Medicinal Herbs — Page 5

Oil painting of psyllium (Plantago ovata) with slender flower spikes in a sunlit field in Gujarat, India, with a botanical inset of a leaf rosette, a seed spike, and pale husked seeds

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Psyllium

Plantago ovata

Psyllium is the papery husk of the seed of Plantago ovata, a small plantain grown mostly in western India, and it is one of the best-documen...

Oil painting of a golden-hour pumpkin field with ripe orange and green-striped pumpkins and a farmhouse, with a botanical inset of a lobed leaf, a yellow trumpet flower, a cut pumpkin wedge, and dark green hull-less seeds

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Pumpkin Seed

Cucurbita pepo

Pumpkin seed is a snack, a salad oil, and a traditional prostate remedy all at once. The seeds come from Cucurbita pepo, the species that in...

Oil painting of a tall African cherry tree in misty mountain forest in Cameroon, with a botanical inset of glossy elliptic leaves on reddish stalks, sprays of small cream flowers, red-purple cherry-like fruits, and a strip of dark fissured bark

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Pygeum

Prunus africana

Pygeum is the bark of a tree, and its story is as much about conservation as about the prostate. The African cherry, Prunus africana (long k...

Oil painting of red clover (Trifolium pratense) in a summer hay meadow with bumblebees, with a botanical inset of a pink-purple flower head, a three-leaflet leaf with pale chevrons, and a root

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Red Clover

Trifolium pratense

Red clover is a farm plant first and a medicine second. It is a legume, related to peas and beans, grown for centuries as hay and pasture be...

Oil painting of rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea) with yellow flower clusters among boulders above a Nordic fjord, with a botanical inset of the golden rootstock, a stem, and a flower

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Rhodiola

Rhodiola rosea

Rhodiola is the flagship of the herbs sold as adaptogens, a term for remedies said to raise the body’s resistance to stress. The medicine is...

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

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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...

Oil painting of autumn saffron fields at dawn with pickers gathering purple crocus flowers (Crocus sativus) into baskets, with a botanical inset of a violet flower with three long red stigmas, a corm, and narrow grass-like leaves

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Saffron

Crocus sativus

Saffron is the dried, thread-like red stigmas of a purple autumn crocus, picked by hand, three to a flower. Britannica notes that a single p...

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

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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...

Oil painting of saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) fronds and blue-black berries under Florida pines, with a botanical inset of a fan frond, toothed leaf stalk, and berries

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Saw Palmetto

Serenoa repens

Saw palmetto is the herb most men reach for when they start getting up at night to pass urine. Extracts of the berries of this low Florida p...

Oil painting of a schisandra vine hung with glossy red berries in a sunlit autumn forest, with a botanical inset of elliptic toothed leaves, a small waxy cream-white flower, and a long drooping spike of round red berries

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Schisandra

Schisandra chinensis

Schisandra is the berry of a hardy climbing vine from the forests of northeast China, the Russian Far East, Korea, and Japan. Its Chinese na...

Oil painting of senna (Senna alexandrina) shrubs in a golden-hour field in southern India with harvesters picking leaves, and a botanical inset of a pinnate leaf, yellow five-petaled flowers, and flat papery pods

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Senna

Senna alexandrina

Senna is the leaf and pod of Senna alexandrina, a yellow-flowered desert shrub of the legume family that grows wild from the Sahel and the N...

Oil painting of a feathery shatavari vine scrambling through dry scrub at golden hour, with a botanical inset of a spiny stem with needle-like green cladodes, tiny white flowers, round red berries, and a bundle of pale tuberous roots

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Shatavari

Asparagus racemosus

Shatavari is the root of Asparagus racemosus, a spiny climbing asparagus that grows wild from tropical Africa to northern Australia, and one...

Oil painting of American skullcap growing on a shaded woodland stream bank at golden hour, with a botanical inset of a square stem with opposite toothed leaves and one-sided sprays of small pale-blue hooded flowers

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Skullcap

Scutellaria lateriflora

Skullcap is a name shared by two quite different medicinal plants of the mint family. American skullcap, Scutellaria lateriflora, is a slend...

Oil painting of a slippery elm tree (Ulmus rubra) on river bottomland, with a botanical inset of a strip of pale inner bark, a toothed leaf, and round winged seeds

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Slippery Elm

Ulmus rubra

Slippery elm is a North American elm named for its inner bark, which turns slick and gel-like when moistened. The US Forest Service notes th...

Oil painting of a lush spearmint patch beside a stone wall and stream in a golden-hour Mediterranean garden, with a botanical inset of a square stem with lance-shaped serrated leaves and slender spikes of pale lilac flowers

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Spearmint

Mentha spicata

Spearmint is the mint of the kitchen garden: the sweet, gentle mint of mint sauce, mint juleps, Moroccan mint tea, and spearmint chewing gum...

St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) in flower on a dry midsummer meadow, bright yellow five-petalled blooms with black-dotted margins, painted in oils, with a parchment botanical inset of a leaf held to the light showing translucent dots

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St. John’s Wort

Hypericum perforatum

St. John’s wort is the herb with the best antidepressant evidence and the worst interaction record. Both facts come from the same plant and...

Oil painting of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) by a farm gate at sunset, with a botanical inset of a leafy stem, a magnified stinging hair, flower clusters, and the root

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Stinging Nettle

Urtica dioica

Stinging nettle is two medicines in one plant. The leaves and flowering tops, the parts that sting, have been brewed, eaten, and pressed aga...

Oil painting of a sunlit orange grove with ripe fruit among glossy leaves and distant hills, with a botanical inset of a white five-petaled flower, a leaf with a winged stalk, and a halved orange showing segments and peel oil glands

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Sweet Orange

Citrus × aurantium f. aurantium

Sweet orange is the most widely grown citrus fruit in the world, and this page is about its peel and the essential oil pressed from it rathe...

Oil painting of tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) with white bottlebrush flowers beside a creek in New South Wales, with a botanical inset of a needle-leaved sprig, flowers, and an oil bottle

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Tea Tree

Melaleuca alternifolia

Tea tree oil is the essential oil steam-distilled from the leaves of Melaleuca alternifolia, a paperbark tree of the swampy coastal country...

Common thyme (Thymus vulgaris) on a sun-baked Mediterranean garrigue hillside with low grey-green cushions and pale lilac flower whorls, and a parchment botanical inset of a flowering sprig, tiny leaves, and a two-lipped flower

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Thyme

Thymus vulgaris

Thyme is a common kitchen herb and also a traditional European medicine for coughs. Its best-supported health benefit is easing a chesty cou...

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Herb library

Psyllium

Pumpkin Seed

Pygeum

Red Clover

Rhodiola

Rosemary

Saffron

Sage

Saw Palmetto

Schisandra

Senna

Shatavari

Skullcap

Slippery Elm

Spearmint

St. John’s Wort

Stinging Nettle

Sweet Orange

Tea Tree

Thyme