Be Your Own Herbal Expert

Be Your Own Herbal Expert

by Susun S. Weed

Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors knew how to use an enormous variety of plants for health and well-being. Our neighbors around the world continue to use local plants for healing and health maintenance. You can too can be your own herbal expert!

Information on herbs and their uses has been passed down to us in many ways: through stories, in books, set to music, and incorporated into our everyday speech. Learning about herbs is fun, fascinating, and easy to do, no matter where you live or what your circumstances. It is an adventure that makes use of all of your senses. Reading about herbal medicine is fascinating, and a great way to learn how others have used plants. But the real authorities are the plants themselves. They speak to us through their smells, tastes, forms, and colors.

You can begin enjoying herbs by preparing teas or infusions from fresh or dried plants purchased from an herbalist, a natural foods store, or a farm market. But one of the greatest delights is to learn to recognize native plants growing around you, right here and now! Then you can explore how these plants nourish, invigorate, heal, and please you. Not everyone responds to the same herb in the same way, and different herbs will be right for you at different times.

Once you begin to learn about herbs, you will be surprised how easy it is to identify common medicinal plants that grow in your own backyard, such as the common "weeds" dandelion, violet, and plantain. In fact, most of us have more than 10 edible herbs growing within walking distance of our front doors, and even children (especially children!) can identify, harvest, and prepare wild plants for food and medicinal use. With just a few common ingredients such as vinegar, oil, and alcohol, you can be your own herbal expert in just a few weeks. Take a "weed walk" with a local herbalist, attend a class, or study by going outside with a good identification book. Before you know it, wild plants will be speaking to you everywhere you go and you will become an herbal expert.

Safety First

Anyone who is willing to take the time to get to know the plants around them will discover a wealth of health-promoting green allies. What stops us from doing this more often? Fear. We fear that we will use the wrong plant. We fear poisoning ourselves. We fear the plants themselves. These fears are wise. But they need not keep us from using the abundant remedies of nature. A few simple guidelines can protect you and help you make sense of herbal medicine.

Virtually all plants contain poisons. After all, they don't want to be eaten! Because we have evolved to eat plants, we have the capacity to neutralize or remove (through preparation or digestion) their poisons. Not all poisons kill, and even poisons that are deadly often require quantities far larger than can easily be obtained from foods to be fatal. (Apple seeds, for instance, contain a lethal poison, but it takes a quart of them to cause death.)

Our senses of taste and smell are registered in the part of the brain that maintains respiration and circulation, in other words, the survival center. Plants (but not mushrooms) advertise their poisons by tasting bad or smelling foul. Of the four primary kinds of poisons found in plants; alkaloids, glycosides, resins, and essential oils, the first two always taste bitter or cause a variety of noxious reactions on the oral tissues, and the last two usually do so too, especially when removed from the plant or concentrated.

Sometimes the taste of the poison in a plant is hidden by large amounts of sweet-tasting starch. Fortunately, human saliva contains an enzyme that breaks down these carbohydrates, exposing the nasty taste of the poison. Still, tiny amounts of some poisons can have strong effects. So for safety's sake, take your time (and take small tidbits) when tasting. It is best not to put poison ivy or poison oak in your mouth, and do not taste houseplants.

Simples

Because our sense of taste protects us against poisonous plants, it is always best to take herbs in a form that preserves flavor. Consuming just one plant at a time, with as little preparation as possible, gives us the greatest opportunity to taste poisons and is therefore the safest way to use herbs.

When we ingest a simple herb whether raw, cooked as a vegetable, brewed fresh or dried in water as a tea or infusion, steeped in vinegar or honey, or dried and used as a condiment, we bring into play several million years of plant wisdom collected in our genes. When we ingest many plants together, or concentrate their natural poisons by tincturing, distilling, or standardizing, we increase the possibility of harm. Powdering herbs and putting them in capsules is one of the most dangerous ways to use them, especially those containing poisons. For ultimate risk, play with essential oils; they are far removed from the plant, very concentrated, and as little as one-quarter ounce can kill.

When we use simples, we allow ourselves an intimacy that deepens and strengthens our connections to plants and their green magic. There are lots of interesting plants, and lots of herbal experts who maintain that herbal medicine means formulae and combinations of herbs. But I consider herbs as lovers, preferring to have only one in bed with me at a time. I even go so far as to ally with one plant at a time, usually for at least a year. By narrowing my focus to just a single herbal ally, I actually find that I learn more than if I used several together or in quick succession.

When I use one plant at a time it is much easier for me to discern the effect of that plant. When I use one plant at a time, it is easy for my body to communicate with me and tell me what plants it needs for optimum health. When I work as an herbal expert helping others, and someone has a bad reaction to the remedy, it is obvious what the source of the distress is if I am using one plant at a time.

Tea for You?

Teas are a favorite way to consume herbs. Made by brewing a small amount of herbs (typically a teaspoonful to a cup of water) for a short time (generally one to two minutes), teas are flavorful, colorful drinks.

Herbs rich in coloring compounds; hibiscus, rose hips, calendula, and black tea make enticing and tasty teas. They may also contain polyphenols phytochemicals (phyto refers to "plant") known to help prevent cancer. Since coloring compounds and polyphenols are fairly stable, dried herbs are considered best for making teas that will be rich in these compounds.

Herbs rich in volatile oils, ginger, chamomile, cinnamon, catnip, mint, lemon balm, lemon grass, lavender, bergamot, fennel, anise, and cumin seeds make lovely teas that are effective in easing spasms, stimulating digestion, eliminating pain, and inducing sleep. Since much of the volatile oils is lost when herbs are dried, fresh herbs are considered best for teas rich in these, but dried herbs can be used with good results too.

I enjoy a cup of hot tea with honey. But teas fail to deliver the mineral richness locked into many common herbs. A cup of nettle tea, for instance, contains only 5 to 10 milligrams of calcium, while a cup of nettle infusion contains up to 500 milligrams. For optimum nutrition, I drink nourishing herbal infusions every day.

Infusion for Me!

An infusion is a large amount of herb brewed for a long time. Typically, one ounce by weight (about a cup by volume) of dried herb is placed in a quart jar, which is then filled to the top with boiling water, tightly lidded, and allowed to steep for 4 to 10 hours. After straining the plant matter out, squeeze it well to get the most nutrients from it and enjoy drinking a cup or more. Chill the remainder to slow spoilage. Drinking two to four cups a day is usual. Since the minerals and other phytochemicals in nourishing herbs are made more accessible by drying, dried herbs are considered best for infusions.

I make my infusions at night before I go to bed, and they are ready in the morning. I put my herb in my jar and my water in the pot, and the pot on the fire, then brush my teeth (or sweep the floor) until the kettle whistles. I pour the boiling water up to the rim of the jar, screw on a tight lid, turn off the stove and the light, and go to bed. In the morning, I strain it and drink the liquid. I prefer it iced, unless the morning is frosty. I drink the quart of infusion within 36 hours or until it spoils. I use any that is left over to water my houseplants, or pour it over my hair after washing, as a final rinse that needn't be washed out.

My favorite herbs for infusion are nettle, oat straw, red clover, and comfrey leaf, but only one at a time. The tannins in red clover and comfrey make me pucker my lips, so I add a little mint, or bergamot, when I infuse them just enough to flavor the brew slightly. You may also want to try a little salt in your infusion. That may make it taste better than honey will.

All Herbs Are Not Equal

There is a wealth of plants from which you can make teas, infusions, or other preparations. How do you choose which to use? All herbs are not equal: Some contain poisons, some don't; some of the poisons are not so bad, and some can kill you dead. I divide herbs into four categories for ease in remembering how (and how much) to use. Some herbs nourish us, some tonify, some bring us up or ease us down, and some are frighteningly strong.

Nourishing herbs are the safest of all herbs. They contain few or no alkaloids, glycosides, resins, or essential oils (poisons). Nourishing herbs are eaten as foods, cooked into soups, dried and infused, or, occasionally, made into vinegars. They provide high-level nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, proteins, phytoestrogens and phytosterols, starches, simple and complex sugars, bioflavonoids, carotenes, and essential fatty acids.

Examples of nourishing herbs are burdock roots, chickweed herb (chickweed tincture dissolves cysts), comfrey leaves, elder blossoms and berries, mushrooms, nettle leaves and seeds, oat straw, plantain leaves and seeds, red clover blossoms, seaweeds, and violet leaves and blossoms.

Tonifying herbs are generally considered safe when used in moderation. They may contain alkaloids, glycosides, or essential oils, but rarely in quantities sufficient to harm us. Tonifying herbs act slowly in the body and have a cumulative, rather than immediate, effect. They are most beneficial when used for extended periods of time. Tonifying herbs may be used regularly (but usually not daily), for decades if desired.

Examples of tonifying herbs are burdock seeds, especially in an oil base; chasteberry; mug/cronewort herb, especially in vinegar; dandelion leaf, root, and flowers; echinacea root; ginseng root; hawthorn berries, leaves, and flowers; horsetail herb; motherwort leaves and flowers; and yellow dock leaves, roots, and seeds.

Stimulating or sedating herbs frequently contain essential oils, alkaloids, glycosides, or resins. Because these substances cause strong physical reactions, stimulating/sedating herbs are known for their rapid and pronounced effects, some of which may be unwanted. Stimulating/sedating herbs are most often prepared as tinctures (and wines), vinegars, teas, and infusions. Many stimulating/sedating herbs are used as seasonings in cooking as well. Despite my cookbook's injunction to use only a little, I long ago learned that more aromatic herbs in my soups gave a "livelier" result.

Examples of stimulating/sedating herbs are leaves of aromatic mints such as catnip, lemon balm, lavender, sage, and skullcap; cinnamon bark; coffee beans; ginger root; kava kava root; licorice root; tobacco leaves; uva ursi leaves; valerian root; and willow bark and leaves.

Potentially poisonous herbs always contain alkaloids, glycosides, resins, or essential oils. And they contain large quantities or very potent forms of those poisons. Potentially poisonous plants can cause death directly through the actions on their targets (such as cardiac glycosides that stop the heart), or indirectly by causing the liver and/or the kidneys to fail (as they attempt to cope with and clear the poison from the system).

Some potentially poisonous herbs are belladonna, castor beans, cayenne, cotton root, goldenseal, liferoot/groundsel, nutmeg, poke root, tansy leaves and flowers, and wormwood.

With this introduction to our green allies, you are ready to learn more! I welcome you to sign up for Weed Wanderings, my free online newsletter, filled with simple, successful herbal wisdom. And you can take a class with an herbalist to discover a wealth of herbal remedies and plants that support our wellness. Be sure to visit the Wise Woman Center online for a bounty of ideas and information to expand your herbal explorations.

Excerpted from Be Your Own Herbal Expert by Susun S.Weed. Wise woman, women's health expert, and green witch, Susun S. Weed is the author of the Wise Woman Herbal Series. Weed offers workshops, intensives, apprenticeships, and correspondence courses in herbal medicine and personal empowerment. www.susunweed.com

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