Healing with plants

Working with medicinal plants has a long tradition in many cultures. For centuries, herbal juices, mixtures, powders and teas were the main weapons in the arsenal of those fighting against plagues and diseases. Only in newer times natural medicinal herbs have been increasingly replaced by chemistry and synthetic drug production.

However, the knowledge about the healing powers of forests and meadows still exists. A whole series of effective drugs come from plants or have been developed from botanicals. These meticulously studied ingredients which are presented as pure substances are often used by conventional medicine because their medical efficacy has been proven.

Particularly in gynaecology, where in recent years discussions about hormone therapy have increased, there is a great need for natural herbs. Extracts like red clover, soy, black cohosh or chaste berry are just a few remedies that are used successfully in gynaecology.

But here too Hippocrates’ ‘primum non nocere’ (‘First, to do no harm’) has to be taken into account. Whenever an effect takes place, there are also side effects. Hence, therapy with plants shouldn’t be just done by anyone but should be reserved for professional medical experts.