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Growing a home apothecary

worldsensorium.com

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Re: Growing a home apothecary

#11

Post by Entinel »

CursedUrn wrote: post #4

Do those plants really cure those things listed in the article?

I'm not willing to say all of these "cure" but most modern medicines take an active ingredient from a plant and synthesize it in larger quantities. Some of the one listed here are ones I do myself. Mint for nausea, chamomile, and lemon balm to sleep for example.

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#12

Post by jalk »

luminouslow wrote: post #2

In medieval Europa monasteries were required since Pope Gregor to grow a number of medicinal plants to ensure that the population has access to medicine. While i am not an opponent of modern medicine, it is kind of sad how little modern humans use the remedies nature provides. Search for monastery medicine for more info.

Is it naïve to think that clinical trials have show that modern medicine is more effective? And the active molecules in those plants have been identified and can probably in many cases be synthesized more easily than extracted from the plants.

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#14

Post by Tao3300 »

Kind of irresponsible not to list contraindications (e.g. chamomile shouldn't be used during pregnancy) as well as the lack of a disclaimer disavowing medical claims and advice.

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#17

Post by mtrpcic »

jalk wrote: post #12
luminouslow wrote: post #2

In medieval Europa monasteries were required since Pope Gregor to grow a number of medicinal plants to ensure that the population has access to medicine. While i am not an opponent of modern medicine, it is kind of sad how little modern humans use the remedies nature provides. Search for monastery medicine for more info.

Is it naïve to think that clinical trials have show that modern medicine is more effective? And the active molecules in those plants have been identified and can probably in many cases be synthesized more easily than extracted from the plants.

While I think the assessment that modern medicine is more effective, and often stands on the shoulders of these types of historically used plants, not everyone has safe access to modern medicine (either because "modern" medical treatments aren't available where they're located, lack of finances to pay for it in egregiously overpriced areas, or general mistreatment by the medical community). Using alternatives, while not as refined or high quality, is better than nothing.

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#18

Post by hosh »

jalk wrote: post #12
luminouslow wrote: post #2

In medieval Europa monasteries were required since Pope Gregor to grow a number of medicinal plants to ensure that the population has access to medicine. While i am not an opponent of modern medicine, it is kind of sad how little modern humans use the remedies nature provides. Search for monastery medicine for more info.

Is it naïve to think that clinical trials have show that modern medicine is more effective? And the active molecules in those plants have been identified and can probably in many cases be synthesized more easily than extracted from the plants.

I don’t think modern medicine has really taken a close look at synergistic effects of combinations of active ingredients. Our bodies are complex living systems, and it’s naive to think that our crude approach to pharmaceuticals — where we treat the body as a complicated, rather than complex system — is working well.

Furthermore, this kind of tech requires expertise that is not easily decentralized. As such, it tends centralize power and control of one’s health in a civilization. The civilization needs to educate and produce a few to be able to serve the many, leaving aside the number of tech dependencies in order to produce facilities that produce this, let alone the research organizations to continue studying this stuff. It does not make for a resilient, anti-fragile civilization.

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#19

Post by hosh »

JPLeRouzic wrote: post #13

It would be nice to mine Pubmed to search for tuples (plant, disease, administration mode, contraindications, side effects)

Being able to do stuff like this was the point of the semantic web. That was supposed to be Web 3.0.

To be fair, according to a write up by a guy deep in the semantic web, there were several choices made that lead to the collapse of the first attempt.

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#20

Post by hosh »

CursedUrn wrote: post #4

Do those plants really cure those things listed in the article?

I think the better frame is not to see this as the plant acting upon the disease or symptoms, but rather, assisting the body’s own natural capacity for regeneration and healing.
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