by will sprout

Created on: July 29, 2009   Last Updated: November 08, 2009

Common medicinal herbs and their uses.

Throughout the centuries the plants that grow around us have been used in one way or another by us, mostly for food but in other cases as cures for our ailments. Today if we do not feel too well we will go to the doctor, tell him of our ailments and he will prescribe the appropriate medicine.

Times have not really changed since our ancestors because there was a time, if you did not feel well, you would go to the witchdoctor, the shaman or the high priest and he/she would provide you with the cure for your ailment. It may seem improbable to us that such people could perform the duty of modern day doctors but what we have to remember is that the basis of all modern medicine is based on our past and that the constituents of herbal remedies that were prescribed long ago are still being used today.

Although the processes employed then were not as efficient as those of today they did work and that is why modern medicine as perfected the processes and concoctions that are administered to us on prescription. The plants available to our ancestors are still available, growing in our fields, edgeways and even our gardens, and the processes and formulations that were employed in our past are still available for us to copy.

Today with the expanding volume of knowledge, available to everyone who can read a book or who can access the internet, the facts of the past can be brought into our modern world and we can see and duplicate them for ourselves. Yet in saying that, care should be taken if you intend to produce your own medicines because what you have to consider is the symptoms. Simply because your head hurts does not mean you have a headache that could be cured with an aspirin.

I have written this article as an essay of interest and I have no medical knowledge, nor would I suggest that you take the writing literal, but only as an indication of those things around us capable of curing our ills. And before you attempt to use any herb for a medical purpose I would suggest that the plants you use are those described and identified by name and photograph.

If you are a sever sufferer of any complaint I strongly recommend that you discuss the use of 'home made medicines' with your doctor before you use them.

Medicinal Herbs.

Cape Aloe; (Aloe ferox). also known as Bitter Aloe, and Red Aloe.Two juices are extracted from this plant; a yellow and bitter sap which is used as a laxative, and a white aloe gel which is used in health drinks and

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