One difficulty in traditional herbal medicine is the cultural differences in foods. Many traditional herbal medical systems used anything that would help a patient. Most Americans are very removed from their food. Americans are more comfortable pulling food out of plastic packages, than the ground or slaughtering an animal. as a result Americans have an easier time accepting artificial added chemicals in their food than snake bile in a cough drop, or squirrel feces and earthworm in herbal pain medication.
It is interesting how what is normal in one place can be seen as “gross” or somehow unclean in another. Herbal medicine is the use of extreme foods. As a result the traditional Chinese herbal apothecary contains many interesting things that Americans would find “gross”. These would include insects like the wingless cockroach, and the molting of cicadas, Animals like the leech and the gecko, as well as the sterilized feces of bats, silkworms and flying squirrels.
By modern American food tastes these things seem very extreme and “gross”. Some are prohibited from importation as herbal medicine. There are however many “gross” things that are familiar and accepted. Patients often over look these things because they are not foreign. Many people enjoy raw (live) oysters. In medicine, penicillin is made from molds. Probiotics are living intestinal tract bacteria, botox is made from botulism toxin, and the drug premarin is made from the urine of pregnant horses.
“Gross” is a matter of opinion. Many find the artificial chemicals added to our foods to be far more “gross” than exotic ingredients that are commonly eaten in other parts of the world. It is just a matter of how you think about it.
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