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Herbal
medicine, which may also be referred to as medicinal botany, herbology, botanical medicine or phytotherapy has been
popular in ancient traditions from time immemorial. In
the ancient cultures of India and China, the benefits
of medicinal herbs were recognized and chronicled over
thousands of years ago. In India, ancient religious works
of the Rigveda as well as books on the ancient art of
Ayurveda offer evidence of the fact that the powerful
healing properties of herbs were well-recognized by ancient
Indian scholars. Likewise, books on Chinese medicinal
herbs and
green tea extract can be traced back to thousands of years with one
such book written by a Chinese scholar dating back to
the reign of the Han dynasty in China. However, there
has also been sufficient evidence to suggest that people
in almost every culture of the world recognized the medicinal
values of plants and utilized them in the treatments of
health conditions.
Such evidence has been collected from various parts of
the world in the form of hieroglyphics that were found
in caves which suggests that the medicinal use of herbal
concoctions may have even been utilized by cave men. Throughout
the world, such herbal concoctions were created and altered
over time and with each experience the herbal specialist
would alter concoctions to improve upon them. In Chinese
herbal medicines, usually no one herb is solely used.
Chinese herbalists believe that the medicine for any condition
must also incorporate treatments to deal with any possible
side-effects of the herb that is being used to alleviate
the symptoms of the main disease and herbal treatments
must also include treatments for any other related condition
that may arise with the main disease. Hence Chinese herbal
concoctions usually include the extracts of at least four
herbs.
In modern times, people in Western countries have grown
appreciative of the healing properties of herbs and ancient
Chinese medicinal herbs and antibiotic treatments as well
as Indian herbal remedies are gaining popularity in Western
countries. Thus more and more people are opting for herbal
treatments of various conditions and it is not uncommon
for people the world over to seek stress and anxiety medicinal
herbs, herbs to cure ailments like diabetes or even to
help with weight-loss or blood pressure problems.
Although herbal medicines are believed to be free from
side-effects, this fact is not always true as the Chinese
herbal practitioners recognized. Often a patient may exhibit
allergies to an ingredient of the concoction which may
lead to side-effects like headaches etc or may lead to
serious side-effects. Hence, users of herbal medicines
must be careful to seek the counsel of a scientific medical
practitioner before starting such therapy. In addition,
like with any treatment, a patient must monitor his or
her other health-related values - like blood pressure,
white blood cell count, etc - while undergoing herbal
medicine treatments as well. Another thing that users
of herbal medicine alternatives must be wary off is the
actual content of the herbal medicine as some powerful
intoxicants have even been made from plant extracts.
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