What are the Bach Flower Remedies?F

What are the Bach Flower Remedies?
From a total of 38 different Bach Flower Essences, 37 made from specific flowers and one made from the water of a spring believed to have healing properties. Each essence is used to treat a specific emotion or state of mind such as fear, anger, apathy, etc. These are all emotions that most people can readily identify in themselves and in other people. These emotional states and their corresponding essence are all described in The Twelve Healers and Other Remedies by Edward Bach. Dr. Bach’s goal was to create a system of medicine that was simple enough that people who become familiar with the essences through his publications could identify their negative emotional state, select the corresponding essence and thus treat themselves.

The Bach Flower Essences are all natural, very dilute solutions made from spring water, an alcohol preservative, and the parts of specific flowers. They are used to help balance the emotions and bring about a state of equilibrium in living organisms, and have been successfully used with people, animals, and even plants. Bach Flower Essences are listed in the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States (HPUS), have been issued with National Drug Code (NDC) numbers by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are sold as over-the-counter homeopathic products in the United States.

Although the Bach Flower Essences are listed in the HPUS and are prepared at a 5X homeopathic dilution (0.00001 gram of active substance per milliliter of tincture) they are not considered homeopathic medicine. While they are prepared from plant material, they do not fall in the same category as herbal medicine. The fact that we refer to them as “essences” suggests to some that they are aromatherapy—the use of essential oils and other aromatic compounds from plants to affect someone’s mood or health—which they are not. Flower essences fill their own unique niche in the arsenal of complementary medicine.

The Bach Flower Remedies are now well known as alternative therapy that helps to manage the emotional demands of everyday life. Each remedy brings balance to a specific emotion. They are completely safe and natural. The remedies can be used by everyone and do not have any side effects. They are even used to help plants and animals because they act in such a gentle way.