Tim Lane
Refining the definition and exploring indications of the tonic herb within traditional system
Abstract
Tonic herbs have a clear and documented traditional usage in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic traditions. Apart from tonic bitters, there does not on the surface seem to be such a comparably broad and well- defined use within Western tradition.
The word 'tonic' is often used within Western herbal medicine, but often in a less than clear- cut way. Also, Ayurvedic and TCM concepts can be somewhat clumsily grafted onto and into a WHM paradigm; concepts can then become confused and distorted within the therapeutic approach.
Western herbal medicine contemporarily consists of a number of different approaches, both traditional and scientific, that have been aggregated. Whatever system of tonic herbs that may have existed within the Western tradition may well have lost the framework of reference in which they were once used.
The underlying energetics principles, and the indications for tonic herbs in the TCM, Ayurvedic and WHM approaches have been examined, compared and contrasted. A particular focus has been on what is the indigenous British tradition, Humoral theory. It can be shown that a discrete and rational category, and use of, tonic herbs does indeed exist within this tradition, and it is one that continues to have relevance; indeed, with the inclusion of the 'bitter tonic' category, the Western tradition of tonic herbs has the potential to be as comprehensive and therapeutically valuable as TCM and Ayurvedic approaches to tonic treatment.
