Whole Plant Medicine

Plant Medicine

Plants are very good at what they do, and when employed to assist someone they do so willingly.  But face value has never sat well with me.  I’m a ‘why’ person.  Why does this plant work?  Why does it have this effect on you? Why does the physiology of our bodywork so well with this chemical?  I’ve done years and years of research on the subject.

I wanted something tangible that I could point to – a system, if you will.  I started out trying to make classifications.  That didn’t work.  Then I tried to look for patterns, maybe something was connecting their properties that wasn’t on the surface.  I tried to make exhaustive lists of their phytochemicals.  (I still have this dream!)

But one day, I was laying on the couch, half asleep, half awake.  I saw this image clearly in my mind of the outline of a human body. There were lines drawn from words to the brain, heart, and the torso – similarly if you were labeling an anatomy diagram- and the words were: mind, body, and spirit.  The brain was labeled ‘mind’, the heart was labeled ‘spirit’ and the torso ‘body’. It was a fleeting moment in a dream-like state, but I could not let go of it.  I had done so much questioning, so much asking, I knew I was getting an answer but it wasn’t clear as to what had just been handed to me.  The concept of healing is, of necessity, then going to need support for all three parts of us.  What if my modern medicine anatomy and physiology classifications of body systems were too disconnected? What if what I understood about the relationship between body systems was not necessarily correct?  What if I could change that relationship to a meaningful and tangible way to connect plants and their purpose?

  I realize of course, that the concept is not new.  Ayurvedic medicine and Chinese medicine have long seen the human body as not being so disjointed and complicated as western science, but it isn’t as simple as ‘humors’ either. Each type of medicine has its benefits and place. But what I was focused on was a way to put together a clear understanding of plant and human biology so that they supported one another.

This idea then began to form in my mind. The respiratory system is not entirely separate from the cardiac system.  The digestive tract is not entirely separate from the nervous system.  They are pieces of a whole, dependent upon one another for proper function and stability. A plant has the same makeup and function. The roots depend on the leaves. So what if, to have a completely supportive herbal medicine, it requires that you use a complete plant!?   

It’s very common in herbal practice to use the leaves of one plant, the root of another. I suppose over the centuries we figured out which parts of the plant were most effective.  But it’s also true that the flowers and the leaves on the same plant can have completely different uses! You would need a botany degree to begin to try to figure out every little nuance of the parts of plants (but then again, we do that with the human body, don’t we?) If you combine the root of one plant, the leaves of another, and the flowers of yet another you get whole plant medicine!  Even though it was three different plants, the ‘whole’ plant would be represented, therefore giving support to the whole being; body, mind, and soul.

It has proven to be a very effective system. You will find that all of my combination products follow this pattern.  The combinations have either three or four plants represented and they are a root, leaf, flower and sometimes I will add in a seed or fruit.  There are other parts like bark, resin, etc but that’s a botany lesson for another day.

This system is reflected time and time again in nature.  It represents parts; seemingly small but very necessary; combined into a greater whole.  None of our body parts can do without the others. No plant can be without its roots or leaves. The animals could not live without plants and the plants could not exist without the sun. The trees need mushrooms, who need the trees. We need the trees. We are bound together in the glorious tapestry of the earth – from the very smallest bacteria to the stars and the moon; the whole universe in fact.  So it makes sense that ‘whole plant’ medicine would be the most supportive of our whole being. It’s a very good system, don’t you think?