Herbs Hands Healing Policy on Sustainable Herbal Medicine

There’s no doubt about it that herbal medicine is on the up and that demand for plants will increase yearly at quite a rate, as we all respond to public demand, we must look towards the future and herbal companies must lead the way on how the herbs are provided to meet this ever increasing need.

We put into place many years ago a policy concerning the use of sustainable collected wild grown plants and the purchase of organically grown medicinal plants. Our concern is to protect world ecosystems from damage from non-sustainable wild harvesting practices and to encourage new types of agriculture and employment in the process and or to preserve local agricultural traditions in rural areas. It all takes time, it’s often a question of simply putting one foot in front of the other, season to season.

Herbs Hands Healing tries its hardest to only use ‘cold climate herbs’, in other words herbs that although they may be indigenous to China they could be grown more locally to our business. We can and do buy from India and America but shipping herbs round the world at high fuel costs just doesn’t seem right. Thirty years down the line it certainly won’t be okay and so we need to know that plants we come to like, rely on and form habits around can be grown somewhat locally. For instance Devils Claw grows in the Dessert in South Africa but is becoming endangered due to overharvesting. It is brilliant for Arthritis, but so is Meadowsweet and this works perfectly well and surrounds us in East Anglia. Not only does it grow weed like everywhere it naturally yields two flowering crops a year without trying. I’ve used both plants in my Clinic and I’m very happy to stick to Meadowsweet. We’ve also been invited to work alongside The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (where I originally did some of my training) on these sustainability issues and get help with plant analysis and other aspects, which is all very supportive and vital to a small business like ours. If you look closely at our formulas the gardeners amongst you will know what I’m talking about – Silver Birch, Dandelion, Burdock, Raspberry and Liquorice can all be grown in a U.K. climate. Olive Leaf grows in a more Mediterranean climate but still it doesn’t need to be transported halfway around the world and spring prunings are used which is wonderful. In fact amongst the 250 botanicals used here only a handful remain what we call hot climate only and they are indisputable must haves e.g. Ginger, Tumeric and Cape Aloe. We have a long way to go but every year we achieve more; next year we hope to grow Passionflower locally and then fresh organic Passiflora Incarnata flowers will be a reality a couple of years later. What a sight!

European Ruling on Vitamins/Minerals & Supplements is separate to Herbal Medicine Legislation