Facts About Medicinal Plants

More than 40 percent of prescription medications contain plant-derived ingredients. Those same ingredients can often be obtained, and the associated benefits potentially received, by accessing them from the plant directly in the form of herbal supplements, teas, botanicals and neutroceuticals. The use of plants for medicinal purposes dates back thousands of years. Today, the National Park Service reports that over 60 million Americans use herbal remedies, with increasingly more doctors prescribing plant medicines and some insurance companies even covering alternative therapies that may include herbal medicines. Herbs like valerian, echinacea, goldenseal and ginkgo have become a common ingredient in popular consumer health products from teas to cold remedies.

History

• The history of plant medicine in North America dates back hundreds to thousands of years prior to Columbus' arrival, when First Nations people passed plant medicine wisdom regarding nearly 3,000 native plants down through the generations. The Cherokee, for example, used bloodroot to alleviate coughs, blue cohosh for toothaches and black cohosh as a diuretic. Documents of trade between ancient Babylon and Egypt showed them trading myrrh for medicinal purposes around 3,000 B.C. Famous Greek, Roman and Arabic physicians of ancient times documented using plant medicines, as did early Chinese monographs and India's sacred Hindu verses.

Plants In Medicine

• The first antiseptics and fever-reducers came from plants. Salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin, can be found in willow bark. The original source of the active ingredient in the drug Taxol, used to reduce cancerous tumors, is from the Pacific yew tree. Stephen O. Duke, a plant physiologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Services, is studying annual wormwood as a potential defense against malaria. Duke is also studying St. John's-wort's effectiveness in combating depression.

Market and Cultivation Facts

• Health food stores and other carriers of nutritional products now sell more than 175 different native North American plants for medicinal use on the "non-prescription" market, making over $3 billion. Only 2 percent of the estimated 250,000 species of plants have been screen for potential medicinal benefits. Most of the medicinal plants collected for sale in the marketplace are harvested in the wild as commercial-scale cultivation practices do not yet exist.

Precautions

• Not enough clinical trials on plant medicine support its use as a primary medical intervention. You should always bring any medical concern to a doctor's attention for proper medical treatment and discuss with your doctor your interest in using plant medicines to ensure your safety and your treatment's effectiveness.