Before modern medicine, there was herbal or plant medicine.
“Herbal medicine can be sometimes called phytomedicine. It can sometimes be called alternative medicine, but I like to call it original medicine — because it came before everything else,” said Sonia Flunder-McNair, president and founder of Urban Wholistics and SONIA Organics.
Herbalism refers to the study and use of plants for medicinal purposes, a practice that has been around for generations.
Also called folk medicine, it was once the dominant medical system in Africa’s rural and urban communities. People instinctively used plants as methods of healing in order to cope or deal with various diseases that threatened their existence and survival.
And not only has this legacy survived, it has also has become an integral part of Black American culture.
Urban Wholistics hosted “A folk medicine perspective to Black History Month” at the Birmingham Branch Library on Tuesday, offering an informative talk that focused on medicinal herbs and how to use them.
“The way we use plants is we use every part of it,” Mrs. Flunder-McNair said. “We use the stem, the roots, the leaves, the bark, even tree parts. Tree bark, we can use as tea.”
“Did you know that cinnamon is tree bark? Do you know that they shave it off of a tree, lay it in the sun, the sun curls it up, and we have cinnamon? So, cinnamon is a bark,” she said.
Ancient practices of observation and documentation were used to learn and perfect plant medicines.
“So, when you see an animal or bear walk up to a bush and pull a berry off and eat it, if he walks away safe, then it’s safe for us to eat. But if that bear eats a berry and falls over, we write it down. That becomes our data,” she said. “That’s how we have written documents. What we know now is from observation.”
Ancient Chinese and Egyptian writings describe uses for plants as early as 9000 B.C., she said.
“The history is very complex. We have our Indigenous culture; we have African-American culture that uses herbs and healing rituals,” she said. “We may have some of our own. Your parents may have some of their own.”
The talk highlighted various forms of herbal medicine, including topical solutions, and dry forms like teas and poultices. It also touched on the importance of the safe use of herbs, encouraging the research of each ingredient to prevent potential interactions with medications.
Attendees were able to sample a flavorful, four-hour steeped tea made made with elderberries, ginger root, cinnamon, clove, whole nutmeg, and high-quality water. They were also provided with the detailed recipe to create the tea at home.
Elderberries help with cold and flu symptoms, ginger relieves stomachaches, and recent studies suggest that Ceylon cinnamon may reduce cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and improve overall heart health.
“I use Ceylon cinnamon because it’s not toxic to the liver,” Mrs. Flunder-McNair said. “Your traditional kitchen cinnamon adds high toxic levels to the liver if you use it regularly.”
The role of spices is to enhance flavor without the need for added sugars. Decoction or steeping tea maximizes the extraction of flavors and antioxidants from the tea leaves and bark.
“Your four-hour steep consists of your coarse ingredients going in first. You don’t add your barks and your hard stuff with your leafy ingredients,” she instructed.
Some gravitate toward plant medicine options when they don’t feel an alignment with pharmaceuticals. Others may just want to do what grandma did because it worked.
La’Dawn Jones, 42, is on a journey to explore a more holistic approach to medicine in the effort to live a long life like her grandmother, who lived until the age of 97.
“I am trying to get in a place of individualized health care, learning how to take care of myself outside of the medical system,” Ms. Jones said. “Health is wealth, so I’m just trying to bring some of those natural remedies that past generations have kind of forgotten about or left behind back to the forefront.”
Jacqueline Quinn said she embraced plant medicine from SONIA Organics throughout the pandemic.
“During the pandemic, my family was ill. We were getting sea moss, and it helped,” she said. “So I’m trying to see what I can do naturally, instead of taking hardcore pharmaceutical pills and what I can do on a continual basis to strengthen my body.”
African-Americans have higher rates of high blood pressure. However, even with a genetic predisposition, lifestyle choices significantly impact risk.
“We have a wide variety of choices when it comes down to herbs and a combination of foods that you can use together to combat not only diseases but genetics,” Mrs. Flunder-McNair said.
“If you are prone to high blood pressure, the onset of a disease can be controlled by what you eat. You don’t have to accept the genetics that we are supposed to inherit. You don’t necessarily have to claim those disorders,” she said.
Original Article: https://www.toledoblade.com/news/medical/2025/02/06/medicinal-herbs-are-at-the-root-of-african-american-history/stories/20250205109
