Herbs are usually used for cooking, medicine or religious
purposes. For our purpose, we want to focus on herbal medicine –
also called botanical medicine, phytomedicine or herbalism -
which focuses on the use of any plant’s seeds, berries, roots,
leaves, bark or flowers for medicinal use. Whole herbs contain
many components, and the specific ingredient that causes a
therapeutic effect is not yet known. The strengths of herbs vary
by doses, the type of growing environment, how it was harvested,
processed and stored. A variety of complementary herbs are often
used together to enhance an herb’s effectiveness, to reduce
toxicity and provide synergistic actions and reactions. Most
people use herbs to: - correct imbalances - resolve patterns of
dysfunction - treat the underlying cause of their symptom Herbal
medicines contain a combination of chemicals – each with a
specific action. Herbs can be very powerful, elicit complex
physiological responses and interact differently with
conventional medicines or drugs. Also