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Stick to the Basics, Use the Whole Plant When Possible

by Ryan Grant
4/22/07

I took a class at the Evergreen State College a few years back called “Plants and Healing”. A topic that stands out in my mind more than any other is the discussion on using the plant as a whole for healing verses isolating and/or synthesizing single constituents from a plant. There were valid arguments on both sides of this discussion, however it became clear to me that mega pharmaceutical corporations will often put profit before quality and continue to misinform the public by telling us that it is these synthesized chemicals we need in order to look and feel better.

There are a couple of reasons as to why modern medicine’s corporate controllers take the constituent approach. One being that it is necessary for achieving patents; the pharmaceutical companies will only spend the massive amounts of capital necessary for research and ultimately, certification, if the end result is a patented drug they can profit from. They can’t patent a whole plant species, therefore, they must extract constituents. It also plays into the old idea of the Magic Bullet, which under this line of thinking suggests that if a plant can produce certain effects, there must be a specific chemical in it which creates that effect, and thus, if isolated, will work more effectively. Consider the following case.

Dr. Peter Molan of the Waikato University has been conducting studies on the topical use of Manuka Honey to treat burns, and skin infections for the last 20 years and the results are outstanding. However, after all of this research he still can’t quite put his finger on what it is in Manuka Honey that makes it so good at treating infections, even antibiotic resistant infections (antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest problems faced by modern medicine, with little relief in sight).

Dr. Molan says:

“In Manuka honey, and its close relative which grows in Australia called jellybush, there’s something else besides the hydrogen peroxide.

“And there’s nothing like that ever been found anywhere else in the world.”

That “something else” has proved very hard to pin down. Even now, after more than twenty years of research, Peter Molan admits he still has no idea exactly what it is.

But he has given it a name: unique manuka factor, or UMF.

There are countless examples like this. Consider the scenario where a large pharmaceutical corporation finds evidence of a plant creating a desired healing effect, spends millions of dollars trying to pin down constituents in it, only to find they can’t isolate anything which produces the same healing effect that the plant as a whole does. However, often they will pull some constituent out which may only weakly resemble the healing properties of the plant it originated from and then take this new chemical/drug to market as something amazing, unbeknownst to the public. The public may later find certain side effects and risks are involved with this new chemical, which in many cases can be attributed to its use in much higher concentrations than occur naturally. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe this is always the case, as I have had many friends and acquaintances who have benefited from modern medicine.

I believe in the case of Manuka honey and other whole plant based approaches, that it’s a synergistic action, a delicate balance of a plant’s components, created by millions of years of evolution, which make plants such safe and effective healers. Modern science may never fully understand, but they will continue to try and pin it down and say “oh it’s this” or “oh it’s most likely this” etc, but as in the case with Dr. Molan, 20 years of research still leaves the mystery of Manuka Honey’s healing power unsolved.

Stories like the Manuka honey one and others like it, give me faith in a plant’s ability to make me look and feel beautiful and the understanding that a more simple approach really can be better. Whether it’s from eating a large plate of organic veggies, or using Manuka honey to heal my skin, I’m reminded that plants can be very powerful healers if used correctly. The more you use the whole plant and the less you subject it to harsh manufacturing processes, the better. My body looks and feels best when I stick to the basics. Let the plants do their magic.

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