Helen Collins - Healing Plants: An Introduction to the Healing Power of Plants

Flowers, and also whole plants, barks, roots and herbs, have traditionally been used for a variety of things - not only for decorative purposes and gifts, but also in medicine, as fragrances, in skin and beauty preparations, and as food or decoration for food. In history, we used flowers and plants a little more in health care than is the case today, partly because many of the plants and (lowers held to be useful medically in the past may no longer have therapeutic value, due to interventions by medical science and technology. There are many plants, however, whose usage remains important. Mistletoe, for example, is known to be effective in treating high blood pressure and migraine, because it contains the drug guipsine. It has also been used effectively in the treatment of arteriosclerosis, and its Celtic name uile translates as 'all-healer'. Those suffering from dandruff might also like to try it in shampoo form, as it certainly works!

In this chapter, we will look at how our ancestors used (lowers, plants, herbs, shrubs and barks, for a variety of everyday uses, including medicine and beauty preparations. We will also consider the plants and flowers mentioned in the Bible - the word 'paradise' is derived from the Persian word for a walled garden!

Beauty and Healthcare

When you were a child at school, I am sure that one of the first topics you studied in History was the growth of and development of the human race. I remember learning about Troglodytes (cave dwellers) and visiting a museum where there was a 'mock-up' cave, complete with inhabitants, then subsequently going on a nature ramble with a teacher to look at the types of berries and plants that these cave dwellers probably used in their daily lives. I learnt, for example, that chewing on the leaves of a willow would cure a headache. This was a folk remedy from ancient times, which worked because the leaves of the willow contain a small portion of salicylic acid, which is a component of aspirin. It didn't taste too good, but it worked!

Beauty preparations

At school we also learnt a little about how other generations used various flowers and plants for beauty care. I remember vividly, when I was probably only about 8 years old, collecting what seemed at the time to be tonnes of rose petals to make some rosewater to use in the bath. Rosewater is useful in skincare preparations because it helps to soothe the skin and is a mild astringent. It is, incidentally, often used in commercial skincare preparations as a toner for those with dry skins. In the seventeenth century in Britain, women used rhubarb juice and white wine as a lightener for their hair and also used a mixture of burnt rosemary and alum flowers for cleaning their teeth - gruesome! Civilisations in the distant past used plants and flowers to help to improve their appearance, both by face painting and by using flowers as decorations, and also used flower oils as fragrance.

We still use flowers and their properties in skincare and beauty preparations. Many readers will be familiar with henna in shampoos and hair care preparations. Henna, particularly important in Muslim countries, is an evergreen shrub that has fragrant clusters of small cream coloured, four-petal flowers at the tips of each branch, and henna seeds have long been used to tint and dye the hair, finger and toe nails, fingertips, hands, feet, beards and even the manes, hoofs and tails of horses, as well as skins and leather. Many ancient Egyptian mummies appear to have been wrapped in cloth dyed with henna. Also, it is mentioned in the Bible in the Song of Solomon, and for many centuries, especially in the Middle East, henna's strong fragrance has been popular. Many Eastern races use henna in bouquets, and women wear it in their hair and put it on their clothing. Other natural hair and body dyes and tints can be obtained from camomile, marigold flowers, saffron roots or flowers, turmeric, rhubarb (also a good laxative) and sage (good to use in the bath), but more of that later.