Valerian: An Honest Look at the Great Sleep Herb

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) has been used as a sleep and anxiety herb in European medicine for at least two thousand years. Hippocrates used it. Dioscorides described it in his materia medica. The medieval herbalists relied on it. It is one of the most...

Herbs for Digestion in Summer: Cooling and Settling

Digestion in summer operates differently from winter. The traditional medical systems understood this: in Ayurveda, the digestive fire (agni) is considered weaker in hot weather, when the body’s energy is directed toward managing heat rather than powering...

Meadowsweet: The Herb of the Meadow and the Medicine Chest

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) is a beautiful white-flowered plant of wet meadows, riverbanks, and ditches in the British Isles and across Northern Europe. It flowers through July and August, filling the summer air with a honey-sweet, slightly almond-like fragrance...

California Poppy: The Gentle Sleep and Anxiety Herb

California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) carries a misconception it has been trying to shake since it first became known in herbal circles outside of its California native range. It is not an opium poppy. It has no opioid compounds and no opioid activity. Its...

Making Herbal Syrups: A Complete Guide

Herbal syrups combine a concentrated herbal preparation (a decoction or infusion) with a sweetener (sugar, honey, or glycerine) to produce a stable, pleasant-tasting medicine that is one of the most practically useful preparations in the home apothecary. They are easy...