Chinese Herbs Timmins - Ever since the beginning of time, Mankind has been using herbs as medication. From the earliest days of human evolution, the experience and knowledge acquired by using different herbal remedies was recorded as reference intended for future generations. We consider this transition from being gatherers in the wilds to pharmacology students as the dawn of herbal medicine or medical herbalism.
All the various cultures that utilize herbal remedies know there is a wider view of herbal medication that goes well beyond the cause and effect from sipping teas and chewing leafs. One of the oldest systems of medication is Traditional Chinese Medicine or also called TCM. It embraces using traditional Chinese herbs as a corresponding part of a holistic body and mind approach to wellness and health.
The Huang Dei Nei Jing is amongst the first medical documents to describe the doctrines of TCM, dating back to approximately 475 B.C. This particular document was the precedent for a lot of the basic diagnostic methods central to Traditional Chinese Medicine such as the duality concept of masculine and feminine or yin and yang, and the five element theory. Various herbs in the Chinese material medica provided knowledge of how Chinese herbs correspond to these theories and herbology was subsequently introduced. Herbology refers to the science of designing herbal formulas in accordance with the person's yin and yang status.
One more old document, the Shennong Benaco Jing which dates back to the Han dynasty, is particular to Chinese herbs. Shennong Benaco Jing is recognized as Chinese medicines very first herbalist. According to legend, Shennong sampled a lot of Chinese herbs himself so as to learn their properties, lots of which were really poisonous. This work is reputed to describe about three hundred sixty five medicinal formulations with over two hundred fifty being detailed as Chinese herbs.
Chinese herbs and all its parts are normally used as opposed to just using the leaf or the root like Western botanical medicine does. Chinese herbal medicine is further distinguished by the fact that it usually includes non-botanical ingredients into the formulas like organs, animal fur and bones, even if this practice has been mainly discontinued as acquiring some of these ingredients poses a threat to some rare species.
Chinese herbs are traditionally classified using certain criteria: the meridians, the five tastes and the four natures. The 5 tastes that are salty, bitter, pungent, sweet and sour indicate the medicinal merit of the plant based on the taste it yields. The four natures relate to the orientation and degree of yin and yang aspects which range from extremely hot or extreme yang to very cold or extreme yin. Last but not least, the way the herb corresponds to the energy channels or meridians of the body is determined by the biological activity the herb exerts on the organs and the body systems.
Many Chinese herbs are not really familiar in Western cultures, while other herbs are normally known and used by go by various names. For example, garlic is a common item which is known as a medicinal herb in Western medicine and in Chinese medicine it is called dasuan. Aloe vera is one more common house and garden plant that produces a burn-soothing, healing gel and is called luhui in China.
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