Thus we see magical components related to Herbal Medicine found in absolutely every culture. Plants not only make up formulas “master” but are collected and put under certain times that are governed by the planets and when trigger certain astrological signs, also require certain conditions in the processor, the performance of ointments, etc.. But do not forget that the transmutation of yesterday is the art of today and tomorrow’s science!

* Hippocrates (460-377 BC), born on the island of Kos in the Aegean Sea, is regarded today as the Father of Medicine. Medicinal principles, moral and ethical statements by him, refer to natural treatments based on direct observation of nature and human beings and their laws of life, not add more suffering to the sick and that your food be your medicine. For him, medicine was more art than science and essentially sought to eliminate the causes of the disease and not only to heal the symptoms.

* Claudius Galen (201-130 BC), the famous physician of Marcus Aurelius, was inspired by the Hippocratic work. Medicine today uses his name for the branch that is dedicated to the science of medical materials and preparations: the pharmaceutics.

* Avicenna (930-1037 AD) was a great scholar in various sciences and wrote the Canon of Medicine, based on herbal formulas.
In the early Middle Ages we monastic medicine (s. IX), where the monks took care of it. Gave impetus to the herbarium and the collection and classification of medicinal plants and formulations.

* Albert the Great or Albert the Great (1193-1280 AD) was a famous physician and alchemist, who wrote six books on medicine using plants.

* Paracelsus (1493-1541 AD) physician and alchemist, also used in some minerals and therapeutic healing effects of water, giving great importance to the use of native flora.

* Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), was based on Hippocrates and Paracelsus, developing Homeopathy: “like cures like” (similar similibus curantur), which means that in certain doses, a substance causes certain symptoms of disease in an organism healthy and the same substance, in other doses, cure similar diseases in an individual.

Guarana produces very large activation energy for the nervous system. But the excesses in consumption of this fruit produce insomnia. It is very good against the voltage produced by a state of anxiety or depression because it acts as a stimulating agent.

On the other hand should not be taken by those who are nervous, very sensitive and sullen temperament. It is counterproductive for digestive problems or constipation.

Nutritional value as a natural remedy and home

It contains mostly water and caffeine.

In Egypt since the 1300s B.C. and cultivated plants collected for medicinal purposes by the papyri of the time. A builder of temples and pyramids were given garlic to keep them healthy. Some papyri, such as Smith, account for more than 400 raw materials, both animal and plant for the treatment of disease.

In Babylon the king Mardukapaolidine II (772-710 BC) built a garden for growing medicinal plants for which he became famous.

In Greece figures as Aristotle and Hippocrates described the importance of herbal medicine. The latter, in his work Corpus Hippocraticum, linked to each disease a plant-based remedy. Erasios also referred Teofasto of botanical studies and the use of many plants.

During the Middle Ages, Municipality Dioscorides, in his Treatise on Materia Medica, listed more than 500 drugs of plant origin and the beneficial use of many of them.

Each region has different kinds of medicinal plants and applications that depend to a large extent on the cultural tradition.

Many modern medicines originate from plants used for therapeutic purposes. Among them mention may be quinine, extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree, aspirin, from willow bark and digoxin from the foxglove.

Herbal medicine uses whole plants whose extracts contain various constituents are mixed and not purified or isolated components. It ensures that herbal medicine preparations biochemical elements, working in groups, have a greater effect than when used separately and that significantly reduces toxicity.

During the nineteenth century with the development of chemistry and physics were isolated active principles of plants with great impact to the medical clinic. Thus were obtained the first chemically pure drugs: morphine and quinine.

Until then, the inaccuracy of the formulas plants had prevented the identification of aspects such as the minimum active dose, the safety margin of the substance and the median lethal dose. In that sense, were increased risks of acute overdose or accidental poisoning in herbal medicine. So did the incidence of unexpected adverse reactions, because of any of the numerous compounds present in natural preparations.

Herbal remedies are derived from combinations of herbs, flowers, leaves, bark and roots that are routinely taken as teas or tinctures, extracts in alcohol. They are also used by way of pills, capsules, ointments and compresses.

One current difficulty of herbal medicine is that many of their remedies are based on medicinal plants growing wild are endangered or scarce to be used by pharmaceutical companies.