Are healing plants really a gentle alternative – or is that all just homeopathic nonsense? Two experts spill the tea.
I’m studying phytotherapy, in other words, herbal medicine via a distanced learning course. The reason being I’m fascinated by the history and use of healing plants for everyday ailments. However, I didn’t just rely on my own background in the subject to help bring you this article; I also consulted two medicinal plant specialists who have many years’ experience in phytotherapy.
The history of phytotherapy: how did we find out about the powers of medicinal plants?
Modern phytotherapy: what do we expect healing plants to do these days?
Phytopharmaceuticals: not always a gentle alternative
It’s true that plant alternatives are often easier on the body, with fewer side effects and more sustainable than their chemical counterparts. But when they’re used incorrectly, they can cause just as much damage. That’s what makes it even more important for more studies to follow this and research the effects and side effects of healing plants more thoroughly.
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Healing plants or medicinal plants are considered to be synthetic medicines. No wonder then that more and more people are reaching for things like echinacea, ginger shots or fennel tea to treat minor ailments, such as colds or an upset stomach themselves.
The oldest piece of evidence that people used healing plants can be found in the grave of a Neandertal in Iraq, who is said to have lived over 60,000 years ago. Researchers found a large amount of flower pollen there. People and plants have a relationship that goes back such a long way. It’s not just something that clustered around the Swiss doctor and natural philosopher Paracelsus, cloister physician Hildegard von Bingen and pastor Sebastian Kneipp. Even though these three well-known names obviously contributed a significant part to the history of this relationship.
From my course, I know that the first documents about phytotherapy date back to ancient times. It was then that military doctor Pedanios Dioskurides described over 1,000 medicinal products from the plant and animal world as well as minerals in his work «Materia Medica». In ancient times, herbs would be administered in wine, water, vinegar or honey. Well into the 16th century, Pedanios’s work was considered the major textbook for pharmacology at many European universities.
Among Celts and Germanic people, druids and shamans used the old knowledge of healing. Later on, monastic medicine was developed, which Hildegard von Bingen also practiced. What’s interesting is that, in the meantime, a few of the uses Hildegard describes can be proven by modern medicine. «Hildegard von Bingen may well have described some plant indications that never worked in a mystic-like way. But in actual fact, we also established a high hit ratio with statistical methods. So high that it ruled out any coincidence,» explains Dr Rainer Stange (site in German), doctor of internal medicine and former head doctor of the naturopathy department at the Immanuel hospital Berlin.
In the Late Middle Ages, Paracelsus combined the herbal knowledge of healing from ancient times with popular medicine, herb witches and his own medicine in his works. These days, scholars such as Rainer Stange surmise that not everything he concocted was likely beneficial. Nevertheless, the mystic, researcher and scholar Paracelsus was considered a significant herbalist of the time. His most famous quote is «All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.» But we’re all more familiar with the shortened version: «The dose makes the poison.»
A number of years after Paracelsus, in the 19th century, the catholic priest and naturopath Sebastian Kneipp established hydrotherapy and is known for its five-pillared philosophy to this day. Those pillars being water, plants, movement, nutrition and balance. «Thanks to famous proponents, such as Sebastian Kneipp, modern phytotherapy was limited to well-tolerated healing plants. However, these weren’t documented in the proper way by the coarse research methods of the 19th century,» explains Prof Dr Bernhard Uehleke, doctor and medical historian, whose main emphasis is on naturopathy and phytotherapy.
Modern phytotherapy has done away with esoteric and mystic concepts, according to medical historian Bernhard Uehleke. «In homeopathy, doses are so small from a scientific point of view that we can’t expect any impact other than the placebo effect.» The same goes for many other concoctions, such as those based on the anthroposophy founded by philosopher and natural scientist Rudolf Steiner. «Upon inspection, these don’t contain any effective molecules at all and the explanations about vibrations, impressions and quanta have to be rejected as esoteric from a scientific point of view.»
It’s a different story with phytotherapy. Because, nowadays, the effects of all herbal remedies have to be tested in clinical studies. «This has been happening since around the 1960s,» says Rainer Stange. Albeit very slowly. Bernhard Uehleke has an idea about what that might be down to: «There’s a discrepancy between the large interest in phytotherapy at present and our research situation. That’s due to the fact that European states don’t support clinical research into medicinal herbs at colleges, clinics and universities.» What’s also important to note is plants don’t contain an active ingredient; rather, it’s a whole series of different substances. There isn’t as yet any proven effect for a lot of these plant substances.
However, studies that have already been conducted reveal some astonishing findings. «Thus far, the best researched is St. John's wort, which has been proven to be successful in treating mild and moderate depression (site in German)», says Rainer Stange. He adds: «What’s more, we know from at least one case report that St. John's wort can cause interactions with chemical medications. When that was detected, a lot of doctors, especially pharmacologists, were shocked, as they didn’t think a herbal remedy was capable of that.»
Let me give you a concrete example to explain what I mean. After a kidney transplant, a patient was given ciclosporin, a synthetic immune-suppressant that’s often prescribed after an organ transplant. After a few weeks, her body rejected the kidney. Then it was revealed that she was also taking St. John's wort tablets independently. Scientists suspected there could be a connection between the two. They did their research and discovered that St. John's wort was responsible for hastening the breakdown of ciclosporin in the body. So, are phytopharmaceuticals, medicinal products derived from plants really a gentle alternative to chemical drugs? The St. John's wort example shows that’s not the case.
Talk to your doctor about herbal remedies if you have a serious disease, are pregnant, if it’s following an operation or if you’re generally unsure. And by no means should you self-prescribe herbal remedies. But that doesn’t mean you can’t treat small aches and pains yourself. A lot of people probably think of trying tea first. In fact, it’s not wrong to reach for tea if your stomach is twinging or your throat is rasping. But you can also get herbal medicines in the form of standard ready-made preparations at the pharmacy. For instance, tablets, capsules or plant pressed juices. Inhaling medicines or taking detox baths are other common applications, just like compresses or supports. Often, aromatherapy is also classed as phytotherapy.
But, getting to the nitty-gritty, what should you take for certain ailments? Rainer Stange has the following recommendations: «If you’ve got a grumbling stomach, you can drink camomile tea, fennel or peppermint tea, as this actually often helps gastrointestinal problems.» If you have a urinary tract infection, which is something women primarily suffer from because of their shorter urethra, Stange recommends mustard oil. This declares war on bacteria in the urethra. To give you an example, it’s present in Indian cress and horseradish (link in German). You can also do something about your cold. «If you have a respiratory infection, such as a cold, a mixture of essentials oils, of the likes of ivy but also echinacea help.»
