Herbs

Herbs are any plants used for food, flavoring, medicine, or fragrances for their savory or aromatic properties. Herbs refers to the leafy green or flowering parts of a plant either fresh or dried

Herbs have a variety of uses including culinary, medicinal, and in some cases, spiritual. General usage of the herb differs between culinary herbs and medicinal herbs. In medicinal or spiritual use any of the parts of the plant might be considered herbs, including leaves, roots, flowers, seeds, root bark, inner bark.

Medicinal Herbs
Medicinal plants, medicinal herbs, or simply herbs have been identified and used from prehistoric times. Plants make many chemical compounds for biological functions,including defense against insects, fungi and herbivorous mammals. Over 12,000 active compounds are known to science. These chemicals work on the human body in exactly the same way as pharmaceutical drugs, so herbal medicines can be beneficial and have harmful side effects just like conventional drugs. However, since a single plant may contain many substances, the effects of taking a plant as medicine can be complex.

Some plants contain petrochemicals that have effects on the body. There may be some effects when consumed in the small levels that typify culinary spicing, and some herbs are toxic in larger quantities. For instance, some types of herbal extract, such as the extract of St. John's-wort Hyperbolic perforate or of kava can be used for medical purposes to relieve depression and stress. However, large amounts of these herbs may lead to toxic overload that may involve complications, some of a serious nature, and should be used with caution.Certain herbs contain psychoactive properties that have been used for both religious and recreational purposes by humans since the early Holocene era, notably the leaves and extracts of the cannabis and coca plants. 

Herbs have long been used as the basis of traditional Chinese herbal medicine, with usage dating as far back as the first century  and far before. In India, the Ayurveda medicinal system is based on herbs. Medicinal use of herbs in Western cultures has its roots in the Hippocratic (Greek) elemental healing system, based on a Quaternary elemental healing metaphor. Famous herbalist of the Western tradition include Avicenna (Persian), Galen (Roman), Paracelsus (German Swiss), Peppercorn (English) and the botanically inclined Eclectic physicians of 19th century/early 20th century America (John Milton Scudder, Harvey Wickes Felter, John Uri Lloyd). Modern pharmaceuticals had their origins in crude herbal medicines, and to this day, some drugs are still extracted as fraction-ate/isolate compounds from raw herbs and then purified to meet pharmaceutical standards.