I suppose Adam dispensed some balm for Eve’s troubling
snakebite and a doting cave-woman rubbed a healing potion on the bruised bonce
of her troglodyte mate. Herbal remedies have been with us since time
immemorial, yet their status is lowly and it seems somehow regrettable that the
modern medical profession and the gigantic pharmaceutical enterprises spend so
much time and money denigrating these modest competitors.
Herbs are often far from safe, famously illustrated by the
death of Socrates, condemned for impiety and sentenced to drink Hemlock, a highly toxic little plant
extract – chewing six leafs will do you in.
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| The Death of Socrates by Jean-Louis David in the MMA, New York |
My first remembered encounter with herbs was as a cavorting
Scots laddie brushing against, or worse, falling into a stand of nettles. The
recognised cure for nettle stings was rubbing quickly with a Dock Leaf, a common enough weed – and it
worked beautifully!
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| Stinging Nettle and soothing Dock Leaf |
One of the suspicious features of herbs is the wide range of
their claimed benefits. Thus Camomile, much
used in the Mediterranean as a tea
for those off-colour, supposedly helps treat insomnia, anxiety, hay fever,
menstrual disorders, gastric attacks and piles. Modern drugs tend to be
precisely targeted and the general elixir is not much favoured, though surely
much sought. It would be ideal if a single cup of some natural potion could
cure a wide range of complaints. A mixture of Wormwood, Anise and Fennel creates
the highly alcoholic spirit Absinthe, to
be treated with much caution, though fennel, deliciously crunchy in a salad, is
reckoned also to be a cancer inhibitor.
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| An 1898 poster for Absinthe |
The medical profession and Big Pharma pooh-pooh herbs and
spread scare stories of their possible ill-effects. Of course, herbs have a
direct influence on their profit and loss accounts. Why pay a doctor to treat
your bruises when a squirt of Arnica
from the local witch will do the job just as well? Big Pharma pays many $millions
to have their drugs tested and accepted by the FDA and similar regulatory
bodies, so I suppose they deserve some sympathy if a simple OTC mixture like Dr
Collis Browne’s (the opiate morphine
and peppermint oil) muscles in on
their market.
My good friend and neighbour here on Samos, Theofilaktos,
swears by St John’s Wort oil and
makes up his own supply. The plant itself grows wild all over the Med and is
much used to alleviate the aches and pains of too much, or too little,
activity.
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| St John's Wort |
The oil, made with the buds, has a pink hue and is rubbed
all over a strained muscle or an aching limb. My dear wife says it is instantly
effective: Theofilaktos claims the Spartan warriors used it to staunch their
wounds. Certainly a very obese local called a day or two ago clutching his
cherished bottle and needing a refill - (not a Spartan warrior, more a stranded
walrus). It is used to relieve muscle pains but it is also said to relieve
depression, much needed by Greeks these days!
Inevitably sex comes into the world of natural remedies. Spanish Fly, a powder made from crushed
emerald-green Lytta beetles, irritates and stimulates the genital-urinary tract
and is claimed to be an aphrodisiac. Ginseng,
especially the Korean variety, sets the Orientals agog supposedly possessing aphrodisiac
qualities and I knew a 70-year old lady who ingested it daily – a classic case
of the triumph of hope! We get into darker waters when we consider the Coca leaf, chewed and brewed
traditionally in South America but the basis of cocaine, the perilous hallucinogenic
recreational drug. Controversial too is
the Cannabis plant, source of
marijuana, the recreational drug which 50% of Americans are said to have smoked,
which can deliver a euphoric “high”. The legalisation of cannabis is regularly
debated and may happen in due course.
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| The Cannabis Plant |
A much worse threat is the Opium Poppy, from which is derived useful medicines like Morphine
and Codeine (and the 19th century favourite Laudanum) but also the
highly addictive drug Heroin now produced on an industrial scale by Afghanistan
and Mexico, underpinning financially many an Evil Empire and causing untold
human misery.
I am well aware that I have merely scratched (apply Aloe Vera, soothes skin abrasions, treats
constipation and depression) the surface of the world of Herbs. I had started
out with a cocksure contrarian attitude towards the medical profession and Big
Pharma. But on sober reflection I believe that Herbalists deserve to be ranked
with those well-meaning but deluded groups including Homeopaths, Osteopaths and
Chiropractors, likely to do as much harm as good. Medical and Pharmacological
science progresses with properly controlled tests and a thorough understanding
of the chemical interactions of medicines. Consign the old wives’ tales, which
we sentimentally cherish, to the cold dustbin of history.
SMD
8.08.15
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2015
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