Herbal Healing

This is a hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) tree with a trunk too big for me to get my arms around. That’s not nearly as big as they can get, but these days it’s less common to find fully mature individuals of the species. Their natural lifespan is a matter of centuries, but logging and an imported pest have seen fewer of them living so long.

This is Hexastylis arifolia, and it’s a very strange plant. Its distinctive leaves (which are there all year) and its flowers (which are not there right now, but which look like an alien egg), grow directly from the rhizome. It doesn’t really have a stem other than that. Its English name, in reference to its flower, is “Little Brown Jug”, a name it shares with a mountain song about the joys of alcoholism.

Ground nut (Apios americana) is in bloom right now where i live. It often grows on the banks of streams (in this case the Kentucky river). Its starchy tuber is a traditional food in this part of the world, and one of the best known wild root vegetables here.

Lilium canadense. One of the liliest lilies in the woods.

Talking to my advanced students about the shikimic acid pathway, its clinical relevance, and its role in human rights/global public health.

A honeybeast on the monarda and a butterfly/moth type creature on the echinacea.

Orange mint (monarda citriodora), known by various other common names, is a native but not very common mint here in ky. This one is growing in my driveway near the medicine wagon, from seeds that came from plants that were hung to dry there last year.

Spigelia.

My classroom all set up to talk to my third year students about how to use medical literature, and the nature of evidence, causality, and knowability more generally. Good times.

Some of the food I made today. Parched sunflower tubers on a bed of goosefoot and amaranth greens; venison pot roast; persimmon and berry sauce (tastes sort of like cranberry); blackberry cobbler (two ingredients— berries and hickory nuts); and figgy pudding (figs, flour made from cattail roots& amaranth and goosefoot seeds, syrup made from the figs). Other than the figs, all the ingredients are things people in this part of the world have been eating for thousands of years.

Leaving the fuchsia to guard the henhouse. The fuchsia plant is named after Leonhart Fuchs, a german herbalist from the 1500’s. His herbal, De historia stirpium commentarii insignes, was notable for being illustrated with hundreds of woodcuts by Albrecht Mayer. It was also published almost immediately in German as New Kreüterbuch (new herbal), in a time when scientific publications were rarely offered in the vernacular. As a teacher and clinician, Fuchs emphasized the use of individual herbs (simples) rather than proprietary formulas, and taught that clinicians should be familiar with the plants themselves, going so far as to take his students on herb walks and even plant a medicinal garden at the University of Tübingen. He cautioned strongly against leaving the sourcing of medicines up to the drug sellers, who were more concerned with sales than the wellbeing of patients.

Anti-viral effect of usenamine a using SARS-CoV-2 pseudo-typed viruses The escalating pandemic brought about by the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus is threatening global health, and thus, it is necessary to develop effective antiv…

The Herbalism from the ground up program is enrolling now for May 2024. Link in bio. This is a 12 month program that gives participants, the background and understanding necessary to begin working with herbal medicine for themselves and the people around them.
This year the weekly classes will be offered in person (in Lexington kentucky) as well as online via zoom. This is one of relatively few herbal programs that is based out of an herbal clinic. It also has the advantage of involving direct contact with a primary instructor with decades of experience as a practicing herbalist and as a teacher of herbalism. my goal is to make a thorough and meaningful herbal education available and accessible to as many people as I can.

Motherwort (Leonuris cardiaca) is a member of the mint family. Bees love it. It is a sedative and a good herb for the heart. Motherwort contains substances from a class known as cardiac glycosides, which are special steroid molecules with a section that breaks off and interacts with the electrical conductivity of the heart. They have the effect of slowing the heart down and making the rhythm more regular. Digitalis works in the same way, but motherwort isn't dangerous at any feasibly consumable dose.
It gets the name motherwort from the fact that it has been used to improve the quality of contractions and reduce pain during childbirth.

Chicory (Cichorium intybus). The entire plant contains bitter principles that are strongly stimulating to the liver; and organic acids that destroy intestinal parasites like pinworms. The root also contains inulin, which is is like food for beneficial gut bacterial.

Feileastram buí (Iris pseudacorus). A non native iris that grows in water. Its leaves look like Calamus, which i was actually looking for. But its flowers do not. .

Brain gummies for memory and mental clarity available now.

Available now! Brain gummies for memory and mental clarity. This formula has been in development for a while, and incorporates lion’s mane and rosemary for enhanced brain function. Dm for prices or to order.

Something is coming this halloween…

This little piece of yesterday’s eclipse looks like an ornament on the tree.

In the clinic today and tomorrow, then i’m off for a week. If you need anything before then let me know.
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As the season changes and people spend more time indoors, it’s possible to be at more risk of catching whatever is going around. If you’ve been thinking about doing something to support your immune system, now is a decent time to start. These elderberries are one of the many plants i use. They have been involved in numerous clinical trials; they’re not a cure-all, but they do have measureable effects.

This is an image i’ve been asked to share about a conference i’ll be at this fall. The symposium, conveniently located in the mountains of Colorado. This year’s theme is “preserving herbal legacies”, and Aoife and i will be presenting about passing on family legacies of healing, and talking about our family’s own tradition. It should be an amazing gathering of people and is being held in a beautiful place. If any of you plan on attending, i’d be glad for the chance to see you face to face.

I have appointments available at the clinic tomorrow and friday if anyone needs to get in to see me.

A wing feather from one of the screech owls that lives in ny maple trees.

Wild plums! Prunus americana. These are a delicious and versatile wild food thanks to their acidity and sugar content, which lend well to their being dried, canned, or fermented. Go get some before the turkeys and geese, possums and raccoons, deer and elk, tatankas and bears, eat them all.

In just a couple hours at 7:30 Eastern time I will be starting the first class of the new one year herbalism from the ground up course. Anyone who wants to join but hasn’t yet should let me know now.

Bunny eating violets in my yard.

Trout lily is like the woodland version of spring beauty. They aren’t closely related, but fill a similar ecological niche. they are showy edible flowers growing perennially from bulbs that are an early-ish source of pollen/nectar for bugs and conspicuous green forage for beasts (including you). Their deeply buried bulbs help to make sure they come back year after year.