Many people who like herb gardening enjoy the meditative process of being out in the garden with their hands in the soil. They like the appearance of fresh green leaves and the smell of aeromatic flowers and leaves. You probably love cooking with herbs and tasting them in soups and salads! One of the often overlooked (because it’s more mysterious and less common, perhaps) uses for herbs is medicinal. The use of medicinal herbs has been around for centuries and used to be very common.

By learning more about herbal treatments, you can start to embrace another wonderful use for fresh and dried herbs from your garden.

History’s Lessons On Herbal Treatments

For centuries, herbal treatments were the primary medicines people, in a diversity of cultures around the world, relied upon to both cure and mitigate the common diseases and ailments. Even though people in the 1600s were unaware of the germ theory, through trial and error, they discovered that certain herbal treatments proved effective against infection.

In feudal times, it was the custom and responsibility of the ‘lady of the manor’ to be somewhat of an expert on herbs and their uses, maintaining an herb garden to dispense appropriate healing herbs to the people of the village, to remedy their ailments.

Popular Herbal Remedies

Here are a few examples of historically popular and effective herbal remedies. Did you know that spider webs were used to protect against infection and help heal skin wounds, even into the mid-1900s? This herbal treatment is still useful, if you find yourself stranded in the back woods without a modern first aid kit. Comfrey, a common weed, is also known as ‘bone knit’. Before modern medicine, comfrey leaves were applied to the site of a broken bone, in the form of a plaster and bound up around the site of breakage. The broken bone would subsequently be mended back together, by generating new bone cells, due to a peculiar property of this herb. Cayenne pepper, taken internally, stops internal hemorrhaging and has saved many a life. Each of these herbal treatments are well documented by modern science, both in clinical studies and anecdotal reports.

During the 19th century, the so-called eclectic physicians relied almost entirely on herbal remedies, many times comprised of a mixture of herbs, to treat their patients. One of the most famous of these remedies was the result of a Canadian nurse’s investigation into Native American remedies, which came to be known as Essiac. This formula reportedly cured thousands of cases of various types of cancer and is still sold today in herb shops. Members of the Kennedy family used this formula with success, which probably contributed to the widespread popularity it still enjoys.

At the same time, some unscrupulous healers jumped on the bandwagon, selling elixirs which were ineffective, but nonetheless popular. However, these charlatans soon popularized the term ’snake oil sellers’, seriously damaging the credibility of legitimate physicians in general, along with herbal treatments.

When modern medicine was in its infancy, pharmaceutical companies began producing their ‘magic bullets’ for a variety of diseases and common ailments. Interestingly, herbs formed the main constituents of these drugs, with one significant difference. These chemists would extract only the constituents of each plant which was deemed to be the curative property. If you study herbal medicine, you’ll find that all of the constituents in the plant parts, be it the leaves, berries or roots, have a synergistic relationship, whereby one constituent may be the driving force of the cure, but used alone, may be accompanied by undesirable side effects. The properties which were not included in the pharmaceutical version, most often offset and mitigated the undesirable effects, thus making the pharmaceutical an inferior herbal treatment option.

It’s unfortunate that the ’snake oil’ vendors compromised the opinion of the general population against the ‘old ways’ and so, popularizing the modern drugs, with the result that herbal treatments became passe. Today, with the many deleterious side effects of modern drug therapy, fully a third of Americans report using herbal treatments as an effective alternative form of medicine.
If you doubt the veracity of herbal medicine, it may be worth your while to try a few of these ancient remedies on minor injuries as a test case. For example, should you become sunburn from a day at the beach, try applying aloe gel to the affected area. It certainly works, serving to both heal the skin, prevent blistering and take the sting out of the burn. You may find that herbal treatments are as effective as the OTC remedies, at far less expense, making a valuable addition to your first aid kit.

Grow The Right Herbs For Assisting With Your Own Herbal Treatments

Now you have some ideas about which types of herbs might be useful in creating your own herbal treatments. You’re probably eager to add some of these new specimens to your herb garden. If you need more herb gardening ideas and how-to information, be sure to check out our book on Herb Gardening for more ideas on herbs for growing in your yard.