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Medicinal herb purposes have been verbally passed on from one generation to another since before the advent of the written word. Knowledge of plant based cures and treatments held by people currently living in touch with what medicinal herb purposes are is being substantiated by scientific testing and human studies. As medical costs continue to rise and people become disenchanted with the side effects of the array of drugs being prescribed, interest in medicinal herbs is on the rise. As many as fifty common herbs have medicinal purposes that range from addressing aches and pains to heart palpitations.
Ayurvedic, Traditional Oriental, Native American Indian and Western herbalism are the sources of many of the prescription drugs on the market today to treat medical ailments of over 80 per cent of the people in the world today. New career fields are developing for people that go into the remote areas of the world to learn the medicinal herb purposes from folk doctors and healers, how to prepare the plants, dosages to take, and expected results. Once this information is gathered scientists use the information to test and substantiate the chemical interactions involved to validate the true effects on the cellular levels. This marriage between natural and scientific worlds has opened the door for many people, previously skeptical, to look to herbs for the medicinal values they possess.
European phytomedicine is the basis of modern herbal medicine in the Western countries. Phytomedicines are not individual chemicals but preparations made from whole or parts of plants. Some combination of root, leaf, flower or fruit is mixed into a compound to be used to treat various aliments. Germany and Japan lead the world in the number of herbal medicines used by their people although over 80% of the people in the world make use of medicinal herbs as a large element of their health care. Many medicinal herbs sold in other countries as drugs are sold in the United States as dietary supplements and are regulated The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) which aims to provide consumers with non-misleading scientific facts on the herb’s benefits.
Some of the medicinal herb purposes of common herbs are simple and can be learned and applied by the average person while others require careful preparation and application. Some herbs that have recently become commonly used by mainstream American are St. John’s Wart for depression, Psyllium for constipation, Aloe for cuts and scrapes, Ginseng for fatigue, Echinacea for cold and flu symptoms and Chamomile, Ginger or Peppermint for nausea. Over 50 common medicinal herb purposes can be quickly identified with an internet search or herbal medicine reference book.
The world of medicine seems to be coming full circle and returning to the basic elements that prehistoric man learned by observation and passed forward until it was nearly lost in the rush to embrace science. A regulatory agency has been set up to help modern man find truthful information concerning the various medicinal herb purposes among the sales rhetoric surrounding the many herbal based products on the shelves today under the category of dietary supplements.
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Author Bio Box: Patricia Wainwright
Get all the facts about health and nutrition and organic gardening at GreenThumbArticles.com!
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