Generally speaking, when people think of herbs or herbalism they are referencing whole body health and wellness. Using nature’s medicine to nurture the body with minerals from the earth while practicing mindfulness. Today’s herbalism is grounded in a whole-body health mentality to include alternative medicine such as meditation and grounding. What if I told you that is not always the case.
Not all herbalism is good herbalism and not all herbs are good herbs.
Let us venture to the dark and mysterious side of herbalism!
In today’s time, you do not hear about herbs being the cause of revenge or even worse the demise of another but in the not-so-distant past that could be and often was the case.
Socrates was a prime example, where it is generally accepted by scholars that he was poisoned by water hemlock. The hemlock’s toxicity would have gradually paralyzed all of his muscles, including his heart and lungs, causing death. Hildegard von Bingen, a great herbalist from twelfth century Germany, who describes hemlock in her writings as:
“Hemlock (scherling) is hot and has danger in it so that, if a person eats it, it destroys everything that has been well and correctly established in his blood and humors. It causes bad inundations in him, in the same way that storms make disturbances in the water.”
Most herbalist are familiar with atropa belladonna, a nightshade contains atropine and scopolamine in its stems, leaves, berries, and roots, and causes paralysis in the involuntary muscles of the body, including the heart, but what about others such as white snakeroot or caster bean?
White snakeroot is a North American herb with flat-topped clusters of small white flowers and contains a toxic alcohol known as tremetol. Abraham Lincolns poor mother was found deceased after drinking the milk of a cow that had grazed on the plant.
Caster bean is typically grown as the source for infamous caster oil. The seeds are high in ricin and deadly in small amounts. Ricin works by inhibiting synthesis in the cell. In 1978, a well-known journalist and now terrorist, Georgi Markov, mailed the seeds to several politicians in failed terrorist attempt.
Where there is good, there is always evil.
Herbalism comes with a great responsibility of knowing the herbs and knowing those who are receiving the herbs to avoid accidental reactions or side effects of herbs.
Sometimes what nature has provided has a dark side.
Megan
~a forever herbalist 🌱
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