What makes a herb a herb?
This is no a simple and straightforward
answer. A herb can be a pretty plant pleasing to the eye, have a sweet
or pleasant smell, or a pungent odour and bitter taste, or can be an
annoying weed in our garden that grows profusely and is hard to get rid
of.
There is a long tradition of using herbs for taste and flavouring in
our food, or for their healing properties as is the case with herbal
medicine. Many culinary herbs can also have medicinal uses, and vice versa.
There are many common and well known herbs which can be used in straightforward first aid for stings or
abrasions, or there can be herbs shrouded in mystery and magic, administered by
practitioners with great wisdom in the arts of rare and exotic herbs,
sourced from deep within rainforests or from high on mountain tops.
There has been in-depth research and proven results for some herbs,
and for others mere opinion or word of mouth that certain herbs worked
for someone, however upon trying the same herbs by others there appears to be no noticeable
effect, either positive or otherwise. There are also the herbs of wild
claims of their great healing powers, but with no proven foundation of
these claims.
Pretty much any plant has the potential to be a herb, even the
blandest of foods such as rice, oats, and vegetables have actions that
help nourish the body. Most culinary herbs have some medicinal action so
could be defined as a special subset of herbs. Plants can also be
considered herbs even if we only use them as perfumes to scent our
bodies, clothes and houses, and there are also the not so nice smelling ones that
aid in repelling bugs and other pests.
Somewhere amongst all the tradition and history, it is
certain that herbs have their place and may be used to improve our
health and general well-being. We also need to consider sacred herbs
used in ceremonies and rituals and the magic herbs used in charms and
amulets. Some herbs bring on visions while other banish them. Some herbs
attract bees and butterflies and some simply delight our eyes.
What are we to do with this such exotic abundance? I believe the answer is to embrace it with all that we can!
When considering what herbs can be useful we need to look towards not
only the obvious but also the not so obvious. We need to consider the
uses of leaf, bark, root and flower and how each part of the whole has
its uses. We must also "weed out", pardon the pun, what is true or
fact, from the hype of media or Internet claims. We must also consider
peoples hopes and fears, or whether any particular herb will cause harm
due to conflicting with existing medications or drugs.
The use of herbs may be simple and straight forward, or more
complicated in some instances, but it is absolutely certain that they
have their place in society, whether they are used for ceremonial
purposes or simply as a way to boost our well being in our daily lives
through food or herbal drinks, or through potions or remedies created by
herbalists for specific medical reasons such as stress, detoxing,
digestion, or other more complicated issues.
To find out more about some of the many helpful and useful herbs and how they can be used click here
Some information in this post was sourced from the very useful and informative:
The Herb Handbook by Sujata Bristow
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