GLANCE in your kitchen cupboard and you could spot the ingredients for a good supper - but did you know that in there could also be the secrets to curing a common cold, fever or even fighting cancer symptoms?
Or take a walk around a local country park - can you imagine that some of those plants you pass once saved hundreds of lives?
The food we eat and the natural world around us take a very different role when seen through the eyes of a herbalist.
Herbalists — people who collect and specialise in the use of herbs for medicine — have been practising as far back as ancient Greece and further.
In fact, evidence of the use of herbal remedies shows them being used 60,000 years ago.
Bolton has a strong herbal heritage as the home to famed herbalist Richard Lawrence Hool — who practised in the early part of the 20th century.
Ninety-six years after his death, the art of herbalism is back on the rise, with more people trying their hand at the home-made remedies.
Edwina Hodkinson is a community medical herbalist working and teaching in Bolton.
A former nurse and aromatherapist at The Christie hospital, she became a qualified medical herbalist seven years ago.
She said: “We have been taken so far from nature, both in lifestyle and in our medicines, but I think there’s a yearning in people to connect with something we had been doing for thousands and thousands of years.
“The classes are a low cost way of bringing back herbal education to the community. They get booked up within three days of being advertised, there’s a real demand for them.
“There’s been a growing interest in foraging for wild foods and it’s becoming the same with medicines.”
Herbs that can be used in medicines include the likes of ginger, cinnamon, garlic and star anise. Beetroot, yoghurt and even horseradish can also be used.
In countries such as Asia where the practice of herbal medicine is held higher than in the West, turmeric is highly prized.
It is an anti-inflammatory and help fights the side effects of illness, including cancer.
Meanwhile, ginger can help combat nausea, arthritis pains and is a potent anti-viral.
Common garden weeds are vital components of herbal medicine — nettles for example can be used in a range of treatments from allergy relief to arthritis pain due to being an anti-inflammatory, to tackling prostate as a diuretic.
Dandelion can also be used for loss of appetite, upset stomach, intestinal gas, gallstones, joint pain, muscle aches, eczema, and bruises; as well as a diuretic and a laxative.
Edwina’s courses cover a range of basic techniques, to more difficult ones.
She explains: “Some things are really very simple, like getting fresh ginger, grating it and putting it in a pot of hot water to simmer, which makes something really good for tackling nausea. But some take months to make.
“It’s very effective. You are teaching people how to connect with nature through medicines as well.
“There’s also an empowerment as you take charge of your own health just by going to the grocers!
“People have been coming back saying the medicine has stopped a cold within a couple of days.
“I think it’s great because Bolton’s heritage is even greater than elsewhere. It’s almost been forgotten.”
Richard Hool was born in Whittle-le-Woods in 1847 and studied botany from childhood, going on to become one of Lancashire’s most celebrated herbalist. The author of Common Plants and Their Uses in Medicine lectured around the North West and his journal documents the many plants and herbs found around the region and their magical medical uses.
Among them is the Purple Loosestrife — also known as Flowering Sally — which can be found in abundance in Bolton’s countryside.
The common purple flower is not just beautiful but is also a life-saver, saving hundreds of people when it was used in the medical treatment for cholera during the outbreaks of the deadly disease between 1848 and 1868.
Edwina adds: “There was a massive herbalism interest in the North West in the Pennine towns. It kept people living healthy and alive during the Industrial Revolution.
“There is such a wealth of historic evidence of how well it worked and Hool’s journal revealed the abundance of resources in Bolton and how they could be used.
“If you walk through Moses Gate Country Park today there is so much there that can used in medicines, it’s not hard to image Hool himself going there.” Hool’s legacy is now being seen more and more in Bolton.
This year, along with the courses held at The Kitchen in Great Moor Street, Edwina will be establishing an allotment from land donated in Deane.
To find out more about the courses, which run throughout the year, visit www.edwinahodkinson.wordpress.com
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