The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook

1. Herbal Medicine-Making: A Dance of Delight and Independence

The making is the taking of herbal medicine.

Easy, Natural, Delightful. Herbal medicine-making is presented not as a chore, but as an enjoyable, natural activity, akin to dancing. It's a lucid expression of one's distinct character, offering personal independence and a renewed connection with Earth's natural beauty. The process itself is therapeutic, enhancing happiness and boosting the immune system.

Affordable and Accessible. Herbs, the principal ingredients, are essentially free once you learn to harvest them correctly. This makes herbal medicine-making universally affordable, liberating individuals and communities from dependence on others. It empowers people to frolic in the gardens of Earth, picking flowers and enjoying themselves while making herbal products.

Reclaiming Our Heritage. Herbalism is a cultural heritage indigenous to all communities, thriving harmoniously in homes. By taking plant lore in hand and making your own preparations, you liberate yourself, your family, your community, and your monetary resources from dependence on others. The herbal preparations you make can be every bit as excellent as those you bring home from the store, profoundly better.

2. The Power of a Few: Mastering a Core Group of Herbs

How many herbs should I know to be an effectual herbalist? Answer: 30 … well, maybe 35 … and probably a fungus as well.

Focus on a Select Few. It's recommended that students limit their studies to a few select herbs, getting to know them well by learning to identify them, growing them when possible, communicating with them, and discerning when, where, and how best to harvest them. The energies of thirty to thirty-five herbs will enchant you and keep you sufficiently busy for the following year or two.

Intuition and Bioregionalism. The most important principle to guide you in this very personal selection is to embrace any and all plants that you are intuitively attracted to: those that touch your spirit in an exceptionally deep and personal way. A second reliable criterion is to select herbs that grow near you and can be found thriving in the bioregion you inhabit, or in closely neighboring bio-regions.

The CSHS List. The California School of Herbal Studies (CSHS) compiled a list of thirty favored plants that could be relied upon to supply an herbalist with pretty much any and all the herbal actions and uplifting virtues required to provide good health care in a home and community. This list includes Blackberry, Black Cohosh, Calendula, Cayenne, Chamomile, Cleavers, Comfrey, Crampbark, Dandelion, Echinacea, Elder, Fennel, Ginger, Goldenseal, Gumweed, Hawthorn, Marshmallow, Mugwort, Mullein, Nettle, Peppermint, Pipsissewa, Plantain, St. John’s Wort, Scullcap, Valerian, Vitex, Willow, and Yellow Dock.

3. Herbal Actions: The Language of Plant Energetics

It is most useful to recognize and understand the terms that describe herbal actions. These simple concepts constitute a major portion of the vocabulary of herbal knowledge.

Understanding Herbal Actions. The science of Herbalism, like all therapeutic sciences, has its particular language. The nutritional and medicinal actions of each herb in our materia medica constitute the fundamental vocabulary of the language of Herbalism. Knowledge of the actions (the biochemical energetics) of each plant and the plant’s spontaneous affinity for various systems of the body is basic to successfully employing herbs in health maintenance, disease prevention, and curative self-care.

Herbal Actions List. The book provides a list of 40 herbal actions to know, including adaptogen, alterative, anodyne, antacid, anticatarrhal, antidepressant, anti-emetic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, antiseptic, antispasmodic, aperient, aphrodisiac, astringent, bitter, carminative, cholagogue, counter-irritant, demulcent, derivative, diaphoretic, diuretic, emmenagogue, emollient, expectorant, febrifuge, galactagogue, hemostatic, hepatic, hypnotic, hypotensive, immune stimulant, laxative, lymphatic, nervine, refrigerant, rubefacient, sedative, sialagogue, stimulant, stomachic, styptic, tonic, vasodilator, and vulnerary.

Blending for Synergy. The art of herbal therapeutics is brought into play as one blends single nutritional and medicinal plants together into a compound formula, creating a uniquely synergistic quality that can support health, and when necessary stimulate or modify the body’s self-healing vital energy. Therefore, it is exceedingly useful to understand the terms and concepts that describe these herbal actions.

4. Harvesting with Heart: Rituals and Respect for Plant Spirits

In my opinion the harvesting of a plant is the most critical element in the process of making truly fine herbal medicine.

Harvesting as Communion. Harvesting medicinal plants is presented as the most intimate and compassionate portion of the communion between humans and plants. As you harvest a plant being, you put forth your desire to make medicine, and in turn plant spirits acquiesce to your request for the aid of their embodied nutrients and aesthetic healing vibration.

Rituals for Connection. The book suggests two focusing rituals: a ritualized method for allowing yourself to communicate with plants and receive them as personal allies, and a ritual that aligns the pace of your physical and mental energy with the energy of the plant entities you wish to harvest. These rituals help you allow yourself to function at an altered state of knowing and receptivity.

Ecological Harvesting Protocol. Ecological harvesting protocol is founded on the knowledge, experience, intent, and actions of human beings who hold in their hearts and minds a deep respect for plant communities. These people are recognized as “plant persons,” the green herbalists. When in the field, a green herbalist realizes that he or she is a visitor, a guest in quest of great gifts.

5. Drying, Garbling, and Storing: Preserving Nature's Gifts

Once succulent herbs are fully dried there is no longer enough water available in the vegetable tissues to support microorganism lifestyles; therefore the potency of one’s precious harvest is greatly prolonged and herbalists are very happy.

The Art of Drying. The goal in drying plants is to end up with herbs that closely resemble the living plant in color, aroma, taste, and texture. The drying procedure must follow as soon after harvesting as possible. Herbs dry excellently in warm, shaded, well-ventilated areas. Circulating dry air is essential. Never dry them in sunlight.

Garbling for Quality. Garbling is an exercise in the high art of paying attention to detail. It is a meticulous, self-satisfying chore, the object of which is to remove all excess stems and twigs, impurities and adulterants, and decayed and deteriorated portions of the plant, which not only mar appearance but are apt to contaminate the usable portions.

Storing for Potency. Light, heat, moisture, and exposure to air deteriorate dried botanicals. Store your dried herbs in airtight, light-shielding, dry containers that will keep out insects and rodents. Label each container clearly including the name you use for the plant, the location of the harvest, and the date.

6. Kitchen Pharmacy Equipment: Essential Tools for the Home Herbalist

The home-tech environment of your cottage kitchen is where Herbalism lives.

Basic Equipment. The book provides a list of essential equipment for a home herbalist, including jars and bottles, rubber spatulas, electric coffee grinder, mortar and pestle, measuring cups and/or graduated cylinders, lid grips, stirring devices, strainers, double boiler and a flame spreader, funnels, mixing bowls, scales, pouring devices, turkey baster, filter papers, cotton muslin cloth, calculator, yogurt thermometer, labeling materials, and paper towels.

Creating a Magical Atmosphere. As a budding herbalist, don’t accept false limitations. To do so only betrays your human potential. Break from the ordinary; as you collect common bottles for practical use, seek wild, colorful, whimsically shaped bottles and other types of bizarre containers as well. Use these to house and transport your herbal preparations.

The Importance of Location. The book suggests that you locate your dehydrator in or near the kitchen (lab). Make it a convenient and ready-to-use tool. Relate to your dehydrator as an essential, active appliance, like the refrigerator, the stove, or the espresso maker. Give it a permanent location in the active zone of the kitchen.

7. Extraction Processes: Unlocking Herbal Potential

Extraction allows us to have our herbs for a long time and makes it easier for us to eat them too.

The Purpose of Extraction. The purpose for extraction is to draw out an herb’s unique organization of chemical components along with its distinctive energetic virtues, and render these organic idiosyncrasies into a form that is more easily absorbable, possibly more concentrated, more palatable, and more convenient to administer than the original unprocessed form of the plant.

Maceration and Percolation. Maceration, or soaking a plant in a solvent, is performed to draw into a liquid solution the soluble constituents of the plant and to separate this solution from the insoluble residue or the marc. Percolation is a process of extracting the soluble constituents of an herb by the slow passage of a solvent through a column of dried powdered plant which has been packed in a special form of apparatus known as a percolator.

The Sensual Approach. The book stresses the importance of using your common senses to evaluate the finished extract. Smell it, observe its color, and taste it. If it smells and tastes like the plant it was derived from, you’ve formulated a good menstruum for the herb at hand.

8. Menstruums: Choosing the Right Solvent

Set the tone for the new millenium, be a lay herbalist. Water, spirits, wine, vinegar and oil, culinary and medicinal herbs, common kitchen equipment, and one’s unleashed passion are the shakers and movers of herbal medicine-making … that’s all one needs to cook as a community herbalist.

Seven Key Solvents. The book identifies seven liquids readily available for use as menstrua: water, wine, vinegar, ethyl alcohol, alcohol-water mixture, oil, and glycerin. These are common kitchen supplies (except maybe the glycerin) that are abundant, easy to acquire, safe to use, and excellent solvents for making liquid extracts and herbal medicine in a home lab.

Solvent Actions. Each menstruum has unique solvent actions. Water is a universal solvent, alcohol is a good preservative, wine and vinegar offer mild touches of alcohol and acid, oil is sensually unctuous, and glycerin is sweet-tasting and mixes well with both water and alcohol.

The Importance of Purity. The "emptier" a solvent is, the more effective it will be as an extractant. A solvent that is not already floating a bunch of dissolved minerals within its liquid volume obviously has more room within itself to dissolve and hold the components of an herb that has been mixed with it.

9. Forms of Herbal Medicine: Diverse Delivery Vehicles

It is not convenient to administer Saw Palmetto or Uva Ursi, for instance, in the form of berries and leaves, respectively.

Oral Preparations. The book outlines various forms of herbal medicine taken orally, including infusions, decoctions, tinctures, wine infusions, vinegar infusions, glycerites, oil infusions, syrups, honeys, oxymels, electuaries, succus, capsules, pills, powders, and lozenges.

Topical Applications. The book also discusses herbal preparations for topical application, including liniments, lotions and creams, medicinal oils and salves, ointments and balms, suppositories, boluses, fomentations, poultices, and baths.

Choosing the Right Vehicle. The selection of the appropriate vehicle depends on the herb, the desired effect, and the individual's preferences. Some forms are better suited for specific conditions or age groups.

10. Baths for Water Therapy: Soothing and Restorative Immersion

The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.

Water's Therapeutic Power. Water therapy, or hydrotherapy, lies at the very heart of health maintenance and natural medicine. By varying the temperature of water and immersing the body, you can tap into its healing energetics.

Types of Baths. The book discusses various types of baths, including whole body baths (cold, cool, tepid, warm, hot, very hot), partial body baths (sitz baths, foot and leg baths, hand baths), and herbal baths. Each type of bath has unique effects on the body.

The Quick Cold Plunge. The quick cold plunge is presented as the most efficient, reliable, and free health tonic known to the human body. It produces a reliable tonic effect by lifting the body’s whole vital economy to a higher level and increasing vital resistance to all the causes of the pathological processes.

11. Poultices and Fomentations: Localized Healing Power

In my opinion the harvesting of a plant is the most critical element in the process of making truly fine herbal medicine.

Poultices and Fomentations Defined. A poultice is a soft, mushy preparation composed usually of some pulpy or mealy substance which is capable of absorbing a large amount of liquid and of such consistency that it can be applied to any flat or irregular surface. A fomentation is a form of poultice that is composed of liquids or lotions, absorbed in woolen or cotton cloths and usually applied hot.

Types of Poultices. The book discusses various types of poultices, including emollient, medicated, and counter-irritant. Each type of poultice has unique properties and is used for specific conditions.

Herbal Materials for Poultices. The book suggests various herbal materials for medicating poultices, including Calendula, Comfrey, Plantain, Echinacea, Onion, and Mustard. Each herb has unique properties that make it suitable for treating specific conditions.

12. Complementary Techniques: Dosage, Trituration, and More

We create win-win experiences when we learn to harvest in a style that allows plant communities to recover and thrive … our hearts and herbal pharmacies thrive as well.

Dosage Considerations. Dosage varies according to type of herb(s) and the size, age, and condition of the person. It is better to err on the side of insufficient dosage and trust to nature than to overdose.

Trituration. Trituration is the process of reducing the size of particles by rubbing them in a mortar with a pestle. This renders a crushing and or a mixing effect as the pestle is plied under pressure in a circular motion.

Wildcrafting. Wildcrafting is an ancient, honorable art and craft of harvesting Earth’s gifts. It is a communion with the wild green as organic gardening is a communion with the domestic green.

Last updated: February 23, 2025