Herbal medicine is ancient; hard proof is often thin
Herbalism studies medicinal plants that underpin traditional care from Sumer to China. Written lists stretch more than five thousand years, and archaeology pushes plant use toward the Paleolithic—yet rigorous evidence for many modern herbal claims stays limited.
Archaeology places medicinal plant use around 60,000 years ago, and Sumerian plant lists are over five millennia old. Egypt's Ebers papyrus of about 1550 BCE names more than 700 remedies, most from plants, while Theophrastus compiled one of the first Greek herbals in the fourth century BCE. Shang-dynasty sites in China hold seeds probably used as medicine, over a hundred of the 224 substances in the Huangdi Neijing are herbs, and Dioscorides' De Materia Medica stayed in use until the 1600s.
The tradition is very much alive. The World Health Organization estimates that in some Asian and African countries around 80 percent of people rely on herbs for part of their primary care, and use is higher among people with chronic illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and asthma. Some plants became mainstream drugs: artemisinin, digoxin, quinine and the taxanes all trace back to herbal remedies. Herbalists argue that plants, having evolved chemical defences, make compounds humans can borrow.
Preparation changes the chemistry. Water teas pull out polar compounds, oils draw non-polar ones and alcohol sits in between. Infusions steep soft leaves like chamomile, decoctions boil tough roots and bark, cold macerates soak for around ten hours, and tinctures run from 25 to as much as 90 percent ethanol. Essential oils usually need diluting in a carrier such as almond oil to avoid burning the skin.
The evidence lags behind the enthusiasm. Products rarely carry purity or dose standards, and paraherbalism, the belief that barely processed extracts must be safe and effective, is classed as pseudoscience. A 2015 Australian government review found no clear proof that herbalism works, and Cancer Research UK reported that year that no strong human evidence shows herbs can treat or prevent cancer. Contamination, poor formulation and drug interactions have caused reactions that were sometimes fatal.
Source: Herbal medicine
