WESTERN CLASSIFICATION of the MATERIA MEDICA
2S. STRENGTHENING MEDICINES
Corroboratives; Roborants; Tonics
Tonics or strengthening medicines nourish, restore or strengthen an Organ, Tissue or Function within the body.
Tonics can be viewed as either Absolute or Relative. Ginseng is an example of an Absolute tonic; it strengthen the Qi of the body. By contrast, Cinnamon can be looked at as a tonic to a Cold body, and therefore can be classed as a Relative Tonic.
The term ‘Cephalic’ denotes a medicine appropriate to the Head. By connotation, these are medicines regarded as strengthening to that part. Cephalic medicines may be Hot or Cold. A Hot Cephalic medicine will be regarded as ‘strengthening’ to someone with a Cold disease of the Head, the opposite applying to Cold Cephalic medicines.
The same applies to medicines appropriated to the other organs which may be viewed in section 4. In general, the following medicines are accounted strengthening in the Western Tradition.
Also see the Chinese Classification N. Tonics. This has a more in depth evaluation of Tonic medicine in Ayurveda, Western and Chinese systems.
