Static Herbs that Cure Ailments

There are plants known to have some medicinal effects and they are used traditionally as herbal remedy. When used in its natural form, it is considered as a herb medicine, but if an active ingredient is extracted, isolated, investigated and used in a specified dose then it is a medicine with a specific pharmacological  effect.

An example that illustrates the difference is Ephedra plant and its active ingredient Ephedrine alkaloid. Ephedrine can be toxic if its dose exceeded the recommended one which is tiny.

Herb medicine has some great advantages as it has a high safety margin since it is present in minute amounts in its native source, in addition to its highly diversified utilities ( Have you heard that Fennel+Dill can treat Cataract or that Garlic can treat snake or scorpion bites ? I had).

Now, what endows herb medicines their activity in treating different ailments? in other words, how do they affect our bodies and why?. The answer lies in understanding the design of the plant and animal structures so as to perform biological functions.

It is easy, plants derive their energy from solar energy and are reproduced through their seeds, i.e. they don't need to move, while animals need to move to seek food and mate. This mechanical difference in survival needs dictated the structure and the metabolism -biochemical activity- of each to serve the static standing nature of plants and the dynamic mobile nature of animals.

Plants only needs built-in canals to transport water down-up and animals need muscles around bones to move. Plant canals are hollow cellulose walls and animal bone and muscles are made of protein.

Both animals and plants utilize the same food categories (carbohydrates, fats and proteins) , yet the genetic code of metabolism of each serves their essential mechanical nature , hence the plant metabolism is largely devoted to carbohydrates metabolism to serve the purpose of producing building units (cellulose).

Animals use protein as their structural element (bones and muscles), they also elaborated tiny protein molecules to serve other functions like enzymes, immunity proteins, cell adhesion proteins, some hormones...etc., consequently their protein is highly responsive to any extraneous chemical molecule.

When animals ingest food, they use both carbohydrates and fat for energy production and storage, and put some of them in cell membranes, while they assimilate protein so that it becomes similar to their own protein. Any other substance different from the aforementioned forms will not enter the normal pathways of metabolism, and will be excreted.

Herb medicines through their extraneous materials that do not be involved in normal human metabolism, mostly affect human protein so as to modify its structure without distorting it, these protein modulations restore the proper structure and function of body proteins (this is of particular crucial importance if the protein is present in cell membrane or is an enzyme).
They can also also affect carbohydrates and fat to a lesser degree.

Known traditional herb medicines if investigated systematically can launch the conventional medicines to much more better level.