Introduction and basics
The light of the sun, carbon dioxide and chlorophyll are the substances from which plants can form carbohydrates, proteins and fats with the help of water, nutrient salts and trace elements. Beginning with photosynthesis, primary and secondary plant metabolism develops and thus valuable medicinal substances. For a long time, these natural remedies were the only medicine for doctors and the only source of raw materials for the production of medicines in pharmacies.
At the beginning of the twentieth century the chemical industry developed and the pharmaceutical industry concentrated on the production of chemical drugs. With their help, a number of diseases that used to be life-threatening or incurable could be defeated. Despite this development, the medicinal herbs and the drugs made from them were not completely forgotten.
The herbal raw materials are still used today to isolate active ingredients that are irreplaceable for therapy, whose synthesis is unknown or very expensive. Folk and herbal medicine has never ceased to use the healing properties of plants and still maintains this healing tradition which dates back to the beginnings of mankind. Already in the first written records from ancient Egypt and China the healing effects of plants are reported.
Some plants mentioned at that time are still used in herbal medicine today. Centuries later, the Greeks took the lead in the field of medicinal plants and medicine. Names like Aristotle, Hippocrates, Theophrast, Dioscurides and last but not least Galen have to be mentioned.
He developed the technique of preparing medicines (galenics). After the decline of the Roman civilization, Arabic medicine flourished in the Middle Ages. The most famous doctor of this time was Avicenna.
In our cultural area, Charlemagne issued the so-called “Landgützverordnung” (country estate regulation) in which the cultivation of medicinal and spice plants was ordered. Under Frederick the Second, the profession of pharmacist was brought to life. At this time, the so-called monastic medicine flourished by copying manuscripts.
In the twelfth century Hildegard von Bingen became famous. She was abbess and scientist and wrote two treatises: “Physica” and “Causae et curae”. These writings had a great influence on the development of German medicinal herb names and herbal medicine.
Medical schools had already been established in Salerno, Italy, and later in Montpellier, France, which were linked to the authors of antiquity and the Arabic healing arts. These were the forerunners of today’s universities. Two tumultuous events led much later to the spread and expansion of knowledge about medicinal plants.
In 1450 Guttenberg discovered the art of printing and in 1492 Columbus discovered America. Many printed books on medicinal plants were produced and many new drugs were brought to Europe from overseas. Today, after a tradition of several thousand years, herbal medicine is not at the end of its development, but in a successful new phase.
Of all the plants living in the world, not even 10 percent have really been tested for their ingredients. More and more new plant active ingredients are being discovered and, in addition to their pure use, they also serve as model substances for medicinal products. Today, medicinal plants are primarily processed into ready-to-use drugs that are wholly or partially of plant origin.
Out of the multitude of medicinal plants, many of them, regardless of their effectiveness, have been forgotten today and only appear in older pharmacopoeias. Others, however, are frequently used, appear in the usual pharmacopoeias, deserve the trust of both doctor and patient, for the following reasons: In the case of medicinal herb production, the focus is on field cultivation, because medicinal herb cultivation offers the following advantages over quantitatively insufficient wild collection Collecting medicinal plants in the wild depends very much on the good knowledge and experience of the collector. A solid knowledge of the plants, their locations and the correct collection time is essential.
Otherwise confusion with similar species may occur, which can sometimes be harmful or poisonous. Basically one collects only healthy, undamaged and well developed plants, in good and dry weather. Only one species is collected at a time, which must be dried as soon as possible after harvesting.This usually happens only at the beginning (if at all) briefly in the sun, then in the shade in a well-ventilated room.
The fresh living plant that contains active ingredients is called mother plant. In this state it is not yet a drug. It is only obtained by processing the plant or parts of the plant, especially by drying.
The subsequent cutting, grinding, sieving, pulverizing is carried out mechanically in pharmaceutical plants. Only the peeling of roots (for example of rhubarb or marshmallow) must be done by hand and requires experience. The processed medicinal plants are called vegetable drugs (Vegetabilia).
The drugs are named in Latin, depending on the part of the plant from which they come: herb (herba), young tips (summitates), stems (caulis), buds (gemma), leaves (folium), wood (lignum), bark (cortex), flowers (flos), stigma (stigma), Fruits (fructus), stem (stipes), seeds (semen), glands (glandulae), spores (sporae), root (radix), rhizome, tuber (tuber), bulb (bulbus). In addition to the above-mentioned parts, plant juices (succus), resins (resinae) or balsams (balsamum) are often collected. Sometimes the name of the drug includes the method of processing: Natural (naturalis), peeled (mundata), cut (concissa), powdered (pulvis).
- The ingredients have been researched and their chemical composition is known.
- The herbal main active substance can be standardized with modern laboratory medicine, i.e. a always constant effect is achieved.
- In addition to the effects, the side effects of the medicinal plants are now also known. Herbal medicinal plants are therefore not “free of side effects”, but their side effects are not significant as long as the drugs are limited to the usual mild preparations.
- The medicinal plants contain natural combinations of main and secondary active ingredients that often complement each other with other accompanying substances. For example, a camomile extract made from camomile flowers contains, in addition to the main active ingredient, accompanying substances that further increase the anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic effect of the plant.
- Cultivation in the field eliminates confusion and to a large extent contamination. The fields should not be located near busy roads, and pesticides must not be used.
- The active ingredient content is constantly monitored throughout the growing season and harvested at the best possible time.
- The high yield makes complex further processing such as cleaning, gentle drying and extraction of the active ingredients possible and profitable.
- By breeding, it is possible to grow high-quality medicinal plants with a higher content of active ingredients.
- Due to the always same treatment of uniform plants, there are only slight fluctuations in the active ingredient content.
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