Herbs and science

Many hundreds of books on the healing power of herbs have already appeared? However, most of them are limited in value, because it is not clear where the knowledge comes from. Has this knowledge gained in years of experience as a doctor, heard from someone else, or transcribed from another herbal book? Come on, just find out. Many opinions are contradictory or vague. In addition, there is rarely a comparison with common medicines.

To write a book on plant medicines based on sound and verifiable information. You can only do that if you are based on a scientific approach, but also show the limits and limitations of that. The nice thing about a scientific approach is that you can take important information from others. In fact, it is mandatory: when a good examination of a particular topic has appeared, you should not ignore it. Anyone who wants to form a serious judgment on this subject should take account of this research. This also applies to a verdict on plant medicines. But in the midst of thousands of publications, how do you find those that really matter?

Many people in the medical world select by reading only the most authoritative magazines, such as The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine. However, these sheets rarely write about phytotherapy, herbal medicine. So, it's no wonder that most doctors know little about it. Of course, there are many more scientific journals in which publications on plant medicines appear. No one can read all of these, but you can use computer programs to determine which research is about phytotherapy.

The next step is to organize, interpret and weigh this research and, where necessary, compare it with the study of common medicines for the same diseases. Don't think that one person can do all that on his own. There are several foreign authors who have already done most of this work. Although their approach may be somewhat different, fortunately there is a large agreement, a European consensus on the use of medicinal plants.

This consensus can also be found in the official monographs of Escop and WHO, and there are also several specialist books especially from doctors and pharmacists where the 'best' plants per organ system are discussed.