Herbal Remedies

Excerpts from the entry on Herbal Remedies in Relieving Pain Naturally by Dr. Sylvia Goldfarb and Roberta W. Waddell. For full entries on all 37 conditions and 27 treatments, order the book.

Herbalism is the use of berries, flowers, leaves, stems, and roots of plants to perform healing functions the body. The botanical definition of an herb is a seed-producing annual, biennial, or perennial plant that does not develop woody tissue and dies down at the end of the growing season. There are more than 260,000 herbs classified as higher plants (those capable of photosynthesis) that have the potential to offer medical benefits, although only about 10 percent of these have been studied to date. Many of today's familiar medications are isolated from herbal sources. Salicylic acid, a precursor of aspirin, was derived from white willow bark, cinchona tree bark is the source of quinine, and digitalis, used for heart conditions, comes from the foxglove plant, for example.

Also in this entry:

• The History of Herbal Remedies
• How Herbal Remedies Work
• Painful Conditions that Respond Well to Herbal Remedies
• Advantages of Herbal Remedies
• How to Use Herbal Remedies
• Cautions
• Clinical Studies

See below for full list of all conditions and treatments in the book. Or, download a complete Condition entry or Treatment entry for free.