Medicinal Herbs Are at the Root of African-American History

Before modern medicine, there was herbal or plant medicine.

“Herbal medicine can be sometimes called phytomedicine. It can sometimes be called alternative medicine, but I like to call it original medicine — because it came before everything else,” said Sonia Flunder-McNair, president and founder of Urban Wholistics and SONIA Organics.

Herbalism refers to the study and use of plants for medicinal purposes, a practice that has been around for generations.

Also called folk medicine, it was once the dominant medical system in Africa’s rural and urban communities. People instinctively used plants as methods of healing in order to cope or deal with various diseases that threatened their existence and survival.

And not only has this legacy survived, it has also has become an integral part of Black American culture.