Herbs are plants that are used for cooking, medicine, or spiritual uses because of their superior aroma, flavor, or health benefits. Herbs used for natural health and healing are medicinal herbs valued for their time-honored health benefits. Many modern medicines originated from historically used herbal medicines. For example, the active ingredient in aspirin, salicylic acid, was originally derived from willow bark. Willow bark was used for centuries as an herbal aspirin. Pharmaceutical companies producing aspirin initially derived the active ingredients from willow bark, but later produced the ingredient without the use of willow bark. Modern herbalists still study the use of herbs, such as willow bark, for natural health and healing.
Herbs for Natural Health
Herbs can be incorporated into daily living to ensure good health. You do not have to wait for illness to use herbs. Many herbs are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and other natural components necessary for good health. Using a variety of herbs and not using any single herb too frequently will maximize health benefits and prevent overuse. Most things done in excess can become detrimental to your health, including foods and herbs. Intolerance may develop to any food or herb that is overused. Certain wild plants can be poisonous when consumed in very large quantities.
Herbs for Natural Healing
Most herbs taken in their natural form and in small quantities are harmless. When using herbs for natural medicine, herbalists begin to experiment with extraction, a process of extracting the medicinal components of the herb from the plant itself for the purpose of condensing its herbal properties and making it more potent. When using herbs for medicine it is important to remember that this extraction process is also alters the herb into a less natural state and increasing the risk of side-effects and health risks from the herb.
Eating herbs, or cooking, with herbs in their fresh or dried form is the least altering method of preparing them. Herbal teas, also known as herbal infusions and decoctions, are also a vary natural way to extract the herbal components of plants without significantly altering them. When herbs are prepared as tinctures, or extractions, into a base of alcohol, vinegar, or glycerin, this alters the plant more significantly and is similar to the process pharmaceutical manufacturers use to produce drugs. Extracting and tincturing herbs should be done with caution. These processes concentrate the medicinal value of the herbs and add to the shelf life of the herbs, but they also isolate certain medicinal components of the herb that were intended by nature to be used in conjunction with the entire plant.
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