The myth of active ingredients in herbal medicine.

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What Pharmaceutical CompaniesDon't Want You To Know About Herbal Medicine!by Danny Siegenthaler(Courtesy Dobbie606) Herbs or medicinal plants have a long history in treating disease. Intraditional Chinese medicine, for example, the written history of herbalmedicine goes back over 2000 years and herbalists in the West have used“weeds” equally long to treat that which ails us. We are all familiarwith the virtues of Garlic, Chamomile, Peppermint, Lavender, and othercommon herbs.Interest in medicinal herbs is on the rise again and the interest isprimarily from the pharmaceutical industry, which is always looking for‘new drugs’ and more effective substances to treat diseases, for whichthere may be no or very few drugs available.Considering the very long

traditional use of herbal medicines and thelarge body of evidence of their effectiveness, why is it that we are notgenerally encouraged to use traditional herbal medicine, instead ofsynthetic, incomplete copies of herbs, called drugs, considering themillions of dollars being spent looking for these seemingly elusivesubstances?Herbs are considered treasures when it comes to ancient cultures andherbalists, and many so-called weeds are worth their weight in gold.Dandelion, Comfrey, Digitalis (Foxglove), the Poppy, Milk Thistle,Stinging nettle, and many others, have well-researched and establishedmedicinal qualities that have few, if any, rivals in the pharmaceuticalindustry. Many of them, in fact, form the bases of pharmaceutical drugs.Research into the medicinal properties of such herbs as the humbleDandelion is currently being undertaken by scientists at the RoyalBotanical Gardens, in Kew, west London, who believe it

could be thesource of a life-saving drug for cancer patients.Early tests suggest that it could hold the key to warding off cancer,which kills tens of thousands of people every year.Their work on the cancer-beating properties of the dandelion, which alsohas a history of being used to treat warts, is part of a much largerproject to examine the natural medicinal properties of scores of Britishplants and flowers.Professor Monique Simmonds, head of the Sustainable Uses of Plants Groupat Kew, said: "We aren't randomly screening plants for their potentialmedicinal properties, we are looking at plants which we know have a longhistory of being used to treat certain medical problems.“We will be examining them to find out what active compounds theycontain which can treat the illness."Unfortunately, as is so often the case, this group of scientists appearsto be looking for active ingredients, which can later be

synthesized andthen made into pharmaceutical drugs. This is not the way herbs are usedtraditionally and their functions inevitably change when the activeingredients are used in isolation. That’s like saying that the onlyimportant part of a caris the engine – nothing else needs to be included.So, why is there this need for isolating the ‘active ingredients’?As a scientist, I can understand the need for the scientific process ofestablishing the fact that a particular herb works on a particulardisease, pathogen or what ever, and the need to know why and how it doesso. But, and this is a BIG but, as a doctor of Chinese medicine I alsounderstand the process of choosing and prescribing COMBINATIONS ofherbs, which have a synergistic effect to treat not just the disease,but any underlying condition as well as the person with the disease.That is a big difference and not one that is easily tested usingstandard scientific

methodologies.Using anecdotal evidence, which after all has a history of thousands ofyears, seems to escape my esteemed colleagues all together. Rather thantrying to isolate the active ingredient(s), why not test these herbs,utilizing the knowledge of professional herbalists, on patients in vivo,using the myriad of technology available to researchers and medicaldiagnosticians to see how and why these herbs work in living, breathingpatients, rather than in a test tube or on laboratory rats and mice(which, by the way, are not humans and have a different, although somewhat similar, physiology to us)?I suspect, that among the reasons for not following the above procedureis that the pharmaceutical companies are not really interested in theeffects of the medicinal plants as a whole, but rather in whether theycan isolate a therapeutic substance which can then be manufacturedcheaply and marketed as a new drug - and of course

that’s where themoney is.The problem with this approach is, however, that medicinal plants likeComfrey, Dandelion and other herbs usually contain hundreds if notthousands of chemical compounds that interact, yet many of which are notyet understood and cannot be manufactured. This is why the manufactureddrugs, based on so-called active ingredients, often do not work orproduce side effects.Aspirin is a classic case in point. Salicylic acid is the activeingredient in Aspirin tablets, and was first isolated from the bark ofthe White Willow tree. It is a relatively simple compound to makesynthetically, however, Aspirin is known for its ability to causestomach irritation and in some cases ulceration of the stomach wall.The herbal extract from the bark of the White Willow tree generally doesnot cause stomach irritation due to other, so called ‘non-activeingredients’ contained in the bark, which function to protect the

liningof the stomach thereby preventing ulceration of the stomach wall.Ask yourself, which would I choose: Side effects, or no site effects?It’s a very simple answer. Isn’t it? (Even Tamiflu is the active ingredient of a common spice/herb(Aniseed). However unlike the herb Tamiflu has extremely severe side effects - Jagannath) So why then are herbal medicines not used more commonly and why do wehave pharmaceutical impostors stuffed down our throats? The answer is,that there’s little or no money in herbs for the pharmaceuticalcompanies. They, the herbs, have already been invented, they groweasily, they multiply readily and for the most part, they’re freelyavailable.Further more, correctly prescribed and formulated herbal compoundsgenerally resolve the health problem of the patient over a period oftime, leaving no requirement to keep taking the preparation – that meansno

repeat sales. No ongoing prescriptions, no ongoing problem.Pharmaceuticals on the other hand primarily aim to relieve symptoms –that means: ongoing consultations, ongoing sales, ongoing healthproblems. Which do you think is a more profitable proposition?Don’t get me wrong, this is not to say that all drugs are impostors orthat none of the pharmaceutical drugs cure diseases or maladies – theydo and some are life-preserving preparations and are without doubtinvaluable. However, herbal extracts can be similarly effective, but arenot promoted and are highly under-utilized.The daily news is full of ‘discoveries’ of herbs found to be a possiblecure of this or that, as in the example of Dandelion and its possibleanti-cancer properties. The point is that these herbs need to beinvestigated in the correct way. They are not just ‘an activeingredient’. They mostly have hundreds of ingredients and taking one ortwo in isolation

is not what makes medicinal plants work. In addition,rarely are herbal extracts prescribed by herbalists as singles (apreparation which utilizes only one herb). Usually herbalists mix avariety of medicinal plants to make a mixture, which addresses more thanjust the major symptoms.In Chinese medicine, for example, there is a strict order of hierarchyin any herbal prescription, which requires considerable depth ofknowledge and experience on the physician's part. The fact that theprimary or principle herb has active ingredients, which has a specificphysiological effect, does not mean the other herbs are not necessary inthe preparation. This is a fact seemingly ignored by the pharmaceuticalindustry in its need to manufacture new drugs that can control disease.Knowing that medicinal plants are so effective, that these plantspotentially hold the key to many diseases, are inexpensive and haveproven their worth time and time

again over millennia, why is it thatherbal medicine is still not in the forefront of medical treatments, andis considered by many orthodox, medical professionals and pharmaceuticalcompanies as hocus-pocus, hmmm?_________________Danny and Susan Siegenthaler have extensive experience as practitionersof Chinese medicine and as medical herbalists. They both have Bachelorof Science degrees, as well as several degrees in various modalities ofalternative medicine. Together they have over 40 years of combinedclinical experience and have taught hundreds of students.Their Website www.wildcrafted.com.au, Natural Skin Care Products byWildcrafted Herbal Products provides information© 2005, © 2006 OfSpirit "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

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