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Drop-Dose Plants: History and Botanical SafetyHistoryMedicinal Plants

Drop-Dose Plants: History and Botanical Safety

A historical review of six potent drop-dose botanicals in traditional herbalism: belladonna, foxglove, henbane, monkshood, lobelia, and pokeweed.
Historical botanical plate of Melissa officinalis (lemon balm) from Sturm’s Deutschlands Flora
Lemon Balm Tea for Anxiety: How Clinical Herbalists Use MelissaClinicalMedicinal Plants

Lemon Balm Tea for Anxiety: How Clinical Herbalists Use Melissa

Lemon balm tea is a gentle nervine many people reach for when anxiety sits in the body as tension, restlessness, or a mind that will…
Chamomile flowers growing at the edge of a field
The Herbs I Actually Use as a ParentClinicalMedicinal Plants

The Herbs I Actually Use as a Parent

From a midnight birth on Whidbey Island to a conversation with Mountain Rose Herbs: the herbs I actually reach for as a parent and clinical…
Apple tree with ripening fruit, used in traditional and clinical herbal medicine
Apple MedicineHistoryMedicinal PlantsRecipes

Apple Medicine

There is an old story told about apples in the Pacific Northwest, a regional quietism, half-myth, half-botany. When the homesteaders came over the Naches Pass…
Antique green glass poison bottle, Wellcome Collection
Apothecary VesselsGardening

Apothecary Vessels

There is a specific weight to holding an old glass jar. Not modern soda-lime glass stamped out by the million in automated factories, but heavy,…
Vintage Köhler botanical illustration of Taraxacum officinale, dandelion
How Dangerous Is Roadside Foraging?Gardening

How Dangerous Is Roadside Foraging?

One of the most common questions beginner herbalists ask when learning field botany is whether wild plants growing along rural roads, trails, or suburban fence…
Fireweed seed heads releasing silky white seeds, a pioneer medicinal plant used traditionally for gastrointestinal and wound healing support
FireweedMedicinal Plants

Fireweed

The Plant That Follows Fire After a fire moves through a forest and the smoke clears, the ground is left black and stripped, the soil…
Jar of honey with a wooden honey dipper
Herbal ElectuariesClinicalRecipes

Herbal Electuaries

An electuary is simply powdered herb stirred into honey until it holds together. You can take it like a little soft candy and I like…
Willow branches prepared for making natural rooting hormone water, a plant-based propagation technique
Willow Rooting HormoneGardeningMedicinal PlantsRecipes

Willow Rooting Hormone

Long before synthetic rooting powders were packaged in plastic tubs at garden centers, herbalists and gardeners produced homemade rooting tea from fresh spring willow twigs…
Valerian plant growing, tall stems with clusters of pale flowers
The Tiers of Sleep HerbsClinicalMedicinal PlantsRecipes

The Tiers of Sleep Herbs

Most people who struggle chronically with sleep have the idea that sleep herbs are essentially gentler versions of pharmaceutical sleep aids, just more natural and…
Vintage Köhler botanical illustration of Achillea millefolium, yarrow
Constitutional HerbalismClinical

Constitutional Herbalism

A client came to me last spring with insomnia she had been dealing with for almost three years. By the time she sat down with…
Historical image of Eclectic physicians, the nineteenth-century American medical movement that built a complete system of plant medicine
Who Were the EclecticsHistory

Who Were the Eclectics

In mid-nineteenth-century America, medical practice was divided into fierce ideological camps. On one side stood mainstream "heroic" medicine: physicians who treated disease with heavy mercury…
a teapot with a liquid in it
Bioavailability in HerbalismClinicalMedicinal Plants

Bioavailability in Herbalism

Why How You Take Your Herbs Matters as Much as Which Ones You Choose There's a concept in herbalism is really important for understanding whether…
Cassidy Moss preparing medicinal herbs, demonstrating how to steep loose leaf herbal tea for clinical herbalism use
How to Steep Medicinal Herbs: A Quick ReferenceMedicinal PlantsRecipes

How to Steep Medicinal Herbs: A Quick Reference

Steeping Loose Leaf Herbal Tea I have had enough clients ask questions over the years about the specifics of how to steep their loose leaf…
Dried tree branches and bark, representing heavy metal contamination risks in wildcrafted and commercially sourced medicinal herbs
Heavy Metals in HerbsClinicalMedicinal Plants

Heavy Metals in Herbs

How metals end up in plants: Plants pull minerals from the soil. That’s the whole reason we use mineral-rich herbs like nettle and oat straw…
Medicinal plant close-up, representing herbs with hepatotoxic potential discussed in clinical herbalism safety education
Liver damaging herbsClinicalMedicinal Plants

Liver damaging herbs

Can herbs damage your liver? If you’ve spent any time in herbal spaces online, you’ve probably encountered one of two extremes. Either herbs are completely…
White meadowsweet flowers, a medicinal herb used in clinical herbalism for tension and inflammatory headache support
HeadachesClinicalMedicinal PlantsRecipes

Headaches

Why Headaches Are Hard to Help: Herbal and Holistic Strategies Headaches are one of the most common things people deal with, and one of the…
Potted medicinal plant thriving in shade, illustrating woodland herb growing conditions for a shade medicinal garden
Shade GardeningGardeningMedicinal Plants

Shade Gardening

A shady garden does not mean you’re out of luck for growing potent medicine, although you do need to be more strategic. You’re not going…
Cacao pods and dried cacao, a medicinal and ceremonial plant with a history spanning Mesoamerica to European apothecaries
CacaoGardeningHistory

Cacao

Cacao shows up in the early historical record – much before it was our modern chocolate candy, it was a ritual, stimulant, currency, medicine, and…
Historical book illustration depicting an early European apothecary, tracing the history of botanical medicine and pharmacy
The History of the Apothecary: Shops, Trade, and Plant MedicineHistory

The History of the Apothecary: Shops, Trade, and Plant Medicine

History of the Apothecary The history of the apothecary is the history of how plant medicine moved from the village healer into a shop with…

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