As foreign as it may seem to those of us accustomed to modern pharmaceuticals, every culture in history has depended on the healing power of herbs. Even modern mainstream medicine is intimately linked to herbal traditions: Trees, shrubs, plants or other natural materials form the basis of approximately 25 percent of all preion drugs in the United States today. Synthesized versions of natural plants and organic compounds compose another huge segment of the pharmaceutical market. In the rest of the world, herbal medicine is even more heavily used. In Europe, for instance, more than 6 billion U.S. dollars per year are spent on herbal medications.
Although we tend to think of all herbs as plants, an herb is actually any natural substance used for medical treatment. As you'll see in this chapter, herbalists classify two substance-bee venom and shark cartilage-as herbs, and use them quite frequently to treat men and women with arthritis. Also in this chapter, you'll receive an overview of a branch of herbal medicine known as aromatherapy. Dating back to ancient Egypt in about 4500 b.c., aromatherapy is a method of treating illness through the inhalation and external application of essential oils derived from the roots, stems, seeds, and flowers of plants.
