Nonflowering Herbs

Medicinal Herbs

• The Old English word for herb was “wyrt,” which is found as the suffix “wort” in many plant names such as lungwort, liverwort and spleenwort. Medicinal herbs can be preventatives, which prevent illness or infection; curatives, which cure patients of their symptoms; or restoratives, which restore patients to health after illness. The U.S. National Park Service recognizes 175 North American native plants that are available for over-the-counter medicinal use in the United States. Forty percent of prescribed medicines have plant-derived chemicals.

Mushrooms

• The American Cancer Society advocates the addition of shiitake mushrooms to a healthful diet. Mushrooms are edible fungi that are proven to be successful in suppressing tumors, inhibiting viruses and lowering cholesterol in animals. Ongoing research shows promising results in AIDS and cancer treatments. Other herbal mushrooms, including reishi and maitake, apparently help the body bolster its immune response, which might help prevent or suppress cancer cells. Some Japanese researchers have tested mushroom extracts as successful chemotherapy companions to treat cancer patients.

Ferns

• Many fern species have present-day uses as well as early uses in ethnobotany, or the study of how native cultures used plants in different ways, including medicinally. Some people in Hawaii use tree ferns (Cibotium spp.) for herbal remedies as medicinal restoratives, which stimulate appetite and restore strength after illness. Parsley fern (Cryptogramma acrostichoides) is used to treat colds, and licorice fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza) has rhizomes that taste like licorice and are used to treat sore throats.

Mosses

• Sphagnum peat moss is used as an antibacterial against food poisoning, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. During the U.S. Civil War, moist sphagnum moss was applied to soldiers’ wounds as a sterile dressing. Club mosses (Lycopodium spp.) are not true mosses, but are most closely related to ferns. Science Daily reports that researchers have isolated huperzine A from the toothed club moss (Huperzia serrata). This herbal extract allowed improved cognitive and physical function in a test group of Alzheimer’s patients. MayoClinic.com acknowledges huperzine A as a possible Alzheimer’s treatment.