Plant-based treatments

People have always been curious about the plants growing around them, and began to explore their use in healing as early as 5,000 years ago. Sometimes ancient people learned to use plants from watching animals, but they also tried plants on themselves.

Today, 80% of the world uses plants for their health care. Many drugs we use today—like aspirin, the heart drug digitalis, and the cancer drug Taxol®—come from plants. Plant-based treatments we cover in this module include:

• Western herbalism – Use of herbs as medicine
• Flower essences – Use of the subtle healing energy of flowers
• Aromatherapy – Use of distilled plant oils on the skin or as a vapor