The medicinal herb FAQ.

All you ever wanted to know - and ask on a newsgroup - more often than once a month - about medicinal herbs.
A FAQ and resource list for alt.folklore.herbs and the medicinal herblist.
First posted 24Mar1995, last updated 09Apr2015.

Contents

• 1 Introduction
  • 1.1 Contributors

• 2 Single herbs
  • 2.1 Valeriana
    • 2.1.1 Valium is not derived from Valerian
  • 2.2 Yohimbe
    • 2.2.1 Yohimbe is a MAO inhibitor, yohimbine isn't
  • 2.3 Absinthe FAQ pointer
    • 2.3.1 More on Absinthe
  • 2.4 St. John's Wort (Hypericum)
    • 2.4.1 SJW and photosensitivity
    • 2.4.2 SJW and MAO inhibition
    • 2.4.3 About standardized hypericin content in SJW
  • 2.5 Ginseng
  • 2.6 Stevia Leaf - Too Good To Be Legal?
    • 2.6.1 Changed legal status of Stevia Leaf
  • 2.7 Poison Ivy / Oak / Sumac
    • 2.7.1 How to recognize PI/PS/PO
    • 2.7.2 How to avoid the rash
    • 2.7.3 Why does it give you a rash? / Spreading the oil about
    • 2.7.4 What helps
    • 2.7.5 Jewelweed, Impatiens
    • 2.7.6 How to get rid of poison ivy in your yard
  • 2.8 Echinacea
    • 2.8.1 Using Echinacea
    • 2.8.2 Echinacea - poaching and extinction
  • 2.9 Feverfew and migraine
  • 2.10 Kava kava
  • 2.11 Pau d'arco
  • 2.12 Wild yam and contraception
    • 2.12.1 Edible vs. true yam
    • 2.12.2 Wild yam cream and natural progesterone
  • 2.13 Red raspberry and pregnancy
  • 2.14 Green tea and caffeine
  • 2.15 Comfrey hepatotoxicity
    • 2.15.1 Hepatotoxicity update
  • 2.16 Pennyroyal
  • 2.17 Cat's Claw
  • 2.18 Golden Seal appeal - and Goldthread too
  • 2.19 Ma Huang or Ephedra sinensis
  • 2.20 Skullcap and Teucrium adulteration
  • 2.21 Mellow mallows
  • 2.22 Not an herb, but: Melatonin

• 3 Herbs for specific things
  • 3.1 Herbs for mosquitoes and other bothersome bugs
    • 3.1.1 Repelling them
    • 3.1.2 And now you're bitten...
  • 3.2 Herbs for migraines
  • 3.3 Herbs for vivid dreams
  • 3.4 Herbs and weight loss
  • 3.5 Herbs to make you sleep
    • 3.5.1 Insomnia therapeutics
  • 3.6 Aphrodisiacs
  • 3.7 Herbal Abortives and Birth Control
    • 3.7.1 Herbal Abortives and Common Sense
  • 3.8 Herbs and female infertility
  • 3.9 Herbs, ADD, and replacing Ritalin
  • 3.10 Herbs for Sunburn
  • 3.11 The gall bladder flush
  • 3.12 Herbs for cough
  • 3.13 Herbs for constipation

• 4 Processing herbs
  • 4.1 Making essential oil
  • 4.2 Pointer to the How-to of Tinctures
  • 4.3 Herbal oils
  • 4.4 Balms and liniments

• 5 General Info
  • 5.1 Introduction to side effects, safety and toxicity of medicinal herbs
    • 5.1.1 Medicinal plant actions cannot be reduced to the effects of their isolated 'active constituents'
    • 5.1.2 Medicinal herbs act 'multi-systemically'
    • 5.1.3 Herbs act on the healing processes in the body
    • 5.1.4 Herbs act multi-dimensionally
    • 5.1.5 Side effects vs. contraindications
    • 5.1.6 Safety and toxicity of herbal medicines
    • 5.1.7 Pregnancy
    • 5.1.8 Understanding toxicity research - politics and ideology
    • 5.1.9 Further reading
  • 5.2 Wildcrafting Ethics and similar things
    • 5.2.1 Wildcrafting checklist
    • 5.2.2 How do I find out about endangered plants (in the USA)?
    • 5.2.3 What plants shouldn't I pick?
    • 5.2.4 United Plant Savers
  • 5.3 Different schools of Herbal Healing
    • 5.3.1 Traditions in Western Herbal Medicine
    • 5.3.2 Ayurveda - an introduction
    • 5.3.3 Pointers to homeopathy sites etc.
    • 5.3.4 What is Traditional Chinese Medicine?
    • 5.3.5 Flower essences
    • 5.3.6 Aromatherapy intro
  • 5.4 The Ames Test
  • 5.5 Trying out the placebo effect
  • 5.6 How to find an herbalist / ND
  • 5.7 Politics and herbal medicine

• 6 Information Sources
  • 6.1 Good books on herbal medicine - updated 09Apr2015
  • 6.3 Good periodicals - updated 15Apr2015
• 6.4 Online databases - updated 30Mar2015
• 6.7 Related documents - updated 22Apr2015

• 7 Schools etc.
  • 7.1 Some hands-on schools I know of in the US
  • 7.2 Some hands-on schools in Canada
  • 7.3 Some correspondence courses I know of in the US
  • 7.4 Some schools and correspondence courses elsewhere
  • 7.5 About correspondence schools, and licensing of herbalists
  • 7.6 Accreditation of ND schools and ND licensing in the US

• 8 Related forums
  • 8.1 Mailing lists (= email)
    • 8.1.1 The Medicinal Herblist
    • 8.1.9 The Wellpet List
    • 8.1.10 The Holisticat List
    • 8.1.13 The HolisticBird List
    • 8.1.17 The UK Herbal List
    • 8.1.21 The Herbstudent List
  • 8.2 Newsgroups
  • 8.4 Newsgroup (and mailing list) netiquette
  • 8.5 Dealing with spam and trolls