A medicinal herb is a seed-producing annual, biennial, or perennial that does not develop persistent woody tissue but dies down at the end of a growing season and/or a plant or plant part valued for its medicinal, savory, or aromatic qualities.
Some garden herbs include:
Lavender, Thyme, Sage, Basil, Rosemary, Mint, Yarrow, and Peppermint.
Those are some you may use on a every day or weekly basis. You may use them as teas, salves, poultices, and tinctures for healing purposes.
More common herbal remedies, include horseradish ( which helps with sinus infections ) and cabbage ( singularly effective poultice for shingles and hives ).
A field of Echinacea can provide a wealth of immune - boosting remedies.
The flowers of St. John's wort have medicinal properties that are useful for relieving stress and anxiety.
A simpler definition of an 'herb' is any plant with a pungent scent or flavor. It is why bay leaves are considered an herb, even though they are leaves of a tree.
I’m super into herbs, and use quite a few from my yard: dandelion, chickweed, plantain, and chicory. I made the BEST chicory coffee a few years ago, that stuff in the store is terrible next to the real thing!
I was doing a little hunting in my years today for usable things, noticed I have some wild onion coming up already.
Not counting food, teas, etc., are much of the medicinal herbs used in potions? I’m curious because it seems like this makes sense and seems obvious to me - but are there any books on it?
Yes, many herbs that are used medicinally are also used in potions for magick use. For example if you read the book Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham, you will notice a great many plants that are popular among popular household remedies and the like. But the book does not list the medicinal uses, it lists the plants magical properties, correspondences (such as elemental, planetary, and masculine or feminine), and folk rumors about them. It also tells you which plants are poisonous so people do not ingest things blindly. The book has another great feature which is a folk names cross index. It is a very useful feature because people may call plants by different names regionally and the cross index allows you to eliminate this problem. If you know about plants medicinally and want to know more about their magical properties it is a good one. With it you could combine magical energies with physical healing work as I often like to do.
That is a very good point, Ruby. Even for people who enjoy bushcraft and harvesting wild herbs for medicinal and culinary uses only, many recommend a series of books, as rarely does one cover all necessary facets of what the plant is, how to best prepare it, and so-on.
