Why use Western Herbs?
Western herbs represent a treasure-trove of effective traditional medicines and the collected and refined experience of practitioners for over 2,500 years.
Three big advantages of Western herbs for people living in the Western world are:
- availability
- safety
- power
AVAILABILITY
Since they grow here in the West, they are more readily available, and to quote Julian Scott:
“This means that the plants can be studied at first hand: the way they grow; their preferred habitat; and the effect of climate on their therapeutic effectiveness. All can be observed through the changes of the seasons, often in the wild within a few miles of where one lives. They can be gathered in the wild or grown in the garden. All this helps to deepen one's understanding of the nature and action of an herb.”
SAFETY
Western herbs are often safer.
When herbs are grown, harvested, processed, and tested and certified in the West, it is easier to control quality. So Western herbs are more likely to be effective and safe.
In some countries, herbs are not always properly tested and certified. This means that they may be the wrong species, they may be endangered species, they may contain toxic impurities, or they may be ‘boosted’ with potentially dangerous drugs.
POWER
There is a common error that Western herbs are weak: just a pleasant cup of chamomile tea for Granny. People do not realize that some Western herbs are so powerful that, in the UK, their maximum dose is regulated by law, and their over-the-counter sales are forbidden.
Such powerful herbs include: Chelidonium, Cinchona, Convallaria, Ephedra, Gelsemium, and Lobelia. Like most conventional medical drugs, these useful herbs are powerful, and dangerous if not properly used.
Practitioners must be fully familiar with their dose limits and with their contraindications.
DOSE
Another common error is that people think that Western herbs are only given in low doses, like 1-3 gram per day, so they won’t work. Sometimes a lower dose is appropriate, but Western herbal combinations may contain over 30 grams of herbs for a daily dose.
For example, some combination Althea: gastritis contains 26 grams of herbs per day.