Medicinal Herbs — Page 3

Oil painting of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) in a field in India with trefoil leaves and long slender pods, with a botanical inset of a leafy stem, a pale flower, a pod, and seeds

Monograph

Fenugreek

Trigonella foenum-graecum

Fenugreek is a kitchen spice with a long medicinal history and some encouraging early evidence, especially for blood sugar. The seeds of thi...

Oil painting of feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) with small white daisies along a cottage path, with a botanical inset of a flowering stem, a divided leaf, and a flower head

Monograph

Feverfew

Tanacetum parthenium

Feverfew is a small, strong-smelling daisy that became famous for migraine. Its use for headache goes back centuries in European herbals, an...

Oil painting of a field of sky-blue flax (Linum usitatissimum) in flower in golden-hour light, with a botanical inset of a slender stem with narrow leaves, a five-petaled blue flower, round seed bolls, and glossy brown seeds

Monograph

Flaxseed

Linum usitatissimum

Flax is one of the oldest crops people have grown, and one of the few that both clothes and feeds us. The fiber in its slender stems is spun...

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...

Oil painting of tall great yellow gentian spikes in a sunlit limestone alpine pasture with grazing cows and peaks, with a botanical inset of paired ribbed leaves, whorls of star-shaped yellow flowers, and a thick forked root

Monograph

Gentian

Gentiana lutea

Gentian root is the classic European bitter. Gentiana lutea, the great yellow gentian, is a tall, long-lived perennial of mountain pastures...

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, much loved as a street tree, though the female trees drop smelly seeds on...

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 one of the world’s most treasured tonic roots, and the name covers more than one plant. In Chinese the character 人参 (rénshēn) m...

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 small woodland perennial in the buttercup family whose knotted, bright-yellow root, strictly a rhizom...

Oil painting of gotu kola (Centella asiatica) spreading over damp ground beside a Sri Lankan stream, with a botanical inset of a creeping runner, fan-shaped leaves, and tiny flowers

Monograph

Gotu Kola

Centella asiatica

Gotu kola is a small creeping herb of wet ground in the tropics, a member of the carrot family that is eaten as a leafy green in Sri Lanka a...

Oil painting of greater celandine at the foot of an old stone wall beside a village lane, with a botanical inset of a four-petaled yellow flower, a lobed leaf, a slender seed pod, and a snapped stem oozing orange latex

Monograph

Greater Celandine

Chelidonium majus

Greater celandine (Chelidonium majus) is a short-lived perennial of the poppy family that grows along old walls, paths, and waste ground acr...

Oil painting of green tea (Camellia sinensis) growing on terraced hillside tea gardens with pickers in morning mist, with a botanical inset of a flush of two leaves and a bud, a white camellia flower with yellow stamens, and a seed capsule

Monograph

Green Tea

Camellia sinensis

Green tea is made from the young leaves and buds of Camellia sinensis, the same evergreen shrub that gives black and oolong tea. NCCIH expla...

Oil painting of a spreading haritaki tree in a golden-hour dry forest in the Indian foothills, with a botanical inset of elliptic leaves, a spike of tiny cream flowers, and wrinkled five-ridged brown dried fruits

Monograph

Haritaki

Terminalia chebula

Haritaki is the dried fruit of Terminalia chebula, a tall deciduous tree that grows wild from the Indian subcontinent to western Yunnan and...

Oil painting of hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) laden with red haws in an English hedgerow, with a botanical inset of lobed leaves and blossom, haws, and a thorny twig

Monograph

Hawthorn

Crataegus monogyna

Hawthorn is the classic heart herb of European medicine. The thorny shrub of hedgerows and woodland edges belongs to the rose family, and it...

Oil painting of roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) growing in a sunlit West African field of red-stemmed plants, with a botanical inset of a pale yellow flower with a dark red center, the fleshy crimson calyx around the seed pod, and a lobed leaf

Monograph

Hibiscus

Hibiscus sabdariffa

The hibiscus in a cup of tart, ruby-red tea is not the showy garden shrub. It is roselle, Hibiscus sabdariffa, a tropical African annual in...

Oil painting of holy basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum) in terracotta pots in an Indian courtyard hung with marigolds, with a botanical inset of a flower spike, leafy sprig, and seeds

Monograph

Holy Basil

Ocimum tenuiflorum

Holy basil, known in India as tulsi, is the most revered plant in Ayurveda and in many Hindu homes. Ayurvedic texts call it the elixir of li...

Oil painting of hop bines (Humulus lupulus) climbing tall poles in a Kentish hop garden with an oast house, with a botanical inset of a lobed leaf, papery green cones, and a cut cone

Monograph

Hops

Humulus lupulus

Hops are the papery green cones of the female hop plant, and almost everyone has tasted them: they are what make beer bitter. EMA’s assessme...

Oil painting of horny goat weed with sprays of small white flowers on a forested mountain slope in northwest China at golden hour, with a botanical inset of a compound leaf of pointed toothed leaflets, white flowers, and a clumped rhizome

Monograph

Horny Goat Weed

Epimedium brevicornu

Horny goat weed is the English name for several species of Epimedium, low perennial herbs of the barberry family (Berberidaceae) whose dried...

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...

Oil painting of dark ivy climbing an old stone wall and oak trunk in a misty woodland, with a botanical inset of a five-lobed young leaf, an unlobed flowering-shoot leaf, a round cluster of greenish flowers, and black berries

Monograph

Ivy Leaf

Hedera helix

Ivy leaf is a garden climber that became one of Europe’s best-selling cough medicines. Hedera helix, common or English ivy, is the evergreen...

What are you looking for?

Herb library

Fenugreek

Feverfew

Flaxseed

Garlic

Gentian

Ginger

Ginkgo

Ginseng

Goldenseal

Gotu Kola

Greater Celandine

Green Tea

Haritaki

Hawthorn

Hibiscus

Holy Basil

Hops

Horny Goat Weed

Horse Chestnut

Ivy Leaf