| In the old European herbals, lemon balm, a gentle, relaxing herb that aids digestion and alleviates nausea, was also recommended for pregnant women. Native Americans in the eastern United States used partridge berry; like raspberry this small plant works as a uterine tonic to make pregnancy easier. Modern women who have tried these same herbs when they were pregnant agree with their sisters from past generations—these plants make labor easier and keep you healthier during pregnancy. |
Sharol Tilgner, N.D.
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 Sharol completed her degree, for a time ran the pharmacy at National College of Naturopathic Medicine, published two videos on plant identification and use, and eventually her basement full of tinctures became Wise Woman herbals. She has also been associate editor of my Medical Herbalism journal since its founding ten years ago.
When we met those thirteen years ago, the practice of herbalism in the United States was generally viewed by the medical profession as falling somewhere on the legal and moral spectrum between criminal fraud and criminal negligence. |
Margarita Artschwager Kay
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 The American Botanical Council, which publishes HerbalGram, maintains a bookstore with a large selection of scientific works including videos on botany, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, the recognition and study of natural products, herbals from various cultures, and monographs. These may be ordered from American Botanical Council, P.O. Box 201660, Austin, Texas 78720. |
the Editors of PREVENTION
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 Such herbals dominated European popular medicine throughout the Middle Ages, giving way to more learned pharmacopoeia when science started taking off in the seventeenth century. Meanwhile, in the Western Hemisphere, Native Americans on both continents developed a rich tradition of herbal medicine.
In the modern New World, herbal and other natural medicines vied with what would become "conventional" medicine until the quasi-official Flexner Report in 1910 canonized the latter and effectively suppressed the former. |
American Medical Publishing
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| When your doctor prescribes a new drug, discuss all OTC and prescription drugs, dietary supplements, vitamins, botanicals, minerals and herbals you take, as well as the foods you eat. Ask your pharmacist for the package insert for each prescription drug you take. The package insert provides more information about potential drug interactions.
Before taking a drug, ask your doctor or pharmacist the following questions: "Can I take it with other drugs? Should I avoid certain foods, beverages or other products? What are possible drug interaction signs I should know about? |
The Garlic CureJames F. Scheer, Lynn Allison and Charlie Fox
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| He doesn't believe in herbals and tried to sell me prescription eye drops containing cortisone for $46. I didn't buy.
Kyolic liquid really works. Some bacterial infection was troubling Gloria, my other dog, so I gave her a few drops. I put some of the same drops that were effective for Mary in my own eyes. What a lovely refreshing feeling! My husband tried some on his tired eyes and was quite surprised at the results.
In Kyolic health,
R.L., Mary and Gloria, Utah
DANGER OF CAT'S TAIL AMPUTATION
My cat Calico got hit by a car, and her hind legs and tail were injured. |
Simon Mills and Kerry Bone
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 Scientific evidence on the role of Ayurvedic herbals on bioavailability of drugs. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 1981; 4 (2): 229-232.
182. Atal CK, Dubey RK, Singh J. Biochemical basis of enhanced drug bioavailability by piperine: evidence that piperine is a potent inhibitor of drug metabolism. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 1985; 232 (1): 258-262.
183. Johri RK, Thusi N, Khajuria A et al. Piperine-mediated changes in the permeability of rat intestinal epithelial cells. The status of gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase activity, uptake of amino acids and lipid peroxidation. |
| Scientific evidence on the role of Ayurvedic herbals on bioavailability of drugs. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 1981; 4(2): 229-232
35. British Herbal Medicine Association. British herbal pharmacopoeia BHMA, Christchurch, 1996; 14-16
36. De Smet PAGM. An introduction to herbal pharmacoepidemiology. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 1993; 38:197-208
37. Report to 9th Meeting of Working Group for International Program on Chemical Safety (IPOS) INTOX Project 2-6th Sept 1996
38. Leiper JM, Lawson DH. Why do doctors not report adverse drug reactions? |
| And very likely to great-great-grandmother's satisfaction ('they're so clever, our great-great-grandchildren') contemporary researchers have found and proven a few uses for herbals not known in the past.
Kerry Bone and Simon Mills are two of these 'great-great-grandparents in spirit'. Using a clear and understandable style, they've woven the latest in-depth research data into the millenia-old herbal tradition. |
The Complete Book of Alternative NutritionSelene Y. Craig, Jennifer Haigh, Sari Harrar and the Editors of PREVENTION Magazine Health Books
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| Colds are easier to prevent than they are to cure, so the time to start taking herbals is before you get symptoms, says Dr. Mowrey. Face the sneezing season with herbs that fortify the immune system, and you just might beat that bug before it has a chance to do its dirty work.
Upping Immunity with Echinacea
When it comes to warding off colds, no herb has better word-of-mouth endorsements than echinacea. A plant that's native to North America, echinacea seems to work by pumping up the immune system to help your body keep infections at bay. |
Margarita Artschwager Kay
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| Theorists during the European Renaissance varied in their interpretations of humoral theory—and in nomenclature—as each attempted to provide a translation that was most faithful to the ancients (Siraisi 1985, 1990). Many herbals were printed in vernacular languages throughout Europe, repeating much of the same information from Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, and Galen. In Germany, writers included the emulated Hieronymus Bock; in the Netherlands, Rembert Dodoens and Charles de L'Ecluse. In England, the names William Turner and John Gerard are foremost. |
the Editors of PREVENTION
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| It's old, but Egyptian and African herbals are considerably older.
Still, the Red Emperor must have has tremendous powers of concentration: He was certainly nothing if not thorough. The Pen-T'sao contains some 350 herbal remedies, each of which he is said to have tried out personally. One story has it that he cut open his abdomen and stitched a window in it so that he could observe the action of the plants he was testing. Few herbalists today can claim that degree of dedication. tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers. It's widely available and safe for regular use. |
| American Herbalists Guild (AHG), and president of Wise Woman herbals in Eugene, Oregon, likes to combine them in a handy spray for irritated skin.
Calendula succus is a low-alcohol tincture. If you can't find it in a health food store, try a mail-order company. Be sure to use at least twice as much calendula as aloe, says Dr. Tilgner, so that the mixture has enough alcohol in it to preserve it.
Chamomile, Frankincense, and Lavender
Add 2 drops of each essential oil to 1 ounce of skin lotion and smooth it onto your skin. |
| As we study herbals, hopefully we will gain an even larger body of evidence for their efficacy and safety," he says. "But I also suspect that in doing the studies, we may find that some of the herbs in common use today won't show the effectiveness we'd like to see. If so, they should be dropped."
So as the herbal renaissance blossoms, "don't go overboard" might qualify as good advice. There's a corollary piece of good advice, though: "Don't go underboard. |
American Medical Publishing
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| Although liver damage is the major documented form of injury to humans from pyrrolizidine alkaloid-containing herbals, animal studies suggest that their toxicity is much broader. Animals exposed to pyrrolizidine alkaloids have developed a wide range of pulmonary, kidney and gastro-intestinal pathologies. Pyrrolizidine alkaloid-containing plants, including comfrey, have also been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. |
Marion Nestle
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 Worldwide, the market for supplements was nearly $40 billion in 1997, with herbals accounting for nearly $17 billion of that amount. Herbal supplements were a particularly good investment; their sales increased by 18-20% annually during the late 1990s according to one source, and by 269% from 1996 to 1999 according to another. Such growth rates greatly exceed the 10-12% annual increase for nutritional supplements—and both exceed the 1% growth rate typical of conventional foods.1 Figure 24 shows some examples of supplements readily available at any local drugstore early in 2001. |
Robyn Landis
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 Wise Woman herbals, R O. Box 279, Creswell, OR 97426. (541) 895-
5152. Excellent glycerite tinctures.
HOLISTIC PRACTITIONERS: ORGANIZATIONS AND INFORMATION
American Academy of Medical Acupuncture, 5820 Wilshire Blvd., Ste.
500, Los Angeles, CA 90036. (213) 937-5514. American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, 2366 Eastlake Ave.
East, Ste. 322, Seattle, WA 98102. (206) 323-7610 referral line only;
(206) 328-8510 direct line. Offers a list of licensed naturopaths around the country. Send $5, check or money order. American Herbalists Guild, E O. Box 746555, Arvada, CO 80006. |
| Overall, however, the risks seem clearly much higher for synthetic hormone replacement than for taking mild, health-enhancing herbals and favoring particular foods for relief of discomfort. After all, if soy and other foods containing phytoestrogens were actually to increase cancer rates rather than decrease them, that would be reflected in studies of other populations. Japanese women would have more breast cancet, not less. |
| As of this writing, Herb Pharm makes the only full line of tinctures in larger, economical bottles (although Wise Woman herbals makes large size glycerites for children).
Homegrown and Homemade
Your own herb garden can be a delight, and learning how to grow, wildcraft, and harvest herbs can be a fun hobby with great health benefits as a bonus. In this manner, you can have the ultimate quality control, knowing your source and the handling intimately. You can dry your own herbs and use them for tea, or cut or grind them to make capsules. |
| These short-term herbals help hour by hour, till the long-term building takes effect.
Guarana seed is a good short-term adrenal builder. This herb from South America supplies raw material the adrenals need to make hormone, rather than simply signaling your adrenals to make more hormone. It provides food and nourishment instead of a mere command, so it's a good initial step to treat fatigue instead of coffee or other stimulants. |
Marion Nestle
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| Authorized health claims—and, more recently, structure/function claims—have greatly stimulated development of products reduced or substituted in fat or sugar, and of products fortified with nutrients, fiber, or herbals and phytochemicals. P&G's $500 million investment in olestra research and development (and the expected returns on that investment) give some indication of what is at stake in today's functional-foods marketplace.
Some of these foods indeed may be beneficial, especially to the already health-conscious, higher-income consumers most likely to purchase them. |
John Heinerman
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 In one of the first published herbals, Grand Herbier (printed in Paris in 1504), several French doctors lauded belladonna's virtues as a strong sedative for insomnia. In his voluminous work The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes (London: 1633) author John Gerard advocated it for gout and what would now be called rheumatoid arthritis.
The rootstock and leaves are employed for reducing pain in the aforementioned maladies. |
Marion Nestle
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| Even if it were accorded adequate funding, the FDA would have difficulty performing the kinds of analytical research needed for determining supplement safety, because the methods that are useful for testing and evaluating nutrient supplements do not apply to most herbals and botanicals, and methods specific to those products are still being developed.9
Perhaps because it bears considerable responsibility for so severely undermining the FDA's regulatory authority, the supplement industry is beginning to recognize that overburdening the agency may be counterproductive to industry interests. Dr. |
Ralph W. Moss PhD
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 In addition, the library at his alma mater, Harvard, had compiled a list of medical treatments that were mentioned in its extensive collection of old herbals. From these, Hartwell retrieved 16 more historic cancer remedies. As word of his project spread, correspondents volunteered accounts of many shamanic and folk treatments. Hartwell published his findings in 11 installments between 1967 and 1971 in the scientific journal, Lloydia.
Dr. Hartwell retired from the NCI in 1975. |
Marion Nestle
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| In June 1993, it expanded its definition of supplements to include not just vitamins and minerals but also herbals, botanicals, and other such products. It continued to say that its rules for conventional foods also applied to supplements. It firmly disagreed with industry that this policy "would deny millions of Americans dietary information that they need to improve their health and thereby cost the nation millions of dollars in health care expenditures that could have been avoided. |
| FDA VERSUS NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS
Although most supplements on today's market are herbals and botanicals, the ability of manufacturers to make claims for their health benefits derives from application of the FDA's science-based view of nutritional supplements—vitamins and minerals. The FDA's position on nutritional supplements dates from the early years of the twentieth century. As soon as vitamins were discovered and their nutritional functions identified, manufacturers began using them in supplements and advertising them as
TABLE 30. |
John Heinerman
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 Frequent mention of its uses were made in some of the great herbals of that era
(Gerard's Herbal in 1597 and Turner's Herbal in 1568). This particular herb had religious connotations surrounding it, hence other common names for it like holy thistle or Holy Ghost herb. Blessed Thistle apparently helped to relieve pain and inflammation of the heart in the 16th and 17th centuries. William Shakespeare recommends "laying it to your heart" because it "helpeth that doth hurt and annoye the hart," in his play, Much Ado About Nothing. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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 I checked my top 20 herbals, and not one of them indexed sties. So I guess I'll be breaking some new ground here. It's about time somebody did, as there are several good herbs for sties.
A sty is a bacterial infection (typically staphylococcal) of an eyelash follicle. The infection causes a pus-filled bump to form on either the inside or outside of the eyelid. The bump grows for a week or so and then usually subsides, possibly rupturing spontaneously as it heals.
Sties should not be squeezed like pimples, as squeezing can spread the infection. Some people never get sties. |
| Just don't drink large amounts of strong peppermint tea, as some herbals warn that large amounts may trigger miscarriage. If my niece wanted to use peppermint tea, I'd suggest she drink no more than a cup or two at a time.
V Black horehound (Ballota nigra). This herb has a good reputation as a treatment for the nausea of motion sickness. I believe it's also useful as a treatment for vomiting due to pregnancy or nervousness.
Try black horehound alone or in this combination: one part black horehound, one part camomile and two parts meadowsweet. |
Christian Ratsch
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 One of the oldest sources to mention the fly agaric by name is the Krauterbuch [Herbal] of the physician Johannes Hartlieb, published in 1440:
There is also the sort of fungus that is impure, broad and thick and red with white spots on the top, when mixed with milk, it will kill the flies that are around, this is why it is known as the fly fungi, muscinery in Latin, (folio 16)
After Hartlieb, the fly agaric received only sporadic mention or description in later herbals, including those of Gerard (1633) and Lonicerus (1679). |
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