Herbal Medicine for Beginners: Your Guide to Healing Common Ailments with 35 Medicinal Herbs
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The definitive down-to-earth guide to healing with herbs.
You don’t need to buy hundreds of hard-to-find herbs to start your journey with herbal medicine. Herbal Medicine for Beginners shows you how to use a few important herbs to promote the body’s ability to fight infection and heal naturally.
Herbal Medicine for Beginners shows herbalists-in-training how to use a limited number of versatile, medicinal herbs to craft herbal remedies for common ailments. From allergies to fevers to headaches, beginners will gain the essential knowledge they need to blossom into natural healers and practice herbal medicine.
Herbal Medicine for Beginners teaches you how to use herbs as preventative and restorative medicine with:
- Herbal Medicine 101 provides step-by-step instruction on how to shop for, make, and apply herbal medicine effectively
- Profiles on Popular Herbs teach you how to choose the right herbs for your herbal medicine collection
- 100 Herbal Remedies for Common Ailments with easy-to-follow instructions to safely make remedies at home
Learn how to detox with dandelion, beat stress with linden, soothe burns with marshmallow and much more with remedies for common ailments in Herbal Medicine for Beginners.
From the Publisher
Learn Over 100 Herbal Remedies Using 35 Commonly Found Herbs
Many of these herbs featured in this book are probably growing in your neighborhood—these plants are common in most areas of the United States. All these herbs are easy to find in commerce, whether online or at a local herb shop. They have low potential for allergic reactions or negative interactions with pharmaceuticals, so they’re all quite safe to experiment with. Let these herbs introduce you to the world of plant remedies, and you’ll have a good palette of experience to draw on when you meet other herbs in the future.
Sample Herb Profile: Pine (Pinus Strobus)
For Respiratory Ailments:
Pine is most commonly associated with immune support and respiratory ailments. The aromatic, volatile oils in all conifer trees are directly antiseptic to the respiratory system, helping kill invading pathogens. As tea, pine warms the respiratory system and acts as an expectorant to move phlegm up and out of the lungs. Pine makes an effective and enjoyable steam for respiratory infections.
For Healing Wounds:
Pine resin is an excellent remedy for wound healing. Strongly antiseptic, pine resin prevents infection, and its vulnerary actions stimulate healing. Pine Resin Salve is indispensable in a first aid kit, though on the trail, the resin can even be applied in its natural (sticky!) state.
Ideal for Addressing:
Abscess
Bronchitis / chest cold / pneumonia
Cold and flu
Cough
Depression
Gingivitis
Immune support
Receding gums
Sinusitis / stuffy nose
Wounds
Sample Remedy: Pine Resin Salve
Makes 8 ounces (40-day supply)
Pine resin salve is our go-to for wounds that have closed or were never very deep. You can work with the resin of other conifers, too. Resin can be harvested directly from the trees—you’ll find whitish globs of it along the trunk where branches were lost. Leave enough on the tree to keep the wound sealed—this resin is how the tree forms a scab! It will probably have bits of bark, dirt, insect parts, etc., stuck in it—don’t worry! We’ll filter that out during processing.
You can use plain oil for infusing your resin, but starting with an herb-infused oil means you get the good actions of all these herbs, instead of just those the resin contributes.
Directions:
1. In a small pan over low heat, combine the resin and infused oil and heat gently, stirring frequently. The resin will soften and dissolve, infusing the oil with its virtues.
2. Pour this warm oil through a few layers of cheesecloth. Wrap the mass that remains and squeeze it to extract as much oil as possible.
3. Prepare a salve using this resin-infused oil (see page 39 for complete instructions).
4. Apply to the wound several times a day, replacing fresh, neat bandages each time.
After you gather resin…
Use a bit of oil to wash your hands—soap and water won’t work. Just drop a bit of any liquid oil you have handy into your hands and scrub as if it were soap. The resin will soften and separate from your skin. Then you can use soap and hot water to wash it away.
Ingredients:
6 to 8 ounces pine resin or another conifer resin
8 fluid ounces total calendula-infused oil, goldenrod infused oil, and/or plantain-infused oil
1 ounce beeswax, chopped or grated, plus more as needed
