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as opposed to a very high extract of alcohol , let ' s say 90 %, where you get the resinous compounds coming out from the calendula that I might use for a topical application , let ' s say on herpes .
Denis : Well again there , I think you ' ll find that if you ' re looking at calendula , and I stand to be corrected on this ( I haven ' t got the pharmacopeia in front of me at present ) I think you ' ll find that there is a tincture of calendula that has a very high alcohol solvent associated with it .
On the other hand , I think you ' ll find that there ' s a fluid extract of calendula which has much less alcohol solvent . I think there ' s a case there for saying that both those preparations were targeting different treatment situations . I have never been too concerned about using fluid extract of calendula with its more attenuated level of alcohol because rarely is it prescribed on its own . It is usually prescribed with other remedies , many of them with a more aqueous solvent , which further attenuates the level of alcohol in the extract preparation . But again , I come back to the point : that I have never really found that in the dosages we use - and my prescriptions are generally five mls of a compound three times daily , incorporating , usually , five herbs , - I ' ve never found , in the varying levels of solvents in each of the herbs in that compound , that there has ever been any significant gut irritation or inflammation .
Andrew : So what other herbs have we lost touch with or forgotten ? I ' m thinking of things like rauvolfia , for instance .
Denis : Rauvolfia is a herb that , as far as I ' m aware , has never been part and parcel of the herbal medicine camp , for very good reasons . What I mean , as you would know , is that it has a very reliable alkaloidal chemistry , with very well defined alkaloids in it , particularly reserpine , and it is still , in my opinion , one of the gems for managing hypertensive conditions : and unfortunately , has been largely lost sight of here in Western or Englishspeaking medicine , largely – I thinkbecause in its traditional form it has been bypassed , and preparations based on the isolated alkaloids have taken its place . And the side effects of this emerged which made the remedy fall into disfavour . Those side effects were not as easily generated when galenical preparations ( that is preparation of the whole herb ) were used or taken . And I can remember , probably 20 years ago , referring patients in my practice to pharmacy colleagues who would stock various pharmaceutical preparations of rauvolfia that were based on the entire plant ; and in certain parts of the world those preparations are still available . I think a major drug company in India makes a preparation , perhaps called Subida , which is a dose-related galenical preparation used to manage hypertension .
We were never able to use that when I started , I suspect because it was a Schedule Four substance that could only be prescribed by a medical doctor and dispensed by a pharmacist ( some pharmacies were stocking preparations , and a few of them were stocking a couple of preparations of the whole herb ). It was never something that we had access to , and has largely now fallen out of use as a result of the emergence of more medical antihypertensives .
Andrew : Does all this then mean we ' re pigeonholed , if you like – limited as to what we can use , so we no longer even learn about these historically available herbs .
Denis : Yeah . Look , I think this is a pity because , again , I go back to when I started practice , we were able to use convallaria , or Lily of the Valley , without any problems . It was a member of a trilogy of herbs , along with hawthorn berry and cactus grandiflora , that were frequently prescribed for various cardiovascular conditions by most medical herbalists at that time .
A lot of the knowledge associated with convallaria has been lost and even though we are not permitted to use it , my contention is that a medical herbalist should have an understanding of herbs that we have historically used in order to appreciate why they were used , something about their chemistry , and maybe their usefulness even in modern medicine today . I note when I read Rudolph Weiss ' s work in herbal medicine , he comes out very strongly in favour of the tincture convallaria for managing some levels of cardiovascular disease .
And I suspect that in Europe it is much more popularly used than it is in Australia , where even preparations of digitalis , which is of the same family as convallaria , are perhaps not as widely used as they were . My contention is that even though we may have lost some herbs , and we are not able to use some , we still need to have an understanding of their history , their usefulness and how they work , and not let knowledge of them die , which is perhaps already happening .
Andrew : Yes . So in regard to the herbal renaissance , what were its roots ?
Denis : Well , that landslide of interest in herbal medicine happened in the United States , in England , and in Australia , that is , particularly in the English-speaking world . And I think a lot of it had to do with the social and political changes that were taking place , particularly in the U . S ., and mainly associated with the Vietnam war , and the emergence of the counter-culture , with a lot of different lifestyles , different philosophies , objections to certain class values , and objections to the way a particular model of medicine had been dominating in the West .
I think that social change , that massive political change , had a bit to do with this renewed interest , because young people were interested in looking at things that had been bypassed , such as different ways of looking at the human
148 | vol27 | no3 | JATMS