Although we often see ourselves as mistresses/masters of the planet, in fact humans have evolved within the ecosystem. Alongside of us all the while, evolving as part of that ecosystem, have been healing herbs.

There has never been a time when humans have not relied on plants for healing. Herbs are our bodies’ allies in many areas of health and detox is certainly no exception. A primary principle of traditional herbal treatment was that cleansing and elimination of toxic wastes was required before healing could take place.

Herbs in action

Herbs support detoxification in many ways. Some plant medicines help to remove poisons and toxins from the body — for example, through increasing urination or sweating. Some herbs reduce the toxicity of substances by either reducing their destructive potential through antioxidant action or enhancing their removal by binding to them and removing them safely from the body. Other herbs optimise or support the function of an elimination organ to enhance detoxification.

The actions herbs perform in the body are not all fully understood. The science of phytotherapy is revealing more of the secrets and the herbal pharmacology knowledge base is growing.

Plants are incredibly complex organisms, containing hundreds or thousands of different interacting compounds. Such complexity presents problems for the current scientific method, which is unsurpassed in studying single substances acting within controlled environments.

Herbalism involves the interaction of one complex organism (a plant) with another complex organism (a human) within a complex environment (the world) and thus is awkward for the current scientific paradigm.

Herbs often provide us some nutritional benefits, which come more through their primary metabolites, the compounds they need for sustaining their life. Like foods, these include various carbohydrates, lipids, chlorophyll, enzymes and other proteins.