by Lynda Kohn

Created on: October 20, 2010   Last Updated: October 21, 2010

There are many herbs that are beneficial to one's health. One way of writing this article is to simply briefly list herbs with their basic uses.  However while   this would let the reader know how useful these herbals can be, I find some problems with this approach.  The result would be a piece that could be way too long and not enough information.  While it could be useful to list the properties of the botanical, to limit the information only to the properties of the medicinal plant leaves out other important data.  This includes contraindications, prescription and over the counter interactions and constituents for example.  

Contraindication is a medical term for who should not take the herb.  There are absolutely no exceptions.  This means no matter how beneficial the herb is, if its contraindicated, one should never take it in any form. Contraindications usual means pregnant women, nursing women, children under three, allergies.   Interactions is how the herbal interacts with prescription, non prescription, other herbs, food or any other substance.  Combining herbs with medications could either lessen or strengthen the effect of the drugs.  The constituents or chemicals in the botanical may be important to know since they may interact with medications. One prime example is any botanical that contains coumarin.  Coumarin is related to Coumadin, a blood thinner.  Ergo anbody taking a blood thinner, aka anti-coagulant may want to check with their physician before taking medicinal plants containing coumarin.

Some brief notes on plant chemicals.  The technical term is phytochemical.  Phyto is Latin for plant.  Some general terms are alkaloids, bitters, essential oils, polysaccharides , saponins, terpenes.  Alkaloids are strong chemicals that usually have a psychological effect.  One of the most commonly known alkaloids is caffeine.  Bitters are substances that give the herb a bitter taste.  They work on the digestive juices and are good for digestion.  Essential oils are the oils that mostly are responsible for the flavor, odor of the herbal. Glycosides exert a sweet flavor, energy.  Polysaccharides, Poly means many Saccharides are sugars.  Saponins comes from the Latin word for soap.  Saponins produce soapy suds. Their effect can be quite potent. Sterols and any phytochemical ending in sterol are plant hormones. They can be either

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