Native Healers. Anita Ralph
using drugs that are within a high-risk therapeutic area.
•Patients who are self-medicating with herbal medicines without success.
•Patients who are using herbal medicines long term rather than for short-term or minor ailments.
•Patients who may be pregnant or be medically compromised through frailty, age or health.
The future
This introductory chapter places herbal medicine as practised in the UK within its own unique historical context. The ecological viewpoint of the modern herbalist is a unique lens through which to apply herbs therapeutically. Although the development of modern phytotherapy has run parallel with that of conventional biomedicine, it remains unique and different to it. The core principles of person-centred, individualised symptomatology and recognition of the complexity and synergy of plants as medicines make the herbalist also unique.
It has potentially made it all the more challenging in conveying to the public, the media, other health care professionals and researchers, what herbal medicine is. It places herbal medicines outside the normal scope for gold-standard research as is currently practised, and also makes it difficult therefore for governments and institutions to legislate for herbal medicine alongside conventional funded care. Nevertheless evidence in the areas of efficacy, quality and safety has matured, and progress continues.
time has allowed an evolution from a traditional medicine for coping with life-threatening illnesses, before ambulances, powerful modern synthetic medicines and hospitals, to one that can live alongside these services and meet their shortfalls.
—Simon Mills
We hope that you have enjoyed this brief introduction to what is a very complex and absorbing subject area. We have attempted to address some of the more poorly understood ‘thorny’ issues surrounding the practice of Western herbal medicine. In the following chapters we will look more closely at ‘how herbalists think’, and give you examples of how this thinking bears fruit.
Useful websites
https://www.henriettes-herb.com/
Greive, M. 1st edition, 1931. A Modern Herbal. Also available, in part, online: http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/mgmh.html
Professional organisations of medical herbalists:
The National Institute of Medical Herbalists
(est. 1864) www.nimh.org.uk Other UK based herbal professions are listed at: www.herbalist.org.uk
Where to train in the UK to be a medical herbalist:
Find out up to date information at:
https://www.nimh.org.uk/becoming-a-herbalist
Heartwood
Lincoln College, UK
https://www.lincolncollege.ac.uk/courses/bsc-hons-clinical-herbalism/
References
1Manniche and Lise., An Ancient Egyptian Herbal. 1999: British Museum Press.
2Sinead Spearing. A History of Women in Medicine. 2019: Pen & Sword Books.
3Pollington, S., Leechcraft: Early English Charms, Plantlore, and Healing. 2000: Anglo-Saxon Books.
4Van Arsdall, A., Medieval Herbal Remedies: The Old English Herbarium and Anglo-Saxon Medicine. 2002: Routledge.
5Green, M., The Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women's Medicine. 2001: University of Pennsylvania Press.
6Francia, S. and A. Stobart, Critical Approaches to the History of Western Herbal Medicine: From Classical Antiquity to the Early Modern Period. 2014: Bloomsbury Press.
7Sinclair and E. Rohde, The Old English Herbals. 1922: Minerva Press.
8Pughe, J., The Physician's of Myddfai: The Medical Practice of the Celebrated Rhiwallon and His Sons, of Myddfai, in Camarthenshire. 1993.
9Allen, D. and G. Hatfield, Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition: An Ethnobotany of Britain and Ireland. 2004: Timber Press.
10Grigson, G., The Englishman's Flora. 1975: Paladin Books.
11Milliken, W. and S. Bridgewater, Flora Celtica: Plants and People in Scotland. 2004: Berlinn Ltd.
12Haller J. S. Jr, The People's Doctors: The American Botanical Movement 1790–1860. 2000: Southern Illinois University Press.
13Wood, M., The Magical Staff: Essential Doctrines of Western Vitalist Medicine. 1993: North Atlantic Books.
14Romm, A., Botanical Medicine for Women's Health. 2010: Churchill Livingstone.
15Wood, M., The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism. 2004: North Atlantic Books.
16West, V. and A. Denham, The clinical reasoning of Western herbal practitioners: a feasibility study. Journal of Herbal Medicine, 2017. 8: pp. 52–61.
17Barker, J., Notes toward a therapeutic model of phytotherapy in Britain. British Journal of Phytotherapy, 1991. 2(Spring): pp. 38–46.
18Priest, A. W. and L. R. Priest, Herbal Medication: A Clinical and Dispensary Handbook. 2nd ed. 2000. ed. 1983: C.W. Daniel Company Ltd.
19Köberl, et al., The microbiome of medicinal plants: diversity and importance for plant growth, quality and health. Frontiers in Microbiology, 2013. 4: p. 400.
20Nahrstedt, A., Pharmakokinetic synergy of constituents in Herbal Medicine Products. Planta Medica, 2008. 74(3).
21Tobyn, G., A. Denham and M. Whitelegg, The Western Herbal Tradition. 2011: Churchill Livingstone.
22Sackett, D. L. et al., Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't. BMJ, 1996. 312(7023): pp. 71–72.
23Edwards, S. E. et al., Phytopharmacy: An Evidence-Based Guide to Herbal Medicinal Products. 2015: Wiley Blackwell.
24Bone, K. and S. Mills, Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy: Modern Herbal Medicine. 2nd ed. 2013: Churchill Livingstone.
25Bone, K. and S. Mills, The Essential Guide to Herbal Safety. 2005: Elsevier, Churchill Livingstone.
26Sue Evans PhD, Catharine Avila PhD, Ian Breakspear MHerbMed, Jason Hawrelak PhD, Ses Salmond PhD. Report on the safety of the oral consumption of the pyrrolizidine alkaloid containing herbs Symphytum officinale, Tussilago farfara and Borago officinalis. Report to the National Institute of Medical Herbalists, September 2018.
27Moerman, D., Meaning, Medicine and the Placebo Effect. 2002: Cambridge University Press.
28Rosenzweig, P., N. Miget and S. Brohier, Transaminase elevation on placebo during phase I trials: prevalence and significance. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 1999. 48(1): pp. 19–23. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2125.1999.00952.x