Posted on : 08-08-2010 | By : Herbs Today | In : Questions
What is the best book available about medicinal herbs?
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Jethro Kloss’ book — Back to Eden
Followed VERY closely by books by James Duke. (Such as:
A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America )
Get em on Amazon or hopefully your library will have em.
PS — herbs can be very powerful medicine — it’s important to know how to use them.
To your health!!!
Christopher’s School of Natural Healing
One old standby for me is “Back to Eden” by Jethro Kloss. It was written in 1939, and has been the classic herb book for quite some time. Though some of the information is outdated, there are newer, updated versions available.
If you want to seriously know about herbs, and their cures, this is surely a starting point.
It’s been in my personal library for over thirty five years.
Medical claims such as these are not necessarily clinically evaluated. Moreover, you may not be getting the herbs you think you are getting, or in the correct potency.
Also, you are not a trained physician, so you might be misdiagnosing whatever it is you think you are “treating”.
Herbs are not valid medical care. See a physician. There are lots of people out there trying to get rich selling fake cures to desperate people.
There are a lot of great books, but one that gives information on what part of the plant to use, the known effects and possible effects, the precautions, and toxicity of the herbs is Healing Herbs the Essential Guide by H. Winter Griffith. If you are looking to make at home remedies try The Herbal Medicine Maker’s Handbook by James Green. This book shows you how to prepare tinctures, infusions, salves, syrups, and decoctions among many others.
i love ‘prescription for nutritional healing’. it’s almost an encyclopedia written my a nutritionist and an MD. it gives good overall information about uses and the various herbs, plus it has recommendations for various ailments. it’s not all that expensive, either.
as you may have gathered by the title, it’s not only herbs, it’s foods and other natural products.
Ask a Health Store.
Great question! I love Opening Our Wild Hearts To The Healing Herbs by Gail Faith Edwards. The book stands out because it covers medicinal uses, nutritional properties, the herb’s history, traditional native uses, wise women traditions, AND how to grow/wild harvest the plants AND well-organized coverage of how to process the medicine – tinctures, infusions, etc. The book uses beautiful line drawings (by the author), so a second book with photos or personal experience may be helpful for identification in the wild.
You can read more about her farm and online herbal study course here too:
http://www.blessedmaineherbs.com
I highly recommend the Ringing Cedars Series by Vladimir Megre, which is also recommended by Steven Foster, author of A field guide to medicinal plants and herbs:
http://www.ringingcedars.com
Also check out “Wildman” Steve Brill (famous for being arrested for eating dandelion leaves he picked in NYC, and now he conducts foraging tours in NYC) and his book Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places.
Back To Eden is excellent too, especially if you live in the Upper Midwest. Peace.