The Healing Power of Plants
By Donita Brannon
When we visit a sick friend or relative, taking along a lovely potted plant or a bouquet of flowers is always a nice gesture. Our intentions are to cheer the patient up and make him or her feel better. Plants and flowers have remarkable capabilities of doing just that, lifting spirits, stirring emotions, evoking feelings of happiness and calm. But, the power of plants goes WAY beyond that! In fact, there is a very good chance that a plant or flower may possibly be the source of the medicine that will cure your ailing loved one. So many remedies are derived from plant sources that our early medical students were required to have extensive training in botany before they could become physicians.
Plants are the source of approximately 40% of the pharmaceuticals in use today. Many of these drugs are synthesized from material originally found in plants. You may be surprised by some of these.
The foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, has been used for medical purposes since the 17th century. The source of digitoxin, it is used in the treatment of congestive heart failure. The anti-cancer drug Taxol comes from the Pacific yew, Taxus brevifolia. The powerful pain reliever Morphine comes from the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. One of the greatest life-saving medicines of all time, Quinine, comes from the bark of the Chinchona tree. The tuber of a Mexican yam, Dioscorea mexicana, contains diosgenin, a type of steroid, which can be converted to progesterone and then synthesized. This discovery led to the development of synthetic hormones, and eventually the birth control pill. One of the most influential drugs in history was discovered accidentally. A toxic fungus, Ergot, Claviceps purpurea, which grows on rye kernels, yields an alkaloid, ergotamine, which is used to treat migraines. But, it also yields lysergic acid, a derivative of which is LSD. Here's one that may really surprise you: That cute little rosy periwinkle, Catharanthus roseus, that you plant in your summer color bed is the source of two alkaloids, vincristine and vinblastine, which yield the drugs to treat Hodgkin's disease and childhood leukemia.
Knowledge of the medicinal powers of plants has been handed down for centuries. The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Europeans, Africans and American Indians passed on what they learned throughout generations. Today's modern times are becoming a threat to this valuable ethnobotanical information. "Ethnobotany" is the study of the relationships between the uses of plants and cultures; how plants have been used in certain societies for not only medicine but also food, clothing, building materials, rituals, etc. In rainforest cultures it was the traditional healer or Shaman who possessed this knowledge. It has been said that when a shaman dies it is like an entire medical library has burned to the ground. It is the challenge of the ethnobotanist to chronicle this priceless information, document what remains of what once existed and make it available to future generations.
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