The Different Forms of Plant Medicines
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” is a phrase often attributed to Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician known as the “Father of Medicine”. The idea reflects the belief that natural foods and herbs can be used to promote healing and balance in the body. This was practiced by Hippocrates and is aligned with other traditional healing systems, like Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Over the past 150 years, however, the modern medical system has moved from practices based on herbal medicine, dietary interventions and lifestyle adjustments to synthetic pharmaceuticals. And while pharmaceuticals save lives when people are sick, many people (including healthcare providers) are acknowledging that “food as medicine” and lifestyle interventions have a role in maintaining health.
All food can be used as medicine, but this blog focuses specifically on plants and their integration into our lives as part of the “food as medicine” paradigm.
Whole Plants in the Diet. The most obvious way to use plants as medicine is by eating them as part of the diet! For example, leafy green bitter vegetables like dandelion greens, radicchio, and arugula support the liver and gut. Fruits are packed with compounds that help fight inflammation and support most aspects of health. Food contributes to all stages of health – prevention, treatment, recovery, and maintenance – so understanding more about the properties of individual plant foods can be an important step in maintaining health. The Center for Food as Medicine & Longevity is a good resource with a lot of information.
Herbs and Spices in the Diet. Generally speaking, herbs refer to the leaves of plants while spices refer to other parts (roots, seeds, flowers, bark). Regardless of their nomenclature, these plants provide powerful medicinal properties through their bioactive compounds -- and adding them to food is a simple way to incorporate them into our health care. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health has some good information about the medicinal properties of individual herbs, and an earlier blog on the Mountain Herbal Apothecary website touches on Spring Spice Blends and their properties.
Herbal infusions and decoctions. Sometimes referred to as “herbal teas”, infusions and decoctions are water-based extractions of plant compounds. The key distinctions between these two methods are (1) which part of the plant is being used, and (2) whether the water is being heated while the plant is in it. An infusion is made by pouring boiling water over the soft parts of the plant (flowers, petals, leaves, soft stems), and allowing it to steep. A decoction is made by adding the hard parts of the plant (root, seed, bark) to boiling water, reducing the heat, and simmering on low.
Powdered herbs. Any dried plant can be ground to a powder and used in drink blends, sprinkled on food, or taken in warm water as a quickly consumed “shot”. Powdered herbs can even be made into poultices and applied to the skin for wound healing.
Capsules. Powdered herbs can be encapsulated for people who don’t have time or affinity for herbal teas, or who find it difficult to consume a strong herbal shot.
Tinctures. Fresh or dried plants are soaked in alcohol to extract water- and alcohol-soluble medicinal compounds. These are generally more potent than infusions because they extract a wider range of compounds, are more concentrated, and act more quickly. Alcohol is a strong solvent that pulls out hard-to-extract compounds and preserves compounds well, giving a long shelf life to tinctures. For children or alcohol-sensitive people, tinctures can be made with glycerin (which is sweet), instead of alcohol. Tinctures are either taken under the tongue, where they are absorbed quickly into the bloodstream, or mixed in a small amount of warm water, which dissipates the alcohol but is not quite as potent.
Oils and Ghees. Plants can be infused in oils, which can be taken internally or used externally. Oils extract fat-soluble compounds as well as some water-based compounds, depending on the method used. Medicated ghees (clarified butter with water and milk solids removed) are effective carriers of herbs into the body, enhancing their bioavailability.
Deciding how to take plant medicine depends on several factors: acceptability, consistency, the nature of the herb, the nature of the person, the nature of the health issue. The shop has all these forms of plant medicine, and we are happy to talk with you about how to use them for your own health.