Medicinal Herbs | Index of Herbs

Aloe vera plant with thick gray-green succulent leaves and a botanical inset of leaf cross-section showing clear gel and yellow latex, flower spike, and leaf tip

Monograph

Aloe Vera

Aloe vera

Aloe vera (Aloe vera, also labeled Aloe barbadensis in commerce) is a succulent whose thick leaves hold two very different materials: a clea...

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) in dry scrubland with ovate leaves, lantern calyces around orange berries, and a botanical inset of taproot, leaf, and inflated calyx

Monograph

Ashwagandha

Withania somnifera

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is a Solanaceae shrub whose Sanskrit name means horse smell. Ayurveda used the root as a rasayana tonic for...

Greater burdock (Arctium lappa) at a meadow edge with large heart-shaped leaves, purple burr flower heads, and a botanical inset of taproot, leaf, and hooked burr

Monograph

Burdock

Arctium lappa

Burdock (Arctium lappa) is a Eurasian daisy-family biennial whose hooked burrs hitch a ride on wool and invented a fastener. The first-year...

Butcher's broom (Ruscus aculeatus) in Mediterranean woodland with spine-tipped cladodes, central flowers, red berries, and a botanical inset of rhizome, cladode with flower, and fruit

Monograph

Butcher's Broom

Ruscus aculeatus

Butcher's broom (Ruscus aculeatus) is a low evergreen Mediterranean shrub whose “leaves” are not leaves. They are flattened stems—clado...

Cayenne pepper (Capsicum annuum) plant with elongated scarlet pods in a late-summer garden, plus a botanical inset of flower, leaf, and fruit cross-section

Monograph

Cayenne

Capsicum annuum

Cayenne is the dried, pungent fruit of hot Capsicum peppers—most often Capsicum annuum, sometimes small-fruited C. frutescens—whose heat com...

German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) in a meadow with white ray florets and golden discs, plus a botanical inset of flower head, feathery leaf, and hollow receptacle

Monograph

Chamomile

Matricaria chamomilla

Chamomile, in the sense of this monograph, is German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla, also called Matricaria recutita): an annual daisy who...

Common comfrey (Symphytum officinale) on a damp meadow bank with drooping purple bell flowers, hairy leaves, and a botanical inset of flower, leaf, and dark fleshy root

Monograph

Comfrey

Symphytum officinale

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) is a moisture-loving borage-family perennial whose common name “knitbone” still advertises an old promise: th...

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) in a sunny meadow with yellow flower heads, jagged leaves, seed clocks, and a botanical inset of flower, leaf, and taproot with milky latex

Monograph

Dandelion

Taraxacum officinale

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is the familiar yellow composite of lawns and roadsides whose bitter leaves, deep taproot, and hollow stems...

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) on a North American prairie with drooping magenta rays, bristly orange cones, and a botanical inset of taproot, leaf, and flower head

Monograph

Echinacea

Echinacea purpurea

Echinacea is a prairie coneflower that people swallow at the first scratch of a throat. The bottle usually says immune support. The plant is...

European elder (Sambucus nigra) with creamy flower clusters and dark purple berry umbels at a woodland edge, plus a botanical inset of compound leaf, florets, and berry cross-section

Monograph

Elderberry

Sambucus nigra

Elderberry is the dark fruit of European elder (Sambucus nigra), a hedgerow shrub whose creamy flower plates and glossy purple-black berry c...

Blue gum eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) with sickle-shaped blue-green leaves and a botanical inset of juvenile leaf, adult leaf, operculum bud, and oil-gland detail

Monograph

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus globulus

Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus), often called blue gum, is an Australian Myrtaceae tree whose leathery leaves yield a camphoraceous essenti...

Garlic (Allium sativum) in a Mediterranean kitchen garden with strap leaves, a papery purple-tinged bulb lifted from the soil, flowering umbels, and a botanical inset of whole bulb, clove, leaf, and flower head

Monograph

Garlic

Allium sativum

Garlic (Allium sativum) is a kitchen bulb that people treat as a cardiovascular drug. The clove in a pan is food. The enteric-coated tablet...

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) in a tropical garden with lanceolate leaves, a cone-like flower spike, a knobby unearthed rhizome, and a botanical inset of rhizome cross-section, leaf, and inflorescence

Monograph

Ginger

Zingiber officinale

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a tropical rhizome that is food first. The kitchen uses the knobby underground stem fresh, dried, pickled, o...

Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) in an East Asian temple garden with a golden fan-leaved canopy, moon gate, and a botanical inset of notched fan leaves, spur-shoot leaves, and a fleshy seed

Monograph

Ginkgo

Ginkgo biloba

Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) is a living fossil with fan-shaped leaves and a bad reputation for sidewalk slime. The tree is the last of Ginkgoales...

Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng) on a forest floor with palmate five-leaflet leaves, red berries, a forked human-shaped root, and a botanical inset of root, leaf, flowers, and fruit

Monograph

Ginseng

Panax ginseng

Ginseng is a sales word before it is a plant. In Chinese the character 人参 (rénshēn) means man-root: a slow, forked Araliaceae taproot that...

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) on a shaded woodland floor with maple-like leaves, a crimson berry cluster, and a botanical inset of the yellow rhizome

Monograph

Goldenseal

Hydrastis canadensis

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) is a low woodland perennial in the buttercup family whose knotted yellow rhizome has been one of North Ame...

Horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) in a European park with palmate leaves, white candle flowers, spiny burs, a glossy conker, and a botanical inset of seed, leaf, and flower

Monograph

Horse Chestnut

Aesculus hippocastanum

Horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) is a Balkan tree that became a European park tree. The glossy brown seed—the conker—looks like a swe...

Kava (Piper methysticum) in a Pacific Island garden with jointed stems, heart-shaped leaves, knobby rhizomes, and a botanical inset of root cross-section, leaf, node, and flower spike

Monograph

Kava

Piper methysticum

Kava (Piper methysticum) is a sterile, cultivated pepper of Oceania. The name is Polynesian for bitter. The drink is made from peeled root a...

Maca (Lepidium meyenii) on a high Andean puna with ruffled basal leaves, swollen cream hypocotyls, and a botanical inset of hypocotyl, four-petaled flower, leaf, and silicle

Monograph

Maca

Lepidium meyenii

Maca (Lepidium meyenii) is a mustard-family crop of the high Peruvian Andes, grown for a swollen hypocotyl that looks like a turnip and eats...

Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) shrub on a Mediterranean coastal terrace with needle-like leaves, pale lilac flowers, and a botanical inset of leaf, two-lipped flower, and square stem

Monograph

Rosemary

Salvia rosmarinus

Rosemary is a woody Mediterranean evergreen in the mint family whose needle-like leaves have seasoned lamb, marked graves, and scented sickr...

Garden sage (Salvia officinalis) on a Mediterranean terrace with gray-green puckered leaves, violet two-lipped flowers, and a botanical inset of leaf, flower, and square stem

Monograph

Sage

Salvia officinalis

Sage (Salvia officinalis), often called garden sage or common sage, is a woody Mediterranean mint whose gray-green, pebbled leaves have flav...

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) plant with lance-shaped leaves, pale yellow flower spike, and a botanical inset of sliced orange rhizome, leaf, and flower

Monograph

Turmeric

Curcuma longa

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a tropical ginger-family perennial whose knobby orange rhizome has been food, dye, and medicine across South Asi...

White willow (Salix alba) tree with silvery lance-shaped leaves and furrowed bark along a riverbank

Monograph

White Willow

Salix alba

White willow (Salix alba) is a riparian tree in the willow family whose inner bark has been used for millennia as a bitter, cooling remedy f...

Yohimbe (Pausinystalia johimbe) rainforest tree with glossy leaves and a botanical inset of bark, elliptic leaves, flowers, and bark cross-section

Monograph

Yohimbe

Pausinystalia johimbe

Yohimbe (Pausinystalia johimbe, also treated as Corynanthe yohimbe) is a West African rainforest tree whose bark contains yohimbine, an indo...