By Elaine Ries
The use of plants as medicines predates written human history and is considered to be one of the oldest forms of healthcare on the planet. Archaeological evidence indicates that humans were using medicinal plants during the Paleolithic, approximately 60,000 years ago.
Herbalism often was combined with food historically. People naturally found what they could for food and gradually came to understand that certain plants eased physical complaints. Sharing knowledge of what worked and what didn’t became the beginning of generations of practical and anecdotal wisdom. Spiritual practices naturally evolved utilizing this wisdom, combining herbal knowledge with rituals.
Since the primary cooks were women, it stood to reason that their knowledge and use of cooking herbs spilled over into the healing arts. It wasn’t until the late middle ages in Europe that anything that could be even remotely be called medical practice began to appear. At that time, the primary caregivers were the women, who were seen as competition. These midwives and wise women were labeled as witches and thought to be possessed by demons. The killing of so many innocent people (mostly women) is historically well documented.
Later, when Europeans first began settling the Americas, they relied on the plant wisdom of the indigenous peoples. From the 17th to 19th centuries, the medicine of Native American women and, later, African-American slave women, whose knowledge often proved to be more advanced than European herbalism, taught a holistic and spiritual approach to wellness.
Although many slave owners forbade the practice of herbalism, thought to be “the devil’s work”, the slave communities of the Antebellum South benefited from “grannies.” These female herbal healers based their practices on ancestral African traditions, while readily experimenting and collaborating with Native Americans to find herbal counterparts in the New World. As Native and slave communities were discouraged or forbidden from reading and writing, the oral tradition of herbalism became more critical to its survival.
The practice of herbalism declined greatly with the advances of modern, science-based allopathic medicine during the late 19th and 20th centuries. With the advent of alternative medical practices in the 1970s herbalism, along with Ayurvedic medicine of India, traditional Chinese medicine, homeopathy, and others, began to become alternative to standard medical practices. So much so that, by January 2014, according to the National Institute of Health, 80% of people worldwide were relying on herbal medicine for some part of primary healthcare. However, not all practitioners were knowledgeable or practiced with integrity, so it became necessary to coordinate alternative and allopathic medical practices to determine what will work best for each individual. This still holds true today.
In the spirit of sharing knowledge of what has worked very well for myself several times, I offer the following recipe for an herbal tea that I have used whenever I have started experiencing symptoms of a cold or the flu. I got this from an elderly Japanese woman, who was a hurricane Michael evacuee when I was a Red Cross volunteer assigned to the shelter where she was. I had a sore throat, heavy, wet cough, and a low-grade fever. I drank the tea at bedtime and by morning my sore throat and fever were gone; had another cup each day, and by the third day the cough was completely gone. Since it has worked for me the same way several more times this year, I am passing her love along to all of you.
Important: This is not intended as medical advice. I am not a medical professional, nor do I have any formal training in herbology. Please consult your medical professional before using, and always follow your trusted medical professional’s advice. Blessed Be.
2 c boiling water
2 lg handfuls dried oregano (heaping)
1 lg handful dried mullein (heaping)
2 tbsp dried ginger root (heaping)
1 tsp cayenne pepper **
** I put the pepper into a couple of large gelatin capsules, take them with water, and then drink the tea. It is recommended to use organic herbs, if available.
Combine ingredients in saucepan (don’t use aluminum) and let simmer for ½ hour. Turn off the heat, leave the pan on the burner, and allow it to cool. Strain the tea through as fine a mesh strainer as possible. Drink while it’s hot.
It’s not the best tasting, in my opinion, and it has caused me nausea on an empty tummy. Also, after a day or two of drinking this, I find I have a very gassy stomach and even diarrhea, much like I do when I am on antibiotics. (Yogurt helps a lot.) But with a personal 100% success rate, I add honey to help the taste (cinnamon, too sometimes) and give thanks for how well this gift from the Earth works for me. But remember, your mileage may vary….