Medicinal Plants Used by Native Americans
Herbs and other plants have been used for medicinal purposes for as long as human civilizations have existed.
Archaeological evidence shows that humans used medicinal plants during the Paleolithic Era. That was some 60,000 years ago.
The Sushruta Samhita, which was produced in the sixth century B.C., describes about 700 medicinal plants. As long as 5,000 years ago, the Sumerians created clay tablets with lists of hundreds of medicinal plants.
The Ebers Papyrus includes information on more than 850 plant medicines. It was written by the Egyptians around 1500 B.C.
Let’s jump ahead to more recent times. Native Americans used about 2,500 of the 20,000 plant species native to North America medicinally.
And it is estimated by the World Health Organization that about 80 percent of the population of some Asian and African countries currently uses herbs to treat disease.
Growing in North America
Herbal and other plant medicine usage has been increasing here in North America in recent years. Mainly because scientific evidence for their effectiveness has become more widespread.
As a result, millions have been able to treat many of their own non-life threatening illnesses and injuries. Instead of being dependent on doctors. These unique gifts from Mother Nature are definitely here to stay.
The remedies provided by medicinal plants are effective, available and affordable. Especially for day-to-day, non-emergency health issues. Headaches, colds, fevers, flus and coughs can be dealt with through medicinal plants. As well as aches, pains, bumps, bruises and other ailments.
And not just for the treatment of illnesses and injuries. Plants with medicinal properties can also be used to prevent health problems. That’s due in large part to their concentration of nutrients.
How to use them
The most common way to use plants to treat illnesses and diseases is as a blended liquid. Usually a brewed tea and sometimes called a tisane. Medicinal teas are often very pleasing to our taste buds. But their primary function is for health purposes.
Methods of preparation include infusions. These are hot water extracts of herbs through steeping, including chamomile or mint. Also, decoctions, which are the long-term boiled extracts of harder substances including roots or bark.
Salves, which are ointments used to treat a variety of minor skin problems, can also be very useful in combatting physical maladies. The same is true of tinctures, which are extracts from plants mixed into a solution.
Here’s a quick look at eight medicinal plants used by Native Americans.
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