On Phytotherapy; Or, a Deep Dive Into Alternatives to Synthetics

Written on Sunday, January 26, 2025

Introduction

Phytotherapy is simply a synonym for plant medicine. In the past, plant medicines were the only way to cure someone who was ill. Only recently has man been able to create synthetic medicines, which have largely replaced plant medicines. This does not mean that people have used the same plants throughout history. On the contrary, the healing methods have differed from culture to culture and from time to time. Much knowledge has of course been passed down and is still used today. Modern research has also shown that many plants that were used in the past actually have medicinal properties and can therefore still be used for those medicinal properties today.

But what we must not forget is that in the past, plant medicines were taken extremely seriously and if you were sick, you would go to a doctor who would prescribe you the medicine, just like today. As I will explain on this page, unless you have sufficient knowledge of medicinal plants, it is not wise to walk into a supermarket and pick an herb off the shelf to treat yourself. Because just because it's natural doesn't automatically mean it's healthy.

Vegetables, Herbs and Spices

Herbs are a group of plants, excluding vegetables, with aromatic properties that are used to flavor and garnish foods, for medicinal purposes or for fragrance. Herbs generally refer to the leafy green or flowering parts of a plant, while spices are usually produced from other parts of the plant, including seeds, bark, roots and fruits. However, when used medicinally, all parts of the plant can be considered herbs. In phytotherapy, all three are used and since the definitions are largely interchangeable, I will stick to just calling them plants or certain parts of plants. But if you decide to do further research, these definitions may be helpful.

Misinformation as a Business Model

If it doesn't help, it doesn't hurt, you might think when you drink an herbal infusion. But that is almost always untrue. Of course, it depends on the plant and how long and how often you drink it. I recommend that you first inform yourself not only about the benefits of a certain plant, but also about the disadvantages, before you buy it and make an herbal infusion from it.

Finding information on the safety of using plant medicines is hard to come by. Most sources are trying to sell you something. Supplements, herbs, seeds, books. It's just one of those things that is relatively hard to find actual information on, where people, almost like in a pyramid scheme, are constantly trying to convince themselves and each other that what they are doing is actually healthy, when in all honesty it usually isn't. Please keep this in mind when doing your research.

Synthetic Versus Alternatives

So, is using alternatives to synthetic medicines really healthier? As always, it just depends on which versus which and for what. What is completely unhealthy, however, is buying an herb because someone talked about it in a Youtube video and drinking an infusion of it every day. Just like you wouldn't go out and get prescription pills unless you needed them, you shouldn't do that with plant medicines. There are some very well-known plants that are very easy to recommend—and that work great when you really need them—but long-term use is not recommended, because it can be harmful in the long run.

In conclusion, you can't lump all synthetic products together and say that it is always much healthier to use plant medicines. Because it almost always isn't. Of course, there are synthetic products that are basically poisonous, but there are also plant medicines that are basically poisonous and those dangers are almost never explained well in advance. There's a zeitgeist that anything that comes from nature is automatically healthier than something that's been synthetically made in a factory, which means we don't take it as seriously as we should. This can be a pitfall for a lot of people. There are people who drink mugs and mugs of infusions every day without ever thinking about what it's actually doing to their bodies.