The
healing properties of plants have not changed. What was a healing herb a
thousand years ago
is still a healing herb. Physicians of the ancient were expected to know their
herbs. Plants gave healing powers to those who studied them, worked with them,
and respected them. In many lands and in many times, healers spent good part of
their lives in field and forest gathering green medicines. They remembered what
they learned, and they passed it on.
Today we
benefit from the accumulated herbal wisdom of the ages. Our special vantage
point enables us to peer back through history, harvesting for our own benefit
only those herbs that have stood the test of time.
But even
the herbal uses that didn't pan out are fascinating. While the story of the
healing herbs has its comic episodes, it's also a dramatic story of human
sacrifice, complete with medical heroes - men and women whose work deserves to
be recognized.
What is
a healing herb? The word herb comes from the Latin for grass. Technically,
herbs are plants that wither each autumn, plants other than shrubs or trees.
But many shrubs and trees are used in herbal healing, such as barberry, bay
laurel, and slippery elm, for example. To an herbalist, "healing
herbs" include every plant with medicinal value
The
plants that we know as healing herbs existed long before the first human appeared
on earth. No one knows how long it took for humans to discover the curative
power of plants, but prehistoric sites in Iraq show the Neanderthals used
yarrow, marsh mallow, and other healing herbs some 60,000 years ago.
Prehistoric
humans no doubt noticed that when animals appeared ill, they would often eat plants they ordinarily ignored. Our
ancestors sampled these plants, and in many cases noticed curious effects:
wakefulness, sleepiness, laxative action, increased urination, etc. The herbs
that caused these effects were incorporated into prehistoric shamanism, and
later into medicine.
Observing
animal behavior continues to point humanity to healing herbs today. Recently,
naturalists at Tanzania's Gombe National Park noticed sick chimpanzees
swallowing leaves from a bush called Aspilia. Subsequently, scientists
discovered that Aspilia leaves contain a powerful antibiotic (thiaru- brine-A).
Early
humans were also attracted to healing herbs' aromas. They rubbed strong-smelling
herbs on their bodies to repel insects and hide their human scent from animals
they feared or hunted. They also adorned themselves with sweet-smelling herbs
to please their mates.
But
foul odors, not fragrant ones, were key to the development of herbal healing.
Early humans used such plants as rosemary, thyme, dill, and virtually all of
today's culinary spices to mask the stench of rotting meats. Today we use
culinary herbs and spices only as flavor enhancers. But to our prehistoric
ancestors, flavor was incidental to food preservation.
Prehistoric
humanity had no refrigeration, and meats spoiled quickly. Spoilage destroyed
precious food reserves, and early humans learned through painful experience
that eating rotten meats causes illness and sometimes death. No doubt, some
prehistoric hunter or homemaker accidentally lay some rotting meat on a bed of
wild mint, sage, basil, or other aromatic herb, hoping its fragrance would mask
the meat's malodorousness. It did, and amazingly, the meat didn't spoil as quickly.
Our
ancestors also discovered many healing herbs simply by trial and error. They
learned the hard way that some plants heal while others harm. They had little
control over their world or their bodies. Their average life expectancy was
barely 30 years. Because life was so full of threatening, often fatal, surprises,
anything that made life
more predictable acquired an aura of magic and healing.