Plant Base Medicine Chest

Human since the very beginning of time used plants to ease their pains. They imbued healing plants with magical powers, and then gradually learnt to identify its properties. Over thousands of years, our ancestors discovered which plant were medicinally beneficial and which were highly toxic.

Thousands of years ago, the ancient Egyptians discovered simple ways to extract and use the active

ingredients within plants. Egyptian papyrus manuscripts from 2000 BC record the use of perfumes, and fine oils, and gums, were essential part of the embalming process of their dead.

In ancient Greece in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, Hippocrates - known as the father of medicine, was already recommending asparagus and garlic for its diuretic properties.

In the 1st century AD, another Greek doctor, Dioscorides established the first collection of medicinal plants. His treatise on the subject was translated into Arabic

and Persian. Centuries later, his work was also used by the Muslim scholars who influenced great universities of the period, particularly at Montpellier - Europe's most famous centre for the study of botany. As a result of trade with Africa and Asia, the western world store of herbal medicines was enriched.

From the Renaissance onward, scientists came to the fore. Plants were carefully collected and widely used to make infusions, decoction and ointments. These plants made up the major part of the traditional cures that we inherited today.

In the late 1700s, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, a Swedish chemist obtained tartaric acid from grapes, citric acid from lemons and malic acid from apples. His technique led to the isolation of the first purified

compounds from plants that could be used as drugs. First came the isolation of morphine from the opium poppy in 1803. The caffeine from coffee beans in 1819.

Similarly, the 18th century English doctor and botanist, Dr. William Withering took

interest in the common foxglove, a popular medicine as a treatment for water retention. In 1785 he published a paper on the plant, describing the foxglove's diuretic property and its beneficial effect on 'cardiac weaknesses'.

Clinical trials using extracts from the leaf began in 1809 but

it was not until around 1835 that French chemist, Claude Adolphe Nativelle, succeeded in isolating the plant's active principle. Today, foxglove, is the basis of numerous medicines and drugs that treat heart problems.

In the early 1800s, chemists from Germany, Italy and France began the search for the compounds responsible for the acclaimed pain-relieving effects of a bark. In 1828, The German pharmacist, Johann Buchner, was the first to obtain salicin, the major compound in a pure form.

In 1838, the Italian chemist Raffaele Piria also obtained salicylic acid from the bark by various chemical processes. But these early compounds caused blisters in the mouth, and stomach upsets when ingested.

In 1853, a French chemist, Charles Frederic Gerhardt, synthesized a modified form of salicylic acid. But still it wasn't further developed for more than 40 years until a German chemist, Felix Hoffman, rediscovered Gerhardt's compound. Hoffman gave it to his father who suffered from arthritis and reported the beneficial effects.

From the 1930s onwards, advances in chemistry have made it much easier to reproduce the active ingredients in plants. Plants will continue to have a medicinal importance in its own right. Its active constituents may be slightly modified to improve its efficiency or to reduce undesirable side effects, but they are still the bases of drugs that are vital for the treatment of disorders such as cancers and heart diseases or as a means of combating malaria. And they remain the essence of herbal medicine - an area that has still not been fully understood and explored,

China has the richest store of herbal medicines in the world. Malaysia is way behind if you will, not because

Malaysians do not support herbal products, but because much research is lacking. It is not cheap to fund a research that takes years to complete. We have very few local herbal manufacturers, and, yes it's progressing much more than expected.

We have the oldest rainforest in the world - a pharmacy in the wild that is waiting to discover what it can offer to heal and enhance one's health. We have tons of mushrooms to play around with in our virgin forest that has been declared a nature reserve since 1938.

If China have their very own lingzhi, and Japan have their reishi, we, too have our very own - the ganoderma lucidum. All the same mushrooms it may seem but its not.. Its properties differ from the other. Our ganoderma

is a combination of six different mushrooms in its potency.

One single plant cannot claim all healing properties but if you are looking for a plant that has health-protecting qualities, ganoderma lucidum is your best choice especially when coupled with a plant that is rich in minerals. Ganoderma is Yang in its essence that needs a Yin essence to balance and compliment each other for a better health.