Meadowsweet is often thought of as herbal aspirin. Even though it’s no secret that its compounds were originally used to formulate and synthesize aspirin, can you really use it in the same way?   If you want to get the same results from Meadowsweet as aspirin, you would have to drink quarts of the tea, which is tough to do because it’s incredibly bitter. Not only would you be feeling pretty nauseous by the end, but you would also only get the strength of a baby aspirin, if you’re lucky!   Even though Meadowsweet contains aspirin-like compounds, they are not the same. Meadowsweet is a ..read more

Phytochemistry is a fascinating study, but it can be incredibly complicated and confusing at times. Understandably, there are many herbalists who’d prefer to avoid learning it all together. The big question is: Do you really need to know phytochemistry to be a great herbalist?   There are many paths you can take as an herbalist. You can meet with clients, make herbal medicine, wildcraft, and so much more. As you’ll see, phytochemistry plays a different role in each of these paths.    In today’s episdode, you’ll discover: What phytochemistry is using simple terms The traditio ..read more

Margi Flint is a practicing herbalist, registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild, and herbal mentor from Marblehead, Massachusetts. Margi's wisdom spans over 20 years of labor coaching certification, polarity therapy, and Reiki, alongside 40-plus years of clinical herbal practice. She teaches at Pacific Rim College in Victoria, British Columbia, and has lectured at numerous prestigious herb schools, including Tufts Medical and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, as well as Boston University. She is also the author of one of my favorite and, in my opinion, one of the most useful her ..read more

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are natural compounds found in certain herbs. Despite their long history of safe use in herbal traditions, they are often misunderstood and feared, discouraging people from working with these potent medicinal herbs.   By learning more about these compounds and how to safely use herbs containing them, you can confidently incorporate them into your herbal practice.   In today’s episode, you’ll discover:  What pyrrolizidine alkaloids are and why they're named this The two types of pyrrolizidine alkaloids, distinguishing between toxic and non-toxic ones ..read more

Is all herbal research trustworthy? If you’ve ever Googled an herb to learn more and saw lots of research papers about it, can you trust them? Herbal research is tricky since there are a lot of things that can go wrong and right with them that make the results tricky to decipher.    Even though understanding herbal research isn’t 100% necessary as a clinical herbalist, it can introduce novel uses of plants, and of course, knowing the chemistry of an herbal makes you a much better medicine maker. With a few pointers, you can learn how to tell if the scientific research you read online ..read more

Do you need to know botany to be a great herbalist? Since learning botany is like learning a new language, it’s a fair question. After all, if you won’t use it, is it worth becoming fluent in it?   Being an herbalist means a lot of things: Working with people, plants, and being the bridge between the two. Although it might seem like studying botany is an important part of this process, the answer to this question might surprise you.    In today’s episode, you’ll discover: The three layers of botany and how you can use them in your work with herbs  When learning botany i ..read more

Sweet and grounding, Burdock is an Earthy plant with its wide leaves, deep taproots, and ability to both nourish weakness and cleanse excesses from the body. Just as it loves to grow near waste grounds, Burdock clears metabolic waste products and toxins from the fluids in your body to keep your skin glowing and healthy.   Since the health of the skin is merely a reflection of the health of your liver, blood, lymph, and digestion, focusing on topical solutions alone won’t get you very far. By working on each of these organs on a deep level, you can find long-term relief for chronic skin co ..read more

Scott Kloos is an herbalist, wildcrafter, and medicine maker. He founded and acts as the managing director of the School of Forest Medicine and owns Cascadia Folk Medicine, which supplies high-quality, small-batch herbal extracts from the native plants of the Pacific Northwest region. He also co-founded the Elderberry School of Botanical Medicine in Portland, Oregon, and authored the book Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest, and Use 120 Wild Herbs for Health and Wellness.    I always think of Scott as a fellow plant brother and someone I really see eye-to-eye with ..read more

Do you ever feel lost in your herbal studies or not know what to do next to reach the next level of your development as a plant healer? The journey as an herbalist can seem long and daunting. There are so many books out there, courses, traditions, and of course – herbs to study.    When your path ahead is unclear, it helps to pause and make a plan to figure out where you want to go and how to get there. With a clear map, you can handle any rough terrain, forks in the road, or unmarked trails with as few detours along the way as possible. This blog post is all about you, helping you t ..read more

As you begin your herbal exploration, you’ll notice that there are a lot of books out there that either talk about a plant’s spiritual or medicinal aspects–but rarely both. This separation of science and spirit mirrors the allopathic approach used in conventional medicine. The problem is that this separation doesn’t exist!    The more I studied the alchemical perspective, the more I learned that an herb's physical and spiritual properties are connected. When you study herbs this way, you start to see them beyond what they treat, and into their core medicinal qualities instead so you ..read more