Herbal-Medical Glossary
The herb and medical terms are listed alphabetically. Use the links below to navigate.
A B-C D-F G-H I-L M-O P R-S T-X
RACEME - A flowering spike or cluster where the flowers are borne along the peduncle on pedicels of similar length.

RALES - Abnormal sounds in the lungs, either from excess secretions or the narrowing of the bore by inflammation or congestion

RAY FLOWERS - The margin flowers on a composite head, usually sterile, that resemble single petals. (Example: the white "petals" of a Daisy.)

RAYNAUDS - either SYNDROME or DISEASE. - The first is less severe, characterized by blanching spasms of blood vessels leading to the hands and feet, initiated by cold, moisture, even emotional stress and low blood sugar. Sort of a finger migraine. After the spasm relaxes, the tissue distal becomes red, hot, even painful. R. Disease is more serious and perhaps deriving from different causes as well. The spasms may not subside, the effected tissues can become purplish, and in extreme cases, gangrenous.

RBC - Red blood cells or erythrocytes

REFLEXED - Turned down or curved backwards.

REGRANULATION - Granulation is the forming of connective tissue fibroblasts, epithelium and inflammatory cells around the nucleus of new capillaries in tissues that have been burned or scraped. This delicate tissue is often reinjured, and regranulation becomes a slower process, with more formation of scar tissue. Some plant resins will quickly stimulate the process, increase the complexity of healing, and lessen fibroblast scar formation.

REGURGITATIONS, MITRAL - Backflow of blood from the left ventricle of the heart (pumping arterial blood outwards to the aorta) into the left atrium (receiving oxygenated blood from the lungs) because of faulty closure of the mitral (bicuspid) valve that guards between the two chambers.

REGURGITATIONS, TRICUSPID - Backflow of blood from the right ventricle (pumping deoxygenated thick venous blood into the lungs) into the right atrium (receiving used blood from the rest of the body) because of faulty closure of the tricuspid valve that guards between the two chambers.

RENAL - Pertaining to the kidneys.

RESINS - These are wax-containing plant oils, often secreted to fill in injured tissues, much like a blood clot, sometimes used to protect leaves from loss of water through evaporation or to render them unpalatable. (See BALSAMICS.)

RHEUMATISM - Used broadly, rheumatism is a term meant to describe subjective sensations and not a specific disease, such as chronic joint inflammation, osteo- or rheumatoid arthritis...almost any chronic dull ache associated with the aging process.

RHEUMATOID - Broadly, having dull aching in joints, muscles, eyes, and so forth. In a more literal sense, it is having an autoimmune response, usually between certain IgM and IgE antibodies, that may have started as a bacterial infection or as some autoimmune reaction. The severity is increased under emotional, physical, dietary, and allergic stress-or any stress. Hans Selye showed a few years ago that once a chronic disease response occurs, any stress above metabolic tolerance will aggravate the chronic disease, which is why some people, stressed by cold, wet weather, must avoid it; but someone else is stressed by legumes, still another person gets upset (and stressed) by watching too much CNN. You know best what stresses you; it's not fair to ask a doc to find it out for you. Rheumatoid arthritis is so named because it somewhat resembles the joint inflammations that can occur in rheumatic fever, a completely different disease caused by a strep infection.

RHINITIS - Inflammation of the sinus membranes, sometimes extending to the eyes and ears. It may be caused by a head cold, hay fever, or a chemical irritant.

ROULEAU - A group of red blood cells arranged together like a roll of coins, usually only noticed on a slide under a microscope. Since red blood cells in a reasonably healthy person should have a mutually repelling membrane charge, this means that something like an inflammatory response or an elevation of liver-synthesized lipids (LDLs and VLDLs) is occurring. Inflammation makes the blood "sticky," and the lipids from the liver lower the charges. Remember, of course, that I am talking about subclinical imbalances...such things as rouleau can accompany some pretty gnarly diseases. Our kind of rouleau can give you a headache or make your hands and feet cold because it's hard to push rolls of coins through little bitty capillaries.

SACRAL NERVES - These are five pairs of CNS nerves that exit through the sacral foramen and sacral hiatus, and bring information in and out of the spinal cord. Much of their function relates to the sciatic nerve, and they bring information in from the skin sensory zones (dermatomes) of the heel, back of the legs, buttocks, and the pelvic floor.

SALICYLATES - Esters or salts of salicylic acid, such as aspirin, and including glycoside forms such as salicin. They are widely used as topical irritants and (especially) as anti-inflammatory and analgesic agents and prostaglandin inhibitors.

SALMONELLA - A widespread genus of gram-negative motile-rod bacteria, some of them can cause moderate GI infections, while several can produce metabolites in food that cause serious toxic reaction when the food is eaten.

SALPINGITIS - Inflammation of the fallopian tubes. (See PELVIC INFLAMMATORY DISEASE.)

SAPONIN - Any plant glycoside with soapy action that can be digested to yield a sugar and a sapogenin aglycone. Many (but not all) saponins can be toxic and speed up hemoglobin degradation. Some herbs with important saponin constituents are Yucca and Agave.

SCAPE - A long flower-bearing stem or peduncle that arises from the ground. It is leafless, or the leaves are reduced to bracts.

SCIATICA - This is neuralgia of the sciatic nerve. These are the two largest nerves in the body, composed of the tibial and common perineal nerves, bound together and containing elements of the lowest two lumbar and upper three sacral spinal cord nerves. Sciatica is felt as severe pain from the buttocks, down the back of the thighs, often radiating to the inside of the leg, even to the point of parasthesia or prickly numbness. Although tumors can cause the problem, far and away the most common causes are a lower back subluxation (responding to adjustment) or pelvic congestion and edema (responding to laxatives, exercise, and decreasing portal vein and lymphatic congestion).

SEBACEOUS GLAND - Oil secreting glands, mostly clustered around hair follicles. The oil, sebum, is released into the oil glands from the disintegrated cytoplasm of shedding holocrine cells that line the alveolar surfaces. The nature of the secretion is often a direct reflection of the state of the body's lipid metabolism.

SEBORRHEA - A disorder of the sebaceous glands, with changes in the amount and quality of the oils secreted. Although it can occur in any part of the body, seborrhea of the scalp (dandruff) is most common.

SEMINAL VESICLES - These are a couple of spongy glands, l.5 to 2 inches long, that secrete high-sugar, acidic, and thick, ropy colloid into the ductus deferens (containing sperm from the testes) during ejaculation. The two fluids empty into the prostate, where they are mixed with alkaline prostatic fluids to form semen.

SENSORS - cells or tissues that monitor the internal and external environment, either neurologically or chemically, and can initiate compensatory action or communicate to other parts that can react.

SEPAL - A leaf or segment of the calyx.

SEPSIS - Like septicemia, an infection that has moved deeply into the body, involving the subcutaneous or submucosal layers, connective tissue, lymph system...or blood.

SEPTICEMIA - The presence of pathogenic bacteria or other microbes in the blood stream...a serious business, since most defenses are focused outside the bloodstream and the infection has bypassed them either due to its virulence, the depth and severity of the original focal infection or the weakened state of the body's immunity and life energy. Blood poisoning.

SEPTUM - A membrane wall separating two or more cavities, such as the one between the nasal fossae and those separating the air sacs (alveoli) of the lungs.

SEROUS MEMBRANES - Membranes that line many internal organs and cavities, secreting a thin, lymph-like fluid, that lubricates and slowly circulates.

SGOT and SGPT - Liver enzymes that are normally only present in minute quantities in the blood, they become elevated under a variety of circumstances, particularly hepatitis.

SHIGELLOSIS - An acute, self-limiting intestinal infection, with diarrhea, fever, and abdominal pain, caused by one of the Shigella genus of gram-negative bacteria. The infection is contracted through food prepared by infected individuals or by direct contact with them. Raw sewage contamination can also be a source.

SHINGLES - Also called Herpes zoster. It is caused by the chickenpox virus, and usually occurs in middle-age, beginning as inflammation, sharp pain and finally vesicles, erupting at the edges of posterior ganglia of the trunk or face. Usually lasting two or three weeks, it is often triggered by stress or a concurrent viral infection, and can return again in some individuals.

SINUSITIS - Inflammation of the sinuses, with causes ranging from dust to hay fever. Obstinate cases can be caused by chronic sinus infections or the continued exposure to allergens from food, pets or environmental irritants.

SPLEEN - The large organ lying to the left of, below, and behind the stomach. This organ is partially responsible for white blood cell formation (red blood cells in childhood), and it is lined with resident macrophages that help it filter the blood, remove and recycle old and dead red blood cells, and send this all up to the liver in the portal blood. The liver, in fact, does most of the recycling of splenic hemoglobin derivatives. The spleen initiates much resistance and immunologic response, being made mostly of lymph pulp, and it stores and concentrates a large number of red blood cells. These can be injected into the bloodstream for immediate use under flight or fight stress, since the spleen is covered with capsule and vascular muscles that constrict in the presence of adrenaline or sympathetic adrenergic nerve stimulus.

SPLENITIS - Inflammation of the spleen, caused by a variety of conditions ranging from exposure to hemolytic chemicals, systemic infections lodged in the spleen, even cancer.

SPLENOMEGALY - For practical purposes a term interchangeable with splenitis, since neither will have the usual symptoms associated with inflammation. Splenomegaly is often associated with viral hepatitis, mononucleosis, typhoid fever and abnormally high levels of red blood cells or platelets.

STAMENS - The male, pollen-producing organs in flowering plants. A staminate flower is only male, with pistillate (female) flowers on the same or different plants. Most flowering plants have both parts on the same flower, although they may mature at different times to avoid self-pollination.

STAPH - This is short for Staphylococcus, a genus of micrococci bacteria with many members that can cause disease. They are gram-positive, nonmotile bacteria that are aerobic-(unless they need to be anaerobic). Staph of various types are responsible for boils and carbuncles; they may be involved in impetigo, toxic shock syndrome, endocarditis, osteomyelitis, and urinary tract infections, as well as some food poisoning. They stay around hospitals and veterinary clinics waiting to get you. They are also a normal part of the mouth, throat, and skin flora in a third to a half of all of us, causing no problems, but just waiting. Staph has always been with us. Some even eat our antibiotics for breakfast.

STASIS - Static, atonic, unable to resolve or initiate change, resulting in lymphatic and venous stasis, congestion or stagnation...such as an intestinal blockage.

STEATORRHEA - The presence of undigested fat in the feces. This may be the result of failing to inoculate fatty foods with enough surfactant (biliary soap) to digest them, the failure of the lower small intestine to absorb them, or simply too much fat for even normal digestion to handle. Sometimes this can indicate liver, gall bladder or lipid metabolism diseases. Usually the causes are subclinical and treatable with less invasive approaches...like herbs.

STEROID HORMONE - These are fats similar to, and usually synthesized from, cholesterol, starting with Acetyl-CoA, moving through squalene, past lanosterol, into cholesterol, and, in the gonads and adrenal cortex, back to a number of steroid hormones. Nearly all of the classic hormones are proteins or smaller peptides; they don't get inside a cell (the membrane keeps them out); instead, they bind to, and initiate, cell changes from the outside. The exceptions are the thyroxines (from the thyroid) and the steroid hormones. They move into the cell, bind with receptors, and initiate changes in the way a cell regenerates itself or synthesizes new compounds. Because the steroid hormones stimulate cell growth, either by changing the internal structure or increasing the rate of proliferation, they are often called anabolic steroids. Estrogen, an ovarian steroid, when secreted into the bloodstream, will be bound within a short time by internal receptors inside those cells that need estrogen for their growth; the unused portion is partially broken down, mostly in the liver, and partially stored in a less active form by adipose tissue. Since luteinizing hormone from the pituitary is surged in pulses an hour apart, the estrogen is also surged from the reacting ovaries, and by the time more estrogen is available, the binding cells need more; their program of synthesis has run out and needs to be started again. Of course, most steroid hormone reactions are less measured than this, but you get the idea.

STEROIDS, PLANT - The previous subject is obviously an endless one, but as this is the glossary of an herbal nature, let me assure you, virtually no plants have a direct steroid hormone-mimicking effect. There are a few notable exceptions with limited application, like Cimicifuga and Licorice. Plant steroids are usually called phytosterols, and, when they have any hormonal effect at all, it is usually to interfere with human hormone functions. Beta sitosterol, found in lots of food, interferes with the ability to absorb cholesterol from the diet. Corn oil and legumes are two well-endowed sources that can help lower cholesterol absorption. This is of only limited value, however, since cholesterol is readily manufactured in the body, and elevated cholesterol in the blood is often the result of internal hormone and neurologic stimulus, not the diet. Cannabis can act to interfere with androgenic hormones, and Taraxacum phytosterols can both block the synthesis of some new cholesterol by the liver and increase the excretion of cholesterol as bile acids; but other than that, plants offer little direct hormonal implication. The first method discovered for synthesizing pharmaceutical hormones used a saponin, diosgenin, and a five-step chemical degradation, to get to progesterone, and another, using stigmasterol and bacterial culturing, to get to cortisol. These were chemical procedures that have nothing to do with human synthesis of such hormones, and the plants used for the starting materials -Mexican Wild Yam, Agave, and Soy were nothing more than commercially feasible sources of compounds widely distributed in the plant kingdom. A clever biochemist could obtain testosterone from potato sterols, but no one would be likely to make the leap of faith that eating potatoes makes you manly (or less womanly), and there is no reason to presume that Wild Yam (Dioscorea) has any progesterone effects in humans. First, the method of synthesis from diosgenin to progesterone has nothing to do with human synthesis of the corpus luteum hormone; second, oral progesterone has virtually no effect since it is rapidly digested; and third, orally active synthetic progesterones such as norethindrone are test-tube born, and never saw a Wild Yam. The only "precursor" the ovaries, testes and adrenal cortices EVER need (and the ONLY one that they can use if synthesising from scratch) is something almost NONE of us ever run out of...Low Density Cholesterol. Unless you are grimly fasting, anorectic, alcoholic, seriously ill or training for a triathlon, you only need blood to make steroid hormones from. If hormones are off, it isn't from any lack of building materials...and any product claiming to supply "precursors" better contain lard or butter (they don't)...or they are profoundly mistaken, or worse.

The recent gaggle of "Wild Yam" creams actually do contain some Wild Yam. (Dioscorea villosa, NOT even the old plant source of diosgenin, D. mexicana... if you are going to make these mistakes, at least get the PLANT right) This is a useful and once widely used antispasmodic herb...I have had great success using it for my three separate bouts with kidney stones...until I learned to drink more water and alkalizing teas and NEVER stay in a hot tub for three hours. What these various Wild Yam creams DO contain, is Natural Progesterone. Although this is inactive orally (oral progesterone is really a synthetic relative of testosterone), it IS active when injected...or, to a lesser degree, when applied topically. This is pharmaceutical progesterone, synthesized from stigmasterol, an inexpensive (soy-bean oil) starting substance, and, although it is identical to ovarian progesterone, it is a completely manufactured pharmaceutical. Taking advantage of an FDA loophole (to them this is only a cosmetic use...they have the misguided belief that it is not bioactive topically), coupled with some rather convincing (if irregular) studies showing the anti-osteoporotic value of topical progesterone for SOME women, a dozen or so manufacturers are marketing synthetic Natural Progesterone for topical use, yet inferring that Wild Yam is what's doing good.

I am not taking issue with the use of topical progesterone. It takes advantage of the natural slow release into the bloodstream of ANY steroid hormones that have been absorbed into subcutaneous adipose tissue. It enters the blood from general circulation the same way normal extra-ovarian estradiol is released, and this is philosphically (and physiologically) preferable to oral steroids, cagely constructed to blast on through the liver before it can break them down. This causes the liver to react FIRST to the hormones, instead of, if the source is general circulation, LAST. My objection is both moral and herbal: the user often believes the hormonal effects are "natural", and that the Wild Yam somehow supplies "precursors" that her body can use if needed, rejected if not. This implies self-empowerment and the honoring of a woman's metabolic choice... something often lacking in medicine. This is a cheat. The creams supply a steady source of a pharmaceutical hormone (no precursor here) normally only available by prescription, but are SOLD as if the benefits come from the Wild Yam extract, seemingly formulated with the intent of having Wild Yam the most abundant substance so it can be listed first in the list of constituents. I have even seen the pharmaceutical Natural Progesterone labeled as "Wild Yam Progesterone" or "Wild Yam Estrogen precursor" or, with utter fraud, "Wild Yam Hormone". To my knowledge, the use of Mexican Yam for its saponins ceased to be important by the early 1960's, with other processes for synthesizing steroids proving to be cheaper and more reliable. I have been unable to find ANY manufacturer of progesterone that has used the old Marker Degradation Method and/or diosgenin (from whatever Disocorea) within the last twenty years. Just think of it as a low-tech, noninvasive and non-prescription source of progesterone, applied topically and having a slow release of moderate amounts of the hormone. Read some of the reputable monographs on its use, make your choice based solely on the presence of the synthetic hormone, and use it or don't. It has helped some women indefinitely, for others it helped various symptoms for a month or two and then stopped working, for still other women I have talked to it caused unpleasant symptoms until they ceased its use. Since marketing a product means selling as much as possible and (understandably) presenting only the product's positive aspects, it would be better to try and find the parameters of "use" or "don't use" from articles, monographs, and best of all, other women who have used it. Then ask them again in a month or two and see if their personal evaluation has changed. If you have some bad uterine cramps, however, feel free to try some Wild Yam itself...it often helps. Unless there is organic disease, hormones are off is because the whole body is making the wrong choices in the hormones it does or doesn't make. It's a constitutional or metabolic or dietary or life-stress problem, not something akin to a lack of essential amino acids or essential fatty acids that will clear up if only you supply some mythic plant-derived "precursor". End of tirade.

STHENIC - Strong of body or function, even to an excess.

STIPULES - A little leafy appendage formed at the juncture of a leaf and the main stem.

STOLONIFEROUS - A plant that tends to form lateral roots, sometimes green and potentially stemming, sometimes blanched and tending to root from the nodes...or both.

STOMATITIS - Inflammation of he mouth, usually with sores or ulcers. The causes are many.

STRANGURY - Painful, sporadic and drop-by-drop urination, caused by the presence of kidney stones, chronic inflammation such as interstitial cystitis, or urethral scar tissue. This is not a specific disease, but a symptom, like nausea or a sore joint.

STREP - A genus of gram-staining chain-forming cocci bacteria. Some are responsible for common and potentially serious human infections, ranging from scarlet fever and strep throat to bacterial endocarditis and pus pockets. Most of the disease-potential streps are also a normal part of the skin, mouth and upper respiratory flora.

SUBACUTE - Having characteristics of both acute and chronic. This is the state in a disease when most of the aches and pains have subsided and you are likely to overdo things and not completely recover. The chest cold that lingers for weeks as a stubborn cough is a subacute condition, as is the tendonitis that lingers because you won't stop playing tennis long enough to completely heal.

SUBCLINICAL - This is our turf, the period of time when a potential disease is still potential, and a functional imbalance or tendency has not caused any organic disruption. Those years of poor digestion, heartburn, and the systematic suppression of upper intestinal function by adrenaline stress have not become overt gastritis, ulcers, or IBS. You have symptoms of distress (subclinical) but no real, ripened clinical disease. Some medical authorities (usually administrative docs from the spokesman and quack-patrol ranks of industry, academia or agency) actually insist that there is no such thing as a subclinical condition...you are either SICK or NOTSICK and presumably well. Sort of like the mechanic saying that the car works or doesn't work...four quarts low on oil, but it WORKS. Only when it is five quarts low and has a siezed-up engine is there a need for a mechanic.

SUBCUTANEOUS - Below the surface of the skin, but probably above the following term...well anyway, definitely lower than the TOP of the skin.

SUBDERMAL - Below the surface of the skin, and probably below the previous term, which should really be suprasubdermal. Well, anyway, definitely higher up than the muscles.

SUCCUS ENTERICUS - Intestinal Juice. These are enzyme-rich secretions produced by the lining of the upper small intestines. Apparently the enzymes produced compensate for any pancreatic enzymes that are deficient for that particular meal.

SYMPATHETIC - A division of the autonomic or involuntary nervous system that works in general opposition to the parasympathetic division (q.v.). Many of the sympathetic functions are local, specific, and involve secretion of acetylcholine, like any other of your normal nerves...stimulating or suppressing a specific muscle, gland, or whatever. A certain number of these nerves, however, unlike any others in the body, secrete epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline). These are called adrenergic. Since the adrenal medulla also secretes the same substances into the bloodstream as hormones, all the muscles or glands that are affected by the adrenergic sympathetic nerves also react to the epinephrine secreted into the blood. This forms the basis for a potentially lifesaving emergency fight or flight response and is meant for short, drastic activities. A chronic excess of the adrenergic response, however, is a major cause of stress-and a major contributor to many types of chronic disease. The more you use a particular nerve pathway or induce a particular group of functions, the more blood, fuel storage, and mitochondria are produced to strengthen that group of actions. Using adrenergic energy excessively gives literal dominance to those things that are stimulated or suppressed, and the effects of adrenaline stress linger in the body after the adrenaline is long gone. Since one of the first subjective symptoms of subclinical malnutrition, metabolic imbalances, and environmental pollution is irritability of the central nervous system, hypersympathetic function acts as an intermediate between poor diet, pollution, and disease.

SYMPATHOMIMETIC - A substance that mimics at least part of adrenaline or catecholamine responses. The term is a little biased towards the minority of sympathetic functions that are adrenergic. A better name might be adrenalomimetic, epinephromimetic, catecholamimetic...or speedomimetic. Examples: coffee, ephedrine, amphetamines.

SYSTOLIC - The measurement of arterial blood pressure at the point of heart contraction (greatest pressure); the higher of the two BP numbers, with diastolic (q.v.) being the lower.
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