COOKBOOK Herbalism with Ernestina Parziale Certified Herbalist

Before using any herb it is imperative that you read up on it. You can search through the database on these pages, or you can turn to any one of the numerous books on the market today. In fact, you should always look for two or three opinions on the effective use of an herb before using it. Either way you need to determine (this is most important) your personal tolerances to any substance. For instance, did you know that people who are allergic to ragweed can also be allergic to herbs in the same Compositae family? These would include very common herbs like chamomile and echinacea. And if you suffer from auto-immune diseases such as lupus, HIV, AIDS, rheumatoid arthritis, etc, you should never take echinacea. This is one example, but there are many to consider when humans and plant medicine get together.

Herbs work very slowly and sometimes, as in the case of very old traditional remedies, they don't work at all. I mention them because in reading you will run across them. It is also important to remember that some herbs are quite toxic. Those require special processing and professional administration and are definitely not for use by the layman.

Another concern of mine is the direction in which herbal medicine is headed today. Everything is being standarized and potentized until the original chemical composition of the plant is brought to an unnatural state of balance. The scientists are beginning to do to plant medicine what they have done to pharmaceuticals and, personally, I'm concerned about what this means to the future of plant medicine. Nature has created a product that balances active ingredients with other components that act as buffers and/or nutrients. That's how they work safely. By bringing these components out of balance, or even worse by separating them as in pharmaceuticals, you end up dealing with more of a poison than a slow acting healing substance.

The challenge for the future is to discover how modern medicine and alternative therapies can work together for optimum healing and health.