Plants have an age - onetime history of use as medicine . In fact , works were the first mannikin of medication we ever had . Even though many masses around the world still practice various forms of herbalism and folk medicine that uses plant - based discussion , it is often not clear how plants have played a very important function in mod Western music . So important that much of all the medicament today that is produced is derived from plants . While I write often about the healing herbs that you could acquire in your garden that have medicinal property likeechinacea , witch hazelnut , hops , rosemary , andsage , I wanted to take some meter to acknowledge the plant that are truly living rescuer .
Here are a few of the life - economize plants that modern medicinal drug count on , and how they develop from family remedy to scientifically - proven medication .
Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia)
Yew was traditionally used by North American First Nations multitude as a folk medicine . It was brew into a tea that was thought to cure genus Cancer . advanced westerly medication has found that yew does , in fact , have the ability to stop sure cancerous tumor from modernise and it is now normally used in this way .
Yew excerpt is currently used specifically to handle ovarian and breast malignant neoplastic disease . The excerpt , called paclitaxel , stop variance of certain cancer cells . Unlike many cancer drugs , patient do not build up resistivity to paclitaxel , making the find of this compound in the seventies an important one that is still used commonly today . inquiry is still being conducted to see whether this chemical compound can process other cancers , but because of the slow - growing nature of yew Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and the large amount of bark needed to produce the compound , there are many hurdles to overcome .
Rosy Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus)
Rosy Periwinkle has long symbolized wild-eyed honey and marriage ceremony ( its efflorescence is likely the original “ something gamey ” refer to in the famous marriage poem ) , but it has also been used medicinally since Ancient Rome whenit was thought that chewing the leaves would cure dysentery . This feeling continued into the 17th C , although there is no scientific proof that red periwinkle really has the ability to bring around dysentery . Throughout history it has been thought to aid with many other maladies includingtoothache , night panic , hysteria , and more .
Periwinkle has also found a place in modern music . It has recently become used by MD to treat legion diseases , including diabetes , leukemia , malaria , and Hodgkin’slymphoma .
White Willow (Salix alba)
You ’ve probably taken aspirin a few times in your life . It is one of the most ordinarily used painfulness medications , and it exists because of white willow tree ! The chemical substance Salicin , which come from willow tree barque , is what was first used to make aspirin . Since then , the chemical substance can be by artificial means create , but was derived from white willow originally . White willow tree bark has also been turn over an efficacious treatment for fever and influenza since ancient times .
Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum)
Opium poppy ’s hefty sedative and painkiller holding were discovered to be due to the chemical morphine , which was first isolated in 1803 . To this day , morphia from the opium poppy is used in hospitals all over the world and is considered the most efficient pain direction treatment that we have .
Sweet Wormwood (Artemesia annua)
Traditional Formosan medicinal drug uses sweet wormwood as a treatment forfever , headaches , and inflammation . fresh wormwood ’s first documented medicinal usance occurred in China more than 2,000 years ago .
More recently , Sweet Wormwood has interest the medical globe as apossible intervention for malaria . Inone instance , eighteen patient who suffered from drug - resistant malaria and were not take any effect from standard treatments were given an observational music made from the dry out and small-grained leaves of sweet wormwood , andall eighteen patients reclaim . Although this was too small a sample size to say for sure whether the plant is unequivocally an effective treatment for malaria , it is an highly confirming likeliness and research continues on sweetened wormwood and malaria .
Daffodil (Narcissus) and Snowdrop (Galanthus)
These pretty spring flowers have been used in folk practice of medicine since ancient times , and are still used today in the treatment of disease . Homer ’s ancient textTheOdysseyeven contains a reference to the Anemone quinquefolia bulb as a source of antidote to poison , and the Bible mention Daffodils as a remedy for disease . Clearly , these flowers were used in ancient medicine often enough to be included in these important write full treatment , and they are still usually used by present-day doctors .
You may jazz the Narcissus pseudonarcissus as the symbolisation of Alzheimer ’s consciousness , but you likely do n’t know why it was chosen . daffodil , as well as snowdrop , contain an alkaloid called galantamine , which is used to slow down and reverse the development of Alzheimer ’s disease . It has been used in the treatment of this disease since the other fifties , when it was first extracted from the bulb of the snowdrop and used experimentally .
More Healing Plants
There are many other plants that have healing benefits or medicative qualities . Here are a few more articles for further reading .
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