A Brief Introduction to Herbal Medicine
Something I’ve been wanting to talk about for a while is Herbalism. I want to tell you how I came to understand plant medicine, what herbalism is, what herbology is and how it came to be that we believe plant medicine to be bunk science. To be frank, I am not an expert, I have simply had occasion to be in rooms with (self-taught) herbalists. I make the self-taught distinction because it matters, at least to some extent. The herbalists that I work with know their limitations, there is a lot of complexity when we are working with plant medicine. My purpose with this post is to lend credibility to Herbalism as an ancient and complementary practice that works with modern medicine. First, let me tell you a bit about my mother, the first herbalist I learned from.
My mother has had many medical issues in her life that I can remember. She’s an alcoholic, she has had mental health issues including suicidal ideation, she has fought several different kinds of cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. I watched my mother struggle with mental health meds that not only didn’t help but also caused a slew of other issues with the side effects. I watched as they put my mother on med after med until she eventually worked herself off of all of them, because she understood that this med caused the high blood pressure, and the high blood pressure med caused another issue that caused another med and another issue until she was taking 10 medications a day. This prompted my mother to start making St. John's Wort tinctures. She made several others that I don’t remember but I remember the St. John’s wort was the first. She had researched enough to know what the plant was, where to find it, and perhaps most importantly what you can and cannot take with St. John’s Wort. My mother continued making tinctures and other herbal concoctions for many years and by the time my mother and I had a relationship again, she had painstakingly researched and produced a salve for her arthritis, we call it At Bay, because it keeps the pain at bay. I use it for my migraines, my sister for her fibromyalgia, a friend used it to help her knee after surgery, another friend uses it for migraines, and a few years ago a friend that has arthritis asked to try it again. My mother taught my oldest sister and I how to produce it when she got a grim diagnosis a few years back, it is her legacy.
So what is Herbalism? The Merriam Webster dictionary defines it simply as “herbal medicine”. In the USA you often have to have a degree or certificate to practice as an herbalist. Technically the mentors that I have probably fall under the “Herbologist” label. Neither my mother or my mentor will diagnose you, neither will feel comfortable telling you what you need to take, that is stuff you learn in courses. But both know things like; soy is an estrogenic, or capsaicin is a vasodilator, and St. John’s wort is a nervine. It was on me to learn that the soy carrier may be what’s helping my migraine, or that I can use capsaicin in a poultice to draw heat to an area, and that a nervine might help me relax. It was also on me to learn that several nervine herbs I might take for my extreme PMS or anxiety/depression would also interfere with my birth control. My mentor is a nurse, so she goes even deeper, recently she was telling me about plants she was going to try that affect specific parts of our brain chemistry. 2 things to note, she did the research on the plant and her symptoms, and advocated to her medical team that she would like to try plant medicine, but still work with her medical team. Even Western doctors are starting to recognize the benefits of plant medicine, though most still won’t even entertain the idea of connecting you with an herbalist. Do you wonder why that is? Or maybe you think that my claims are too anecdotal. Well to explore both of those points further let's chat about how we abandoned our roots. (A rare intended pun for you.)
I would hope that it is common knowledge by now that all ancient civilizations had a deep relationship with the plants found around them. So when did we stop favoring plants and start looking to modern medicine to solve our problems? In the 19th century, scientific advancements allowed us to isolate and extract active compounds from plants. This was revolutionary because it meant that medicine could be concentrated, mass-produced, and fast-acting. For instance, one of the earliest examples was the isolation of salicylic acid from willow bark in the 1800s, which later became known as aspirin—one of the most widely used drugs in the world today.
But instead of honoring the roots of this discovery, the powers that be (pharmaceutical companies with money and political influence) chose to rebrand herbal medicine as “folk medicine” to discredit it. Why? To pull the power of healing from our hands, funneling it into their pockets. In the early 20th century, as pharmaceutical companies grew in power, they began lobbying governments and medical boards, establishing the dominance of Western medicine. The infamous Flexner Report of 1910 played a key role in this. Funded by the Carnegie Foundation, it reshaped medical education in the United States and Canada, pushing for a more scientific, pharmaceutical-based curriculum, while discrediting practices like herbalism, homeopathy, and naturopathy as “unscientific.”
What chaps my ass is that instead of acknowledging herbalism—which WALKED SO MODERN MEDICINE COULD RUN—as a foundational practice, they ridiculed it. The pharmaceutical industry is now a multi-billion-dollar juggernaut, generating over half a billion in the USA alone annually, and that number is only set to increase. The discrediting of herbal medicine wasn’t about its efficacy, but about profit. Herbalists were painted as quacks (along with massage therapists, chiropractors, and other “alternative” medicine practitioners) so that these corporations could monopolize healthcare.
When I first started looking into herbal medicine for myself at 19-20 years old, the information available online was sparse. It was a lot of digging through folk remedies and reading about the properties of herbs to see if there was sound logic behind why they worked. But let’s not forget, even with limited research back then, some remedies have always been effective. I’ve used garlic and turmeric for a mouth infection, clove for the pain, and a mixture of onion, garlic, ginger, and black pepper for bronchitis. These were the remedies of our ancestors, and in many cases, they still work just as well today—maybe just a little slower than modern medicine.
Fast forward to today, and now, when I look up the properties of herbs, WebMD itself often provides peer-reviewed studies on the topic. However, even with this newfound access to information, many of us don’t know the right questions to ask or where to find reliable sources on how to harvest, work with, and properly ingest these herbs. Modern society is preoccupied with quick fixes, and that’s where modern medicine excels. It’s why specific compounds in plants are isolated and concentrated in the first place.
Take cannabis as an example. Since its legalization, there has been a surge in research on how its compounds interact with the body. A key concept emerging from this research is what’s known as the entourage effect—the idea that the whole plant works together to create a synergistic effect, with compounds like terpenes and cannabinoids complementing each other. In contrast, isolating just one compound, like THC or CBD, can reduce the overall efficacy of the plant. The Swamp Yeti Project, an industry leader, advocates for this whole-plant approach, emphasizing that isolating compounds can strip away many of the plant's natural benefits. (We’ll get into more cannabis specific lore and research soon.)
This principle applies to all herbalism. Some folks will try an herbal remedy, and when it doesn’t work immediately, they dismiss herbalism as “bunk.” What they don’t realize is that their fast-acting pills also have roots in plant medicine, often with their active ingredients isolated and concentrated to act faster. The issue here is a fundamental misunderstanding of how herbs work. Take catnip, for example: I can’t take it once and expect to experience all its benefits. As with anything natural, consistency is key. We’re working to correct imbalances in the body—imbalances that didn’t develop overnight.
Herbalism, like proper diet and exercise, is about working with the body over time, not forcing a fast, temporary solution. Maybe it’s my experiences with my mother’s journey, or those of others who have been steered wrong by modern medicine, but I always seek a long-lasting solution with as few side effects as possible. That being said, I don’t hate modern medicine entirely. I hold a healthy skepticism about the motivations of the doctors I speak with, and an understanding of the limitations of both modern medicine and herbalism. I’m not like these other spiritual girlies, looking at you queen of appropriation, I’m going to the doctor for a kidney infection, or any infection really - the garlic and tumeric helped buy me time to get to a dentist but I still needed antibiotics. I’m still getting vaccinated against tetanus. Herbalism is a great preventative measure, as I alluded to earlier, but it’s awful for a fast acting CURE. Herbalism is also a great long term solution for righting imbalances. If your suicidal and can’t make it to tomorrow, please, please seek medical attention but know that there are other long term solutions, once your brain is in a better spot.
I have provided a link to the Swamp Yeti Products page for your cannabis (THC, CBD, and Nootropics) herbal needs. Full disclosure, I am a part of their affiliate program, but I believe in their mission, and I personally know the passion and care they put into their research and products. Also, for other tincture and dry herb needs, Holly at Wyrd Owl Cottage has you covered. I am not an affiliate of hers, but she is my mentor, and someone I know to be responsible and ethical in her production.
Love yourself better by questioning everything,
Mia Marie
