Medicinal Herbs — Page 2

Oil painting of tall cannabis plants on a golden-hour mountain slope with a wooden cabin, with a botanical inset comparing narrow-leaflet, broad-leaflet, and small few-leaflet leaves above a resinous female flower cluster and seeds

Monograph

Cannabis

Cannabis sativa

Cannabis is a single species, Cannabis sativa, that people have grown for fiber, seed, medicine, and intoxication for thousands of years. He...

Oil painting of white caraway umbels in a summer meadow beside a ripening rye field and a farmhouse, with a botanical inset of feathery leaves, a flat white flower umbel, and curved, ribbed brown fruits

Monograph

Caraway

Carum carvi

Caraway is the curved, ribbed little “seed” that gives rye bread, sauerkraut, and kümmel liqueur their warm, slightly bitter flavor. Botanic...

Oil painting of slender cascara trees beside a mossy stream in a misty Pacific Northwest forest, with a botanical inset of oblong parallel-veined leaves, small greenish-yellow flowers, purplish-black berries, and curled quills of dried bark

Monograph

Cascara Sagrada

Frangula purshiana

Cascara sagrada is the dried bark of a small tree from the Pacific Northwest, and one of the few North American plants to become a mainstrea...

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...

Oil painting of pink centaury flowers in short, sunlit chalk grassland above sea cliffs, with a botanical inset of a basal leaf rosette, an upright stem with paired leaves, and a flat-topped cluster of five-lobed pink star-shaped flowers

Monograph

Centaury

Centaurium erythraea

Centaury is one of Europe’s classic bitter herbs. Centaurium erythraea is a small annual or biennial plant of the gentian family (Gentianace...

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 is a small, apple-scented daisy whose dried flower heads make one of the world’s most popular herbal teas. In most tea bags and he...

Oil painting of chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus) with lilac flower spikes beside a Mediterranean streambed, with a botanical inset of a hand-shaped leaf, a flower spike, and dark berries

Monograph

Chasteberry

Vitex agnus-castus

Chasteberry, the fruit of the chaste tree, is one of the few herbs with a European license for a specific women’s health complaint. In 2018...

Oil painting of Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) on a Sri Lankan plantation with quills drying on a rack, with a botanical inset of a leafy sprig, flowers, and quills

Monograph

Cinnamon

Cinnamomum verum

Cinnamon is a spice first and a medicine second, and the word on the label can mean several different trees. True or Ceylon cinnamon, Cinnam...

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...

Oil painting of nodding yellow cowslips in a sunlit spring chalk meadow with grazing cattle and a hawthorn hedge, with a botanical inset of a wrinkled leaf rosette, an umbel of tubular orange-spotted flowers, and a fibrous root

Monograph

Cowslip

Primula veris

Cowslip is the nodding yellow wildflower of old English hay meadows, and it leads a double life in European pharmacies. Primula veris and it...

Oil painting of a flooded cranberry bog at harvest, with floating red berries corralled by a boom, and a botanical inset of a trailing vine, a pink nodding crane-like flower, and berries with a cross-section showing four air-filled chambers

Monograph

Cranberry

Vaccinium macrocarpon

Cranberry is a native North American bog fruit, the tart red berry of a low, trailing evergreen vine, and most of the crop ends up as juice,...

Oil painting of bushy damiana shrubs with bright yellow flowers on a rocky Baja California desert slope with tall cacti at golden hour, with a botanical inset of a twig of small grey-green leaves, yellow five-petaled flowers, and a bud

Monograph

Damiana

Turnera diffusa

Damiana is Turnera diffusa, a small, many-branched, strongly aromatic shrub of dry, rocky scrub from Texas and Mexico through Central Americ...

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’s scientific name is Taraxacum officinale. It is the familiar yellow-flowered weed of lawns, roadsides, and meadows: a perennial o...

Oil painting of devil’s claw (Harpagophytum procumbens) with pink-purple trumpet flowers on red Kalahari sand, with a botanical inset of the hooked fruit, a flower, and a tuber

Monograph

Devil’s Claw

Harpagophytum procumbens

Devil’s claw is a sprawling desert plant of the Kalahari whose woody fruits bristle with hooked arms that snag the feet and fur of passing a...

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, the purple coneflower of North American prairies, is one of the most popular herbs for colds, and one of the few whose cold use E...

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 small, purple-black fruit of the elder tree, Sambucus nigra, a hedgerow shrub or small tree also known as black elder, Eur...

Oil painting of spiny eleuthero shrubs in a golden-hour Siberian taiga clearing with birches, with a botanical inset of a palmate five-leaflet leaf, a round cluster of black berries, a thorny stem, and a piece of root

Monograph

Eleuthero (Siberian Ginseng)

Eleutherococcus senticosus

Eleuthero is the root of a prickly shrub from the forests of the Russian Far East, northern China, Korea, and Japan, sold for decades as “Si...

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 is a medicinal tree best known for the sharp, cooling oil in its leaves, used mainly to ease coughs, colds, and a blocked nose. I...

Oil painting of evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) with yellow flowers opening at dusk in a meadow, with a botanical inset of a flower, a lance-shaped leaf, a seed pod, and tiny seeds

Monograph

Evening Primrose

Oenothera biennis

Evening primrose oil, usually shortened to EPO, is one of the best-selling plant supplements of the last half century. The oil is pressed or...

Oil painting of tall, feathery wild fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) with golden umbels on a sunlit Mediterranean hillside, with a botanical inset of a thread-like leaf, a yellow compound umbel, ridged seeds, and a Florence fennel bulb

Monograph

Fennel

Foeniculum vulgare

Fennel is a kitchen plant and a medicine at the same time. It is a tall, feathery perennial in the carrot family, smelling strongly of anise...

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Herb library

Cannabis

Caraway

Cascara Sagrada

Cayenne

Centaury

Chamomile

Chasteberry

Cinnamon

Comfrey

Cowslip

Cranberry

Damiana

Dandelion

Devil’s Claw

Echinacea

Elderberry

Eleuthero (Siberian Ginseng)

Eucalyptus

Evening Primrose

Fennel