Why trees have to die?
Since I was a child my parents would teach me how to respect and love trees and nature. I always get this pleasant feeling whenever I think about my first years of school when teachers would tell us to write essays about the seasons and about how the colors of trees would change throughout the seasons. The beautiful warm colors of autumn, yellow, orange and brown leaves falling to the ground or the beautiful rebirth of the green leaves and colorful flowers in spring with their sweet smell.
During my adulthood and as a pharmacist, I have studied trees and their important roles in our ecosystem, and also their importance in the biological and biochemical world, and pharmacological uses.
Trees provide us with food with their fruits but also provide us with their extraordinary medicinal properties.
Trees are the witness of human evolution and have been there to help us grow.
The trees’ wisdom. Trees are nature’s guardians. There, wherever they are born, they stay, they don’t move, they grow still but strong. Seasons pass by them year by year. How many springs, summers, autumns, and winters have they witnessed….
Their wisdom is their silence and their wisdom remind us that learning starts from listening.
Plants. Wonderful healing and medicinal properties. We coexist in a delicate balance with plants and Mother Nature; we extract their healing and medicinal properties. In return, what plants ask for, is some gratitude for sharing with us, the miracle of life.
The ancient Celtic monks, the Druids, believed in the cycle of nature and their knowledge of plants provided them with nutrition and the creation of recipes to heal from them. Sadly, after the ancient cults were lost, trees were no longer a sacred source for the human being, only a source of wood for combustion and a new opportunity for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
Drugs from plants
A lot of people still don’t know that most of the chemistry synthesized drugs sold at the pharmacy are derived from botanical plants, the three most popular examples are:
- Aspirin The most popular with its active ingredient; Acetylsalicylic, extracted from the White Willow Bark. From its most important uses, it eases fever and relieves pain. The advantage with respect to aspirin is that white willow bark doesn’t have side effects in our body.
- Penicillin Produced by fungi, Penicillium Notatum. Antibiotics are created from it and they supposed a revolution within medicine when they were proven to have amazing healing properties when there are infections caused by bacteria.
- Taxol A chemotherapeutic agent with antitumoral activity. In the last 10 years, Taxol has revolutionized cancer treatments. Its active ingredient, Paclitaxel comes from the tree Taxus Brevifolia, a variant from the Yew tree.
Balance, Peace, reunion with nature Forests have within the most beautiful legends, mystic creatures and stories. Walking through the forest we can appreciate the beauty and properties of the trees by their particular scent. A harmonious balance of nature that keep us alive.
Personal Growth Independently of our beliefs, religions or political views, there is one truth: we are compassionate beings, we respect all forms of life and that makes us better persons and let us overcome ignorance and greed.
Trees die standing on the ground fearless and proud of the completion of their goal set up by the universe; Provide all animals with their benefits.
When a tree dies, a piece of our past dies with it. All that remains is the memory of their uninterested, silent help.
Let’s keep believing in nature, our best ally that never turns us down. Thank you mother nature, thank you trees.
Almu Rodriguez
Pharmacist and Co-Founder
Hairwise
