Medcite

Natural medicine and herbs have been used long before mankind could track his own history. These are probably, the first valuable knowledge that was transmitted from generation to generation. Medicine men had a great power in ancient villages, revered, and sometimes feared, they possessed the information that could determine the fate of their tribe.

Natural medicine and herbs played an important part in the survival and evolution of the different villages. A great amount of herbs studied helped people feel better, survive death and live much older than the others. Herbs also play an important part in society as rituals helped the collective self obtain an identity; rituals of passage often use powerful herbs that will alter consciousness. Because of it’s strategic importance, it was passed on to a selected few and kept with utmost secrecy, just as today governments keep matters of national security.

Herbs are with us since the beginning of organized life; the use of herbal plants for healing and medicinal purposes is probably as old as the first civilization itself. However, no one really knows the exact origins of herbs and their medicinal uses, as the valuable information is lost in the passage of time. One of the strangest things about herbal medicinal practice is that no one ever kept or maintained proper records of different recipes and formulae that were used to make the herbal drugs. In many cases the vital information was just passed onto the next generation by the way of mouth and experience.

With the available records, it is established that herbs were used as early as 2200 BC in the region of Sumeria. Greek herbal specialists like Hippocrates was known to have an extensive record of about 400 herbal plants, while Indian Ayurvedic doctors were recorded to have used several herbs for common ailments and diseases. Nothing could be as fascinating as those herbs and their oils that were used to embalm the mummies; early Egyptians were the first people to have romanticized several herbs by making oils and special concoctions.

Plants with fragrant flowers and leaves have been the most cherished objects of desire by the women in the royal courts of Egypt, Greece and Rome, while Chinese and Indian women used several herbs for elaborate god worshipping and ritual purposes. On the other hand, aromatherapy lovers simply loved those exotic smelling herbs for their equally amazing essential oils and extracts.

Almost all people and virtually ever race in this world have used a number of herbs for a wide variety of purposes. Every region in this world has its own indigenous herb and medicinal plants that are endowed with special herbal factors and characteristics.

When you hear about the word “mummy” you’ll marvel at the level of perfection with which the early Egyptians used several herbal plants to embalm their mummies. Available records suggest that herbs were used as sacrificial and worshipping objects by the royal court, while various recipes prepared by mixing several herbs were used to treat many ailments and diseases.

Earliest known records suggest us that Indian sages chronicled and published usefulness of hundreds of herbs and medicinal plants. Herbal doctors like Susrutha and Charaka have given us several treatises on Ayurveda and its common uses to treat ailments and symptoms. Chinese: Apart from Indians and Egyptians, no one has ever used the magical properties of herbs better than Chinese people. They are the first people to have invented a concept called “traditional Chinese medicine” and this school of medicine has provided us an amazing repository of herbs and their practical uses.

Greeks: Hippocrates has given the world the first extensive book on about 400 herbs. Greeks are the first people to perfect the field of medicine into something that is really elaborate and artistic.
Romans: The secrets of herbal medicines were soon passed over to the adventurous Romans, who used the herbal remedies better than any other people. Romans have contributed widely to the field of herbs by developing several unique drugs and medicines.

When science took over traditional healers were displaced. Everything that did not met with the rules imposed by science, it was dubbed as fake, phony or useless. For many years, many great remedies were ignored because of science’s strict regulation. Yet, after some time, science is turning to nature again. Natural medicine is revealing great treasures for humankind. Some herbs were analyzed, and the “active” ingredient bottled up and sold, science has ignored the rest of the plant’s composition and this has turned out to be a big mistake, many of these lesser ingredients are very useful in the healing process, also, the combinations of substances is something science forgot to analyze.

Natural medicine and herbs are an alternative that is not as easy to choose as it should. Many massive multi-billion dollar corporations simply do not like the fact that their products could be replaced by a simple herb, some of these are not as expensive, and can even be grown in your own garden, imagine their dismay!

Corporations are franticly looking at herbs and remedies to say they have discovered a new medicine, this has happened many times, but their hasty investigations seldom turn better results that the natural herb does by itself.

Natural medicine and herbs are also softer on the stomach, the pills usually will heal one ailment and disrupt your digestion, alter your nervous system and other niceties alternative medicine does not. It’s a pity that commerce is pushing the way health is practiced, and nature and thousands of years of traditional knowledge ignored.