2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

DOI:
2013
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-06992-5.00001-3
1
Herbal therapeutic systems
lesson for healthcare today. These sources are not to be
dismissed lightly.
As it is now known that animals use plants for medicinal
purposes,
1,2
it is unlikely that there was a time when humans
did not use herbal remedies. There is prehistoric evidence
of the use of medicinals from the USA
3
and medicinal plant
traces found at neolithic sites.
4
There are also innumerable
accounts of medicinal plants being used by small communities
around the world, living wholly within the natural world and
crafting their survival from the facilities around them.
57
Most of what is known about herbal use from recorded
history is provided by early texts, often among the earliest
of all known books. However, one overwhelming gap in this
record is that, although in its original mode herbal medicine
was centred in local communities and practised largely by
women, this is barely reected in contemporary accounts.
8

After the demise of organised medicine with the collapse of
the Roman empire, healthcare in Europe for most people was
again provided at a very local level, probably including a mix
of herbs and diet, together with faith and holy relics, as well
as astrology, pagan incantation and ritual
9
(the Inquisition per-
mitting millions of women were killed for practising witch-
craft across Europe from the 13th to the 18th centuries).
10

Hildegarde von Bingen, one of the rst prominent woman
authorities in Europe, achieved particular renown through
her medicinal text Physica. In it, she became the rst woman
publicly to discuss plants in relation to their medicinal proper-
ties.
11
She was, however, a solitary exception to the prevailing
view that women were not in the forefront of academic, pro-
fessional or literary efforts. Like her, however, most European
writers of the time were from the monastic tradition, only
moving into the popular arena around Chaucers time. By
then well-organised medicinal gardens and practices were
recorded in England by authors such as Henry Daniel, John
Arderne, John Bray and Chaucer himself, all reecting on cur-
rent medicinal practice across Europe in the 14th century.
12

Where systems were apparent in these texts, they appear to
have been derived from the Graeco-Roman tradition with
CHAPTER CONTENTS
From the beginning: popular practices . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Graeco-Roman and Islamic medicine . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Chinese herbal medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Ayurvedic herbal medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Nineteenth-century North American herbal medicine . . . 10
Middle European herbal medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Common elements: reading the body/mind as
a natural phenomenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
A new synthesis: the body/mind as complex
dynamic systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
From the beginning: popular
practices
Plants and humans share many experiences. Humans are
of course one species spread around the world with all indi-
viduals sharing essentially the same physiology and anatomy.
However, even the myriad species of plants share more than
they differ, with common mechanisms of primary metabo-
lism and cell structure and many common strategies of regula-
tion, reproduction and even defence. Although there are vast
numbers of pharmacologically active secondary metabolites
in plants, they mostly classify into a small list of phytochemi-
cal groups (see Chapter 2). A review of human medical cul-
tures shows that there are common themes that may arise
from consistent experiences of consuming plants. When these
themes are recast in the light of modern scientic enquiry one
may glimpse therapeutic approaches that are radically differ-
ent from those which underpin conventional medicine.
What also emerges again and again is that, contrary to
modern prejudice, writers on medicine from the very ear-
liest eras demonstrate a respect for rigorous observation
and humane pragmatism that still may provide a valuable