Barbara Griggs died last month. I first got to know Barbara as the author of Green Pharmacy – A History of Herbal Medicine. It was a recommended text in my studies of herbal medicine whilst training to be a practitioner in the 1990's. Sometime later, I was fortunate to meet her and later to count her as a friend. For several years before the Covid pandemic I sat next to her at seminars of the College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy in London. Barbara was an honorary member, as she was of other professional herbal bodies, being lauded among them for her promulgation of the value of herbal medicine.
Barbara started life as a journalist and moved into writing books on natural medicine, but Green Pharmacy is by far and away her masterpiece. It traces the origins of the use of herbal medicine from the earliest records of humankind though various cultures to the present day. Barbara was a writer particularly admired for her meticulous research. But for Green Pharmacy and in the days before Google Search, Barbara quite literally did the footwork - meeting key herbalists not only in the UK but further afield, including the United States. In the US she got first-hand information from those familiar with American Indian medicine and its development into the Eclectic movement, which was later incorporated into British herbal practice. She consulted herbal manufacturers, she attended patient consultations with the renowned herbalist John Hyde. She consulted academics, newspaper medical correspondents, teachers and librarians in charge of special collections – in fact she tracked down anyone who might reveal information on herbal medicine.
In her introduction to the Green Pharmacy Barbara says “I am aware that had I been a qualified pharmacognosist and pharmacist, an anthropologist, a historian and an expert practitioner of herbal medicine, this would have been a vastly better and more authoritative book, free of the shortcomings which may be found in it.” I don't agree - this is the work of a unique mind that can piece together disparate threads across many disciplines into a cohesive whole. She tells a good story, no doubt drawing on her journalistic skills. It’s a story ratified by the many she consulted, which will remain the definitive text on the history of Western Herbal Medicine.
Being a strong advocate of herbal medicine, Barbara, in scattered phrases through all her works appeared to take side-ways strikes at the medical profession, but discord was far from her intention. Rather she looked forward to a time where the Pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession in general would accept their limitations and take an open-minded view to embrace the value of traditional herbal medicine. In other words, to yield a place for the practice of herbal medicine in a modern world, particularly in relation to complex medical conditions, which are on the rise. She imagined a true integration of knowledge and talent for the benefit of humankind. The herbal world salutes you, Barbara. It was a job well done. May you rest in peace.
Talking Heads - Barbara Griggs from The Medical Herbalists on Vimeo.
Ann Walker PhD FCPP MNIMH RNutr
Herbal Practitioner and Nutritionist
Course Director Discovering Herbal Medicine
