhance effectiveness and synergistic actions and to reduce toxicity.

Are Herbal Medicines Safe?

In a study by the World Health Organization on the use of herbal medicine, about 80% of the world’s population still rely on herbal medicine to treat certain ailments and about 74% of the pharmaceutical drugs we use today contain at least one botanical element.

For instance, Chinese herbal medicine uses Ephedra, which contains ephedrine. This herb is used in the treatment of some respiratory conditions. Ephedrine (Pseudoephedrine as in Sudafed) remains an active ingredient in many pharmaceutical drugs being prescribed to relieve asthma symptoms.

Herbal medicine is defined by three schools of thought: Ayurvedic Herbalism, Traditional Chinese Herbalism and Western Herbal Medicine. While both Ayurvedic and Chinese herbal medicine have moved on to advanced forms, western herbal medicine remains a part of folk treatments. Herbal medicine is, first and foremost, holistic. It aims to address not just a particular symptom, but also helps the whole body rejuvenate and strengthen itself.