Alpine herbs and plants are an essential part of traditional European folk medicine. Knowledge of herbs was deeply rooted in the rural population, as medical care was difficult to obtain. Indigenous plants and herbs were therefore used for medical purposes. Today, Alpine herbs are witnessing a revival as public interest in the region’s natural treasures grows.
Studies of medical evidence:
- Resource: arnica. Indication: aching muscles after sport (Adkison et al., 2010; Pumpa et al., 2014; Iannitti, Morales-Medina, Bellavite, Rottigni & Palmieri, 2016): evidence level Ib
- Resource: St John’s wort. Indication: depression (Ng et al., 2017): evidence level Ia
- Resource: St John’s wort. Indication: psoriasis (Mansouri et al., 2017): evidence level IIa
Health tourism potential:
- Create publicly accessible herb gardens (with or without admission fee).
- Herb walks in combination with cookery courses.
- Courses for applications using herbs.
- Cross-sectoral cooperation of tourist businesses with herbalists (themed trails including menus featuring dishes with locally occurring herbs).
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