About This Site
January 2023
Welcome friends! We bring you free information on one of the world's most ancient and fascinating arts, the noble and great science of herbalism.
Herbalism has stood the test of time. Over thousands of years of use of plants, which our evolutionary design has adapted us to, we know their effects, both short term and long term. Herbalism is thus, relative to "novel medicines", extremely safe and predictable. Compare the number of "deaths by herbalism" (reportedly zero) to the number of deaths caused by pharmaceuticals and you will have your answer. And yet the majority are more afraid of herbs than they are of pills.
Many too have dismissed herbalism as a relic of a primitive time - without being aware that a very great number of the drugs of today were derived directly from plants.
It is worth noting that we humans are not technology. We were not made in a laboratory; we were nade in nature! How, then, can it even be scientific to presume that something made in a lab can be better suited to us than that which nature has already given us for free?
The answer to that question, sadly, has been lost in the modern time. Von Liebig, a 19th century German chemist, was among the first to propose the idea that chemistry in living things - animal, plant and soil - functioned in the same manner as chemistry in the lab. He wrote "chemical processes are the same in living and dead things". A half truth if ever there was one - because while hydrogen may combine with oxygen in the same "atomic manner" in various environments, the chemical processes that occur in living and dead things are not the same processes. Indeed, despite numerous attempts, scientists have entirely and famously failed to create life in a laboratory.
Yet the "big lie" of Liebig still persists - that nature can be approached in the same manner as a meccano set - as if it were comprised of dead, mechanical parts which can be rearranged and altered at will. This is the problem with modern science. It literally does not see the life in life and sees everything in purely "nuts and bolts" terms.
Is it any wonder that nature is being destroyed on a grand scale?
And they are not half done yet! The corporate technologists, in their self-appointed role as scientists (which they, generally speaking, are not in any way), continue to put profits before health and to control public opinion through their henchmen at the various media outlets. Content on, for example, antiviral herbs, is being discredited without even so much as a glance at the science.
We life in a time of "information fascism", a time where you can be removed from the dialogue with a click. But we continue on.
A quick note on accuracy: I have always maintained, and still do, that if anyone can show me an inaccuracy anywhere in this website, I will gladly and rapidly correct it. In almost every case, censors / detractors have failed completely to point out any actual errors. They have opinions, oh yes they certainly do - but almost always fail to support those with any type of research-based facts. If you find any error in this site, please notify me and I will correct it. We are not, and have never been, a "fake news" website.
The site is now divided into sections - Herbs, Essential Oils, Herbal Remedies, Herbal Preparations, Herbals (books about herbs) and a Glossary of Terms. We also have a blog - which reports in a more "popular" style compared to the more academic style of the "site proper" - and features "herbal DIY" posts with fun things to make using herbs, plus some pages on nutrition and healthy lifestyle in general.
The section on herbals is worthy of special note. We are attempting to create the world's largest and most complete database of herbals - complete with summaries of their contents and links to where they can be purchased or downloaded free (if public domain).
We also have a popular Facebook Page where we features posts from the blog, individual herbs and essential oils, and other content related to natural health; in particular healthy eating.
Ideals
It seemed that the web lacked a comprehensive informational resource on herbs and herbalism - a true online "herbal" fit for the modern age.
The goal of this site was to create a reference work that gathered, organized and made sense of the centuries of herbal knowledge, putting it all together in a format that is useful to the professional without being daunting to the lay person. It's quite the mammoth task and so the site is continuing to grow as we add more herbs, more herbals, more essential oils and so on.
One of the philosophical ideals of this site is to help "restore herbalism to its former glory" and to help integrate it into the modern world. Herbalism is, curiously, probably the most tested form of medicine on the planet - with thousands of years of human use - yet is considered "unproven" in many cases and still disregarded as a "fringe subject" by many orthodox physicians. Much of the old research is not considered to have been performed under "lab" conditions, nor properly reported.
For these reasons and more, the old herbal lore - despite being of immense value - is not currently considered admissible as scientific evidence. And yet it exists - buried in dusty, forgotten tomes, the existence of which most are unaware. Certain men and women of old times devoted their entire lives to the study of plant based medicines, and bequeathed these discoveries to us. In some cases fine works have never even been translated, or the identities of the plants of which they spoke has not been ascertained.
However, this does not mean it should be dismissed out of hand. Although certain works of the ancient past blurred the boundaries between herbalism and superstition, herbalism is not, in essence, a "superstitious" subject, it is a scientific one - and what is fascinating is that many of the old ancient traditional uses of herbs are being found to have merit by modern scientific research. As many people grow weary of the destructive nature of the mechanized modern world, many people are returning to herbs as they consider other methods to have failed them. There have been a number of very grave concerns over the side effects of pharmaceuticals, with many seeking to learn as much as possible about the alternatives.
Herbalism is a holistic subject based on an appreciation of the delicate balance of nature. I do not think it wise to subjugate nature and attempt to make it our servant, but to empower it through care, learn from it and bask in its glory. This planet is an organism, not a machine. We are still creatures at the end of the day, and perhaps not as separate from nature as some imagine. Although many choose to deny it, nature's ultimate fate may yet prove to be fully intertwined with our own.
Another quintessential ideal of this site is an ecological one: With the destruction of natural habitats such as rainforest - through either human intervention or desertification - so disapper many species which may have great potential either as food, medicine or as valuable crops of other kinds. We are in one sense in a race against time and are seeking to raise awareness of the preciousness of the natural world, so that we are more inspired to take care of what remains of it for the future.
Herbalism is undergoing something of a renaissance in modern times: We believe that the era of "modern herbalism" is beginning. We hope to inspire people to live harmoniously and a little closer to nature.
Contributors
A big thank-you to the individuals whose work has helped this site become what it is:
Donelli Maglanoc
Julie-Anne Ne
Kelsey Wambold
Alex Aberilla Leonhardt
Cathy Ongking-Recto
Dan Ablir
Marie Cadenas
Kristine Buenavista
Anne Gentolea
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