There are so many beautiful plants and flowers where I live, they surround and amaze me. If all they ever provided were beauty, it would be enough. But beauty is not their sole attribute, they are powerful medicine as well. Some are gentle and can be used by all, and some are so powerful or dangerous that only someone with a great deal of training should utilize them. Pharmaceutical companies certainly use plants, sometimes safely, sometimes not so much. Simply because it is put on the market, it is not necessarily safe…one has only to look at Thaladomide in the middle of last century which caused devastating birth defects, or more recently, Darvon, Seldane, and Vioxx. Currently Pfizer and others are involved in lawsuits for the drug Zantac, containing ranitidine, now replaced by famotidine but still marketed as Zantac.
Are plants safer? Plants still have chemicals that can harm you. But they often have buffers that are protective as well. For instance, plants with salicylic acid have buffers as well, and proper use never results in ulcers, unlike its pharmaceutical offspring, aspirin. Are all drugs from pharmaceutical companies bad? Certainly not. Do I use them? Of course. But where the same (or better) results are available to me from plants I know, I choose them over pharmaceuticals.
So, I have chosen to persue a working knowledge of herbs and their effects. I am still very much learning, I will be learning for the rest of my life. But oh the rewards! As I delve into this, I plan to occasionally share an herb and its characteristics here. This will be simply for interest and pleasure. Do your own due diligent research before using any plant for any reason. Even benign plants may induce allergic reactions or be contraindicated for a number of reasons.
Welcome to a paradise in the classic sense… a garden of herbs, aromatic flowers, and fruit, enclosed and provided with flowing water, for pleasure, enlightenment, and nourishment.
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