The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook_ A Home Manual - James Green [178]
Thermometer correspondence
In Fahrenheit’s (F.) thermometer, the freezing point of water is placed at 32°, and the boiling point at 212°. The number of intervening degrees is 180. In the Centigrade (C.) or Celsius’s thermometer the freezing point of water is marked zero and the boiling point 100°. From this information, it can be seen that 212° Fahrenheit is equivalent to 100° Centigrade.
To convert degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Centigrade—C = (°F − 32) multiplied by 5 and divided by 9.
To convert degrees Centigrade to degrees Fahrenheit—F = (°C multiplied by 9 and divided by 5) + 32.
Or find a good conversion table somewhere. The New York Public Library Science Desk Reference, edited by Patricia Barnes-Svarney, is the best science reference book I’ve found, published by The Stonesong Press Inc., MacMillan, 1995.
Solid weight—Liquid weight
1 gram is equal in mass to 1 cc of water at sea level at 4° C (39° F); a cubic centimeter (cc) is the approximate equivalent of a milliliter (ml). Therefore, for our purposes: 1 cc = 1 ml = 1 Gm.
Wildcrafting is an ancient, honorable art and craft of harvesting Earth’s gifts. It is a communion with the wild green as organic gardening is a communion with the domestic green. What we must take care of is to attract to herbalism more teachers of sustainable wild harvesting to guide and inspire young herbalists.
WILDCRAFTED HERB AND ORGANICALLY CULTIVATED HERB
The term wildcrafted signifies that the plant has grown wild in nature without human intervention and ideally has been consciously harvested from unpolluted areas with full regard for the plant communities and care for ecological balance. These plants should never be fumigated or irradiated.
Please note, that as the medicinal herbs are becoming more and more popular, some wildcrafting practices are placing a great burden on a growing number of wild plant populations; therefore it is important to begin organically cultivating many of our herbal medicines rather than over-harvesting and wiping out wild medicinal plant communities. A good example of the destruction caused by mindless wildcrafting is the notable loss of fields of wild Echinacea angustifolia and Echinacea purpurea due to commercial over-harvesting. Organically cultivated Echinacea purpurea is every bit as effective. Wild Goldenseal is also currently under stress due to over-harvesting, as are Osha, Lady’s Slipper, American Ginseng, Blue Cohosh and Black Cohosh, and a growing number of other native medicinais.
But let us not make a reactionary mistake of construing wildcrafting as something negative. It is not in the least; it is an herbal art and a craft that commands respect when performed by a skilled artist and craftsman. Pursued with intelligence and understanding, wildcrafting is a process of harvest pruning, which when practiced knowledgeably never exploits or diminishes wild plant communities, but instead supports and enhances them. What is needed is not condemnation of this ancient, honorable craft, but more well-trained teachers and fervent, plant-loving students.
The term organically cultivated means that the plant has been cultivated by natural means on unpolluted land without the use of chemical fertilizers, sewer sludge, pesticides, or herbicides. Hopefully these plants are never fumigated, irradiated, or genetically altered (these lists of corporate foolishness keep getting longer and longer).
* The medical profession’s favorite word, “quack,” wantonly used to demean the perspectives and practitioners of (most) other health care modalities, is derived from the term quacksalver. Quacksalver is the archaic name for quicksilver (mercury), which is the highly toxic allopathic medicine used historically by university-trained medical doctors (M.D.s) to treat syphilis and other infections. Therefore, to be etymologically precise, today’s practicing allopathic physician