Fascinating Facts

I am enjoying my latest edition of Resurgence, the attractive magazine, edited by Satish Kumar, which is "at the heart of earth, art and spirit." On its website it is described as "a magazine for people who care about the environment, love reading, enjoy new ideas and are looking for inspiration on sustainable living." It is beautifully produced and a pleasure to read, with its wonderful illustrations, its poetry and its high calibre articles.

I have always worried about having to take pharmaceutical drugs - have never been sure about the long term side effects, which so often are little known.

But perhaps I need never have worried, or not so much anyway? According to an article in the Resurgence July/August issue by Joanna Eede a recent analysis of the original sources for the 1031 drugs approved world wide from 1981 to 2002 concluded that none were totally synthetic. The "majority of medicines are still based on structures found in Nature, and Nature still provides the best chemical leads ...for compounds that have a medicinal value for humans. "

And where does such knowledge come from in the first place? From the indigenous tribes, who have always relied on the plants around them for the prevention and treatment of illness, and have been in tune with the ecosystems around them for thousands of years.

If we ignore such ancient wisdom, drive such tribes and their ecosystems to extinction, we risk losing a vast fund of knowledge and perhaps losing cures that are yet to be discovered.

The photo is a view of the herb garden at Hever Castle in Kent, summer 2010.