Conclusion from the book 'Natures medicines' by Richard Lucas

Biochemical research helps us to appreciate the high value placed on plant medicine from the earliest periods of time. Nature has not lost her friendly touch and is demonstrating to us, just as she has demonstrated to former generations ,the medicinal power of natural or herbal drugs. In fact, due to the combined efforts of our medical teams and their laboratory methods of plant analysis and experimentation, we of the present age may expect the botanicals to do much more for us than they did for our forefathers.

Botanical Renaissance?

In the book, Natures Remedies published in 1934, this timely bit of information was cited:

Back to Grandmas medicine chest. This was the keynote of an address by Dr. Ivor Griffith, of the faculty of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science recently delivered before the New Jersey State Pharmaceutical Association. He says:

‘’ No one can convince me that grandmother’s fresh drug infusions or old-fashioned teas of garden herbs had no special value. Too much neglected have been sage and chamomile, honest and mullein, bitter apple and horse nettles, plantain and heal-all, liverwort and tansy, pumpkin seeds and mallow and a host of other herbs that have served the country for centuries with their ministrations. ‘’A host of drugs deserving a better destiny lie prematurely buried. In a mad scramble to squeeze out of the coal tar barrel every available virtue, research has neglected the botanicals. There is a myriad of plant antidotes to pain waiting for proper appraisal. It is high time for a botanical renaissance.’’

Are we now entering that botanical renaissance called for by Dr. Griffith over 30 years ago? Every indication points to the fact that we are, as numerous medicines derived from plants are gradually achieving an honored place among the material media of modern man. As time goes by their number will undoubtedly increase, and from the many facts existing it does not seem unreasonable to speculate that in the future, freedom from every disease may possibly be found in the healing agents of the plant kingdom.