People have used extracts from plants to treat their ills for thousands of years. The Egyptians were using herbal remedies some 3,500 years ago, while there is evidence that other ancient peoples, like the Persians, Chinese, Indians and the people of the Americas have used medicinal herbs for centuries.

No one knows who the first people were who used plants to make themselves feel better. In fact, there’s evidence that apes and other animals seek out certain types of plant when they feel ill, so the use of herbal medicine could be older than human history.

More than eighty percent of the world's population uses herbal medicines in one form or another, from China to Australia and from America and Europe to Africa. Western herbalism evolved from the work of apothecaries and  alchemists, going as far back as the ancient Romans.

Herbal folklore slowly evolved over the centuries, with recipes for herbal remedies being passed down through families. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century led to an explosion in herbal medicine, as recipes for treatments could be copied and used by anyone who could read.

By the 17th century, Nicholas Culpeper had put together a book of herbal remedies, which became very popular. In his book, Culpeper built on the idea of the 'doctrine of signatures', which the early chemist Paracelsus had first though of. He believed that how a plant looked provided clues as to what ailment it would cure.

By 1985, the World Health Organisation agreed that herbal remedies are an important part of healthcare. In continental Europe their use has become very common, although they are only gradually becoming more popular in the UK.
How does herbal medicine work?

Herbalists try to find the underlying cause of an illness rather than treat the individual symptoms. They believe that the use of tinctures and herbal tonics can help the body to heal itself by restoring harmony and balance and activating the body's 'life force'.

Herbal 'synergy' is, herbalists believe, the key principle of herbal medicine. Their remedies are extracted from leaves, petals and roots of plants and are a complex mixture of lots of different compounds. While a conventional pharmaceutical will usually be a single active ingredient, the idea of herbal 'synergy' explains that the hundreds if not thousands of constituents of a plant extract all work together to treat an illness.

For example, ephedrine, an early anti-asthma drug, was first isolated from the herb Ephedra, traditionally used to treat chest complaints. One of the side-effects of ephedrine is that it raises the blood pressure. Herbalists point out that among the many compounds found in the plant itself is one that lowers blood pressure. So, the herbal remedy contains a compound to treat the chest, but also to counteract the side effects of that compound.


Another example of herbal synergy can be found in the plant meadowsweet, which is used to treat stomach complaints. The plant contains salicyclic acid, which is closely related to aspirin. The compound can cause internal bleeding from the stomach lining, but meadowseet contains compounds called polyphenols, which protect the stomach.