A
'medicinal herb' is any plant, including ferns, fruits, leafy
plants, tree bark, seeds, roots, seaweed and mushrooms or
other fungi, used to treat a health condition. Forty to fifty
percent of all pharmaceutical medicines use extracts of plants
or synthetic reproductions of chemical found in plants. However
herbal medicines differ from pharmaceuticals in a number of
important ways. Whereas pharmaceutical medicines have a high
concentration of a few key ingredients (e.g. penicillin) and
are designed to be single-action, herbal preparations contain
many ingredients, have multiple actions (often 3 to 5) and
are very dilute. In nature, chemicals are often found in combinations
that prove to have important interactions. For example, vitamin
C and bioflavenoids are almost always found together in nature,
and it has been found that isolated vitamin C alone is not
as effective in the treatment of deficiency related conditions
such as scurvy as vitamin C together with bioflavenoids.
Herbs like pharmaceutical
medicines are not free of side-effects and some people may
have allergic reactions to certain ingredients, however
these are often comparatively very mild due to the dilute
quantities of the ingredients present.
Absorption:
In order for the body to use a vitamin or mineral, it first has to pass
into the blood or lymphatic system from the intestine. This process is known
as absorption.
Hormone:
A chemical messenger that co-ordinates changes around the body. Examples
are the sex hormones, which carry messages between the brain and the reproductive
organs, and insulin, which regulates glucose levels.
Minerals:
Minerals are non-carbon-based substances that are found in, for example,
soil and rocks. Plants take up minerals from the soil and, in turn, these
get passed to the animals that eat the plants. We get the minerals that
we need to maintain a healthy body from both plant and animal sources.
Protein:
Protein in the diet is built from amino acids. During digestion, it is broken
down into its constituent amino acids, which are then used through out the
body to build other proteins.
