[Ebook Việt Hoá] Healing houseplants (Michelle Polk) (Cây chữa bệnh trồng trong nhà): Chương 02

English

It may come as no surprise that I love plants. They are beautiful, mysterious, glamorous, and miraculous living things that not only look good but heal! These tiny healers can make someone feel better within moments of being in their presence. But let’s get real—the majority of a plant’s ability to heal comes from ingesting them or using them directly on the body. They can only do so much standing in the corner of your living room for your midcentury modern condo decor.

Herbal medicine has been increasing in popularity over the past several years with more and more people understanding the importance of taking control of their health and using natural methods for preventative care. That being said, herbal medicine has been around for over five thousand years, with every culture showcasing some sort of herbal/folk medicinal knowledge—this isn’t just some hipster fad. Herbs have been shown to have incredible effects on the body, including anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, cancer preventing, pain reducing, gut enhancing, and other healing properties. When part of a daily routine, herbs can provide amazing benefits to your mind and body.

As an herbalist, I get very excited about herbs. Yes, they are tasty in your favorite slow cooker recipe, and they are beautiful garnishes to your coq au vin. But as an herbalist I’m trained to look deeper into your basil plant, rosemary sprig, and even the dandelion growing incessantly over your nearest soccer field. And before you spray your so-called weeds with Monsanto’s next poisonous products, why not take a little time to understand how amazing your mint truly is. Hint: mint isn’t just for mojitos anymore!

A Very Brief History of Herbal Medicine

Herbal medicine has been around since before recorded history, with Chinese, Babylonian, Native American, Indian, and Egyptian cultures swigging down gross herbal, dirt-tasting concoctions as early as 3000 BC. And it was the monks during the medieval ages who carried the tradition of herbalism, growing medicinal herbs and serving as the medical schools of their time.

Chinese herbalism is the third-oldest form of medicine, only following the Egyptian and Babylonian medical traditions. The discovery of the oldest known list of medicinal herbs can be attributed to the legendary emperor Shen Nung in what is called the Shennong Ben Cao Jing (ca. 3000 BC). Named the father of Chinese agriculture and leader of the ancient clan, he literally tasted hundreds, if not thousands, of herbs to test the medicinal properties of each plant and to determine which were safe and which were poisonous. Talk about being a team player … there’s no I in herb.

This rich tradition of herbalism was created from the detailed observation of nature with trial and error, together leading to thousands of years of case studies and proven remedies.

Be it Western or Eastern herbalism, the ancient Chinese, Indians, Egyptians, Babylonians, or Native Americans, all traditions were passed down from generation to generation, healer to apprentice, professor to student.

There are hundreds of thousands of species of plants known today, with more being discovered every year. Countless unknown plants exist in the world unbeknownst to us, and with healing properties yet to be discovered. Some herbalists go as far as to believe for every human illness that exists, so too does a plant which is able to cure it.”

And while hundreds of years ago humans regularly ingested more than one hundred species of herbs to keep them healthy, today it’s down to ten to twenty. We are missing out on the integral elements of nutrition and health-promoting parts of our diet and lifestyle. No wonder there’s an epidemic of chronic illness—our bodies don’t have the necessary tools to work properly. How many of us make sure our cars get the right fuel, oil, and care in order to make sure they run smoothly for as long as possible. For many of us, we expect our bodies to run without a hitch, but without the same maintenance, care, and proper fuel.

Thanks Aspirin … Er, Willow Bark!

Herbs come in all shapes, sizes, pronunciations, aromas, and more likely than not, gross taste. You’ve probably heard of mint, lavender, rosemary, and even dandelions, but have you ever heard of rhodiola, turkey tail, reishi, or chaste tree? What about feverfew, schisandra, wormwood, or mugwort? All of these unique, fake-sounding names may remind you of Harry Potter but are actually real, immensely healing, powerful herbal plants that can be used for a variety of aches, pains, illnesses, and more. In fact, many of your favorite over-the-counter remedies originally came from plants and herbs; I’m talking about you, aspirin!

The pharmaceutical industry can thank nature for many of their newest blockbuster drugs or miracle remedies. In the past twenty-five years, around 70 percent of new drugs came from Mother Nature. Despite all our attempts for synthetic medicines and our need to create superior products, Mother Nature always has the most sophisticated answers for our health ills.

One of humankind’s favorite over-the-counter medicines exists because of the willow tree. You’ve probably popped a few for your hangover, headache, or daily regimen to prevent a heart attack, not even realizing that a pill which makes your hangover tolerable wouldn’t be around if someone a long time ago hadn’t decided to eat bark. Recent research has shown that aspirin can not only prevent heart attacks and strokes, but a twenty-year study found that it also reduced the risk of cancer by at least 20 percent.12 No, this didn’t just all of a sudden appear from some lab created by a mad scientist in a white coat; it actually has been used for thousands of years by various cultures, but in its whole-plant form.

The use of aspirin’s active ingredient dates back to the ancient Egyptians, who used the plant for aches and pains, and the great Greek physician Hippocrates stated that willow bark helped relieve fevers and pain. But it wasn’t until the 1800s that researchers were able to identify the active ingredient in willow bark, salicylic acid. It was a chemist in the 1890s who used the form of aspirin we know today. Felix Hoffman worked for Bayer in Germany and used aspirin to help with his father’s rheumatism. It was in 1899 that Bayer started distributing a powder with acetylsalicylic acid to doctors to give to their patients. It wasn’t long after that it started becoming available over the counter.

But aspirin isn’t the only drug that can thank a plant for its existence. For example, Taxol, one of the strongest cancer drugs on the market, was derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, and the groundbreaking antibiotic penicillin was derived from penicillium mold. Then there’s the periwinkle plant from Madagascar, which increased the rate of remission for childhood leukemia up to 95 percent by 1997 compared to the 10 percent remission rate in 1960. This plant alone has saved over 100,000 lives. There’s also the malaria drug artemisinin, made from the artemisia plant, which won Chinese scientist Youyou Tu the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Youyou Tu discovered artemisia as a means to help cure malaria by reading ancient Chinese medical texts. Before her discovery, over 240,000 compounds around the world had been tested, but nothing seemed to work. It wasn’t until she read the old text originating from around 400 AD, where she discovered sweet wormwood was an option to treat the disease. Her team tested extracts of the herb to no effect, that is until she followed the original ancient text’s exact recipe—heating the extract without allowing it to reach boiling point. Her diligence and forethought saved millions of lives. And by taking ancient wisdom to the future, she was able to harness what humans already knew thousands of years ago and convert it into modern medicine.

How Nature Provided Us with Antibiotics and How It Will Save Us from Antibiotics

The newest terrifying topic on everyone’s minds is antibiotic resistance. Doomsday seems closer and closer as more and more researchers are proclaiming we are almost to the dead zone when it comes to antibiotic use. Zombies aren’t going to kill us, simple infections will.

Imagine cutting yourself while attempting to break open an unusually stubborn package of Hot Pockets with your sharpest knife, only to find that your cut needs stitches. You go to the hospital and are terrified that you have an infection—not because of the costs, but because antibiotics no longer work. Any infection could equal death. Yes, this might sound dramatic, but this is the path we are headed towards, and no one wants to die from Hot Pockets.

Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928 from the penicillium mold, we’ve thrived and basked in the glorious wonders of antibiotics. For nearly one hundred years we haven’t had to worry about infections such as rheumatic fever, pneumonia, or gonorrhea. But, oops, in 2016 the World Health Organization said that gonorrhea might soon be untreatable. And this is just one of the many infections and diseases that will become resistant to treatment. Every year, 63,000 patients in the US and 25,000 patients in the European Union die from hospital-acquired, antibiotic-resistant infections, and this number is only increasing. The global review on antimicrobial resistance stated that if we are unable to find an alternative to tackle these resistant infections, ten million people will die by 2050 due to antibiotic-resistant infections.

But how did this happen? It’s a simple case of overuse and denial. Oh yeah, we are great at denial. Alexander Fleming, the man who discovered penicillin, warned us of this depressing fate knowing all too well the effects of overusing this magical drug way back in the 1930s. The reason is simple. Bacteria goes through the same process of natural selection as humans. Those that survive adapt and multiply, and thus their genes are the ones passed down through generations.

Every time you take an antibiotic, not only are the microbes which caused your illness killed off, but so are the good ones which protect your body from infection. But not every single microbe is actually killed, and these bacteria are known as the resistant bacteria. Without the protection of your security team (good bacteria) the resistant bacteria are able to thrive and proliferate, transferring their drug resistance to other microbes causing more problems and damage.

Every time someone takes an antibiotic, resistant bacteria are growing in numbers and thriving. And the more a whole population of people take antibiotics, the quicker the bacteria are able to mutate—not to mention you are also increasingly killing off your good microbes which can lead to other problems such as IBS, depression, and a host of chronic illnesses. But that’s for another book.

Our perpetual need to throw antibiotics at any infection or illness will create one of the biggest health crises in our time. For example, chances are that the sore throat you have is NOT strep. However, a whopping 70 percent of people who go to the doctor for a sore throat will receive antibiotics even though only 20 percent of them actually have the Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria. That’s right, 80 percent of people who get antibiotics for their sore throat don’t need antibiotics. This is one of the reasons why we are in a crisis: overuse and lack of oversight.

Strep throat is not the only reason we’re experiencing antibiotic resistance; our overuse of antibacterial soaps, the need to bathe ourselves in hand sanitizers, the desire to shower several times a day, the antibiotics fed to our livestock to keep them fat and juicy, and our general distrust of dirt have allowed bacteria to mutate and proliferate, creating bigger, badder strains of bacteria and resistant illness.

Don’t Panic, Plants May Save Your Life

With the imminent antibiotic crisis threatening our way of life, researchers have begun to realize that maybe our way out of this mess isn’t inside a lab configuring synthetic formulations. Perhaps the way to dig ourselves out of this bacterial hole is to go the natural route. In fact, that is exactly what some researchers are doing. The future of Western medicine may in fact be ancient herbal medicine.

A number of researchers, including Dr. Cassandra Quave, an ethnobotanist from Emory University, are looking to use the knowledge of plants from ancient cultures to derive new medicines for our current needs. Traditional plant-based medicine is a treasure trove of knowledge and experience, with thousands of years of usage, trial and error, and recorded successes. However, looking to herbal medicines and ancient traditions wasn’t always the fashionable choice.

Since the 1970s, the pharmaceutical industry was more interested in synthetic drug development, hoping this would be the future of medicine. It’s also easier to formulate something in a lab than decipher nature’s sophisticated and incredibly complex chemistry. In the words of Simon Gibbons, a medicinal phytochemist at University College London, “Nature is a super chemist. It’s been doing this a lot longer than we or even mammals have been around. Plants have been doing this for around 400 million years.” Talk about intimidating. Believe it or not, the immensely complex chemistry involved in keeping a plant alive has the potential to be potent medicine for humans. Because plants are literally grounded, they are unable to run or attack their predators. Instead, they create complex chemistry to poison their competition. One plant’s poison is another man’s potent medicine.

It’s easy to forget that plants were our primary source of medicine for thousands of years. Currently, we’ve become so far removed from nature that you’re called a hippie, woo-woo, voodoo-loving quack for trying to cure your headache with herbs. If it isn’t in a pill, you must be crazy! And while a good portion of our modern medicines are derived from plants, only a small fraction of the estimated fifty thousand medicinal herbs and plants used in traditional medicines have been studied. That’s a lot of wasted potential, which doesn’t include the immense number of plants, herbs, and species not even discovered in the rainforests and other natural landscapes.

Recently, Dr. Cassandra Quave discovered that healers in southern Italy are using elmleaf blackberry to heal boils and abscesses. When sent to the lab, these berries were found to help prevent the staph bacteria found in abscesses from forming biofilms, which allows bacteria like methicillin-resistant Staphlococcus aureus to attach themselves onto medical devices and living tissue—which would allow these microbes to communicate and mutate. If we can keep the bacteria from evolving and mutating, we can make them more vulnerable and thus more treatable. This is why natural medicines are so important and unique. While humans are looking to massacre these antibiotic-resistant strains, nature is able to help us look in different directions, solving the puzzle from another point of view. The berries may not have killed the staph, but they kept it from spreading, which is exactly what we need in order to stop the future resistance. The term balance fits in nicely here. Nature loves balance.

But there are still plenty of hurdles to overcome when it comes to using nature as a remedy. Many pharmaceuticals aren’t interested in or are just plain apathetic about studying plant medicines due to their immense complexity and their less-than-stunning profit potential. If you make a pharmaceutical drug derived from a traditional herbal remedy, a percentage of the proceeds must go to the people who originally created the herbal formula, meaning that individual nations have sovereign rights over their medical traditions. So while there is incredible potential when it comes to plant medicines, the current apathy towards these potential lifesavers will have to change in order for us to reap the full benefits.

Killing the Rainforest Is Killing Our Medicine Cabinet

With all the potential medical benefits from the vast biodiversity on earth, we must also talk about how climate change and deforestation are affecting our quest for new medicines. The deforestation of tropical forests, rainforests, the Amazon, and more is contributing to the eradication of possible life-saving medicines. You can’t deny yourself out of this crisis.

For example, the island of Madagascar gave us the life-saving periwinkle plant, which we talked about earlier for its ability to increase remission rates of childhood leukemia from only 10 percent in the 1960s to over 95 percent today. However, this miracle plant is under threat. Madagascar houses an incredible array of biodiversity, some 250,000 species, of which 75 percent are found nowhere else on earth! However, 90 percent of the Madagascan forests have been decimated and their rich and complex soils completely washed away. It’s hard to know how many potentially life-saving, groundbreaking, medical-changing, Nobel Prize–winning remedies are completely gone.

Even worse, we have no idea what we are losing, or exactly how much we are losing. However, we can approximate the extinction rate in 2100 to be around 50 percent of all the rainforest animals, flora, and fauna. Scientists have only studied around 1 percent of the plants found in the rainforests, but over 140 of them are becoming extinct every single day. If this doesn’t scare you, I’ll have what you’re drinking.

Latin America is losing over 4.3 million hectares of rainforest per year. Indonesia is seeing over 80 percent loss of their rainforests, with over 28 million hectares being destroyed per year. But it just doesn’t stop: 70 percent of the rainforests in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam are being torn down, and it’s estimated that Indonesia will lose all its rainforests between 2020 and 2025. Indonesia had one of the oldest and most diverse rainforests, which means we potentially lost some of the most exciting and effective medicine cabinets in the world.

And here’s the kicker—we are seeing a rise in in new diseases, especially infectious, due to the increasing practice of deforestation, which could potentially be cured by the very plants we are eradicating. As we destroy forests and ecosystems, we are destroying the homes of many species of plants, animals, and insects. Being homeless, many of these insects and animals wander into civilization, carrying with them a fun assortment of infectious diseases. One discarded partially eaten fruit by an infected bat can lead to an outbreak in livestock, which can quickly jump to humans. We can thank this phenomenon for the outbreak of Ebola, AIDS, Lyme disease, West Nile, and SARS.

Sustainability is a word you’ve probably heard thrown around here and there, but in fact, if we want to preserve the future of medicine, we have to set forth practices of sustainability and protections. It might be profitable to cut down forests at the moment, but in the future it will only harm the common good. Luckily, interest in natural and organic products, sustainable practices, and plant medicine will only place pressure among various industries to change their practices, and for pharmaceuticals to place more stock in biodiverse medicines. As the pharmaceutical industry becomes more involved, the hope is that the economy and job opportunities will increase, which will only help to preserve such environments. If you love plants, it would be prudent to support the causes that are helping preserve our biodiversity. Who knows, your next favorite houseplant might yet be discovered.

I Want the Whole Plant and Nothing but the Plant

While focusing on the pharmaceutical potential in researching plants and herbs, we haven’t talked much about the intrinsic value in the whole plants themselves. We live in a reductionist culture, taking out the parts of we think matter, studying one isolated constituent at a time, and supercharging it to an unheard of percent, which is then made into a pharmaceutical. And while we have some amazing drugs out of this system, there are still problems associated with it.

This practice can be a dangerous one, picking out which parts we deem most important and useful while discarding the rest. We’re forgetting that most things in nature work synergistically, as a whole, together. It’s time to talk about how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

When looking at the chemical constituents of a plant, many chemists or researchers will isolate out the “active ingredient” and turn it into a drug. However, the consequences of this practice can be detrimental and overlooked. Many times we think there is just one active ingredient working alone to make something better; however, nature doesn’t work this way. Often, the whole plant and all its components work together in order to achieve a goal. This holistic approach sees the sum of the whole rather than the single, isolated approach.

Plants evolved and naturally contain substances that work together. Their phytochemistry is sophisticated, and nothing in the plant is there by mistake, having evolved for hundreds of thousands of years to its current form. We may be missing out on great advances due to our lack of understanding when it comes to whole plants and herbs. When a plant shows benefits to humans, it’s not just one isolated part that is doing all the work; you can be sure that every single component interacting with one another is contributing to the full scale benefits we receive.

Huge corporations are not operated just by the CEO; they have thousands and thousands of employees working together to run a successful company. And the United States government is not just operated by the president, but by the Senate, Congress, the executive branch, and the thousands of governmental employees who keep the system running. Just because the president seems more important than someone who works for the Environmental Protection Agency does not mean he or she alone creates the government. So why would we think that one ingredient in a plant is the full source of benefits for certain conditions? Seriously, who thought this was a good idea?

Instead of isolating what we think is the active ingredient, it’s time to study all the compounds in the plant, and truly understand how they all interact. And while this may seem like the appropriate approach, there is pushback from the drug industry in a couple of forms. One, researching just one singular compound is way easier than researching multiple variants combined, and it’s also easier to standardize a single compound into a drug. Two, manufacturing isolates is more profitable for pharmaceutical companies. You can patent single compounds and molecules, which could allow the drug company to profit upwards of billions of dollars. However, using the whole plant offers no such profitability. Plants don’t tend to equal mad, mad money.

Using whole plant compounds also offers a safer approach—for example, consider the coca plant. We may know and recognize this plant for its birth of the harmful drug isolate cocaine, but what you probably don’t know is that the coca leaf is one of the most beneficial plants out there. Andean Indians use the coca leaf more than any other medicine, specifically for constipation and diarrhea. When you look at the chemical constituents of the coca plant, you find there are fourteen active alkaloids, with the cocaine alkaloid being greatest in number. People may know that cocaine stimulates the gastrointestinal tract and makes bowels move more efficiently (I swear, I only know this from research), but when you take the whole plant with the fourteen other alkaloids, it can either stimulate the gut or inhibit the gut, depending on what your body needs. How amazing is that—a plant is able to change its course of action depending on what your specific needs are. But when you isolate out the cocaine alkaloid from the coca leaves, you get an addictive drug which makes people feel paranoid, hostile, angry, and anxious and can lead to a variety of consequences, including heart attack, permanent damage to the blood vessels of the heart and brain, tooth decay, malnutrition, psychosis, and depression.

This idea of using the whole versus its parts doesn’t stop at just singular plants but also herbal formulations—for example, combining two or more herbs together for an even greater synergistic response. The potential for traditional herbal formulas to treat chronic conditions is astounding, but the potential for profits is lacking.

In no way is every condition appropriate for a whole herb intervention; however, when it comes to treating disease, it’s important to look at a variety of approaches and not just the easier and more profitable ones. We could be missing out on some of the most exciting medical breakthroughs because we decided to take the easier route.

Herbs Deserve More Credit

Unpronounceable herbal remedies are more than just seasonings or added flavor to your turkey loaf; these substances are DNA-changing, immunity-boosting, anti-inflammatory, cholesterol- and blood-pressure-lowering, anxiety-alleviating, stress-adapting, brain-bolstering, memory-enhancing, cancer-fighting, disease-preventing superplants.

With all the processed foods, inflammation, toxicity, sedentary lifestyles, stressful jobs, constant work, lack of play, and overmedication, of course our bodies are rebelling. And our illnesses are just our bodies’ way of saying, “STOP! I need a break!”

With a change to our diets and lifestyle we can completely transform the way our body interacts and expresses itself. Health is a symptom of your body working. Illness is a symptom of unbalance. How many of us eat a diet of solely organic, local vegetables, fruits, and herbs, exercise and move our bodies on a regular and weekly basis, and sleep seven to nine hours per night, while taking time out to socialize with friends and family, meditate, and make room to play and do what we love? Yes, adults need to play too. If this person exists, they’re a dreamy unicorn, with undeniably good skin, and I want some of their magic.

While it may be extremely difficult to live the perfect unicorn lifestyle, there are tricks or hacks we can use to make us more prepared for our modern life, and some of these hacks include herbs. Tinctures, herbal formulas, homemade remedies, and other fun DIY herbal projects are a great way to propel your body back into balance. Herbs have been shown to reduce inflammation, promote blood flow, reduce tumor and cancer growth, lower blood sugar, reduce cholesterol, lower blood pressure, lower risk of heart disease, improve brain function, increase memory, delay the onset of Alzheimer’s, positively change your gene expression, and more!

Plants basically turn you into a badass, superpowered, undercover health ninja. Who’s in? Herbs obtain various chemical compounds as unpronounceable as polysaccharides, saponins, flavonoids, phytosterols, essential oils, micronutrients, antioxidants, thiosulfinates, anti-amyloids, polyphenols, and more. Herbs such as turmeric and ginger have become research darlings, with study after study showing the unbelievable health benefits associated with taking these medicinal plants on a regular basis. Who knew?

Well … herbalists knew.

But now the secret is out, and you are savvy to the immense healing benefits that herbs and plants have to offer. And with this book you will learn to make your own incredible herbal teas, scrubs, and formulas to help make your life a more healthful one. There’s immense research out there confirming the health benefits of herbs and plant medicine, but why wait to use them? So get excited and start planting some amazing houseplants; you’ll not only get fresher air and breathe in less toxins, but you’ll also get a dose of anti-inflammatory, immune-boosting, health-promoting remedies that you can make inside your own home.

Tiếng Việt

Không có gì ngạc nhiên khi tôi yêu cây cối. Chúng là những sinh vật sống đẹp đẽ, bí ẩn, quyến rũ và kỳ diệu, cây cối không chỉ trông đẹp mà còn giúp chữa bệnh! Những cây chữa bệnh nhỏ bé này có thể làm cho người bệnh cảm thấy dễ chịu hơn trong giây lát.Phần lớn các loại thực vật có khả năng chữa bệnh được sử dụng bằng cách ăn hoặc sử dụng trực tiếp trên cơ thể. Những loại cây chữa bệnh có thể làm được rất nhiều điều hơn là chỉ đứng ở góc phòng khách để trang trí căn hộ hiện đại của bạn.

Thuốc thảo dược ngày càng phổ biến trong những năm qua khi ngày càng nhiều người hiểu được tầm quan trọng của việc kiểm soát sức khỏe của họ và sử dụng các phương pháp tự nhiên để chăm sóc phòng ngừa. Thảo dược đã có từ hơn 5.000 năm trước, mọi nền văn hóa đều mang một số kiến ​​thức về thảo dược và y học dân gian, bởi vậy thảo dược không chỉ là một thứ mốt thời thượng. Các loại thảo mộc đã được chứng minh là có tác dụng đáng kinh ngạc đối với cơ thể, bao gồm chống viêm, kháng khuẩn, kháng virus, kháng nấm, ngăn ngừa ung thư, giảm đau, tăng cường đường ruột và các đặc tính chữa bệnh khác. Khi trở thành một phần của thói quen hàng ngày, các loại thảo mộc có thể mang lại những lợi ích đáng kinh ngạc cho tâm trí và cơ thể của bạn.

Là một nhà thảo dược, tôi rất hứng thú với các loại thảo mộc. Vâng, chúng thường là những loại hương liệu rất ngon trong công thức nấu ăn yêu thích của bạn, và chúng là những họa tiết trang trí đẹp mắt cho món ăn. Nhưng với tư cách là một nhà thảo dược, tôi được đào tạo để tìm hiểu sâu hơn về cây Húng Quế (basil plant), cành Hương Thảo (rosemary sprig) và thậm chí cả cây Bồ Công Anh (dandelion) đang phát triển không ngừng trên sân bóng. Và trước khi sử dụng các sản phẩm độc hại tiếp theo của Monsanto, tại sao bạn không dành một chút thời gian để tìm hiểu vị bạc hà thực sự tuyệt vời như thế nào.

Sơ lược về lịch sử của thuốc thảo dược

Thuốc thảo mộc đã xuất hiện trước khi được lịch sử ghi lại, các nền văn hóa Trung Quốc, Babylon, thổ dân Mỹ, Ấn Độ và Ai Cập đã tạo ra các loại thuốc pha chế thảo dược thô từ 3000 năm trước Công nguyên. Và chính các nhà sư trong thời trung cổ đã mang truyền thống thảo dược, trồng các loại dược liệu và phục vụ như các trường y học trong thời đại đó.

Thuốc thảo dược Trung Quốc là hình thức y học lâu đời thứ ba, chỉ sau truyền thống y học Ai Cập và Babylon. Người phát hiện ra danh sách các loại dược liệu lâu đời nhất có thể là vị hoàng đế huyền thoại Shen Nung, Thần Nông Ben Cao Jing (khoảng 3000 năm trước Công nguyên). Được mệnh danh là cha đẻ của nền nông nghiệp Trung Quốc và là thủ lĩnh của gia tộc cổ đại, ông đã thực sự nếm thử hàng trăm, hàng nghìn loại thảo mộc để kiểm tra dược tính của từng loại cây và xác định loại nào an toàn và loại nào độc.

Truyền thống phong phú về thảo dược được tạo ra từ việc quan sát chi tiết thiên nhiên với thử nghiệm và những lần sai lầm, cùng hàng nghìn năm nghiên cứu và các biện pháp khắc phục đã được chứng minh.

Dù là chủ nghĩa thảo dược phương Tây hay phương Đông, người Trung Quốc cổ đại, người Ấn Độ, người Ai Cập, người Babylon, hoặc người Mỹ bản địa, tất cả các truyền thống được truyền từ thế hệ này sang thế hệ khác, từ người chữa bệnh cho người học việc, từ giáo sư cho sinh viên.

Ngày nay có hàng trăm nghìn loài thực vật, con số này vẫn tăng lên hàng năm. Vô số loài thực vật tồn tại trên thế giới mà chúng ta không hề hay biết, và chúng có những đặc tính chữa bệnh vẫn chưa được khám phá. Một số nhà thảo dược học tin rằng các loại thảo dược có thể chữa được mọi căn bệnh tồn tại ở con người.

Trong khi hàng trăm năm trước, con người thường xuyên ăn hàng trăm loài thảo mộc để giữ sức khỏe, ngày nay con số này giảm xuống còn mười đến hai mươi loài. Chúng ta đang bỏ sót các chất dinh dưỡng thiết yếu giúp tăng cường sức khỏe trong chế độ ăn uống và lối sống của chúng ta. Không có gì ngạc nhiên khi có các bệnh mãn tính, cơ thể chúng ta không có các chất cần thiết để hoạt động bình thường. Có bao nhiêu người trong chúng ta đảm bảo rằng ô tô của mình được cung cấp nhiên liệu, dầu phù hợp và được chăm sóc để đảm bảo chúng chạy trơn tru càng lâu càng tốt. Nhiều người trong chúng ta mong muốn cơ thể của mình luôn khỏe mạnh, nhưng lại không có chế độ điều trị, chăm sóc và sử dụng các nguồn dinh dưỡng thích hợp.

Cảm ơn Aspirin, loại thuốc làm từ vỏ cây Liễu!

Các loại thảo mộc có đủ hình dạng, kích cỡ, tên gọi và mùi thơm. Bạn có thể đã nghe nói về Bạc Hà (mint), hoa Oải Hương (Lavender), Hương Thảo (rosemary) và thậm chí cả Bồ Công Anh (dandelion), nhưng bạn đã bao giờ nghe nói về cây Rễ Vàng (rhodiola), cây Nấm Vân Chi (turkey tail), Linh Chi (reishi) hoặc cây Trinh Nữ (chaste) chưa? Vậy còn Sốt Mò (feverfew), Kinh Giới(schisandra), Ngải Cứu (wormwood) thì sao? Tất cả những cái tên độc đáo, lạ lẫm này có thể khiến bạn liên tưởng đến Harry Potter nhưng thực chất lại là những cây thảo dược có tác dụng chữa bệnh vô cùng hiệu quả, có thể được sử dụng để hỗ trợ điều trị nhiều loại bệnh tật. Trên thực tế, nhiều bài thuốc có nguồn gốc từ thực vật và thảo mộc, trong đó phải kể đến aspirin!

Ngành công nghiệp dược phẩm cần biết ơn thiên nhiên vì nhiều loại thuốc mới và các phương thuốc thần kỳ. Trong 25 năm qua, khoảng 70% các loại thuốc mới đến từ thiên nhiên. Bất chấp mọi nỗ lực tạo ra các loại thuốc tổng hợp và nhu cầu tạo ra các sản phẩm cao cấp, mẹ thiên nhiên luôn có những câu tr�