Pindari Herb Farm
The Practice of Herbal Pharmacy
A Perspective on Current Practices of Herbal Medicine and the Future

Introduction

This document is written from the perspectives gained by a retired Pharmacist working on a small scale herb farm, namely Pindari Herb Farm, where over 130 medicinal herbs are grown with many prepared into fresh plant tinctures for use in a small herbal practice.

The annual five day, live in, intensive Medicinal Herb Seminars held at the farm have also provided a major experiential learning interface shared with practitioners and students both herbal and naturopathic from throughout Australia. This is, in part, a record of the shared observations and the author's ideas and thoughts that have flowed from the Seminar learning experience. 

All matter is energy, but not all energy is matter and the importance of all vibrational energies in a medicinal herb extract, in addition to that of its material substrate, is explored at the seminars and discussed here in regards to the question of efficacy.  

This document records the procedures at Pindari for growing and processing the freshly harvested herbs into aqueous/ethanol liquid extracts where the focus is to capture the optimum range and concentration of the plant's vibrational energies.

The author believes that the practice of Herbal medicine in Australia is currently developing into two streams, the major stream being more 'materially' focused while the other more 'energy' focused in its approach to healing. Both streams being relevant but as is discussed, both with possible future challenges.

This document is an 'introduction' to and should be read in conjunction with "Energy Considerations in the Pharmacy of Medicinal Herbs".

Growing and Harvesting Medicinal Herbs at Pindari

 1. Growing: The philosophy behind the manufacture of herbal extracts at Pindari is firstly to grow strong healthy plants under organic conditions as these are an important factors affecting their medicinal efficacy.

To ensure the correct species is used, samples of the flowering fresh herb are sent to the State Herbarium or other reputable organizations for identification. Experience has shown that nurseries and other sources of medicinal herbs (seeds, cuttings, root stock or live plants) at times supply incorrectly identified species. 

To grow strong, healthy, vibrant plants, strong genetic stock is required that is then maintained by providing optimum growing conditions. As the herbs used in western herbal medicine have originated from many parts of the world and from diverse climatic zones, every endeavour is made to place the species in the gardens in the most suitable microclimate conditions according to the plants' needs.

The gardens at Pindari have a 360 degree weather exposed ecosystem and being situated on a rocky hilltop 300 metres above sea level, are exposed to vigorous weather at times. The farm is on the island of Tasmania below Australia, approximate to the fortieth latitudinal parallel. It is more than 50 kilometers from the sea. The 'compass' facing, local rock and vegetation provide many varied microclimates. 

Pindari gardens are on a small scale (less than one acre) and use individualized rotated plantings in 'microclimate' chosen garden beds. The soil is nourished and nurtured by an organic composting process and irrigated with chemical contamination-free water. The air is clean and the farm some distance from commercial cropping areas. 

2. Composting: The mineral content of the soils are maintained and balanced via the composting process and by using scientific analysis with the measured addition of organically compatible mineral compounds such as dolomite and gypsum. The composting system consists of mixing most of the garden waste with local stable waste from grain fed racehorses. The stable waste contains fecal matter and urine mixed with a fine hardwood and softwood chip. To the mix of these are added composted sea kelps and fish waste.  The composting process involves high temperatures initially, followed by several months of cool decomposition. The heaps are  turned mechanically and by the scratching of chickens. Several tonnes of compost high in humus and worm castings are produced annually. 

This material is added as a top dressing (5-10 mm) to the garden beds where the use of the "no dig gardening" method is employed leaving the soil structure intact. The soil is regularly aerated and loosened with forking and compaction is avoided by limiting human tread. No chemical toxic herbicides or pesticides are used, they being detrimental to human and animal health and they upset the balance of the insect population and the microbial flora and fauna of the soil. 

All of the above encourages strong and vigorous crops.

3. Weeding: This is achieved primarily via hand removal and mulching. Attention is given to removing unwanted plants (weeds) before they drop seed. The mulching also acts to retain moisture thus reducing the need for watering.

4. Seasonal Influences: Each species of medicinal herb has its own 'expression' energetically with its total energetic expression varying from season to season, being dependant on the growing conditions and the differences that exists within each individual and species variety. Thus its chemical constituents and the 'higher' levels of vibrational energy that have no immediate physical corollary, vary from season to season.

The effect the season and other environmental factors have on plants is evidenced by the experience in the wine industry where the wine produced from each season's harvest varies depending on weather conditions and other subtle environmental factors. Experienced wine tasters can recognize this difference to the point of identifying the grape variety, the year grown due to these variable factors, and even on which hillside the grapes were grown.

The same variation would exist throughout the plant kingdom and thus occur within medicinal herbs and would subtly affect the medicinal properties of these herbs from year to year. This changeable chemical composition in plants has been one of the factors that has led to the industry's attempts to standardize medicinal herbs by establishing through agreement, acceptable maximum and minimum limits for certain measurable chemical constituents. This is discussed further under "Marker Compounds."

5. Harvesting: At Pindari, the reliance on traditional knowledge, crop observation, using the human sense of taste, smell and touch and the effects of weather are the indicators used as a means of assessing when to harvest. For most summer harvests, the plants are at their best on the second day after rain as it is then that the vibrancy of the herb is highest. In winter with root harvests, it is best done as soon as the aerial parts have died or withered and thus the energies of the plant have withdrawn into the roots, but before it gets too wet and the possibility of rot increases.

Contamination with other plant material is easily avoided by care in herb placement at the time of growing, weeding, and the removal by hand at the point of harvest and processing.

Processing of Medicinal Herbs in Australia  

Below is an observation of the manufacture of liquid herbal extracts in Australia under two headings: 

1. Large commercial operations - where dried herb material is used to produce 1:1 or 1:2 (dry weight to volume of total liquid) Fluid Extracts (FEs) via the percolation process. This extract is then freeze dried in order to produce herbal tablets and capsules..

2. Small scale "at home" or "for practice" production - where fresh plant material is used via maceration to produce Fresh Plant Tinctures (FPTs) of 1:5 to 1:10 strength.

Currently in Australia, the number of small operations is very limited in relation to the larger commercial producers. This is a market driven reality as the overall medicinal herb market expands and becomes increasingly global. Some of the influencing factors are:

• Increasing public demand for herbal medicine.

• The volume of product required to satisfy this expanding market.

• The commercial power of the larger companies.

• Their financial ability to fund research on their products and promote them.

• The ability to pay for and pass on the ever increasing costs of plant and equipment, quality control, regulations and licensing.

Large Commercial Operations.

With the globalization of markets, commercial large scale herb processors are increasingly purchasing herbs on the world market with the resultant contraction in the commercial growing of medicinal herbs locally in Australia with its high production costs. 

The practice of using dried plant material to manufacture standardized liquid extracts is the current "state of the art" in herbal medicine. It is now accepted as the norm, supported by the recent advances in the knowledge of the chemical constituents in medicinal herbs and the now accepted practice of standardization of these extracts based on levels of the marker compounds.

Marker Compounds

These are plants constituents that most often, but not always, are chemicals or groups of chemicals that scientific research shows are responsible for, or related to, the medicinal activity of that herb. 

Industry and research establishments have developed sophisticated methods of scientific analysis for measuring these marker compounds, including various forms of chromatography, particularly High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). Such a facility can run into many thousands of dollars and is complex requiring special training and thus is mostly out of the reach, both fiscally and technically, for the small scale producer.

Scientific analysis is increasingly used in:

- Choosing the harvest time.
- The standardization of the medicinal herb batch.
- Establishing the quality of a herb batch.
- Identifying and quantifying the level of any contamination present.

The use of measured concentrations of marker compounds in no way takes into account nor accepts the medicinal activity of the 'subtle' vibrational energies of the plants. Increasingly, the measure of the medicinal efficacy of a herb is being aligned with the levels in the extracts of these marker compounds and is used as a means of standardization. In this writer's view this practice and assumption is not without its weaknesses. The practice of herbal medicine is increasingly becoming more "drug industry" like in its approach, with the inherent increase in regulations around manufacturing and controls on prescribing and distribution to the public.

With the industrial manufacture of herbal extracts using internationally sourced broad acre grown herbs, there is a need to monitor quality, especially levels of active chemical constituents including marker chemicals and for the presence of chemical contamination. A high standard of good manufacturing practice is needed in order to maintain 'measured' standards of efficacy and safety of product. 

However, the momentum of this movement and its direction could further result in a loss within Australia of plant stock, know how and the resources for growing medicinal herbs, and potentially further erode the 'grass roots' connection of the medicinal herb practitioner with the live plant.

Further, the increasing popularity and use of medicinal herbs as a more "natural" medication may well see the global allopathic drug industry acquiring an interest. The enormous financial and research resources it has could provide financial research dollars, but at what cost? With this industry's very close "alliance" with the medical profession and its influence on governments, it is possible that over time, the practice of Herbal Medicine and Naturopathy may become further restricted and controlled within the ambit of the health care industry. And, as herbal medicines are likely to be less profitable than drug medicine the tendency would be where there was 'competition' with a drug therapy, that the drug would be promoted and the herb 'moved sideways.'

Whatever the future for the commercial production of herbal medicines, it is now more obvious that if the practice of Herbal Medicine is to continue as a profession, then it very much needs 'to stay in touch' with the very basis of its medicine, being the live plant.

Small scale production - the Pindari Experience.

At Pindari, the focus in the growing of herbs and on the extraction processes used, is as much on the higher vibrational levels of energy as it is on the concentration of the chemical constituents.

The medicinal efficacy of Fresh Plant Tinctures (FPTs) from the anecdotal evidence gained at Pindari, suggests that they are in some cases more efficacious drop for drop when compared to the Fluid Extracts (FEs) produced from dried plant material. There are also indications they are subtly pharmacologically different, with the FEs being more for the treatment of disease within the human body and the FPT's more for the treatment of the whole person, i.e. Holistic Healing.

This observed pharmacological difference, even though the material dose of the FPT is much less than the FE, may be due to the fact that in large scale processing of medicinal herbs, dried plant material is used. This would substantially lose much of its higher vibrational energies and some chemistry such as volatile oils through the  drying process and storage. Industry also uses the percolation method for extracting the herbs and to prepare for this the dried herb material is subjected to either hammer milling or grinding. The percussion and abrasive processes involved would further reduce the remaining more subtle vibrational energies within the herb material. (See Energy Considerations in the Pharmacy of Herbal Medicines)

By contrast, at Pindari the aerial parts of herbs are usually harvested in the morning after the dew has evaporated. The fresh herb is then taken directly to the chaffing facility where it is comminuted using a motor driven razor sharp chaff cutter that cleanly cuts the herb into small portions. These are then taken to the processing room where the herb is weighed and bottled. The procedural practices around the bottling, pressing and storing of the herbal extract are discussed in the documents Practice and Principles in Making Fresh Plant Tinctures and Basic Guidelines in Making Oil Infusions

The smell and feel of the herb just after being comminuted in this way is quite extraordinary and the observed response of others is that the experience is such that it is not easily forgotten.

There is much evidence that the medicinal activity of most herbs is not based on one or a mix of chemical compounds but on a complex mix of the elements within the plant. Rudolf Fritz Weiss M.D. in his classic text "Herbal Medicine" (ISBN 3-13-129381-0) on page 163 states in regards to Crataegus oxyacantha: "It is obvious that the actions of the individual elements are not merely additive or synergic but that genuine potentiating occurs." This statement and other research papers supporting similar findings, suggest that marker compounds do not accurately measure the medicinal activity of a medicinal herb.

It is suggested in this document that the non material, higher vibrational energies of a herb do play a significant role in the potentiating effect alluded to above and thus the healing process, This is expanded on below.

Medicinal Herbs and other Modalities

Further evidence for this may be drawn from the practice of Homoeopathy where this healing modality uses a range of vibrational energy 'fractions' from 1:10 fresh plant tinctures through to highly diluted (10,000 times and more), potentized herbal extracts where there is little or no material left in the medicine. In general terms, the lower potencies (fresh plant tinctures) are used to treat the more material aspects of the disease and the higher potencies, more the mind and constitution.

The compounding of these different energy fractions is also an area of discussion amongst herbalists with some believing that when flower essences, homoeopathic medicines and other energetic forms of medicine are mixed with herbal extracts, it affects the efficacy of those added energies. Whereas, the author and other practitioners believe it is possible to successfully mix these energies and still maintain the added energy's individual effects. However, this 'energy addition' must be done appropriately, both energetically and procedurally.

The higher vibrational energies that are within an herb would most likely be held within or be present in the aqueous liquid fraction of the herb, they being "held" by the dipolar nature of the water molecule. If this is the case as the practice of homeopathy suggests, then the drying and aggressive comminution of the herb material would substantially affect these energies. 

Further support for this statement may be found in the research by the Japanese scientist Masaru Emoto with his elegant photographs of water crystals from different water samples (Refer to the book Message from Water by Masaru ISBN 1416522182), indicating that water can be negatively affected by pollution or other contaminants and that it also has the ability to be affected and hold positive energetic influences.

The above area of energy and medicinal herbs and the addition of other energetic modalities is further discussed in the companion document to this paper Energy Considerations in the Pharmacy of Herbal Medicines

Assessing the Quality of Medicinal Herbs

Using Science

Science has advanced enormously over the last one hundred years, and as this has occurred much of our 'reading' of the world around us using our senses has been replaced by the 'scientific measurement.' There has been a loss of trust and reliance on our natural sensory gifts in many areas of our lives. This is so in orthodox medicine and herbal medicine. 

Science through chromatography gives us very accurate, even precise measurements and identification of the chemical content of herbal material, but it does not and cannot replace individuals' personalized response via their senses of their whole body experience to internal and external stimuli. This is so with the ingestion of foods and that includes medicinal 'foods', i.e. herbal medicines.

Also, science very adequately measures the chemical constituents in medicinal herbs but cannot yet measure their higher vibrational energies. Chromatography, perhaps, gives just a hint of their existence in its graphic displays of the complex material chemical contents.

Using our Human Senses 

This document encourages the 're-opening of the door' and the exploration of the use of our touch, taste, smell and visual observation in assessing herbs as a medicine, this being done as an addition to the information provided by science. It is suggested here that the human senses are an important means of evaluating a medicinal herb's healing potential and especially that of its higher vibrational energies.

We are gifted with the ability to 'watch' the effect our foods and beverages have on our being as we savour a meal and with medicinal herbs we are able to consciously ingest them and inwardly watch the effects they have on our being. We are able to observe where their energies go in our body, what systems they affect and what they do to our bodily functions. 

Exploration of this human potential in a group setting has shown that most if not all are able to experience this and that with time this 'sense' can be developed to become a personal measuring device for the potential efficacy of a herb. By extension this can then be applied to the possibility of that herb similarly helping others. This natural sensory gift is what would have been used by our ancestors as they explored the flora of their world and discovered the healing herbs.

For further information and comment on the sensing of the energies of herbal medicines and on the observed differences between FEs and FPTs, pleases refer to the "Taste Testing" document.

The Future of Herbal Medicine

The Present

As shared in the introduction, there are now two broadly based directional 'streams' in the practice of herbal medicine as observed by this author. One stream is the use of liquid herbal extracts from the freshly harvested herb, usually of a strength of between 1:5 to 1:10 dry weight to liquid. Here the dose measure is usually in drops of the herbal extract, being based on the need of each individual case and the herbs used, the prescriber using both the plant's chemical substrate and its higher vibrational energies to elicit a healing response. This practice being holistic in its approach, aims at treating the 'whole' person.

The other is the 'scientific' stream where liquid herbal extracts at a strength usually of 1:1 to 1:2 dry weight to liquid are used that have been industrially manufactured from dried plant material that has been standardized to the levels of its marker compounds. Here the dose is mostly in mLs and is administered for pre-established medical conditions with the intent to relieve and heal disease.

The first stream is more the 'art' of healing and the second is more the 'science' of healing. Each stream is valid, each stream is medically functional, but the streams are at times 'poles apart' in their application and healing intent. Both streams are needed and both have a future in the healing of man's diseases but will draw to them different practitioners and often different patients.

The development of the scientific stream has been accompanied by a shift in the mindset of many herbal practitioners in their practice of herbal medicine. Many now correctly think of liquid extracts (FEs) of medicinal herbs as being bottles full of plant chemical compounds. This is compared with the mindset of the 'art stream' where a liquid herbal extract is considered to be a bottle containing a vibrant energy extract of a herb.

The current movement of the practice of herbal medicine towards the scientific approach is being encouraged by:

• The scientific/technological focus of current society.

• The increasing scale and commercial power of large industrial herb processors.

• Herbal educational institutions' acceptance of this direction as being the "state of the art" or more correctly, the "state of the science." 

• Government influenced syllabuses.

• Increasing government regulatory control, license fees etc., and the need for greater volume to cover those costs.

• The industry's funding of research on its products and the published papers on these trials.

• The ability of these commercial organizations to influence government.

But there is a risk with the current forceful advance of the scientific way, that the way of the 'art' can become a 'lost art.'

The Future?

As previously suggested, the current mainstream practice of herbal medicine is inexorably moving towards that of allopathic drug medicine. In part, this is perhaps being done by necessity as the market volume expands, becomes more industrialized and science demands 'evidence based medicine.' But the longer term impact of this further moves the practice of herbal medicine in the direction of marker compounds and standardized products, and away from considering herbal medicines as an 'art' using an 'energy' medicine.

The focus on marker compounds and researched dosage regimes tracks down the allopathic path with its inherent toxicity issues. Dosage regimes focus the mind of the prescriber materially on dose and effect compared with the energetic practitioner's view of matching the needed vibrational energy of the patient with a like vibrational energy drawn from the plant kingdom. The 'allopathic' mindset historically leads to the, at times, use of 'heroic' doses in order to elicit a medical response. These high doses of herbal chemicals can then be close to or at the upper limit of their therapeutic window which introduces the complications of increased side effects and the potential for toxicity. This is an increasingly 'long way' from the 'art' of herbal medicine where historically the traditional use of medicinal herbs as being plant material which, when freshly harvested from the meadows, woods and jungle, was prepared and administered to the sick. 

The practice of herbal medicine has become far more elegant, far more scientific and because of this, at times more efficacious, but to lose contact with the very roots of any profession is to open the 'doorway' to its potential demise. Herbal medicine has been practiced at a tribal and community level since the beginning of recorded history and its longevity may be attributed to its nearby availability and to its efficacy. 

For the practice of herbal medicine as it is known today to successfully continue, the art of herbal medicine is in need of support and to this end teaching institutions are including 'herbal lore' in their curriculums and more attention is being given to educating herbal medicine students in the 'art' of this ancient modality, including plant identification and with the personal interface with growing herbs. 

In the author's view, the importance of this maintenance of interface with the fresh plant cannot  be underestimated as the planet is in a state of increasingly rapid and de-stabilizing change. Should this lead to a collapse of industry, including the medical and herbal industry, then history has shown that people then turn to herbs for their medicine and being able to recognize and know how to produce and dose medications from those plants would become a very much needed expertise. To put it bluntly, non 'artisan' herbalists as with medical doctors would be lost without their commercially produced products and diagnostic tools. 

So where lies the future of herbal medicine? All that can be said at this time is that there is a risk of a further loss in the knowledge base and human resources around healing using fresh herbal extracts, and also the attendant loss in the knowledge of how to recognize, grow, harvest and process medicinal herbs "at home," plus the loss of the related genetic material. 

For the students of herbal medicine, whether graduate or undergraduate, being aware of the 'two streams' and accepting of both, and professionally placing themselves where they wish to practice while recognizing and accepting their choice, can only lead to better healing results and thus furthering the acceptance of herbal medicine as a valid healing modality.

This way, the 'art' and the science of herbal medicine can both prosper and be mutually supportive.

The Experience of Living with the herbs - developing an affinity for and with the herbs.

The more one lives with, works with, handles, tastes, eyeballs and smells the live herbs, the more one develops an affinity with and for them, and the greater the depth of understanding one gains as to their healing potential. You begin to know the herb and sense its properties and at times the relationship is such that you can relate to how past herbal masters and the indigenous herbalists felt in their relation to the plant kingdom. This experience goes beyond science and materialism, it being both intuitive and spiritual. 

The Greek physician Dioscorides and others put forward a doctrine titled "The Doctrine of Signatures" that suggests that the physical expression of a herb significantly describes its medicinal properties. In living and working with medicinal herbs from the growing, processing and prescribing of these plants as medicines, the more the truth of this doctrine becomes self evident and the deeper the signature expression is seen to be, also involving how the herb energetically expresses itself within its environment.

A recent example of how one's handling of live herbs can be experientially educational was when Ribwort (Plantago lanceolata) was being harvested by the author and a friend. By the time the harvest was finished, both having been immersed in the energy of the herb through close contact, but having internally consumed none, the herb's effects on the upper respiratory area could clearly be felt.

The ongoing closeness of contact with herbs develops a sensitivity for the plants that allows one to be able to relate to the plants' growing needs, when to harvest in order to best capture the plants' essence and its medical properties, both physical and energetic. The same senses, but perhaps not recognized as such,  apply to the growing and harvesting of home grown vegetables and fruit, and the city dwellers in their attempt to select the best fresh foods from the supermarket shelf.

It is suggested that this is an evolutionary survival ability common to all but more dominant because of use in some and easily re-kindled in most. 

Summary

This document expresses the concern of the author that should the mainstream direction of herbal medicine continue down its current path there is a risk of it being 'swallowed' by the overall medical industry. The enormously powerful drug industry could acquire the herbal manufacturing industry and then the few profitable areas of herbal medicine (for that industry) are likely to be kept and the rest discarded. Already many herbal extracts are being discontinued because of economics due, in part to increasing costs in licensing, quality controls and regulations compliance. 

The trend of governments to place medicine under the one 'umbrella' as a cost cutting measure could see education in this ancient healing modality become further directed and fiscally controlled as to what 'must' be taught and even become an  'understudy' of the medical profession. 

The voicing of this concern comes from over 30 years experience in working in and watching the medical and allopathic drug industries and their ways.

The positive out of this and the purpose in part of this document is to draw this potential to the attention of all 'lovers' of herbal medicine, and to encourage them to urgently re-establish their connection with the grass roots of herbal medicine which is with the live plant and its products. This grass roots connection with 'the plants in the garden' provides the availability of product in worst case scenarios and also encourages and makes more secure the 'art' of herbal medicine practice.

Herbal medicine has survived "being burnt at the stake" and the ongoing 'attacks' on its credibility, efficacy and availability. It has survived as a healing practice for millennia. But today, aside from government and industry domination, to survive in this 'material' world any healing modality is to a great degree dependant on it being financially viable and efficacious. 

In the small scale growing and processing of  medicinal herbs in Australia, the economics are such that to be financially viable, it is necessary to value add to the herbs grown. This can be achieved by making liquid extracts and then furthered, as in the case at Pindari, by making 'natural' creams using these herbs. Success in the market place is furthered by practicing a high degree of integrity and professionalism that 'guarantees' quality of product; this, by growing, producing and using the very best quality herbal extracts. Also important is maintaining low cost structures via a small farm environment, keeping it simple with selling direct to the consumer and not getting caught up in costly government controls and regulations. To do this may mean stepping outside of the "system's" controls.

The current global situation in regards to financial collapse, energy availability and climate change etc., may well see the need to quickly 'revive' traditional herbal medicine. Therein lies one of the functions of Pindari Herb Farm, it being to maintain and expand the knowledge base of herbal medicines in their propagation, growing, harvesting, processing and usage, and to encourage more of the 'art' of herbal medicine. Important also is the acquiring, identifying and sharing of the critical resource for herbal medicine, being the genetic pool of the medicinal plants.

Should a major financial collapse or other major disaster happen, history shows that communities necessarily turn to herbs as their medicine, they being the basis of nature's medicines and as humanity is at the cross roads now, all the more important is the maintenance of the know how and genetic stock for the preparation of herbal medicines.

Ken Atherton
November 2010

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