Herbalism is one of the most ancient practices in human history as regarding the cure of the body.

It is based on the concept that Nature can offer us the solution of our health problems without being too invasive on the body. 

Herbalism is founded on the concept of “medicinal plants”. 

A medicinal plant or herb consists in every plant that contains in itself one or more organs, they are substances that could be used within therapies or with preventive goals. 

In the world, today, there are over 800 000 different species of plants, but only 0.5% of them have been currently studied. Their use as a cure for the body is observed even within the animal kingdom, some studies testimony how most evoluted primates consume them instictively to prevent some diseases or cure their bodies. 

The “vegetable drug” is the part of the plant in which we can find the maximum concentration of active principles with therapeutic or preventive goals. 

When we talk about phytocomplex systems we are referring to the totality of the active substances with pharmacologial goals, that can either be coactive or inert within the plant. 

Understanding the importance of the idea of a phytocomplex system is foundamental in herbalism. 

The phytocomplex system is a:  

• dinamic  
• unitary  
• biochemical  
• entity

Within a phytocomplex system every substance works together, there are no differences between active principles and inert ones, the therapeutic goal is reached only if it works in its totality. 

A very important theory in understanding how this works as it does is the “unifying theory of intercellular communication”, by researchers Roth and LeRoith, published in 1987.  

This theory explains how endogenous messages, that exist in the human body, can be observed in inferior organisms as well, like plants, and that is why a phytocomplex system is well accepted by the body.  

All intercellular communications are basically identical. 

A chemical drug on the other hand is relatively new to the human body and therefore it seems to work as well, but not without dangerous and sometimes deadly side effects on the patient. 

The main difference in a chemical drug and a phytocomplex is their effect on the receptors of the body.  

A chemical drug consists in an ensemble of the same pure molecules, and therefore it acts onto a single receptor. 

A phytocomplex instead is composed by a moltitude of active principles, these principles, acting together in armony, stimulate many more receptors at the same time. 

This reasons should be enough to at least start a discussion on how much this ancient practice could support the modern medicine.  

New studies should be conducted on this subject, but the idea that to cure ourselves we could just rely on Nature seems to be not remunerative enough, and this kind of studies never receive enough funds to be made. 

Big pharmaceutical companies are only interested in something they could potentially exploit, and between the idea of a chemical drug that costs houndreds or thousands of dollars and a plant that only costs a couple of dollars (or that is free if you decide to collect it by yourself),

 I’ll let you decide which one is more profitable for them.  

Always question what you are told to be the only way, there is always something else to be discovered :)