Herbalism, medicinal herbs and their uses
Herbalism is a traditional medicinal or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts. Herbalism is also known as botanical medicine, medical herbalism, herbal medicine, herbology, and phytotherapy. The scope of herbal medicine is sometimes extended to include fungal and bee products, as well as minerals, shells and certain animal parts.
Second only to water, tea is the most frequently consumed drink worldwide. All types of teas, including green, black, and red teas, have antioxidant properties because of the polyphenols they contain. These antioxidants are thought to provide the body with protection against free radicals. ORAC scores (measuring antioxidant potential of plant-based foods) for teas are often higher than scores for many vegetables and fruits. Herbal teas are considered to be one of the most satisfying and helpful types of herbal supplementation...moreMany plants synthesize substances that are useful to the maintenance of health in humans and other animals. These include aromatic substances, most of which are phenols or their oxygen-substituted derivatives such as tannins. Many are secondary metabolites, of which at least 12,000 have been isolated — a number estimated to be less than 10% of the total. In many cases, these substances (particularly the alkaloids) serve as plant defence mechanisms against predation by microorganisms, insects, and herbivores. Many of the herbs and spices used by humans to season food yield useful medicinal compounds
Anthropology of herbalism
People on all continents have used hundreds to thousands of indigenous plants for treatment of ailments since prehistoric times. Medicinal herbs were found in the personal effects of an "ice man", whose body was frozen in the Swiss Alps for more than 5,300 years. These herbs appear to have been used to treat the parasites found in his intestines. Anthropology or anthropologists theorize that animals evolved a tendency to seek out bitter plant parts in response to illness.
Indigenous healers often claim to have learned by observing that sick animals change their food preferences to nibble at bitter herbs they would normally reject. Field biologists have provided corroborating evidence based on observation of diverse species, such as chimpanzees, chickens, sheep and butterflies. Lowland gorillas take 90% of their diet from the fruits of Aframomum melegueta, a relative of the ginger plant, that is a potent antimicrobial and apparently keeps shigellosis and similar infections at bay...more
|
|||
|
|||
Sourced from Wikipedia. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. |
a-z mEdicinal herbs
Aloe Vera 
Does Green Tea Diet Really Works?
History of Tea
