Native American Herbal Medicine

For modem Native Americans who live on reservations, the use of herbs and other traditional methods of healing remains vitally important and is still preferred to conventional medicine. The Cherokee of the Southeast recognized more than 100 types of medicinal herb. Some were used because they resembled the causative agent of the disease or because they looked like the part of the body affected. Herbs were gathered after ritual prayers and promises not to take more than was 

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The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that four billion people— 80% of the world population—use herbal medicine for some aspect of primary healthcare. Herbal medicine is a major component in all indigenous peoples traditional medicine and is a common element in Ayurvedic, homeopathic, naturopathic, traditional oriental, and Native American Indian medicine. Opinions about the safety, efficacy, and appropriateness of medicinal herbs vary widely among medical and health professionals in countries where herbal remedies are used. Some countries professionals accept historical, empirical evidence as the only necessary criterion for herbal medicine s efficacy. Others would ban all herbal remedies as dangerous or of questionable value. 

The pith was used by Native Americans as a moxibustion sort of treatment, where the herb is burned to cause heat on a particular part of the body. Modern-day biologists still use elder pith to hold scientific specimens as it can easily be sliced. The pith has also been used for electrical experiments and in toy making. The hollowed elder stalk has also been used as a smoking tube, especially for the inhalation of specific herbal medicines in both early America and Europe. 

The popular western herbalism discussed in this chapter is one of many philosophical systems of herbal treatment. It is also sometimes described as eclectic, since it has drawn on many other traditions, including the native American and Chinese. Chinese traditional medicine. Ayurvedic (Indian), and Tibetan traditions use complex herbal recipes and nutrition to achieve balance in the ill patient. Although these practices are most commonly found in ethnic populations, they are also becoming popular in some western complementary and alternative circles. 

Folklore Spanish missionaries in South America regarded the flower of this herb as a symbol of Christ s passion, the three stigmas representing the nails, the five anthers the wounds and the ten sepals the apostles present. The herb was used in native North American medicine, especially by the Houma tribe, who put it into drinking water as a tonic. It became popular as a treatment for insomnia in the nineteenth century and was included in the US National Formulary from 1916 to 1936 (Bown, 2003 British Herbal Medicine Association, 1983 Giuenwald el al, 2002 Hutchens, 1973 Tierra, 1998). 

The Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Native (North and South) American cultures all have traditional systems of herbal medicine. In China and Japan, the use of herbal remedies is officially promoted by a government ministry and included in national health systems. In India, herbalism is part of the ancient but still widely used system of Ayurvedic medicine. Native Americans use herbs in a spiritual sense, placing emphasis on their purifying and cleansing properties both physically and mentally. 

Welcome to the Herbal Renaissance Having finally left the "Herbal Dark Ages," the United States is beginning to catch up to the rest of the world. From the 1920s through the late 1960s, except for a few ethnic communities (African-American, Native American, Chinese, and Hispanic), herbal medicine ceased to exist within the dominant culture in this country. 

Essiac was an herbal treatment for cancer developed in the 1920s by Caisse, a Canadian nurse. She learned of this remedy through a patient who had been cured of cancer from a formula offered by a Native American Ojibwa herbalist. Caisse started using the medicine in the mid-1920s and became so highly popular that her story was the subject of two biographies." ... 

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are poisonous to humans and cause losses in hvestock, especially grazing animals. Humans are exposed to pyrrolizidine alkaloids through consumption of plants containing these toxins, contaminated staple products, herbal teas or medicines, and dietary supplements (Fu et al. 2004). Poisoning by pyrrolizidine alkaloids is endemic in India, Jamaica and parts of Africa. Native American and Hispanic populations in western... 

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