The seductive power of herbs

Every year brings more people who are crazy about collecting wild plants and herbs. Thanks to her website, Helsinki resident Henriette Kress is known around the world as an expert on herbs.

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By Kyösti Pärssinen
     
      They will be here again soon, digging around in gardens and along roadsides, people collecting herbs. Some strange passion is drawing them.
      Many people who discover the hobby are soon wild about herbs. According to those who are familiar with the hobby, there are more and more of these people around every year - a veritable phenomenon.
      Interest in medicinal herbs and wild vegetables has grown rapidly. The hobby attracts women in particular.
     
Helsinki resident Henriette Kress, 42, could serve as an example. For her, the hobby began in her native Germany at the tender age of five.
      "I learned about my first herbs under the guidance of my grandmother Else Brennecke. Her childhood home was on an island where it was customary that the houses specialised in different medicinal herbs, and the people knew to seek help from a certain house", Kress recounts.
      Over the course of the coming summer, Henriette Kress will guide readers of Helsingin Sanomat into the secret world of natural and cultivated medicinal plants.
     
Herbal therapist Kress is an internationally recognised expert in the herbal field. This status is a result of her English-language website.
      Kress estimates that her website is the most comprehensive of its type in the world. Tens of thousands of searches take place daily, and there are nearly 200,000 visitors per month. Kress has taken all of the website’s over 6,000 pictures herself.
      She has also published two books on plants, and her pictures of plants have been published in The Wall Street Journal, among others.
     
The Kress family moved from Germany to Liljendal, a Swedish-speaking area of Eastern Uusimaa, in the 1970s. Her father Heinz opened a steel rim factory there. Henriette graduated from the Swedish School of Economics and worked for years as financial manager for a Finnish subsidiary of an international firm. Then she found herself secuced by the herbs.
      "My work started to feel extremely boring. I resigned and started to study to become an herbal therapist in 1998."
      She went to "the world’s best herb school", the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine in Arizona. After graduating, she has made her living from herbs.
     
Many people consider the use of medicinal herbs to be complete nonsense. The collection of herbs has long traditions nonetheless, and herbal medicine is a part of cultural history. There are written documents on the use and cultivation of herbs in Finland that date back to the 15th century.
      Many people also swear that medicinal herbs help with small but irritating ailments. However, they do not work miracles, and one cannot rely on them alone.
      "In self-care you either strengthen the functions of your body or help ease simple ailments. For example, if you have a headache, try this herb", Kress explains.
      She recommends consulting a physician if simple ailments are recurring, as there may be something more serious to blame.
     
In many countries, medicinal herbs are also used to assist so-called official medicine.
      "Herbs can also have side-effects, but with mild plants the troubles are normally limited to allergies and other sensitivities. You should not start using strong herbs on your own."
      A plant that looks like a weed is a medicinal herb for one and a vegetable for another. So it seems that there is no one way to define herbs?
      "No, there is not, since even aromatic herbs are medicinal plants. For example, thyme is good for the cough, oregano relieves menstrual cramps, and cumin is very good for digestive pains."
     
What on earth is so fascinating about herbs?
      "Perhaps it is the versatility of herbs that is most fascinating: you can never learn everything. There is always someone who has used the same old plant in a completely different way and for a completely different purpose than everyone else, and received results with it."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 16.5.2005

More on this subject:
 Researchers begin to inventory herbs

Links:
  Henriette's Herbal Homepage

Helsingin Sanomat