The Right Lobe of a Vulture’s Lung, and Other Aphrodisiacs.
A Brief History of Herbal Medicine in America.
“The right lobe of a vulture’s lung, attached to the body in the skin of a crane, acts powerfully as a stimulant upon males…
an effect equally potent is produced by taking the yolks of five pigeons’ eggs, in honey, mixed with one denarius of hog’s lard…
or by wearing the right testicle of a cock, attached to the body in a ram’s skin.”
These are aphrodisiacs as prescribed by Pliny the Elder, Roman philosopher and naturalist, in the year 77 AD. It’s a sensationalizing example though, and misleading, because by no means were all of the aphrodisiacs of the time so crude.
Many aphrodisiacs have been in use for thousands of years…
The ancient Egyptians were enamored with a much sexier aphrodisiac than those listed above, it was blue lotus flower, and both Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic texts reference a number of highly effective aphrodisiacs and reproductive tonics that remain in use, including Epimedium and Tribulus Terrestis, in much the same way today as they were upwards of 3,000 years ago.
And because today we have the benefit of the highly revered clinical trial, and pharmacological research, we better understand not only that these plants work, but how.
Nonetheless, sometimes I think this anecdote from Pliny the Elder is what people assume I’m speaking of when I start talking about aphrodisiacs. Their eyes glaze over with skepticism or more accurately, misconceptions and misinformation. They ask questions like…
Do herbs really work? Is there any proof? Is there any data? How do you know?
I’d be lying to suggest this doesn’t frustrate me deeply, and has since I started studying herbal medicine. I can’t blame these people though. Instead I have to recognize that there’s a tenuous and complicated history between western and traditional medicine in this country. Much of this history gained momentum in the 1920’s, when the efficacy of time-honored herbal remedies was widely and overwhelmingly lambasted by western physicians who were instructed instead to extol the virtues of a brand new, trending pharmaceutical medicine, and the budding pharmaceutical industry. The campaign was largely effective.
Physicians, medical schools and the general public shifted perception about herbal medicine at an unprecedented rate, coming to regard it as a backwards, ineffective, even dangerous practice.
And this was just the beginning of the stronghold the pharmaceutical industry would come to have over the way medicine was practiced in America.
Thankfully, in the 1960’s, a small group of progressive, nature-loving “hippies” got enough of a cultural stronghold to start advocating for a return to traditional medicine in a way that would infiltrate public perception and sow seeds for change. That change has been slow though, and not terribly impactful. The interests of the pharmaceutical industry continue to wreak drive instruction within western medicine. And Japan, well-regarded as one of the healthiest countries on earth, has the highest per capita consumption of herbal medicine in the world according to the World Health Organization.
American medical schools today remain some of the least informed about traditional, botanical, and alternative medicines. In contrast however, in much of the world this is far from the case.
In Germany for instance, all medical students are required to study phytomedicine… about 80% of physicians regularly prescribe plant medicines in their practice. As an herbalist, I’m often asked the most rudimentary, blatantly skeptical questions about medicine traditions that have been in practice, effectively, for millennia (the hubris is fascinating). Or, they’re regarded as some kind of mysterious magic, which can be just as damaging, because it fails to acknowledge that instead these modalities, those like herbalism (of various traditions), or TCM, or acupuncture, are instead a result of centuries of extensive research, clinical observation, and critical thinking. (With or without the coveted clinical trials).
And today, make no mistake, there is extensive scientific, clinical data and pharmacological analysis on the herbs I work with…
But again, it’s hard to be an herbalist in America, because not only are we consistently fighting misinformation, we also aren’t prioritized access to this clinical research on plant medicines, as the a majority of these studies are conducted in Germany, France, Japan, and China, while the abundance of resources in American medicine continue to be allocated for the latest pharmaceuticals.
Trends are shifting though. People are taking their health and wellbeing back from large corporations and enormous for-profit healthcare systems.
They’re asking more pointed questions of western trained physicians about alternative medicine, and they’re empowering themselves with information they take into their homes and kitchens and lifestyle choices; questioning, supplementing, and learning about how to support the body, enhance vitality and prevent disease.
So when someone says to me, as an herbalist, who looks over clinical and historical data on the herbs I work with all the time, “do you really think that stuff works?”, I can’t take it personally. I can’t get annoyed. I have to gently, calmly, try my best to contend with a lifetime of cultural conditioning. I have to be gentle.
I often skip to an analogy that seems highly effective…
