Practical Plant Power

For millions of years cultures around the world have used plants to treat, cure, and cause illness. Many of these plants were so effective that scientists experimented with them and refined the active ingredients to make over one hundred and twenty different drugs. Many of these drugs are widely used such as aspirin, taxol, and digoxin.

While the unrefined plant is not as effective as the final drug, the plant itself has tremendous power. We use the unrefined versions all the time such as Aloe Vera. The active ingredient in Aloe Vera is Acemannan and can be used to treat sunburns digestive issues and immune deficiencies. Coffee is used to help us wake up by utilizing the compound caffeine, this compound is the number one psychoactive drug used worldwide and works by blocking the adenosine receptors so you don’t feel tired. Chamomile (mixed in lots of tea) is very good for soothing, calming, and reducing inflammation. The active ingredient in chamomile flowers is Midol, which is commonly used in the drug with the same name. While some plants can be used to heal, many can be used to kill or in small doses make you wish you were dead. Castor beans are extremely toxic because of a compound known as ricin, that in large doses (more than one bean) will be lethal, but in small doses will cause diarrhea, seizures, nausea, emeises,and tachycardia. English Yew is another highly toxic plant, the fruit is the only part that is not toxic. The effects are difficulty breathing, muscle tremors, convulsions, collapse and finally cardiac arrest. This is all brought on by taxines, there are about ten different variants but are normally all found together. Another toxic plant that everyone has heard of is belladonna. Tropane alkaloids are the active ingredients in this plant delirium, hallucinations, loss of voice, dry mouth, headaches, breathing difficulty and convulsions are all side effects of belladonna.

As you can see from just a few examples, plants have amazing healing properties and deadly ones also and the best part is that this list is still expanding only 20,000 plants have been tested and there are over 375,000 with the list growing every day. At this rate we may find a way to cure everything within the next century or two. And to think all of this was underneath our noses and we had no idea about it.
-John Singleton