“Botany and medicine came down to the
ages hand in hand” – Hilda Leyel
Disclaimer: This is a paper intended for information, not a guide to
herbal medicine as a hobby. Please talk
to your doctor first if you are interested in St. John’s Wort – possible risks
may outweigh benefits in some individuals.
If interested in herbal medicine, a great starting point for me was Dian
Dincin Buchman’s ‘Herbal Medicine,’ and ‘Peterson’s Field Guide to Western
Medicinal Plants and Herbs.’
Pharmacognosy is the study of plant
molecules, usually for medicinal value.
Many fields of study overlap pharmacognosy, but the primary field
pharmacognosists study is chemistry.
Chemistry, with other fields, can tell us what the plant constituents,
or ‘active ingredients,’ are, and how they respond physiologically in the
body. Pharmacognosy is a ‘hard’ science.
Meaning the results done by pharmacognosists, are consistent, and
reproducible. There are numerous plants
with recognized results. It cannot be argued that plants don’t heal – many plants
have amazing healing properties!
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St. John’s Wort (Hypericum
perforatum L. ) Source: USDA.gov
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Pacific
Yew Tree (Taxus brevifolia Nutt.) Source: USDA.gov
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White Willow (Salix alba L.) Source: USDA.gov
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The American Society of
Pharmacognosy (ASP), has done amazing things for the field of medicine. They were founded in 1959, but have been
organizing since 1923. One thing pharmacognosy does is study the constituents
of medicinal plants. By extracting the
active ingredient they can synthesize it into pill form to meet more
demand. Another great thing the field of
pharmacognosy does is find valuable herbal supplements for the market. “The top
ten selling supplements in 2007 in order of decreasing sales were soy,
cranberry, garlic, ginkgo, saw palmetto, echinacea, black cohosh, milk thistle,
ginseng and St. John’s wort.” (ASP History)
It is difficult for manufacturers to list herbal supplements as
over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. One reason
is attributed to the inability to patent protect an herbal supplement. If manufacturers do the research for the OTC
drug, they may not make the money from it. There have been petitions for herbs to become
listed as OTC drugs, and even though the FDA may support the data to back it
up, these herbs are still yet to be listed as over-the-counter. Many plants have amazing properties that
could allow them to be listed as food, herbal supplements, or over-the-counter
drugs. (Barret 10-12)
Pharmacognosy has been around far
beyond 1923. As the roots pharmakon- and
-gnosy mean drug knowledge, this
shows that plants have been the source of medicine for ages. A historical pharmacognisist, Linneaus
published a book titled “Materia Medica,” which emphasized the combination of
botany and medicine, and looking to nature for medical sources.
“Materia Medica,” is not to be
confused with the ancient title “De Materia Medica.” Written by the Greek doctor and apothecary
Pedanius Dioscorides in the first century. This title
brings ancient medical knowledge into the New Age. De Materia Medica is an important document symbolizing
botany and pharmaceuticals and how they intertwine. Dioscorides is known as the father of
pharmacology.
Hippocrates, alive around in 5th
century BCE, is most famous for the Hippocratic oath. He is known as the father
of Western medicine. While it is unknown
exactly which achievements to attribute to him, the philosophy of medicine
changed greatly in his time. At first an
ailment was seen as being brought upon by astrology or the gods, yet during
this time, it was changed to a humor system – keeping the body in balance kept
one healthy. Corpus Hippocraticum was a
collection of up to seventy works from his time. They included much information on healing and
disease. Hippocrates philosophy lives on
to this day, as new physicians take the Hippocratic oath.
While Hippocrates is seen as the
father of Western medicine, it could be argued that Nicholas Culpeper is the
father of modern medicine. Starting his
work in 1640, Culpeper infringed on a monopoly of healthcare by translating
medical knowledge to English. This
opened up healthcare to more people, allowing those who could read English
access to more medical knowledge. Culpeper’s
Herbal contains an index of many plants used for treating many ailments, with
basis in astrology. His infringement of
a monopoly brought him many enemies, but gave the Western world room for much
advancement in the field of medicine.
During World War I in England, Maud
Grieve benefitted the war effort by learning and providing medical knowledge of
herbs. She made pamphlets of English
herbs to supply the war effort with much needed knowledge. A woman named Hilda Leyel received her
pamphlets, made her acquaintance and together published “A Modern Herbal.” “A Modern Herbal” lists plants and their many
uses. The information may be outdated,
as many plants listed may have now known toxicological effects, and many of the
medicinal actions are based on anecdotal evidence. Even though it is outdated, the anecdotal
evidence can still be taken into account to find medicines unused by modern
medicine. After the war, Mrs. Grieves
began training to dry and prepare herbs for chemists. Her work did not take into account the orders
of a doctor, as this may not have been culturally relevant at the time, and
today, still has some irrelevance in many parts of the world.
Anthropologists are observers of humanity. They seek to answer: what makes us
human? The topics medical
anthropologists study, are topics “that previously have known only traditional
medicine.” (Foster Anderson 1) The field of Medical Anthropology, overlaps
mainly with two things, biological, and sociocultural, making it hard to label
as either soft, or hard science – it’s a study of healing. Medical
Anthropologists work with many
different types of healthcare professionals, sociologists, and biologists.
Medical Anthropologists look to these biological and
sociocultural aspects of humans, to find out more about healing. (Foster
Anderson 2) There is a great divide between ‘modern’, or ‘Western’ medicine,
and all the rest. While ‘traditional’
has been an often used opposing term to ‘modern,’ this term is often being
replaced by the word folk. The term folk
medicine, meaning ‘traditional medicine,’ came about after World War II when
studies of ‘peasant’ cultures became popular. (Foster Anderson 52) There is a consensus in the field of medical
anthropology that this split between Folk, and Western be left only for
purposes of definition. (Strathern Stewart 4) By dissolving this split between
Folk and Western, we can possibly dissolve the cultural barriers of medicine,
and be open to more methods of healing.
Currently defined, there are two major types of healing
in medical anthropology: the personalistic, and the naturalistic. Personalistic systems refer to a disease or
ailment being brought upon by an outside force.
For example, while St. John’s Wort may treat depression, one may call depression,
evil-spirits. A god, a witch, a ghost causing a health issue, are all examples
of personalistic systems.
Naturalistic Systems describe the body as something to be
balanced. When one thing becomes
unbalanced, illness happens. The yin yang, hot or cold, mema or kapong, remain
in appropriate balance to the individual.
The Kawelka people of Papua New Guinea have two humors, blood (mema) and
grease (kapong), keeping these humors in balance is important to them for their
overall health. (Strathern Stewart 36)
Ongka-Kaepa, a leader amongst the
Kawelka people had a stroke in 1996. He
was rushed to the hospital and his daughter Yara stayed with him. She reported that he had glucose drips,
packets of blood, but this was not enough. She stated, “Ongka had blockages
that were like saliva or spider’s webs that were in his throat and these made
him sick and would have killed
him… I had a bit of paper
which I would use as these things came up into his mouth to wash them and clean
them away with a little water. The
hospital staff saw me doing this and said not to do it. When they went away I continued to do it and
eventually I removed all that stuff from his mouth. Then I went to the store and bought
chocolate. I took this chocolate and I
made a prayer over it… I mixed it with some water and let it drip slowly into
his mouth and gradually I saw that it went down his throat and make some grease
there… after awhile he began to move his fingers and move his toes and then I
saw that he was coming back to life.” (Strathern
Stewart 42)
While the doctors and anthropologist
attribute a majority of Ongka’s healing to the glucose drips, blood
transfusions, and iron pills the anthropologists purchased for him, there is a
great importance to what Yara did for her father: his body was imbalanced, the
doctors gave him so much blood, Yara saw.
The anthropologists do not doubt her importance in her father’s healing,
they write, “She is seen to be a nurturing figure who corrects the imbalances
that are in Ongka that are causing his sickness by providing him with the
second humoral substance, kopong, after the blood transfusion had been given to
rebalance the first humoral element.” (Strathern Stewart 45)
We don’t need to look across the
globe to observe medical anthropology in action. “Native American forms of
healing… have been incorporated into New Age practices in the United
States(.)” (Strathern Stewart 3) Purple sage (Salvia dorrii), a
plant native to the western US, including Eastern Washington, was used by
Native American groups used the tea for colds, flus, stomachaches, and many
more ailments. The Kawaiisu threw the plant on fires to chase away ghosts.
(Foster Hobbs 271) Burning sage, to
repel evil-spirits, or even chase away ghosts, is an example of personalistic
systems.
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| Purple sage (Salvia dorrii) Source: USDA.gov |
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Shepherd’s Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris L.) Source: USDA.gov
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Medical anthropology and
pharmacognosy often times take anecdotal evidence about how we, as humans, have
been curing and healing for many years, and bring it into the modern era, with
science! For many years, the study of
plants, and the study of medicine, were one in the same. While separation for composition is
important, there is something lacking.
Healing, as medical anthropology can show us, is not only a scientific,
but a spiritual process. For some, this
spirituality comes from looking to nature.
We are in special symbiotic relationships with plants, and with drugs
like paclitaxel, we can fight cancer. If we continue to detach modern medicine from traditional
methods, we could lose important symbiotic relationships, and possibly wonderful
cures. When in reality, modern medicine,
and folk medicine, intertwine. Using
plants, and spirituality, for medicine is part of our humanity.
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Sir
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, O.M., R.A. (1836-1912)
In a Rose Garden Source: christies.com |
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