Edward Bach studied medicine first in Birmingham and later at the University College Hospital, London, where he was House Surgeon. He also worked in private practice, having a set of consulting rooms in Harley Street. As a bacteriologist and pathologist he undertook original research into vaccines in his own research laboratory.

His research into vaccines was going well, but despite this Dr Bach felt dissatisfied with the way doctors were expected to concentrate on the diseases and ignore the whole person itslef. He aspired to a more holistic approach to medicine. Perhaps this explains why, not being a homoeopath, he took the offer of a post at the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital.

Bach had been working with bacteria, but he wanted to find remedies that would be purer and less reliant on the products of disease. He began collecting plants, particularly flowers – the most highly-developed part of a plant – in the hope of replacing the nosodes with a series of gentler remedies.

Over years of trial and error, which involved preparing and testing thousands of plants, he found one by one the remedies he wanted. Each was aimed at a particular mental state or emotion. He found that when he treated the personalities and feelings of his patients their unhappiness and physical distress would be alleviated naturally as the healing potential in their bodies was unblocked and allowed to work once more.

Over a period of years Dr. Bach found 38 healing flowers and plants that with the right preparation became the 38 Bach Flower Remedies. These remedies are enough to remove all negative emotional problems.