Medicinal Herbs

Plants have been used for medicinal purposes for quite a long time. Ancient Chinese and Egyptian papyrus writings describe medicinal uses for plants as early as 3,000 BC. Indigenous cultures (such as African and Native American) used herbs in their healing rituals, while others developed traditional medical systems (such as Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine) in which herbal therapies were used. Researchers found that people in different parts of the world tended to use the same or similar plants for the same purposes.

In the early 19th century, when chemical analysis first became available, scientists began to extract and modify the active ingredients from plants. Later, chemists began making their own version of plant compounds and, over time, the use of herbal medicines declined in favor of drugs. Almost one fourth of pharmaceutical drugs are derived from botanicals.

Recently, the World Health Organization estimated that 80% of people worldwide rely on herbal medicines for some part of their primary health care. In Germany, about 600 to 700 plant based medicines are available and are prescribed by some 70% of German physicians. In the past 20 years in the United States, public dissatisfaction with the cost of prescription medications, combined with an interest in returning to natural or organic remedies, has led to an increase in herbal medicine use.

Whole herbs contain many ingredients, and they may work together to produce a beneficial effect. Many factors determine how effective an herb will be. For example, the type of environment (climate, bugs, and soil quality) in which a plant grew will affect it, as will how and when it was harvested and processed.

TASK 1:

pick 10 herbs that have a medicinal use and write their benefits.

TASK 2:

make a 3 column 15 rows chart.

TASK 3:

Write a report expressing your opinion on medicinal herbs.

look at these pages to help yourself with tasks 1 and 2.

webpage1

webpage2

task 3: 

you could talk about : if they really work? have you ever used them? would you use them? Are you against their use?

what ever the topic makes you feel.

TASKS 1 & 2: 

Creativity will be considered and the content. if the content is very little and not well explained do not expect an A. 

TASK 3: 

No less than 400 words are expected and it should have a cover. 

AMAZING JOB!

                                       YOU MADE IT TO THE END!

                                                                                        FEEL VERY PROUD!

To me Tania :)                                                   

And to my teacher who helped me create this webquest.

reference of the introduction:

webpage

my blog