Medicinal
Nature provides a bountiful pharmacopoeia through its plant life. Plants were humankind's original medicines, and even with the birth of modern medicine, plants remain an important source of medicinal help.
In all traditional cultures, certain members accure specialized knowledge of medicinal plants and their applications. These are the healers, midwives, shamans, and other individuals who dispense cures and remedies through their understanding of healing plants and their applications. Women in their roles as mothers and grandmothers also command this knowledge, sometimes in the form of "old wives" remedies that, more often than not, have a firm basis in herbal medicine.
Today countless people still use medicinal plants, whether in traditional ways, in alternative and complementary medicine, or as building blocks for new research and innovative drugs. Pharmaceutical companies and government research programs routinely screen plants, focusing especially on species with potential anticancer and anti - HIV benefits. And today's burgeoning use of dietary supplements carries on a traditon that is millennia old.
As to the importance of medicinal plants, the statistics are telling. As many as 50 percent of prescription drugs are based on molecules found naturally in plants. Some 25 percent of prescription drugs are derived directly from plants or modeled on plant molecules. These percentages have held steady for nearly 60 years, a testament to plants' enduring medicinal powers.
In all traditional cultures, certain members accure specialized knowledge of medicinal plants and their applications. These are the healers, midwives, shamans, and other individuals who dispense cures and remedies through their understanding of healing plants and their applications. Women in their roles as mothers and grandmothers also command this knowledge, sometimes in the form of "old wives" remedies that, more often than not, have a firm basis in herbal medicine.
Today countless people still use medicinal plants, whether in traditional ways, in alternative and complementary medicine, or as building blocks for new research and innovative drugs. Pharmaceutical companies and government research programs routinely screen plants, focusing especially on species with potential anticancer and anti - HIV benefits. And today's burgeoning use of dietary supplements carries on a traditon that is millennia old.
As to the importance of medicinal plants, the statistics are telling. As many as 50 percent of prescription drugs are based on molecules found naturally in plants. Some 25 percent of prescription drugs are derived directly from plants or modeled on plant molecules. These percentages have held steady for nearly 60 years, a testament to plants' enduring medicinal powers.
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