2,000 Greater & Lesser Mysteries

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The PCHerbal Database ====================== Version 1.2 By The Sacred Grove Introduction ------------ The PCHerbal database is designed for anyone who is interested in the tradition of using herbs as alternative medicine, or for adventurous cooks who want to add something a little different to their culinary experience. The idea of putting it on to a computer is to facilitate the quick referencing of herbs by their medicinal effect, plus the speed with which individual herbs can be brought up on the screen. It is suggested that the program could be run on a computer usable by the public at herbalists or health-food shops, at garden centres or herb gardens, or at any place where reference on plants is needed ( if we get a positive feedback from the likes of garden centres, we have an idea of developing a report that can be given to customers at the check-out describing the uses of herbs they have just bought ). For novelty value alone the database is useful, and we hope that it gives pleasure to people who just want to browse through the entries. To the herb enthusiast it can also become the start for their own research database into the value of herbs. So, use it, copy it, send it to your friends. We don't care what you do with it so long as you do do something. And if it pleases you, would you be so kind as to send a small donation payable to A.S.Gilmour at 21 Marcus Street, Chester Green, Derby DE1 3SE. In return you will be classed as a registered user, re- ceive updates as they become available, and receive answers to any written enquiries. Page 1 A Cautionary Note ----------------- Much research has gone into ensuring the accuracy of claims made for the medicinal actions of plants contained in the data- base. However, they are just claims ( though many herbs are constituents of proprietary medicines sold commercially ) and we would be the last people to tell you to rely on them instead of your GP. These remedies have been used for centuries when no other treatment was available, and time has proved them effective in many cases. Nowadays, though, you pay your National Insurance contributions in order that skilled medical advice is always available to you ( can't you just tell I work for the NHS? ). Don't waste that money! Also, you can sue The State instead of us if something goes wrong! So, use these remedies by all means, but use them sensibly and carefully; See your GP whenever you have a serious or recurring condition; Tell your GP that you are using herbal remedies if s/he is prescribing any drugs ( they may be counter-indicative ); And whenever possible discuss your symptoms with a qualified herbalist, as it is possible to mis-selfdiagnose your condition. Some of the herbs in the database are extremely poisonous and this is indicated on their entry. They are there to warn you that you can't just sling a handful of any old green stuff into a cup of boiling water and expect to feel better. Finally, always consult a field-guide or, preferably, an expert botanist, before taking herbs that you have picked your- self for the first time. And on that note, given the increasing rarity of wild plants in Britain, it is always preferable to buy your herbs or grow your own anyway. If I have put you off using herbs now then remember: - that used carefully they can be an important tool in self- help; - that you know for sure that they have not been tested on animals; - that their use is holistic rather than the chemical spe- cifics your Chemist will give you; - that multi-national chemical companies haven't profited from you; - that you are keeping alive a tradition which stretches back to the dawn of time. etc etc etc NB Some of the plants on the database are not strictly herbs but are shrubs or trees. For the purpose of the PCHerbal any member of the plant kingdom with beneficial medicinal or culinary uses are included. Page 2 Installing the PCHerbal ----------------------- The database can be run from a single disk but better perform- ance will be achieved by installing it on a hard disk. To run from floppy, put the disk in the A: drive; Mount the A: drive by typing A:<enter> ( <enter> means press the key labelled enter rather than typing all that in ). Then type PCHERBAL<enter>. To install on your hard disk, at the C:> prompt type MD PCHERBAL<enter> Put the floppy in the A: drive and type COPY A:*.* C:\PCHER- BAL When done, type CD PCHERBAL<enter> Now type PCHERBAL<enter> And away you go! On hard disks, to run from anywhere in your directory struc- ture edit your autoexec.bat file so that the path command con- tains a reference to c:\PCHERBAL. E.g you might edit it so that it says PATH=C:\DOS;C:\;C:\PCHERBAL Running The PCHerbal -------------------- You've probably gathered it by now, all you do is type PCHER- BAL<enter> either when on the A: drive or, if installed success- fully, in the PCHERBAL directory. The first screen is just a reminder of where to send the money to; press any key to get past it. You will then be presented with a menu of 5 options plus Q to quit. Choose the option you require by pressing the appropriate number, e.g. press 2 for 'Database by Common Name'. If you press Q at this menu you will leave the database, and will be given the reminder screen again. Press any key to get past this. The options are: 1. Herbal Database by Latin Name This is the main database of herbs where the retrieve option looks for matches of the Latin name. The Latin name used is the most commonly accepted botanical one; Even though there can be many there are never more than the many common names a plant may acquire and so this is the best way to access a specific herb for certain. Page 3 2. Database by Common Name The screen looks almost exactly the same as for option 1 above. The difference is that herbs are retrieved via the common name. As herbs often have many many common names depending on which part of the country you are in this is not so exact at finding the herb you want than by the Latin name. However, you are more likely to remember houseleek than sempervivum tectotorum for example ( or do you know it as Aaron's rod, bullock's eye, hens and chickens, Jupiter's eye, Jupiter's beard, Thor's beard, live-forever, thunder plant, senegreen, Ayron, Ayegreen etc. Do you see the problem? ) 3. Medicinal Effects For this option you look for the effect you want, anti- inflammatory for instance, and the database gives you a list of herbs that have that quality and which you can then look at in as much detail as for 1 & 2 above. 4. Common Methods of Preparation This is a lookup area which tells you about the different ways of taking herbs ( infusion, decoction, poultice etc ). 5. View Selected Herbs Choosing this option gives you a menu of herbs, the choosing of which presents a scanned image of that herb. This is only in the experimental stage but may be added to in a later version ( pay those registration fees please folks! ). Using The Main Database ----------------------- This equates to choosing options 1 or 2 as described above. The database gives the following information on each herb: Latin Name - this is the more usually accepted botanical name for the herb. Common Name - this is the most common of the many names a herb may go under. Name Derivation - a bit of background as to why the herb's name came about historically. Suggested Collection Season - the best months for gathering the herbs from the wild, or preferably from your garden, for the purpose of using fresh or for drying. Life Cycle - whether it is annual ( completes it's life cycle from planting to dying in one year ), biennial ( is planted in the first year and fruits in the second ), perennial ( grows each year from the same plant ), or other ( e.g. evergreen ). Useful information if you are planning a herb garden. Height - how tall the herb grows. Again, useful if you want to grow it yourself, or for identification in the wild. Parts Used - these are the parts of the plant which have medicinal value. Collection - notes on how to cut and dry the herb. Constituents - up to six of the actual active ingredients which give the plant it's medicinal value. Page 4 Indications for Use - a list of conditions which are helped or alleviated by taking the herb. No guarantees are given! Preparation - usually how much herb is needed to make an infusion for medicinal purposes. Frequency - how often it is safe to take the above prepara- tion. Culinary Uses - to what use the herb has been put to in the kitchen. At the bottom of the screen is a menu of options that you can do within the database. These are accessed by pressing the first letter of the option, e.g. Ret ( return ) is chosen by pressing R. The options and their actions are as follows: Zom ( zoom ) - use to look at the medicinal action ascribed to the herb displayed. Whilst in the zoomed screen pressing L will give a list of all the actions, Z will explain the action displayed, N and P takes you to the next and previous action. T, for what it is worth, tells you how many actions there are. Ret ( return or retrieve ) - use to bring a particular herb up on to the screen. Press R then type in either the Latin name or the Common name ( depending on whether you chose option 1 or 2 at the main menu ). REMEMBER TO TYPE IN UPPER CASE. Note that PAR will bring up PARSLEY, and indeed P will bring up the first herb beginning with P, so no need to type the whole name in ( particularly useful for the Latin names ). Beg ( beginning ) - takes you to the first herb in the database by alphabetical Latin or common name. End - takes you to the last herb in the database alphabeti- cally. Nxt ( next ) - displays the next ( alphabetically ) herb on the screen. Prv ( previous ) - displays the previous ( alphabetically ) herb on the screen. Mod ( modify ) - allows you to modify, ie overwrite, the herb currently displayed on the screen. When done the computer asks you 'Save?' to which you press either Y ( for yes ) or N ( no I've made a bodge-up ). Add - use to add a new herb to the database. Note that it will not allow duplicates of Latin or Common name to be added. As you enter the details about the herb, pressing <enter> takes you to the next field, and <home> and <end> take you to the beginning and end of the field. Pressing <Page Down> skips the rest of the entries and asks you if you want to save that record. Page 5 Del ( delete ) - allows you to delete the herb currently displayed on the screen. If you delete any herbs the computer asks you if you want to pack the records. This means that any records marked up for deletion will be irretrievably lost. Lst ( list ) - lists all the herbs by common and Latin name in the database FROM THE CURRENT HERB. It is often an idea to press B for beginning first before pressing L for list. After each screen you are asked if you want to see more. Press Y if this is so, N if not. Tal ( tally ) - tallies, or counts, all the herbs in the database. Hlp ( help ) - gives a brief outline of what the menu op- tions do, plus what the special keys do when editing or adding a record ( eg <home> ). Qit ( quit ) - leaves the database and returns you to the main menu. Medicinal Actions ----------------- Pressing 3 at the main menu brings up this area of the herbal. Here you have a description of medicinal actions which relate to the ones ascribed to herbs in the main database (see above). If you want to add a new medicinal action, do it through this option. If you want to associate a herb with an action do it through the main database by Zooming then Adding. If you add in this latter way, ensure that the action has already been added to the medicinal action file. Also be careful of spelling the action correctly and typing it in upper case. Not following this advice may lead to inconsistencies. The menu options are the same as for the main database, as described above. E.g. L will give you a list of all actions in the file from the current record. R will return an action ( type it in upper case, remember ). However, Z for 'zoom' will give you the first herb ( alphabet- ically by Latin name ) that has this action. Further pressing Z will look at that herb in more detail ( in fact the same detail as in the main database ). If instead you press L, the system will list all herbs with that property ( in alphabetic order by Latin name ). Pressing N for next etc will give you the next herb with that property, and not the next medicinal action. Press Q to quit to return you to the medicinal action file. When you have found the medicinal action that you require ( eg perhaps you want to help alleviate a sore throat so you have called up the record on the action 'ANTI-INFLAMMATORY' ), perform the following: Press Z to zoom in on the first herb with this action ( NB according to tradition and experience ). Page 6 If the herb displayed is not one you can easily obtain, press N to look at the next record, and so on until you find one. When you have a likely looking herb on the screen, press Z to zoom in on further details about the herb. Note in particular the indications for use. If the condition you want to help with is not here, or there are warnings about it's use, then chances are that either the herb only has a mild medicinal action in this respect, or it's use would be too dan- gerous without medical supervision. If the herb seems a likely helper, note down the preparation details and frequency of use ( or press your <Print Screen> button if you have a printer and it is on-line and ready ). Press Q to return to the herbs with the chosen medicinal action. If you need, or want, to look at more herbs press N for the next one and repeat the above procedure. Press Q to return to the medicinal action descriptions and look for another action that would be of use ( e.g. in our sore throat example you might want to look at febrifuges if the sore throat is accompanied by a temperature ). If the same herb(s) appear then that re-inforces the special action of that herb in helping with this condition. Press Q to leave medicinal Actions and return to the main menu. When looking at herbs with medicinal actions, remember that herbal healing is not like the chemical bullet that is modern medicine. That is to say, unlike a specific pill being prescribed for a particular ailment, herbs work in a holistic way. You should recognise that rather than take an infusion to cure the symptoms ( e.g. an anti-tussive to get rid of a cough ), you should look at the reason for the symptoms and help the body fight that instead ( in the case of our cough, that may be the body's natural action in combating some invasive infection. By stopping the coughing you may be doing more harm than good by impairing the body's natural defence mechanism ). It goes without saying that prevention is better than cure, and in this respect herbs have a lot to offer. Not least is the often overlooked richness of vitamins and minerals stored in many plants. Other herbs are described as blood-purifiers or spring tonics, and work by generally toning the system. Occasional diuretics and mild laxatives will also keep the body healthy by ( excuse the expression ) flushing out build-ups of toxic wastes in the body. Finally, note the other actions the herb may have on the body. Are they actions that work with the desired effect, or counter to it? Is the diaphoretic you want also an emetic, for example? If you don't want to cause nausea in your patient then either look for a more suitable herb, or look for an anti-emetic to take in conjunction with it and prevent the nausea. Many herbs are more effective when taken with others. This is not apparent by looking at the PCHerbal, so why not buy a good herbal reference book for more in depth details. Page 7 Common Methods of Preparation ----------------------------- By pressing 4 at the main menu you come to this area of the system. It is included as a brief guideline to ways in which herbs can be administered. To have a look at a text description of a method, press the lettered key displayed as a capital in it's name on the menu at the top of the screen. For example, press I to look at how to prepare an infusion. Press Q when you have read a method, and then either another letter for another method or Q to return to the main menu. Note that these descriptions are not kept as records but are hard-coded into the system. This means that they are not amend- able, and others are not able to be added. Or not yet anyway, please contact us if you think it would be a good idea. View Selected Herbs ------------------- Pressing 5 at the main menu gives you a further menu of 1-6 herb options. Pressing the indicated number puts a picture of that herb up on the screen. E.g. press 5 to see a drawing of different members of the mint family. We admit that this was only an experiment, and we invite your comments as to whether we should expand it or change it in some way. Just appreciate that scanned images take up a lot of disk space, so one for every herb in the PCHerbal is not feasible until CD Roms become heck of a lot cheaper! To Quit the PCHerbal -------------------- Press Q at the main menu. Press any other key to get past the title screen which is re-displayed. Any Problems? ------------- The write to us at the Sacred Grove, 21 Marcus Street, Chester Green, Derby DE1 3SE. Registered users will get preferential treatment. Page 8 Bibliography ------------ Recommended books, used in the compilation of this PC herbal and for further study: Culpeper, Nicholas, 'Complete Herbal' (Re-print of 1826 edi- tion by Harvey Sales, 1981) Gerarde, John, 'The Herball' reprint of 1636 edition (Bracken) Grieve, Mrs M., 'A Modern Herbal' (Penguin) Grigson, Geoffrey, 'A Herbal of Sorts' (Phoenix House) Harris, Ben Charles, 'Eat the Weeds' (Keats Publishing Inc) Hoffman, David L, 'The Holistic Herbal' (Findhorn) Hoffman, David L, 'The Herb User's Guide' (Thorson's) Holt, Geraldene, 'Complete Book of Herbs' Conran Octopus) Launert, Edmund, 'Edible and Medicinal Plants of Britain & Northern Europe' (CountryLife Guides) Lust, John, 'The Herb Book' (Bantam Books) Mabey, Richard, 'Food for Free' (Collins) Mills, Simon, 'Dictionary of Modern Herbalism' (Thorson's) Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, 'Culinary and Medicinal Herbs' Bulletin No. 76, 1960. Philips, Roger, 'Wild Food' (Pan) Palaiseul, Jean, 'Grandmother's Secrets' (Penguin) Thomson, William A.R., 'Healing Plants (McGraw-Hill) Usher, G., 'Dictionary of Plants Used By Man' (Constable) Useful Addresses ---------------- Chiltern Herbs, Bortree Stile, Ulverston, Cumbria LA12 7PB. (Ask for seed catalogue or visit their nursery). Culpeper, 21 Burton Street, Berkeley Square, London W1X 7DA. (Ask for catalogue of herbal based preparations. Outlets through- out UK). Heritage Seeds, Henry Doubleday Research Association, Ryton Gardens, Ryton on Dunsmore, Coventry CV8 3LG. (For organically grown seeds by post, & herbs if you visit - well worth it). The Herb Society, PO Box 599, London SW11 4RW (Forum for seminars and queries. Newsletters. Discounts on entry to many herb gardens). The School of Herbal Medicine, 148 Forest Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. (Give training for membership of The Institute of medical Herbalists given below). The National Institute of Medical Herbalists, 41 Hatherley Road, Winchester, Hampshire. (For a list of practising Herbal- ists). The Sacred Grove, 21 Marcus St., Chester Green, Derby DE1 3SE. (Non-profit-making foundation for the promotion of holistic ideas & the preservation of ancient wisdom). Suffolk Herbs Ltd, Sawyers Farm, Little Cornard, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 0NY. (Herb supplier and nursery). Page 9