Essential Concepts and Vocabulary in Herbal Medicine

Abstract

Western-trained scientists and physicians can better understand herbal medicine if they learn the basic terminologies and essential concepts used by herbal practitioners around the globe to describe how herbs work on the body. Specific and general chemical actions, pharmacokinetics, and plant constituents (such as carotenoids and flavonoids) can all be used to understand how herbs work. Other important tools for understanding herbal medicine include organoleptic methods (personal sensory based information), such as heating and cooling effects, tastes, and physically felt actions. Tissue affinity is also an important method, one aspect of which is tissue-specific antioxidant effects. In addition, broad concepts from the Oriental traditions—such as the Chinese Yin and Yang, and the Ayurvedic Vata, Pitta, and Kapha—can and have been effectively used to organize and focus understanding and guide treatment.