Updates
Herbs Are Snake Oil! And That’s a Good Thing!
Oct
Have you ever heard herbs referred to as “Snake Oil”? It’s a pejorative used by those who don’t think herbs have medicinal benefits. Whenever I hear someone call herbs “Snake Oil” I smile and say “Thanks. I’m glad to see you’re a believer in their benefits.”
You see one of the saddest things about those who discredit the wonderful, healing offerings of medicinal plants is that they have no regard for history. For as long as humans have been puttering around on this nice blue and green planet of ours, they’ve been using plants as medicine. And, for the most part, humans aren’t dumb. If something doesn’t work very well, they drop it and try something else. This ambition for utility and performance has been the spur of a lot of progress over the last five thousand years or so. We’ve gone from cooking fires to microwave ovens and from walking everywhere to space shuttles. The medical profession has gone from giving toxic mercury and bleeding people to death to MRIs, pharmaceuticals and surgery. It’s wonderful!
And yet the herbalists are still doing pretty much the same thing they’ve been doing since Adam chomped on that apple. They’re using medicinal plants to solve a host of health problems. And why is it that the herbalists haven’t abandoned all those silly weeds and developed more modern and effective tools? Well, it’s because herbalists embrace that age-old mantra that has guided intelligent beings for a very long time; If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Herbs still do the wonderful things they’ve always done. They give our bodies amazing botanical chemicals to solve our problems. Modern research is on board too. Go to google scholar and type in the Latin name of your favorite herb. In most cases you’ll find scores of research papers showing that the plants do indeed have remarkably beneficial pharmacological actions on the human body…well, usually on some poor rat’s body… but that’s pretty close…I mean sometimes humans are…well, I digress.
So let’s talk about snake oil! Snake oil is what Native Americans used to treat rattlesnake bites in the good old days. And guess what it was made of…Echinacea! That’s right, Echinacea was the main ingredient in all kinds of snakebite remedies in the old days when people were hanging around snakes more (well…at least the legless snakes). And what was magical or supernatural or mythic about Echinacea’s ability to keep a fellow from dying or being terribly disfigured from a rattlesnake bite?
Nothing.
It wasn’t hocus pocus or mumbo jumbo. It was hyaluronidase inhibitors. You see, hyaluronidase is the enzyme in pit viper venom (as well as hobo spider or brown recluse venom) that dissolves the glue holding your cells together (hyaluronic acid). This causes tissue to die and liquify…which is quite bad for tissue!
Echinacea chemically turns off the process and, as if that weren’t enough, it also stimulates the body to produce more hyaluronic acid to patch things back together.
So the next time someone tells you herbs are snake oil. Tell him you’re proud of him for being a scientifically enlightened, open minded biochemist. After all most folks are willing to understand things that are as scientific as pretty purple flowers.
Doc Jones
If you’d like to see our Venom & Sting Formula and our Cut, Bite & Sting Kit Click Here.
If you’d like to have a look at our other Echinacea offerings Click Here.
If you’d like to learn how to use all kinds of amazing medicinal plants to solve all kinds of problems, Click Here
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So upset and don’t know what to do found out I am allergicto most everything in the daisy family, and I have cyst on my liver
Love Echinacea and Rudbeckia! Beautiful flowers–great medicines.
You didn’t tell us how to make the powder from these flowers. And can they be made into tea or an herbal immersion and have the same effect?
Hi Jojo,
You can dry the herbs and then grind them in a blender. At that point you can get them into your body any way you like. Make a tea. Make a tincture. Put the powder in your morning smoothie. Spread it on your peanut butter sandwich. The herbs don’t care much how they get in. Once they’re in your belly. The herbs will know what to do.
Will a specific herd dissolve and heal a Corn on a dog’s foot ?
I’m not aware of an herb that will dissolve a paw corn.
Hi there.. I found u through Caroline on Homesteading Family. Where can I ask a question regarding purchasing a tincture. I don’t want to order the wrong product and need a bit of guidance.
Shoot me an email Shelly.
https://homegrownherbalist.net/contact-us/
Hi Doc Jones
I am ordering some powdered herbs and the Homegrown Herbalist Book on your website. Before I complete my order do you have recommendations to treat or prevent colic in horses with herbs?
Thanks