Herbalism was formerly believed to consist nearly entirely of the lighthearted study of early written books that dealt with the purported therapeutic properties of plants or their application in cooking.
- With the rediscovery of our pre-industrial history, the study of herbs has only lately started to shed its connection with quack medicine and become part of the return to a more natural way of life.
Herbology cannot be pigeonholed into a limited botanical niche since man's connection with plants has always been intimately connected with economics, religion, and science.
'Herbaceous' plants lack a woody stem and die down to the ground at the end of their growth season, or life if the plant is an annual, according to the definition of the word "herb."
- However, some of the first plants that spring to mind, such as sage, are not included in this description.
- Lavender or Rosemary. These are among the most often used woody herbs that do not die down.
- Because the dictionary limits our research to the use of plant steins and leaves, herbalism may also include the use of lichens, fungi, and a plethora of other plants whose fruit, roots, bark, and gums are useful to humans.
Herbalism may simply be defined as the study of plants that are useful to humans.
- The addition of plants such as some onions, beetroot, celery, olives, and chicory, which we commonly refer to as vegetables, further complicates the concept of a herb.
- Herbs were originally classified into three categories: pot herbs, such as onions; sweet herbs, such as thyme, which we now refer to as culinary herbs; and salad herbs, such as wild celery.
- Pot herbs started to be referred to as vegetables in the seventeenth century, since they were no longer considered just for use in the pot but also for use at the table.
- The evolution of their structure and flavor away from the wild plant to the bigger and less bitter contemporary counterparts was due to horticultural breeding of these plants.
Herbs were an essential and unquestionably required item in life until very recently.
Their cultivation, gathering, and distribution, for example, were critical to the smooth operation of any household in medieval Europe.
In the kitchen, horsetail (Equisetum arvense) and ash twigs (Fraxinus excelsior) were used as egg whisks and brushes, respectively.
Such herbal tools are now only available from certain chandlers.
- Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) was employed as a flea repellant, while soapwort or Bouncing Bet (Saponana officinalis) was used as a soap for delicate textiles.
- Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) and other herbs were used as tapers or emergency candles, and herbs were used in practically every everyday activity.
- For cheesemaking, Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum) produced a rennet-like juice.
Herbs are still used in the tobacco and brewing industries, as well as in the production of wine and liqueurs, as flavorings and colors in the confectionery industry, and in the production of dyes.
Herbs are now again becoming as important to the contemporary cosmetic industry as they have always been to perfume makers, thanks to their beautiful natural smells and oils.
- The evolution of man's connection with plants over the ages should be studied in order to understand the current resurgence of herbalism.
Historv may be split into three major epochs from the origin of Homo sapiens to the present day: the hunter-gatherer era, the agricultural period, and the current agricultural-industrial period, which began around 400 years ago.
- Our understanding of man's early origins and development is still sketchy at best.
- We can only guess about early man's diet and manner of life, therefore our estimate of his reliance on plants must be a mix of guesswork and inference based on the remnants found by archaeologists.
Plants and edibles are only maintained in optimum circumstances, such as especially dry areas and, in many cases, caves, whereas tools and artifacts frequently remain to provide evidence of economics and technology.
- Plant remnants come in a range of shapes and sizes, with the majority comprising seeds, flower and fruit stalks, and leaves.
- Plants can be identified by a competent botanist, and even petrified feces may offer information.
- Man hunted animals, fished, collected wild fruits and leaves, and scraped up the edible roots of wild plants as a hunter-gatherer.
- In his rejection of toxic plants, he may or may not have responded intuitively.
- Within the confines of his nomadic wanderings, he must have experimented with and learned about the various flora.
- The majority were harmless and bland; some fed him; a few were extremely tasty, while others were equally so.
- He found that some might alleviate pain, while others proved deadly, and a few had a weird otherworldly impact on his mind and body through trial and error.
- During this time, man was able to devise methods for neutralizing or making palatable the components of plants that he found to be useful to him.
- Chopped plants were leached, dried, roasted, and cooked.
There's even evidence that the hunter-gatherer may have dabbled with fermentation.
- The hunter-gatherer period was the world's longest clinical trial, yielding herbs that provided the best foods, poison to kill enemies, the finest fuels and weapons, soporific drinks, medicines, plants that provided color for body and cave paintings, and 'magic' plants that transported primitive man away from reality.
- The plants that cause visual, aural, tactile, taste, or other hallucinations fall under this category.
- Their effects range from moderate euphoria to the induction of artificial psychism, and they are variably characterized as hallucinatory, psychedelic, narcotic, or psychoactive.
- Their significance cannot be overstated, since their effects on the human mind and body contributed to their strong position in primitive civilization.
- Such plants provided brief comfort and an escape from the harshness of early man's surroundings.
When he was unwell, they offered a direct palliative or cure, but we must frequently assume that the plants' psychological effects were more important than their merely physical benefits.
- This is particularly noteworthy when we consider that the current distinctions between science, medicine, art, and religion would have been meaningless to early man.
- Sickness in ancient cultures is often ascribed to supernatural powers invading the body, and medicine has therefore been connected to the supernatural from the dawn of humanity.
- Early physicians and herbalists were accorded a high social prestige, and they often improved their social standing by keeping the secrets of their herbal treatments hidden and manipulating superstition.
Mandrake, a plant known for its anesthetic and purgative qualities, was shrouded in a slew of ominous beliefs.
In the first century a.d., Jewish historian Josephus said that Mandrake had the ability to remove evil spirits from ill people, but that uprooting it carelessly would result in death.
The Paeony, too, had to be excavated at night, since if a woodpecker caught a gatherer during the day, he'd be in big trouble.
All cultures have utilized hallucinatory plants and their products for thousands of years.
- Today, their misuse is a contentious issue in the so-called "drug epidemic." The most often abused substances include opium, hashish, cannabis, morphine, and cocaine.
- Modern views to herbalism have integrated the extensive historical connections of such plants with the supernatural and primordial religion.
- Because of superstitious contamination, much of our forefathers' important plant knowledge has been discarded.
Agriculture was born in the second era of history, not in the lush valleys of Mesopotamia, as was previously thought, but in the Near East.
- Excavations at Jarmo in Iraq have found traces of wheat and barley dating back to 6750 B.C., making it one of the oldest archaeological sites.
- Agriculture occurred a few thousand years later in the New World, and it most likely began on its own.
- Early sites in Mexico discovered maize, gourds, beans, and squashes.
- The Neolithic revolution, or the discovery of agriculture, as archaeologists call it, changed man's whole life.
- The hunter-gatherer, on the other hand, need a large amount of land to survive.
- Agriculture meant that a community could be supported by relatively modest amounts of land under cultivation.
Man started to establish permanent settlements, laying the groundwork for the development of science.
Instead of surviving, man could clear the woods and create ideal conditions for the herbaceous sun loving crops he preferred.
- By 3500 B.C., the Egyptians had developed ropes from Papyrus and palm fiber, had started to produce cosmetics and fragrances, and had reduced their reliance on magic in the treatment of illness.
- By 2700 B.C., the Chinese had begun to grow tea and to pursue herbal medicine with a more scientific method.
- Everywhere, the most useful or highly valued plants for household, medical, or religious purposes were cultivated, planted closer to human homes, and preserved.
The Persians created the earliest gardens by planting fragrant and perfumed plants beside shade-giving trees in scenic and tranquil locations.
- Municipal herb gardens were established for public use in certain early towns, such as Nineveh.
- In Nepal, there are state-run medicinal herb gardens.
- Scholarship and trade grew and thrived throughout time.
- As communication improved, ideas were shared, and the foundations of modern science and medicine were established by the great civilizations of Greece and Rome.
Even though the Greek and Roman classics served as standard reference materials until the sixteenth century, the most beneficial plants found in them may be traced back to hunter-gatherers and Neolithic man.
- Herbalism and our knowledge of the advantages of plants did not stop with the Greeks and Romans, nor has it been confined to Europe.
- Many new plants were introduced to European herbals and pharmacopoeias as a result of the discovery of the New World.
Even yet, you only have data of a small percentage of the world's estimated 342.000 plant species.
- Even in the most developed nations, wild goods and plants are being collected in great numbers; new species of wild plants are still being cultivated in the same manner as the first agriculturalists did, while additional applications are being discovered for well-known plants.
- However, our early excitement for the chemical and synthetic alternatives to herbs made accessible by contemporary technology has blinded us to our true and continuing need for herbs.
- We now know little or nothing about the raw materials or stakes used in the commodities we purchase, and we can't tell whether the blue jeans we're wearing are from Incline.
In India, efficiency dictated that of the 200,000 blooming plant species, just 12 or 13 were extensively cultivated.
- And unlike the Roman conquerors of Europe, most of us eat a far more limited vegetable diet.
- Unfortunately, industrialization has resulted in the loss of much of our ancestors' important herbal knowledge, as well as the belief that we can survive without them.
- When one considers the enormous amounts of crude herbs used today in even the most advanced civilizations, this is obviously a huge misunderstanding.
Herbalism is witnessing a resurgence of public and professional interest after a two-hundred-year slump.
- The professions that once mocked herbal medicine as useless and superstitious "old wives' tales" are now turning to nature in an effort to find techniques and materials that are devoid of the unwelcome side-effects that are so common with today's 'chemically designed' synthetic drugs.
- To evaluate the beliefs generated by millennia of practical experience, new reappraisal techniques are being employed.
- There are indications that a resurgence of interest in herbs will be very beneficial to mankind, and that the herbal methods of our forefathers are increasingly being justified.
Careful research has proven that many of the ancient herb doctors' ideas were correct, and that plants, for example, can actually have various characteristics when gathered at different seasons of the year, and that some combinations of plants are more effective than using individual herbs.
There has also been a resurgence of interest in herbs among the general public.
The beauty and tranquility of the old fashioned herb garden, with its accompanying culinary and fragrant herbs, has sparked interest, and it seems to fit the needs of contemporary times.
- Herb gardens offer valuable resources while requiring little care, since herbs do not need specific soils or advanced horticultural expertise.
- Herbs offer the vitamins and minerals that are becoming more important in a healthy diet.
- They're a great place to start if you want to make your own cosmetics, ales, wines, scented sachets, potpourris, or dyes.
Herbs are not only inexpensive and simple to use, but they also offer the benefit of being free of the health risks associated with man-made products, such as medicines, food colorings, and hair colors.
- Herbalism has become a component of our society's growing concern for ecological balance and a pollution-free 'natural' way of life.
- This late-twentieth-century awareness of herbs and their enormous usefulness in food and medicine is really a rediscovering of ancient knowledge, demonstrating that the biblical phrase "all flesh is grass" is as accurate today as it has always been.