The treatment of ailments goes back as far as mans very existence and different methods have been used by different races at different times to heal wounds, reverse internal problems, and merely to relive pain.

Flora, herbs and plants have been used over centuries to varying degrees but many very effectively to cure ills. We shudder nowadays at some of the treatments employed years ago, leeches for sucking blood and detoxification being just one example. However, some of the natural medicines from the forests and meadows have remained in some form or another ever since.

Herbs have a medicinal value, but also a culinary value, flavouring for everything from drinks to meat, vegetables to fish. Bland food can be transformed with the simple addition of a single extra natural flavour.

As exploration of the World took place, adventurers brought back many things to the maritime countries of Europe that have remained part of the diet, and of medicine ever since.

Studies have involved observing animal life, often such observation identifying a change in dietary habits when the animal seems to be feeling ill. Bitter plants are selected in those instances of illness so is there something in the bitterness that assists a cure.

In culinary use, there is a tendency to use the more strongly tasting herbs and spices with meat, more prone to deterioration, than vegetables. The problem of what we eat, and how it affects our bodies is one we wrestle with each day.

There are many options that come from the old world and the new and oxy powder and colon cleanse are just two of the solutions.

Thyme is as old as time, being used by the Sumarians 5,000 years ago. Egyptian medicine used such popular culinary herbs as mint and coriander, and of course garlic while around the same time there is evidence of tumeric being used in Indian medicine.

The diet of the Indian sub continent has travelled the world. Richly spiced and flavoured it is thought that the most popular single meal in the UK is chicken tikka marsala, having overtaken roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, and fish and chips on the nations dinner table.

The flavours of India are perhaps out of necessity to mask the quality of meat, the culinary herbs and spices of other famous cuisine are perhaps more subtle. Life expectancy in Sri Lanka has been in the mid seventies for many years now, in advance of that in the more modern and wealthy West. That factor is surely due to the range of naturally growing herbs used in medicine in that small Indian Ocean Island.

The natural needs to be used in many parts of the world where finance dictates lifestyle. As many as 80% of the worlds population are thought to use herbs in some form for basic health care while oxy powder, colon cleanse and other remedies all play their part in keeping us healthy.