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Nature's Pharmacy |
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(Article for children 8-12) |
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| Have you been to a drugstore and looked at row upon row of medications? | ||
| There are such a variety of drugs available to cure our many ills, that just | ||
| trying to find the right one is enough to give us a headache. And even to | ||
| relieve us of a simple headache there are dozens of pills to choose from. | ||
| But what did our ancestors do before we had drugstores with thousands of | ||
| little pills? They shopped in nature's pharmacy. Natural herbs, plants and | ||
| roots are mankind's oldest form of medication. | ||
| Primitive societies discovered the healing power of things around them, often | ||
| by trail and error since there were no scientists or laboratories to test them. | ||
| Only remedies that were considered safe and effective were passed on to the | ||
| next generation, mostly from one medicine man or woman to the next. | ||
| In the caves of our Neanderthal ancestors, bundles of herbs were discovered | ||
| among their fossilized remains. Ancient Egyptians used herbs like coriander, | ||
| oregano and thyme to create remedies for ailments such as indigestion, | ||
| infections, toothache and whooping cough. Today we use these herbs in our | ||
| kitchens to flavor our foods. | ||
| North American Indians used snakeroot, sassafras, dogwood, slippery elm | ||
| and goldenrod; plants and trees readily found in our woods and meadows. | ||
| Among other herbs used long ago were sweet basil for acne, parsley for upset | ||
| stomach and rosemary for skin disorders, migraines or depression. Flowers, | ||
| too, were widely used. Some of these became the basis for our modern | ||
| medicine. Foxglove leaves were dried to create digitalis, a drug to stimulate | ||
| the heart. And even though there is growing concern over the use of the opium | ||
| poppy as a narcotic, it has been invaluable in providing us with two powerful | ||
| painkillers -- codeine and morphine. | ||
| Early remedies took many forms. Some were brewed into teas, while others | ||
| were made into lotions or ointments. Others, like cloves, sweet basil and | ||
| cashew nuts were used for their oils. | ||
| Today we still shop in nature's pharmacy. It is estimated that 80% of the | ||
| worlds' population still relies on natural medicine and 40% of all | ||
| pharmaceuticals in the industrialized world are derived from natural sources. | ||
| Some of the largest pharmaceutical companies are sending their scientists | ||
| to the South American jungles to find natural sources for future cures. | ||
| As scientists are finding modern, powerful drugs may have serious side | ||
| effects, they are looking for new (but sometimes very old) natural ways to | ||
| heal our bodies. | ||
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| Next time your parents come home from a stressful day at the office, brew | ||
| a nice cup of chamomile tea to relax them and tell them it came from "nature's | ||
| pharmacy". | ||
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Marion de Man |
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