Synonyms in a broader sense
- Naturopathy
- Alternative Medicine
- Naturopathy
Medicinal plants are plants or parts of plants that are needed for the production of herbal medicines. The medicinal herbs or their parts are available fresh or dried, as extract or extract, in water or alcohol, crushed or powdered in the pharmacy. The content of active substances in the herbs serves to alleviate diseases.
Medicinal plants in Europe are specially cultivated or come from wild collections. Medicinal plants rich in active ingredients must be harvested at the right time and processed according to certain rules. They can also be unprocessed, which means that they are used fresh.
After harvesting, drying begins at 80° Celsius. The medicinal herbs are then stored and processed in a cool place away from light. Herbal medicines such as tinctures, extracts, and essential oils are produced by pressing, purification, distillation and extraction.
Before extraction, the plant parts are crushed. From the dried medicinal plants or parts of them, plant extracts are produced from concentrated preparations. Many medicinal herbs are also used in the kitchen today. They serve as an appetizer and for seasoning.
History
Today’s teaching of medicinal herbal plants is based on a wealth of experience, the beginnings of which date back thousands of years. It has been proven that people used the plants for healing purposes in early times. Fruits and roots were chewed and leaves were placed on them.
The ancient medical knowledge came from the Egyptians to the Greeks and Romans. Through records in oriental books and through the European monastery gardens of the Middle Ages, the knowledge of herbal medicine has been passed on until today. Papyrus scrolls with medical records date from 1600 BC.
They were discovered in Luxor in the 19th century. From this source it can be seen that people were already suffering from infectious diseases, rheumatism and cataracts at that time. The preparations and applications of medicinal herbs were described in detail.
Castor oil plant as laxative and poppy or opium as painkiller or narcotic already appeared. It was not until much later that the first book on the “history of plants” by Theophrastos of Eresos (about 372 -322 BC) was found. Theophrastos also called the father of botany had the ability to change the character of a plant by growing it.
The medicinal effects of some plants have already been described by him. Just as Greek medicine was influenced by Egyptian medicine, Roman medicine was influenced by Greek medicine. Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.) wrote an encyclopedia “Historia naturalis” which contains many references to the medical use of plants.
Later the Arabs and Persians took over some of the Greek-Roman knowledge and completed it with Persian, Indian and Chinese medicinal plants. With the Arabs, Greek-Arabic herbal medicine came to Spain and southern France. In the period from the 8th to the 12th century, monastic medicine became increasingly important in Europe: medical knowledge was taught in the monasteries as early as the 7th century, and the medicinal herbal plants were processed in the monastery pharmacy, which had previously been collected in the fields and fields.
Later, the medicinal plants were cultivated in the monastery gardens. Through monastic medicine, herbal medicine has been handed down from antiquity to the present day. Traditional medicinal plants were given Christian names like St. John’s wort or milk thistle.
Hildegard von Bingen (1179), who is still known today, wrote several books on herbal medicine. She combined monastic medicine with folk medicine. Later the teachings of Paracelsus (1493) were added.
He wrote a large medical work in German language. In the 16th century, during the baroque period, many herbal books were written. In the 17th and 18th century, Indian medicinal herbs from North America were added to the native medicinal herbs.
In the 19th century Sebastian Kneipp (1821-1897) made a name for himself with his natural healing methods. He used the mildly acting medicinal plants for therapy. Today the herbal medicines are scientifically researched and tested in clinical studies.
The medicinal plants are cultivated under controlled conditions in the pharmacy. The medicinal plants can also come from wild collections.They can also be grown in your own garden. The scientific research of herbal medicines and their clinical application is no different from that of synthetic active ingredients.
