Though using herbs for medicinal purposes is as old as civilisation and to some extent even before that period, it has never been popular over the centuries. With the growth of giant pharmaceutical companies, people were encouraged by them through advertisements that bombarded the human mind that popping a pill formed in a factory had the answer to all medical issues.
In fact, sponsored doctors and other medical practitioners also prescribed over-the-counter pills and potions to cure everything, right from the common cold and the flu to more severe issues like heart problems and even cancer. But all along, Mother Nature had the answer to the medical problems of Her children, if only they were understood.
In the culture of today, people are becoming more aware, more educated and asking the right types of questions. With the onslaught of sustainable development and people looking to nature for everyday solutions for themselves, we went back in history to the time when pharmaceutical giants were not born and the question arose as to how our ancestors got cured then. But herbal medicine was looked at as if it was only meant for the Woodstock generation who depended on a shaman or ‘healer’ to give them medical advice. It was treated as a joke. The so-called “educated” and “white collared class” citizens still chose over-the-counter solutions to their issues. However, the medical community started taking notice of holistic and herbal medicine when they observed that cultures like Indian and Chinese never stopped depending on natural remedies and had a population that strived and thrived through medical illnesses and plagues over the years with much less catastrophic fatalities. Also, the celebrity community that dominated the media began to rave about the benefits of natural therapies and were fascinated by the then little-known Asian culture.
The medical community first began to test herbs and their formulations to prove what was wrong with it, in order to justify the expensive and widely advertised pills. But through research, they ended up getting more fascinated with nature and the readily available (and extremely cheap) remedies that nature has to offer.
One of the best parts of herbal formulation is their little to no side effects on consumption. Also, they can be added to food and teas and consumed easily. Also, they can be self-grown in a garden or pot by the window and the results they reap are multi-fold, efficient and take over their manufactured counterparts.
At the moment, herbal formulations have not been standardised or regulated by a board yet, though it is heading in that direction. The fact of the matter is, that more and more people, through research and word of mouth and increased knowledge, are becoming empowered and making the smart decision to switch to medicinal healing solutions that at one point in time their ancestors used to bring about healing.
