Herbs

[ICON=herbs.gif]Herbs are the oldest form of medicine and have been used for healing in every single culture in the world, since the very beginning of time. Wise women have always played a central role in traditional cultures and knowledge about herbs was passed on from one generation to the next. Herbs are, in fact, the foundation of numerous pharmaceutical drugs. Aspirin is based on an extract from willow, originally used for pain relief by the Native Americans. Up to 70 percent of drugs in use today have their origins in plants, but Western pharmaceutical practice bears no relation to how native peoples the world over have used them. Modern drug companies only use the ‘active ingredient’ of the plant or herb in a pure form as the basis for the drug . Ancient peoples always, and continue to, use the whole plant. The advantage of using the whole plant is that the side-effects are absent or minimal. That is the big difference between modern and herbal medicine.