Herbal Pharmacology: Why We Need It. Why We Don't.
by Shayne Foley

There are two main branches to the study of herbal pharmacology – pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. Simply put, pharmacodynamics refers to ‘what a drug does to the body’ and pharmacokinetics is ‘what the body does to a drug’. Unfortunately, there is still very little information of either type available for most herbal medicines and much of what does exist today is severely limited in its practical application. There are, of course, many notable exceptions to this, but for the most part our detailed understanding of herbal pharmacology is still frustratingly limited.

The game-shows Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune come to mind when I think of how the scientific community is approaching herbal research (for the record, this analogy says more about me than who I think my audience is – everyone knows herbalists don’t watch Jeopardy – after all, when was the last time you saw ‘stimu-lating cathartics’ as a question category? ;-). Each herb is a Wheel of Fortune phrase we need to solve to understand the herb’s safe and effective use. The problem is, we don’t have nearly enough letters yet to solve much of anything, conclusively. Every-one knows the letters you have early in the game are most useful when seen in relationship with the whole phrase. And only when we reach a critical mass of letters and see them in relation-ship to everything around them, do we solve the puzzle.

Seeing how public money is currently being spent by our government agencies to explore plant medicines, using modern bio-medical science, is like watching an Herbal game-show being played by someone who doesn’t quite get the strategy of the game. Instead of seeing the small pieces for what they are and suspending judgement – knowing the puzzle is not yet ready to be solved – too often knee-jerk declarations are irresponsibly made as to a herb’s safe and effective use.

We are all entrusted in the keeping of Nature’s wisdom. And whilst it can effectively be argued that we don’t need reductionist science to meet this obligation - that all we need is to use the plants and record and share our experience – today we need a greater number amongst us to be fluent in the language of pharmacology to help solve the puzzle that is being played out in Nature’s name. The game continues, with or without us.

Certainly, we also have more than a few things to learn from science. I regularly hear herbal-ists make claims for herbs that are not supported by the science they quote. Our community uses irrelevant in vitro research to lay claim to a plant’s efficacy at least as often as the medical community uses it to vilify herbs and paint them as widespread killers. So yes, we have a lot to learn. Understanding the pharmacokinetics of sennosides from Senna can help a practi-tioner realize when gut flora might be a limiting factor in the therapeutic effect of the herb. Likewise, understanding Licorice’s pharmacodynamics can inform us about the potential for pseudo-aldoster-onism and hypertension risk – or even hint at when it might most effectively be used as an antidepressant. Given the toxicity of many of the pharmaceutical drugs in use today, we are also collaboratively responsible for understanding how our herbs interact with these drugs, in clinically-relevant ways. Herbal pharmacology can help practi-tioners be more effective in their practice.

At Herb Pharm, we continue to use our scientific research to explore and to understand and fine-tune how to best extract Nature’s plant medicines. We learn and honor new things every day. New letters are being uncovered and through modern analytical science, we continue to see the parts in relation to the whole tapestry of what these amazing plants have to teach us. Whether you choose clinical practice and pure experience as your path of discovery or you delve into the puzzle-solving of herbal pharmacology – one thing’s for sure – a great deal of our work remains ahead of us.