Herbs play a significant role, especially in modern times, when the harmful effects of processing and over-medication of food have assumed alarming proportions. Now they are increasingly used in cosmetics, foods and teas, as well as alternative medicines.

The growing interest in herbs is a part of the movement towards change in lifestyle. This move is based on the belief that plants have a vast potential for use as a curative medicine.
What is grass?

Botanist, an herb is a plant with a non-woody stem to wither and die down after flowering. In common usage, however, the term applies to all plants leaves, stems, roots, flowers, fruits, or seeds have culinary or medicinal use. This approach forms the basis of the herbs included in this site.

Significant applications of herbs

The applications of herbal medicine dated back in like thousands of years. In fact, most of today’s medicines were originally derived from botanicals herbs of yester-years. For example, aspirin once came from the white willow tree, quinine from the bark of the cinchona tree and digitalis from foxglove.

Herbs are still the basis for Chinese and Indian school of medicine and are important components of many European natural remedies. As Hippocrates said, “let thy food be thy medicine, thy medicine be thy food.”

Herbs have been used effectively to prevent people from disease and nurse back to health for centuries. They are popular in these modern times because they are often very mild and without the side effects of pharmaceutical medications.

The herbs are used in many different ways. But the ultimate goal of its use is that must interact directly with our body chemistry. They can be used in various forms like food, medicines, cosmetics, or fragrance, but in all cases their active constituents must be absorbed into the body to derive the benefits required.

Traditional herbal remedies have led scientists to the development of numerous modern medicines, establishing beyond doubt the efficacy of herbal medicine.

Once absorbed into the blood stream, they circulate to influence our whole system. The skill of the herbalist is to use this effect to balance and strengthen the body’s own healing mechanism instead of suppressing or disturbing, as many modern drugs tend to do.
Are herbs safe?

Most common herbs are as safe as food. However, many contain potent chemicals that can harm if used carelessly, and some of the most virulent of poisons come from plants. There’s also the fact that for each substance in the world, there is someone who is allergic to it. So all the herbs should be used with caution and respect.

Some authors go so far as to give the meaning “unity of opposites”, approaching, thus, the Chinese principle of Yin and Yang. The word yoga also has the sense of physical and mental discipline.

The origins of yoga

Yoga is a technique dating back more than four thousand years and is deeply in the Indian tradition. Originally, it was primarily regarded as a spiritual discipline. But soon, fans will realize it is also a source of health and peace, where a mixture of exercises spiritual, intellectual and physical, which is based on a philosophy.

This is the eighth century AD that Indian sage, Patanjali, undertook a synthesis of all the knowledge acquired over the centuries by yogis. The result was a book: the Sutras of Patanjali, a sort of code of Yoga, where he established the Astanga Yoga, Yoga or eight steps.
The role of Patanjali

This is the eighth century AD that Indian sage, Patanjali, undertook a synthesis of all the knowledge acquired over the centuries by yogis. The result was a book: the Sutras of Patanjali, a sort of code of Yoga, where he established the Astanga Yoga, Yoga or eight steps:

- Yamas, control rules and discipline;
- Niyama, principles of observance of a certain lifestyle (physical and moral cleanliness, contentment, self-study);
- Asanas, postures of the body with beneficial actions on the health and mind. These are asanas that allow, first, breath control and mind;
- Pranayama, breathing techniques which, combined with asana, the Yogi can have a near-total control of his body (and his mind);
- Pratyahara, detachment of the mind, which frees itself from the domination of the senses and matter;
- Dharana, concentration;
- Dhyana, meditation;
- Samadhi, the ultimate step of the spiritual journey of yoga, rather difficult to explain in a rational context. The best approach (and translation) appears to be the word “liberation”, recalling the state of grace, Christians, Buddhists enlightenment, or satori zen.

These eight steps form the framework of different yogas. In the West, and particularly in Europe, only the Hatha Yoga is practiced and taught. Indeed, it is the most concrete way, the closest and most accessible to the Western mind.