Talking about gemmotherapy without mentioning Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), the true inspirer of this natural therapy, seems to us at least a duty, given that the first attempt ” to lead back to a general principle is due to the great German poet, philosopher and scientist simple, the multiplicity of particular manifestations of the splendid garden of the world “as” in living Nature nothing happens that is not related to the whole “. The scientific study of living nature is based on this unitary and dynamic vision developed by Goethe in his “Metamorphosis of plants”., in which the researcher no longer dissects and breaks down organisms, but searches for the whole object. And it is on this principle that gemmotherapy is founded.

In the buds of a tree, or a shrub, reside all the anabolic faculties and the specific genetic information of the species, contained in  the embryonic cells, capable of developing all the potential of the plant . The differentiated adult cells lose this ability when the growing part (branch, leaf, bark, root, fruit) has completely formed. This means that in vitro, only one of these embryonic cells can reconstitute the plant in its entirety.

Pol Henry and the analog biological model

Pol Henry (1918-1988) homeopathic doctor from Brussels, at the end of the 1950s he developed a new method of treatment , starting from the assumption that the growing parts (the meristematic tissues) of adult plants, such as buds , buds, seeds, catkins , young roots and their bark, contain different active principles than those found in the same parts, when they are fully formed. In fact, in the comparison between bud and adult tissue, there are considerable qualitative and quantitative variations in active ingredients, as they are particularly rich in enzymes, vitamins, minerals, trace elements, growth factors , nucleic acids .(RNA DNA), plant hormones , which disappear when chlorophyll is formed. Therefore, the extraction of the bud derivatives brings the genetic information of the plant (embryonic virtue of the meristem) in addition to the active principles contained in the different parts (fruit, leaf, flower, stem, rind, root, seeds, sap), typical of the species. .

Furthermore, as the embryonic cell carries within itself all the genetic information, connecting the part-unit to the whole-plant , even the tree , and the biochemical operations it carries out on the ground and in the environment in which it lives, they cannot be disconnected. from other plant species that share the same ecosystem. So to associate remedies with pathologies, in gemmotherapy Henry uses phytosociology: the study of the botanical associations operated between plants that live in the same environment.

On this principle the Belgian doctor develops the analogical biological model , which is based on the parallelism between the evolution of forests , the changes in the terrain they cause, and the alterations of the biological terrain of the human organism . In other words, by studying the relationships between plants, he understood that if a plant or group of vegetables in an arboreal or shrub state was able to interact with other biological systems , in particular man, their symbiosis or antagonism and their ability to modify the soil still found analogy with the human biological system and its pathologies.

Through photosynthesis, plants capture the photons of sunlight and by means of chlorophyll and inorganic substances and water and carbon dioxide, they form glucose, and from this the proteins , lipids and everything needed for the animal and plant life. Plants are the only source of these substances for animal life. According to Henry ” It can be said that plant autotrophy is the central process around which all current terrestrial life gravitates “, so studying the sprouts for therapeutic purposes , sensed the parallelism between the evolution of forests and the evolution of human protein material. In fact, it is thanks to proteins that the maintenance of the species and the transmission of hereditary factors are due , and their pathological variations correspond to similar plant and soil variations.

Max Tétau and the clinical model

Later to carry on Henry’s research is Max Tetau (1927 -), future president of the Medical Society of Biotherapy, who founded clinical gemmotherapy together with a team of homeopaths and biotherapists. The clinical model consists in studying the effect of bud derivatives as a function of the pathology. Each bud extract has precise clinical indications and has a tropism for certain organs, so once the diagnosis is made, the most suitable bud extract is prescribed to fight it. 

Antoine Nebel and the drainage model

The doctor Antoine Nebel develops the method of drainage, which aims to stimulate the phenomenon of detoxification. According to this method, gemmotherapeutic remedies must preserve patients from toxins or metabolic residues, thus facilitating the action of the homeopathic drug taken at a later time. The draining remedy allows the body’s metabolic waste (toxins, waste from catabolism, etc.) to be conveyed in a centrifugal direction and to promote their expulsion outside by acting on the excretory organs ( liver , kidneys , intestine , lungs, skin, lymph and blood). In this way the organism has opened the exit routes that allow toxins to be eliminated from the inside towards the outside of the organism.

The draining agents are of different types: homeopathic, phytotherapeutic, gemmotherapeutic. The phytotherapeutic draining agents ( tinctures , extracts, powders, herbal teas , etc.) act in a targeted way on individual organs, that is, on specific biological spaces , so success is often only temporary and partial. Gemmotherapy, on the other hand, intervenes on the drainage of the entire organism, also on the disturbances and enzymatic perturbations of the Reticular Histiocytic System, which is why this extraordinary natural therapy acts more in depth, but without any contraindications.