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Marshmallow Root: The Gentle Giant of Soothing Herbs

Althaea officinalis is the plant from which marshmallow confectionery was originally made: the spongy white sweet derived its name and originally its substance from the root of this tall, soft-leaved plant, whose mucilaginous root was boiled with sugar to produce the...

Burdock: The Overlooked Root That the Herbalist Loves

Arctium lappa is the plant most people recognize by its round, hooked seed heads (burs) that attached enthusiastically to clothes and animal fur throughout the autumn walks of childhood. The plant that produces those burs is less well known: a tall, large-leaved...

Reishi: The Mushroom of Immortality

Ganoderma lucidum (reishi, or ling zhi in Chinese) has been considered the most prized medicinal mushroom in Chinese medicine for over two thousand years. The name ling zhi translates roughly as “divine mushroom of immortality,” and the mushroom’s...

Astragalus: Building Deep Immune Resilience

Astragalus (Astragalus membranaceus, known as huang qi in Chinese) is one of the most important herbs in the entire Chinese materia medica: a tonic herb for the wei qi (defensive energy) of the body, classified as an adaptogen and a trophorestorative for the immune...

Valerian Root: The Autumn Harvest

Valerian root harvested in autumn from an established plant is one of the most medicinally concentrated materials you can bring into the home apothecary. The plant has spent the growing season building its root reserves, and by October, when the above-ground growth is...

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