Herbal medicine is the use of plants. Their leaves, stems, bark, flowers, fruits, and seeds- to prevent or cure disease. The practice probably originated in prehistoric times when humans discovered through trial and error, that certain plants had healing powers.
Herbal medicine gave way to the modern pharmaceutical industry where many drugs are created in test tubes. Herbal medicine is the specialty of people who call themselves herbalists. Chinese herbal medicine is being popularized in the west by acupuncturists and other practitioners of eastern medicine. China has for centuries been a well organized system of knowledge based on observation, experiments, and clinical trials, and the effectiveness of a significant number of these remedies has been verified by modern science.
For medicinal purposes, dried herbs are usually recommended because their increased concentration makes them more potent than the fresh plants. Leaves and flowers are dried in an airy, shady place; sun bakes out their oils and may also damage other medicinal ingredients. Roots and heavy stems are cleaned, chopped, dried, and then stored in glass jars or other non-metallic containers in a cool, dry place until they are used.
Medicinal herbs are most often steeped in boiling water and consumed as a tea. These teas, which can be unpleasantly bitter or strong-tasting, should not be confused with the pleasant, commercially available herbal teas, which contain only small fraction of the herbs used in a medicinal brew.
Many plants are poisonous. Make sure that you know exactly what is in the herbs before you take them internally.
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