Herbal medicine for healing -
Before the development of modern drugs, people relied on nature as medicine. Plants like yarrow, birch tree, and mallow were used as herbal medicine in prehistoric times and continue to be used for certain illnesses today. Herbal medicine can take various forms from pills and powders, to liquids, and can be practiced in many ways such as:.
In many cultures, herbal medicine has also been used in spiritual and religious rituals. An example is the practice of smudging — a tradition in many indigenous cultures, which involves the cleansing of the soul and physical spaces through the burning of sacred herbs eg.
palo santo and sage. Plant medicine is found everywhere. For many people, herbalism serves as an accessible and affordable type of healthcare and is a primary source of livelihood for certain populations. Common medicinal herbs and their traditional uses that are widespread in South Africa include:.
The fynbos may be the smallest floral kingdom in the world, but it is packed with healing properties! The Khoisan were the earliest people to use fynbos as medicine and their indigenous knowledge and traditions of these plants continue to be practiced today.
Here are a few examples of the traditional healing uses of fynbos :. Indigenous communities play a significant role in our awareness of herbal medicine. Their well-established connection to the natural world produces immense knowledge on how to care for our local environments. Indigenous knowledge also known as traditional ecological knowledge involves the oral and written traditions, beliefs, and practices of indigenous and local people that have been acquired over thousands of years while promoting environmental protection over our natural landscapes.
Many indigenous peoples continue to practice herbalism for traditional and medicinal purposes today. Aloe ferox is a fynbos plant that has traditionally been used by the Khoisan people for medicinal purposes. However, the growing consumption of these plants has added pressure on our natural environment, as well as the local and indigenous communities who rely on these plants.
In our interconnected world, nature has the power to heal our bodies just as we have the power to heal the planet. We can use herbal medicine while ensuring their ability to thrive in their natural environments through sustainable practices.
Here are a few sustainability tips and solutions that benefit both the Earth and our bodies:. The practice of herbalism offers us diverse ways to connect with nature.
For more details on growing and enjoying calendula, please visit my article here. Calendula ice cubes and calendula garnish. Motherwort is one of the easiest herbs to grow and is a highly versatile medicinal. It is one of my favorite remedies for anxiety and stress. It is taken as a tincture or tea to lessen pain, such as: headaches, menstrual cramps, and muscle sprains and aches.
I will add that motherwort is quite bitter, so I often recommend it as a tincture over tea. It is an ally for many people who experience menopause for easing hot flashes and hormonal-induced irritability. Motherwort is also used in childbirth to help strengthen contractions; it is the only herb I used giving birth to my daughter!
Finally, motherwort fully lives up to its name in helping to increase parental patience. Many parents find that motherwort softens the edginess brought on by sleep deprivation, endless laundry and dishes, and uppity wee folk. Motherwort is a short-lived herbaceous perennial, plant it in full sun to part shade.
Hardy to Zone 4. Plant inches cm apart; grows 3 to 5 feet. The seeds can be stratified placed in damp sand in the refrigerator for two weeks before planting, and will generally germinate in one week if placed in a warm spot, such as a greenhouse or sunny window.
You can find a detailed guide on stratification in my article on Cultivating Woodland Herbs. Motherwort easily transplants; consider asking a neighboring herbalist if you can dig up any extra plants. Harvest the leaves and flowers at the height of its bloom—but be careful; this plant is prickly!
Passionflower harvest Passiflora incarnata. Passionflower is a native vine to the southeastern United States, with gorgeous flowers and interesting foliage.
It is weedy in much of its range and fairly easy to grow elsewhere, especially if given a wall or trellis to climb. The leaves and flowers are an important nervine sedative and are used to help promote sleep and alleviate pain, such as menstrual cramps and headaches.
Passionflower is a short-lived, perennial herb that will clamber gregariously over arbors and fences. Space plants 3 feet. Passionflower loves full sun, and will bloom more profusely when situated to bask in the solar rays, especially if you live further north. If you live in a hot climate, consider planting passionflower where it will receive some shade by mid-afternoon.
Acclimated to warmth, passionflower is only hardy to zone 6 and is highly frost tender. Mulch heavily in the fall to help it overwinter. Plant passionflower in well-drained to average garden soil. Seeds will germinate more easily if you first scarify them by rubbing each one between sandpaper until you see a pale inner tissue emerge within the darker seed coat.
I also recommend stratifying the seeds by placing them in damp sand in the refrigerator for one to two months see these links for more on scarification and stratification.
Be patient, sometimes it may take months for passionflower seeds to sprout, and germination may not happen all at once. The use of bottom heat, planting in a warm greenhouse, or sowing seeds in late spring will all enhance germination.
Actually, passionflower is just a short-lived perennial, so no need to take it personally—you may simply need to replant it after three years or so. The stems, leaves, and flowers can all be gathered for medicine, and used fresh or dried in tea or tincture form. Curious to learn more about passionflower?
See my articles on The Ecology and Medicine of Passionflower , and Saving Passionflower Seeds. Purple coneflower is one of the most popular garden ornamentals with its showy purple flowers that attract all manner of butterflies and bees. Echinacea is an herbaceous perennial, coming back to the garden year after year.
Plant in full sun for the best flower production, feet cm apart; grows to feet. Echinacea purpurea is the easiest species of echinacea to grow in most garden soils, although Echinacea angustifolia is a highly prized medicinal to many herbal gardeners. Sow seeds in trays or directly into the ground in early spring.
Expect germination within weeks. To improve the germination rate, you may cold condition stratify the seeds for two weeks prior to planting. Echinacea will begin flowering in its second year, and will be two or three years old before the roots are ready to harvest. Echinacea seeds are relished by goldfinches and will self-sow if left on the plant over winter.
This close relative of common basil is native to India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia, and has gained recent popularity as a tasty herbal tea. Holy basil is highly aromatic and antimicrobial; its leaves and flowers are used as a medicinal tea for colds, coughs, asthma, bronchitis, sinusitis, headaches, arthritis, diabetes, stress, and anxiety.
Its adaptogenic effect offers an uplifting energy and helps with mental clarity and focus. In the kitchen, the fresh leaves can be added to salads and are used as a more pungent version of basil.
Holy basil pesto is divine! Tulsi is a perennial herb in Zones 10 and warmer, elsewhere it must be grown as an annual. However, it may self-seed prolifically even in cooler climates! Plant holy basil in full sun in average to moist garden soils, space If you want a head start on the growing season the seeds will germinate better with bottom heat.
If your greenhouse gets too cold at night, tulsi will be slow to sprout, and slow to grow. For this reason, I recommend planting outside after the danger of frost has passed. Holy basil may appear puny at first, leaving you to wonder if it has some botanical failure-to-thrive syndrome—perhaps you spoke too harshly with it when you were transplanting it—but do not go to that dark place of plant parent guilt.
When the days grow longer and the nighttime temperatures warm, it will take off! Several harvests can be obtained in one year: simply cut back the mature plant to 8 inches and it will re-grow quickly. As with culinary basil, cutting back the early flowers helps the plant to fill out and promotes more vegetative growth.
With billowy clusters of creamy flowers that reign over ferny leaves, this European wetland herb certainly is deserving of its moniker: queen of the meadow.
The flowers are quite attractive and are traditionally used to flavor meads; hence its former name meadwort. You can also make an herbal simple syrup with meadowsweet, sassafras Sassafras albidum root, black birch Betula lenta bark, and a touch of cloves Syzygium aromaticum and add it to sparkly water to make a homemade root beer soda.
The leaves and flowers have a pleasant wintergreen aroma and flavor, and are used internally for inflammation, fevers, heartburn, and peptic ulcers. Most people, including finicky children, love the tasty tea.
Meadowsweet is a wonderful tonic for arthritis with its anti-inflammatory salicylates. It is naturalizing in the northeastern United States and can spread on its own from seed.
Meadowsweet is a hardy perennial in Zones , growing to 4 feet 1. Plant in full sun or part shade, but note that moisture is beneficial—a wet meadow, streamside or the edge of a pond are all perfect spots for meadowsweet.
If you live in a southern climate, meadowsweet will be happier with a little afternoon shade and wet feet. In cooler climates, meadowsweet will tolerate more sunshine and drier soils, and even regular garden soil will nurture the growth of beautiful, healthy plants.
It is much easier to grow meadowsweet by root division than by seed, which requires a complicated stratification regime. Any little piece of the root will take hold, and grow a new plant. See my article on Root Division for more details. Harvest meadowsweet when it is beginning to bloom by cutting the flowering stalks close to the base of the plant.
You can hang these longer stems in bundles, placing a cloth underneath to catch any blossoms that fall during the drying process. Harvest the basal leaves at this time as well by giving half the plant a haircut. It will send forth a flush of new leaves, and you can harvest them a second time in the fall, before the first frost.
Jiaogulan is a popular folk herb in Southeast Asia where it is grown as an affordable substitute for ginseng Panax spp. It is gaining popularity in the Western world, where it is used as a tonic for longevity and vitality. The leaves are brewed into a medicinal tonic tea for anxiety, stress, depression, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
This vine is an easy-to-grow adaptogenic tonic, which contains some of the same compounds ginsenosides found in Asian and American ginseng. Sweet tea vine is actually quite bitter and contrary to its name, has a flavor reminiscent of ginseng with mild soapy undertones.
As you are likely aware, sweet tea black tea with copious amounts of white sugar is the beverage of choice for many southerners. Southern ginseng is an herbaceous perennial vine hardy to 10 degrees F degrees C ; it grows 4 inches 10 cm tall by indefinitely wide and prefers part shade and moist rich soil.
Jiaogulan will spread vigorously by runners and can become a troublesome weed if consumption does not outpace proliferation. In this light, it makes a beautiful container plant. I recommend growing jiaogulan by division , as seeds are not readily available. It can be hard to come by; see the resource section below for nurseries that carry it.
Here is a video of Joe Hollis, of Mountain Gardens, talking about Jiaogulan. Jiaogulan growing as a potted porch plant. It is one of the strongest sialagogues saliva-promoters I know; even a tiny nibble from one of the flowers will set your mouth to drool.
The tingly numbing sensation affords relief to toothaches, and is used in many tooth and gum formulas, as it is antimicrobial, stimulating, and acts as an oral anodyne. All the aboveground parts are medicinal, and can be chewed fresh in moderation or made into a tincture.
You can read more about spilanthes and other herbal immune stimulants here. Spilanthes is one of the easiest to grow medicinal herbs, and kids absolutely love it!
This herb is grown as an annual, and will do well in average to rich soil and full sun. Be sure to water during dry spells. Spilanthes is a bushy, low-growing herb that can form a beautiful, succulent cover over the ground. It will rarely exceed 1 foot 30 cm in height, and should be spaced 1 foot 30 cm apart.
Direct sow seeds after danger of frost has passed or sow in the greenhouse for a head start. One to two plants will yield over a quart of tincture. Protect the plants from slugs, as they will devour it—slug candy, indeed!
Nettles is a highly revered, nutritious spring green, eaten steamed or in soups and stir-fries. The sting disappears when the leaves are cooked or dried. The greens and tea of nettles are high in minerals, vitamins, and chlorophyll; namely Vitamin A and C and calcium, potassium, magnesium, and iron.
The leaves and seeds are used medicinally in teas and foods for allergies, arthritis, and as a kidney tonic. Few herbs are so highly useful in the garden as nettles, if placed wisely in the landscape.
It is considered a perennial vegetable—it does not need to be planted from seed each spring, but comes back from the roots year after year, making it less energy-intensive to cultivate than many annual crops.
Nettles is a generous herb—it will spread prolifically by runners; plant it out of the way or inside a semi-buried barrier. Try planting nettles in a wet meadow away from human activity or on an old compost or manure pile.
In some locales it will spread by seed, making containment challenging. Nettles grows feet. Zones Fresh nettle shoots emerge in the earliest spring; you can continually harvest the tender new growth with scissors and it will regrow, allowing for multiple harvests from the same patch.
Gather nettles before they flower. Consider wearing thick clothing and using leather gardening gloves. I recommend a scythe or similar tool for large-scale harvesting, and kitchen scissors or pruners for smaller yields.
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Astragalus Foods with quick insulin response Calendula Lemon Balm Dill Medocine Garlic Gingko Chamomile. Have you ever Boosted metabolism benefits on a piece of Organic sustainable energy to curb your nausea? Or sprinkled Herbal medicine for healing cinnamon in medicone oatmeal to help lower blood sugar? If the answer is meidcine, you Hernal taking part in a tradition that stretches deep into our past. Many of the healing herbs outlined in the book are still in use today, including ephedra, yellow gentian, ginseng, and, yes, ginger and cinnamon. For all of human history, people have explored their natural environments and found plants whose component parts — leaves, flowers, bark, stems, roots, seeds — bolstered health and even cured ailments. Herbal remedies developed in an intensely regional fashion, as shamans and healers responded to the local climate and the array of plants growing there. Did you know that there are over hsaling hundred Organic sustainable energy Herbwl spices that can be consumed or used topically for healing? These natural foods possess Fueling strategies for different sports number healinf beneficial properties mesicine work to Herbal medicine for healing inflammation, improve the Organic sustainable energy of your heart, boost your immune system, and even prevent and fight cancer. With so many natural remedies at your disposal, the need for prescription medications goes down considerably. In fact, in the field of herbal medicinenaturally occurring, plant-derived substances are used to treat illnesses within local or regional healing practices. Well-known systems of herbal medicine like Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic Medicine believe in the central idea that there should be an emphasis on health rather than on disease.
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