Throughout Switzerland, you will find treasure troves of healing herbs and medicinal plants grown in home gardens – a veritable pharmacy in one’s front yard.
A chalet in Grindelwald displays the favorite flower of the Swiss people: red geraniums.
For generations the Swiss have been growing medicinal plants in their home gardens and passing down their knowledge of how to use them. Although modern medicine has taken the forefront, the tradition continues throughout the country.
“The Swiss are famously self-sufficient, so the culture of growing and making their own medical treatments plays right into that mindset,” says Greg Abbott, a former botanist at Geneva’s Jardin Botanique.
More than 250 species of plants, herbs, flowers, bark, and leaves are used in homeopathic medicines to boost immunity, alleviate pain, and improve gastrointestinal, nervous, respiratory, cardiovascular, urological, and dermatological issues. One of the most well-known books on herbal medicine was written by the Swiss priest and naturopath, Johann Künzle. The book, Das Grosse Kraüterheilbuch, provides a history of herbal medicine and a guide on how to use everything from thistles and onions to heal ailments from diabetes to flu. Bringing together all of the knowledge he learned growing up in Switzerland was Künzle’s life’s work and the book was published mere months after he passed in 1945.
“A true Swiss medicinal garden includes plants not just for treating colds, inflammation, headaches and disinfecting wounds…but even plants that are fatal, should the gardener need to put down a sick animal or choose to end his life,” Abbott said.
Swiss medicinal plants can be found in local sweets, teas, tonics, tinctures, plant pastes, essential oils, ointments, cosmetics, and phytopharmaceuticals throughout the country. Some of the best known are produced by more famous Swiss brands such as Ricola and Zeller (phytopharmaceuticals).
Many traditional Swiss medicinal gardens include these herbs and plants.
The natural choice
At least 40 pharmaceutical companies are headquartered in Switzerland and nearly half of all Swiss exports are pharmaceuticals, yet the Swiss remain loyal to their natural medicines.
Nearly 70% of Swiss voters in 2009 approved a measure to cover five complementary and alternative medicines – homeopathy, holistic medicine, herbal medicine, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine – under the country’s basic medical insurance. Many Swiss say they choose homeopathic medicines over pharmaceuticals so as not to ingest chemicals.
“The Swiss have always favored a natural approach when it comes to health,” says Abbott. He added that Swiss doctors are likely to prescribe homeopathic remedies and lifestyle changes as a first line of defense before moving to pharmaceuticals.
According to a report released by the Federal Office of Health and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, annual fees for homeopathic treatments and medicines amounted to 50 million Swiss francs and 31 million Swiss francs. Moreover, there are more complementary medicine practitioners per capita in Switzerland than anywhere else globally, predominantly due to the coverage of complementary alternative medicine within the basic compulsory insurance policies and the high value that the Swiss place on the natural healing powers of plants.
Ricola has been producing remedies out of Switzerland for nearly 100 years.
Switzerland’s famous Ricola
Ricola’s line of herbal cough drops and sweets are made from 10 Swiss herbs: elder, horehound, hyssop, lemon balm, linden flower, mallow, peppermint, sage, thyme, and wild thyme. Seeds are planted at sites throughout the country in mid-April. Farmers cultivate the plants by hand and rotate them to increase the biodiversity and fertility of the soil as artificial fertilizers are not used.
The cycle of cultivating the plants begins with sowing the seeds, harvesting the plants at the right time to maximize their full flavors and robustness, transporting the products to drying facilities, and then replanting again the following spring.
Vitaplant
Vitaplant, which cultivates more than 100 different medicinal plant species, is a leading Swiss producer of high-quality, raw plant material for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries. There are greenhouses and laboratories at Vitaplant’s headquarters in Uttwil where plant cultivation is subject to rigid quality processes from seed selection to fertilization methods and harvesting techniques. Experts identify genetically superior plant materials and use breeding methods to produce elite plants that possess the wanted constituents’ best composition.
The process of propagating these elite plants is achieved in vitro in the greenhouses, where horticultural techniques such as root cutting and classical seedings are performed. Once the breeding process is complete, cultivation trials on small plots of land are tested for climate conditions, propagation procedures, soil requirements, good harvesting times, and post-harvesting methods such as effective drying of the medicinal plants and removing unwanted components such as the stems. Once the trial ends, large-scale cultivation can begin on one of Vitaplant’s many farms.
After the plants are harvested, subsidiaries and cultivation partners select what they want to use. One such partner is Zeller, a family-owned Swiss company that develops, produces, and manufactures clinically proven phytopharmaceuticals for the Swiss market.
Sedum is a mainstay of Chinese Medical Gardens because of its anti-inflammatory powers.
An eastern influence on Swiss gardens
The practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has grown in Switzerland as more people look to holistic remedies both for medicinal purposes and for alleviating everyday ailments.
The first TCM Garden for research in Switzerland opened in 2016 and is located on the Zhaw-Campus Grüental in Wädenswil. The garden features more than 100 Chinese medicinal plant species, which are primarily studied by apprentices of phytosanitary professions in the healthcare industry to understand better how the mixtures of these medicinal plants can alleviate or cure a variety of health issues such as insomnia, arthritis, stress, and depression, pain, irritable bowel syndrome, infertility, colitis, as well as chronic and acute problems.
The layout and design of the 1000 m2 TCM gardens align with the Chinese ideology “everything is in balance.” Seeds are planted based on their ecological needs and are cultivated by habitat.
The rise of cannabis farming
According to historians, cannabis was cultivated for tens of thousands of years in Switzerland, as evidenced by the discovery of ancient hemp fibers that resemble flax and nettle. An analysis of pollen grains confirms that cannabis was indeed cultivated in the lowlands of the Swiss Alps over 6,500 years ago when Switzerland was a center for hemp trade along with their neighboring countries, Italy, France, and Germany.
Hemp production continued in Switzerland until the dawn of the Industrial Revolution when land was then used for farming domestic animals instead. By the end of World War I, the 1924 Narcotics Act banned cannabis production. Despite the ban, Swiss have continued to grow and use cannabis due to its therapeutic properties. The Swiss Federal Offices of Public Health, Police, and Agriculture legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp in Switzerland in 1995 — so long as the grower has a valid license and their crops’ TCH levels are 1% or less.
It is legal to grow hemp in Swiss home gardens once again and it looks like growing marijuana will be the next to be legalized.
Commercial cannabis gardens and greenhouses have cropped up all over Switzerland. For example, green Brothers cultivate hemp on their 27 hectares of land in greenhouses where hundreds of greenhouse lamps are kept on day and night, cultivating thousands of plants. Swiss Organic Partners AG is another large BioSuisse cannabis cultivator with over 15 square meters of land and greenhouses. And Swiss Hempcare, specializes in cultivating an array of CBD-rich flowers in greenhouses throughout the country. All plants are produced under organic and sustainable cultivation in Switzerland and are commonly used for pain management, inflammation, and anxiety.
In addition, Swiss law now also allows residents to grow up to four hemp plants from cannabis seeds for personal consumption.
“Cannabis has been used for pain relief in Switzerland for generations and we now see it grown again in home gardens,” Abbott said. “If the Swiss can take care of a problem themselves – be it a headache or something more serious, they will. It’s in their nature.”
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