Friday, September 13, 2013

Jewels on the Hill

(Echinacea purpurea) 

Jewels on the Hill

If you were to ask the average person on the street, who’d had no prior knowledge about medicinal plants, about Echinacea, they would most likely have heard about this plant and its immune-boosting properties. Echinacea purpurea, more commonly known as purple coneflower, is that well known. In fact, the successful use of Echinacea, in no small part, helped to inspire the renaissance of interest in herbal medicine, which is currently occurring in our country. While, during the approach of the 1960’s, folk medicine wisdom was being lost at an alarming rate, it was during that decade that a resurgence of interest occurred. This was largely related to the natural birth movement, initiated by the ‘back-to-nature’ philosophy of that time, and a lot of nearly forgotten crucial medicinal wisdom was unearthed. Through the efforts of many deeply inspired individuals, a movement was born. The pouring over of antiquated texts, diaries, and the seeking out of elderly herbalists (still practicing in small, isolated rural pockets across the country) brought long-forgotten medicinal wisdom back into public access.
Once, it was common for each rural family to have an herb garden, in which they grew plants to meet their common ailment needs: boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) regarded as a virtual cure-all, but especially as strong medicine against fever; Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum) used for urinary tract infections, and for kidney stones; dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) used as a detoxifying agent, and a diuretic, as well as a bitter for digestive problems; Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) a stauncher of bleeding; and Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) was greatly relied upon for the healing of bruises, sprains, and fractures – hence its other common name: Knitbone - were but a few of the plants commonly relied upon by families of the day. Many of these settlers had brought their own seeds from plants long-trusted in Europe, and so, naturalized many plants we have come to think of as our own, including the ubiquitous dandelion.
In addition, plants native to the United States, were introduced to these immigrants by Native Americans. Plants like Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) a plant long-used for women’s ailments; and other now-common plants such as corn, sunflower, and cayenne were all used medicinally by Native Americans, and this knowledge was generously shared with our founding peoples.
Since the resurgence of this knowledge in the 1960’s, interest in the field has grown significantly, with herbalist schools growing in number every year. As such, knowledge about the benefits and uses of medicinal plants has become more commonplace. Along with it  (no doubt as a result of the information age) is the growing fascination with, and, an acceptance of, alternate types of medicine. This offers alternatives to many who, for many reasons, traditional medicine has failed to work, giving them broader opportunities for a more gentle and often safer, route to healing.
Though conventional medicine is often referred to as ‘traditional’ medicine, this is truly a misnomer, for herbal medicine is the true traditional method. With its rich, thousand-year history (well-documented by historians, archeologists and anthropologists) herbal medicine is here to stay!

 Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
 Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)
Comfrey (Symphytum officinale)

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