HERBAL ACTIONS DEFINED
Today I wanted to give a quick overview and kind of demystify the words "herbal actions". Many Natural Health people will throw the words to you as if they are an everyday word leaving you a little lost and confused. Many times, as a client or a patient, we tend not to question. We will take a mental note and go home and look it up because, well... we don't want to look dumb. OK, maybe that is just me lol.
I know for me, these words can still catch me off guard, especially after this last year of being stagnant and just lost in a fog of "what on earth is going on" . So, if I don't practice them and ingrain them in each herb over and over I totally lose the meaning as well as the plants that go along with them. Basically herbal actions are just a fancy one word meanings for a vast variety of things that particular plant can do for a body system. Plants may have one really great herbal action or they may have many herbal actions. Just because the list is short or long doesn't mean that plant isn't any less or more useful than the next. That is the great thing about the Great Healer, his creations are just as complex as a snowflake. The creation of the plants took into mind every ailment of the body and the unique needs of every single body. Plants are living and breathing intelligent structures. While each plant is ok for each of us, it may not be perfect for our individual need. That is why it is so important to see a natural health professional and not make it guess work. They can help guide you on the journey and educate you on how to listen to your body and it's needs and how to pick out herbal actions that will enhance your healing journey. Going on search engines and just picking from a list of plants that go along with your symptoms is OK, but when they don't work and you become frustrated and unbelieving in the balance of the plants to your health it isn't because the plants have failed it's because your body is in need of something different at that point, or maybe a combo of things or maybe even much more time with that plant. Listening to the infomercial or your buddy's MLM craze or that really neat looking display at the store can be pretty dangerous too. Especially when you don't key in on what the ingredients are. We need REAL plants, not fillers, or lab created junk. Much like an intricate spider web is the place a spider is able to be supported and live and properly catch food, the herbal actions of plants intertwine to work together and create a basis of support for the body to thrive properly. If you throw a stick into or through a spider web that part of the web becomes useless and the spider has to repair it, that is the same for the junk we encounter along the way. (I am talking just as much at myself, as I am to anyone else. I by far am NOT perfect when it comes to treating my body properly and totally naturally. The junk of the world has us all addicts to something. Whether it is processed foods, or sugar, or an allopathic medication. So, I have plenty of sticks in my spiderweb to work on too.)
Here is the list of Herbal Actions and a brief definition to give you an idea of what they mean. I'll try not to be too silly but to give them as simple of a definition breakdown as I can. May be a little too simple, so I will try to include further study links below as well. You will notice in the links that there will probably be other *actions* I may not have in my list. Those actions are just as important and cross over with the action list I have here. Different schools have different lists of actions in totality that you learn, but we never stop learning so this is why I am including more study for you. I want you to see them all and have an idea of what they are. I know I will never stop learning with you :-)
Alterative - improves your blood by helping nutrients come in and flushes out the bad stuff
Antiseptic- Something that is topical like a rinse, or wash that cleanses microbes and infection with direct contact
Antispasmodic- helps with muscle cramps
Aperient- gentle laxative
Aromatic- using scent (aka diffusing essential oils)
Astringent- Has an invigorating effect on tissue (i.e. liniment)
Bitter- tonic that helps stimulate digestion
Caminative- helps reduce spasms in the gut (refer back to antispasmodic)
Cholagogue- enhances digestion by releasing bile
Demulcent- soothing and moistening to mucus membranes
Diaphoretic- Helps open the surface. opens pores
Diuretic- tends to be drying. it removes excess fluids.
Emetic/Purgative- makes you throw up without being toxic, or can cleanse out your system without being toxic
Emmenagogue - Helps with menstruation
Emollient- cooling and lubricating
Expectorant- increases mucous out of respiratory membranes
Galacagogue - helps with breast milk flow
Nervine- helps relax the nervous system and lower pain
Nutritive- nourishes tissues and organs with vitamins and minerals
Parturient- helps the uterus during childbirth
Rubefacient- stimulates circulation and detox
Sialagogue- makes your spit increase
Styptic - stops blood flow
Tonic- is a support for one or more system
Vulnerary- helps heal wounds
As you see the plants aren't "programmed" for just one thing in a lab as the allopathic medications are. Allopathic medications do have their place and their use, however, they are not intelligent. They are man made and created for one singular purpose. They go in to the body and do that purpose and if they wreck havoc on other things accomplishing that goal there is no balance to them. There are no nutritive properties that create a balance with in them. The Great Healer has done so much for us. His beauty surrounds us everyday, even in winter's cold chill or after a fire has burned the land. Deep in the ground the seeds are germinating, the roots are holding all the energies and saving them, there is intelligence there if we will take time to listen and learn.
With Abundance,
Chrystal, Herbalist, Natural Health Consultant
