The Complete Herbal Tutor. Anne Mcintyre

and foods are all composed of five tastes: pungent, sweet, sour, bitter and salty, each of which has different qualities and actions in the body.

      1. Pungent herbs increase production of sweat and direct and increase qi and blood.

      2. Sweet herbs are nourishing and toning, and some act as diuretics to drain dampness.

      3. Sour herbs are astringent, bitter herbs clear heat and dampness.

      4. Salty herbs are used to stimulate the bowels and reduce hard masses.

      5. Herbs that nourish the qi have an energising effect, herbs to enrich the blood help sleep, vision and mood, while herbs to replenish moisture soften the skin and relieve thirst. The meridians relate to the organ networks that can be helped by herbs to do their work.

      Herbs are usually combined in formulae to enhance their action either in the form of dried herbs for decoctions, ground and produced as pills and powders or used in liquid extracts. Some practitioners use patent formulae in the form of pills which are certainly more easy and convenient for the patient than boiling up herbs in decoctions, but do not allow for the individualised prescriptions that practitioners can formulate themselves in response to the specific needs of each patient.

      Angelica polymorph, variation sinensis, also known as Chinese angelica/dong guai, is a herb commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine.

      Prunella vulgaris, or self-heal, is used to treat fever and liver imbalance and is also valued for accelerating wound-repair.

      Herbs used in the Chinese tradition include codonopsis (Codonopsis pilusera), astragalus (Astragalus membranaceous), liquorice, ginger, Chinese angelica (Angelica sinensis), sweet Annie (Artemisia annua), coriander, honeysuckle, peony, fleece flower (Polygonum multiflorum), rehmania (Rehmania glutinosa), schizandra (Schizandra chinensis), baikal skullcap (Scutellaria baikalensis) and self heal (Prunella vulgaris).

      Research into the medicinal properties of Chinese herbal remedies has led to some being adopted by Western medicine. For example, the drug artemisinin, used to treat drug-resistant malaria, has been derived from Chinese wormwood, (qing hao/Artemisia annua). In China, traditional herbs have also been fused successfully with Western drugs; for example aspirin has been combined with Gypsum fibrosum to treat a form of arthritis.

      Rehmania Glutinosa, also known as Chinese foxglove, is used in Chinese medicine to increase energy.

      The Healing Tradition in North America

      Native North American herbalism was a shamanic tradition – ritualistic dances, playing drums and rattles and taking mind-altering plants such as peyote and datura were intended to enable the shaman or medicine man or woman to enter a trance-like visionary state to enable him or her to communicate with the spirit world, including the Great Spirit (Wakan Tanka, in the language of the Lakota Sioux, like a notion of God that permeates everything), and the soul of the ill person in order to bring about healing. Help was sought in this way for healing physical ills and troubles of the psyche, and to engender harmony within communities or between individuals.

      Plants were revered not only for their ability to cure diseases of the body but also imbalances in the mind, emotions and spirit. They were an inextricable part of the Native American religion and mythology, used in ceremonies and rituals. Disease was seen to be caused by human, supernatural or natural causes and the medicine man or woman was called upon to administer herbs for anything from wounds and broken bones to unfulfilled dreams, spiritual intrusion and soul loss.

      Everything was performed traditionally in a circle, and according to Black Elk of the Teton Dakato, the “Power of the World” always worked in circles. “All our power came to us from the sacred loop of the nation”, he said, and his people flourished as long as the circle was unbroken. “The flowering circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain and the north with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance.”

      A group of herbalists in 19th century North America, known as Physiomedicalists, blended together the traditions of European herbalism brought to America by the Pilgrim fathers, with the herbal wisdom of the North American Indians. These herbs included pleurisy root (Asclepias tuberosa), barberry (Berberis vulgaris), black cohosh (Actaea racemosus), gravel root (Eupatorium purpureum), boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum), golden seal (Hydrastis Canadensis), witch hazel (Hamamelis virginaurea), poke root (Phytolacca decandra), cramp bark (Viburnum opulus) and black haw (Viburnum prunifolium). The renowned founder of Physiomedicalism was Dr Samuel Thomson (1769-1843) who was the first to bring the Native American remedy Lobelia to the attention of the medical world. He kept alive traditional ideas of allowing the body to heal itself and helping to create the ideal conditions for this with the use of herbs, and mixed it with knowledge he had gained by observation of the Native American medicine men, such as the value of sweating for clearing toxins from the body.

      HERBS COMMONLY USED IN NATIVE AMERICAN MEDICINE

      Asclepias tuberosa (see page 125)

      Baptisia tinctoria (see page 128)

      Berberis (see page 133)

      Berberis Vulgaris (see page 129)

      Cynara Scolymus (see page 154)

      Dioscorea villosa (see page 156)

      Echinacea augustifolia (see page 157)

      Eupatorium perfoliatum (see page 164)

      Eupatorium purpureum (see page 165)

      Hamamelis virginiana (see page 181)

      Hydrastis canadensis (see page 185)

      Myrica cerifera (see page 203)

      Phytolacca decandra (see page 215)

      Smilax ornata (See page 239)

      Trillium erectum (See page 253)

      Ultmus fulva (see page 255)

      Viburnum opulus (see page 263)

      Viburnum prunifolium (see page 264)

      Zanthoxyllum americanum (see page 271)

      Echinacea Augustifolia, or echinacea.

      Berberis, or oregon grape.

      Like ancient and modern herbalists, Thomson recognised the presence of the vital force that flows throughout nature and animates all in existence. Described as the spirits by the ancient Greeks and American cultures, the qi of China's medicine and philosophy, and prana of Ayurveda, the vital force is our innate healing energy that manifests itself daily in the amazing feats of the body including coughing to clear the airways of phlegm, sneezing to shift irritants from the nose, vomiting to clear the stomach of infection, and diarrhoea to remove toxins from the bowel. This self-healing mechanism is called homoestasis by modern science.

      Thomson also held that all bodies were composed of the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, and health derived from their harmonious interplay. Herbs were used primarily to maintain or correct this balance, and prescriptions were designed to do one of four things: astringe (tone) or relax, stimulate or sedate. Toning herbs included