CHAPTER 1 Introduction: Why Use Herbs?
“Plants are nature’s alchemists, expert at transforming water, soil, and sunlight into an array of precious substances, many of them beyond the ability of human beings to conceive, much less manufacture. While we were nailing down consciousness and learning to walk on two feet, they were, by the same process of natural selection, inventing photosynthesis (the astonishing trick of converting sunlight into food) and perfecting organic chemistry. As it turns out, many of the plants’ discoveries in chemistry and physics have served us well. From plants come chemical compounds that nourish and heal and poison and delight the senses, others that rouse and put to sleep and intoxicate, and a few with the astounding power to alter consciousness—even to plant dreams in the brains of awake humans.”
Herbal medicine represents a synthesis of many fields—botany, history, ethnomedicine, and pharmacology. Embarking on the study of this field means that veterinarians will be required to reframe the way they think about medicine. Many challenges await us. We are asked to consider plants we learned in toxicology as useful medicines. We are told, in the age of evidence-based medicine, that old authorities (some who lived as long as 2000 years ago) still have something to teach us. Our knowledge about these medicines comes from plant scientists, food scientists, pharmacologists, lay herbalists, and farmers—and we are asked to respect them as equal partners in herbal education and discovery. Even as we become comfortable and familiar with these plants, we are told that we won’t be able to use them unless we become active in conservation efforts. Herbal medicine asks a lot but gives the practitioner more in return.
Why use an herb when we have available to us established, effective treatments for so many medical conditions? Most herbalists would answer this way: When conventional treatments are both safe and effective, they should be used. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for many serious chronic medical conditions—chronicity is virtually defined by the fact that medicine isn’t working. Herbs represent an additional tool for the toolbox. For some, the fact that animals have been thought to treat themselves using herbs is reason enough to try them. For some herbalists, herbs also represent a different approach to the practice of medicine, that is, using the complex formulas “developed” by plants over millennia in relationship with the rest of the beings on the planet. These combinations of chemicals nourish, heal, and kill, but by using rational combinations in the practice of medicine, herbalists believe they attain longer lasting, more profound improvements (Box 1-1).
BOX 1-1 Reasons Whole Herbs Are Preferred to Isolated Active Constituents
HERBS ARE NOT SIMPLY “UNREFINED DRUGS”
Complex Drugs With Complex Actions
Plants may contain many dozens of chemical constituents. Some of these have pharmacologically unique and powerful activity and have been tapped by the drug industry to develop new pharmaceuticals. However, the other ingredients in plants may have important activity as well. Consider, for example, the vitamins, minerals, flavonoids, carotenoids, sugars, and amino acids contained in a plant—do these assist effector cells in mounting the physiologic response initiated by the “drug”? And do constituents with lesser pharmaceutical activity than the one “recognized” active constituent play any role?
These complex drugs offer the sick patient a greater range of effects. Because there are many conditions for which the etiopathogenesis is unknown, providing the patient with a choice of biochemical solutions makes sense. Take, for example, Saint John’s Wort for depression, as compared with paroxetine or sertraline.
The “active constituents” of Saint John’s Wort and their studied actions include the following (Butterweck, 2003; Simmen, 2001):
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