Urban Fringe Pharmacy

The most notable thing about the new BBC programme ‘Grow Your Own Drugs’ is the complete absence of any mention of herbalists. Why is this? What do the commissioning editors at the BBC have to gain from excluding herbalists from a magazine style programme that is clearly about herbal medicine?

Perhaps it would be better to ask what they would have to gain from including a herbalist or two. Looking at the first episode we were shown how filling a pillow with hops is very good for insomnia. Whilst the presenter, James Wong, was eager to point out that this in no way constituted a clinical trial (I am a scientist, there is no evidence…etc.) the message was pretty clear: If you’ve got insomnia get some hops. A herbalist, however, would have pointed out that hops are quite seriously contraindicated in depression, and since insomnia is a major feature of depression, anyone with depression should avoid hops. Wong also made a syrup from figs and senna for treating constipation. He used four handfuls of senna, which were decocted and mixed with the figs. Four handfuls of senna is enough to blast the collective arses off a herd of rhinos. I think a herbalist might also have mentioned this, and pointed out that continued use of senna can do long term damage to the digestive system. So, of the three medical interventions that Wong mentioned, two needed some serious caveats, and by anyone’s standards that’s not very good.

Going back to the original question, why no mention of herbalists? Various answers have been flying around the herbal forums. I liked the idea that someone mentioned about how the witch craze, which ran in Britain and Europe from about 1450 to about 1700, wasn’t actually that long ago. During this time it was dangerous for women to admit to knowledge of herbs, or to teach children about herbs, for fear of being branded a witch. The fear surrounding the witch phenomena became deeply entrenched over the duration of the craze, only petering out about 300 years ago. That’s only 12 generations ago, which is a short enough time span for remnants of the fear to still be there.

I think it is just as likely that the absence of herbalists from this programme is connected to the vested interests of a political class that represent, or have aspirations to represent, the establishment. The creation of a polarised discourse of conventional evidence-based medicine Vs. anything alternative has been going on for a while now in the aspirational broadsheet press, particularly the Guardian, and at the BBC. We now seem to have arrived at a point where it is not permissable for commissioning editors to communicate information about anything to do with health, without getting the sanction of a scientific priesthood. It is no longer possible, for example, to have a public debate on herbal medicine without the paternalistic voice of the priesthood to tell us what is true and what isn’t. They are often wrong, despite their impressive academic records, as not many of them have spent their lives devoted to studying herbs and trying to help patients get better by taking a holistic approach. Indeed, it is common amongst herbalists, many of whom I regard as being examples of the finest minds and noblest intentions to which one could hope to aspire, to feel sidelined, marginalised, and to some extent persecuted by the vested interests of an academic and medical establishment.

In other words, its a class issue. The aspiring political class feel uncomfortable with herbal medicine, maybe as a vestige of the witch craze, but just as  likely because there is no benefit to be had from associating with a practice that can’t be controlled by an expert elite (despite their best efforts to regulate the profession). So, in the dissemination of information about this rather uncomfortable subject, it has become standard practice in the mainstream media to lend authority to people who have recognised achievements in other fields of study.  These might be loosely associated with health or botany, because to get a herbalist in  would be to admit that there is a body of expertise that is specifically to do with herbal medicine, and that would never do. Hence James Wong, ethnobatanist.

I witnessed another superb example of this at last year’s Festival of Ideas in Bristol. Professor Edzard Ernst was in town with his sidekick Simon Singh, villifying homeopathy as usual. Talking of herbal medicine, he mentioned that St John’s Wort has been clinically proven, according the prevailing orthodoxy of what constitutes proof, fully sanctioned by the priesthood, to be equally effective as most antidepressant drugs for treating depression, without the side effects often associated with the drugs. For this reason, Ernst went on, depressed people must avoid using St John’s Wort as there is a risk it might make them well enough to commit suicide.

Oh dear Edzard. And they still regularly wheel him out in his priestly robes in the Guardian and elsewhere to comment on herbal medicine.

Having said all that, it is  quite a good thing that there is a programme about using plants for healthcare. It will probably get the viewers because its quite slick, and there is something quite anodyne about Wong himself. His posh-boy enthusiasm – he’s 27 and still gets excited about bath bombs! Gosh! – is OK for a Monday night, probably. I don’t suppose it was his decision to not include herbalists. In fact I seriously doubt that he had very much to do with the script at all. Or the design of the set that we are supposed to believe is his house/ kitchen / garden. Or any of the recipes etc. Of course I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Here’s Christopher Hedley’s recipe for syrup of figs, using easily available dried figs and no senna, taken from the herb society’s  website.

SYRUP OF FIGS

Figs are nutritious and easily digestible, but they are probably best-known for their gentle laxative action, which is particularly suitable for treating children with constipation. Syrup of figs tastes good too. Ingredients:
8 dried figs, Ficus carica
250 ml (8 fl oz) water
Juice of 1/2 lemon, Citrus limon
5ml (1 tsp) ginger, Zingiber officinale , powder
225 gm (1/2 lb) molasses or dark brown sugar. Method:Slice the figs thinly and simmer them in the water until soft, about 20 minutes. Pour the liquid off. Keep the cooked figs. Make the liquid back up to the original amount with fresh water, add the sugar and heat gently, stirring all the time, until the sugar is dissolved. Add the lemon juice, ginger and cooked figs and blend together, in an electric blender. Pour into a clean, preferably sterilized jar, label and store in a cool place. This syrup will keep well.

Dosage:For a child, 1 or 2 dessertspoons For an adult, 3 or 4 dessertspoons daily

By the way, I’ve just created a facebook group called ‘where’s the herbalist?‘ – just in case you’re on facebook, and you’re still reading this.

‘