The Beginner's Guide to Medicinal Plants: 50 Essential Wild Herbs to Identify, Harvest, and Use

by Amber Robinson

Create healing remedies with nature's help

Our planet is home to an abundance of powerful plants that can help you heal gently and naturally. In this beginner's guide, you'll learn how to find, harvest, and prepare some of the most common medicinal plants and use them to create restorative remedies—from a burdock tea for clearer skin to a cayenne pepper salve for better blood flow.

Your journey to homemade herbalism starts here.

220 pages, Paperback

Published June 20, 2023

Reviews

[Noorilhuda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This kind of life, life using D-I-Y herbs and plants and veggies and fruit for everything from health and skin care to healing balms to blood purifier syrups and teas for weight-loss and good digestion, hormonal balance and UTI, is extremely common in the sub-continent. Whether they belong to rural or urban areas, women in Pakistan, are practically raised on using various organic methods. It’s cheap, natural, therapeutic, and a self-sufficient way of life. It’s cool that this way of life is appreciated and being mainstreamed from American rural areas to city-life as well.

But I wish, so wish, that Robinson had included pictures of the various plants she mentions that she grows or are found in her ‘homestead’ i.e. 80 acre farm in Missouri Ozarck, which sounds like a wonderful place to live and explore, since she talks so frequently about it in the book. However, in place of such real-time/ real-life images, there are ‘shutterstock’ images (stock graphic design images) for each plant/ herb.

I wish she’d shown the various processes she says she uses to ‘harvest’ or collect various plants for e.g. I really wanted to see ‘the good knife’ she uses to scrape the fallen branches of white willow tree and get the inner bark, when ‘a good storm will result in several branches lying around the yard’.

I wish she'd shown her drying methods (via tray, towel, hangers) for the plants and where she keeps the fresh (non-dried) produce.

I wish she had shown her medicinal cabinet (that she says she keeps ready concoctions in as the mother of 2 young boys).

I wish she had shown her storage cabinet or pantry where she keeps the dried plants and 80 proof alcohol, beeswax, kind of items needed for these recipes.

I wish she’d shown the kitchen where she makes all the tinctures and salves and teas.

I wish she’d shown all of her tools (the mason jars, the drainers, double boilers, bowls, funnel, empty tea bags, and strainer cloths, pots and pans, etc.).

I wish she’d included how-to pictures (preferably 4 small ones on each page for every recipe / remedy) where she’d show what to do and the shape / color / end result, especially since she keeps mentioning how she likes to cook or make these recipes / remedies.

Even if Robinson lists the ‘prep time’ as 5 minutes and ‘cooking time’ as 10-15 minutes, it isn’t easy and ready to go unless you already have an entire system in place to exercise these choices - and that system also requires time, money and effort. (‘Infusion of herbs with carrier oils’ takes 12 -24 hours of course). I wish her choices and system were visually available via the book.

Especially since she keeps mentioning on every page how she does it all the time.

The book contains what Robinson calls '50 Most Essential Plants' and their corresponding '50 Essential Remedies'. There are simpler solutions than the exotic concoctions she recommends in the book for digestive problems, cold and flu, high blood pressure, and mental tranquility. For example, olive leaves. Why not just grow an Olive tree instead of assembling goldenrod, cayenne, catnip, and agrimony? Why not use Neem (Azadirachta Indica / Margosa) for cuts, burns and inflamed skin than yarrow and lavender?

In Pakistan, there are extremely famous herbal companies such as Hamdard Dawa Khana and Qarshi which offer ready-to-eat herbal remedies for circulatory system and blood purifier (Saafi’), gastro health (‘Jawarish-e-Kamooni’), brain health (‘Demaghi’), menstruation disorders (‘Masturin’), cough/flu (‘Infuza’) and a standard Rose Water Mist. Hamdard even has a University and has an entire line of products it calls ‘Medicaments’. Completely herbal stuff, no additives or unnatural preservatives. These reduce time in gathering ingredients and cooking, though I understand the appeal of D-I-Y: it’s supposed to be cheaper if you’re growing things in your garden or getting seeds and leaves in packets from stores and the quantity of product made at home is also bigger than the one mass produced by any herbal store. But it does make me curious as to why Robinson or other herbalists haven’t ventured towards creating these remedies for mass consumption? Robinson certainly could sell the various herbs she finds in her neck of woods, all 80 acres of it.

Her bio in the book says that she is a ‘certified herbalist’ from American Herbalist Guild and now runs a herbal training academy, ‘The Bitter Herb Academy’, which is a member of AHG. I went to her website and it has a list of online courses that she teaches at $60 fee (the herbalist certification course is for $160), it has purchase links for all of her published books and a generic contact page. The website has no pictures of certified students or their testimonials, or her tutorials either, which is strange since she’s had the online school since 2016, but it does clear up what her PhD. is in - nutrition. And it also declares that she studied herbal medicine under the tutelage of Demetria Clark from Heart of Herbs Herbal School (Clark’s Herbalist Certification course takes 7-10 months and currently costs $600. You get to join her facebook group full of herbalists). Clark’s herbalist syllabus is also impressive as compared to Robinson’s. But while Clark’s course gives students the option of phone calls, Robinson communicates with her students only via email. I’m beginning to see a lack of visuals in a medium that requires opening up of senses, sense of smell, sight, touch and taste, etc.

The book contains plants / herbs Robinson believes to have medicinal properties and also comes with a disclaimer to not take/ ingest any of these plants as a cure / remedy for a health problem without prior consultation with a doctor.

However, I will try a few of these, for example the witch hazel ‘facial spray’, (a popular toner for oily / combo, acne prone skin), rose serum in dropper bottle (essentially dried rosehips + petals kept in carrier oil like sweet almond oil for a day or two and then used), red raspberry tea for PMS and uterine comfort, because they are simple and non-fussy.

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Robinson's '50 Essential Remedies' given in the book:

Bowel-Soothing Agrimony Tea
Boneset and Echinacea Antiviral Tea
Clear Skin Burdock Tea
Calendula Skin-Healing Oil
Comforting Catnip Compress
Pain and Circulation Cayenne Salve
Reduce-the-Redness Chamomile Skin Toner
Cooling Chickweed Salve
Lymph Support Cleavers Tincture
“Bone Knit” Comfrey Salve
Cottonwood Balm of Gilead
Dandelion Tonic Tea
Echinacea Sore Throat Gargle
Amber’s “Famous” Elderberry Glycerite
Bye-Bye Bloating Fennel Tea
Goldenrod Urinary Support Tea
Tranquility Hops Tea
Honeysuckle Antiviral Tincture
Winter Blues Juniper Bath Soak
Skin-Soothing Lavender and Aloe Spray
Lemon Balm Ice Pops
Coating Marshmallow Infusion
Mimosa Happiness in a Bottle
Quick Relief Motherwort Remedy
Respiratory Support Mullein Tincture
Antimicrobial Oregano Oil Infusion
Mental Exhaustion Passionflower Tincture
Digestive Support Peppermint Infusion
Pine Pitch Salve
Calming Pineapple Weed Tea
Quick Plantain Poultice
Allergy-Busting Purple Deadnettle Tincture
Red Clover Hormonal Balance Infusion
Uterine-Nourishing Red Raspberry Tea
Rosemary Hair Thickening and Growth Mask
Cold Sore–Busting Self-Heal Lip Balm
Unwind and Relax Skullcap Tincture
St. John’s Wort Bottle of Sunshine
Nourishing Nettle Broth
Sweet Gum Influenza Tincture
Sweet Wormwood Antiviral Tincture
Sandman Valerian Tea
Soothing Violet Infusion
Headache White Willow Tincture
Wild Bergamot Oxymel
Wild Rose Beauty Serum
Toning Witch Hazel Facial Spray
Yarrow Styptic Powder
Digestive Health Yellow Dock Infusion
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[Alicia Bayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a simple, helpful book that delivers just what it promises. The 50 plants are mostly plants you can forage or easily grow or buy. Each one has a description, information about why it’s helpful, and a stock photo. The recipes are simple, generally just one ingredient (plus alcohol, a carrier oil or water) instead of herbal remedies where you need to buy 10 different ingredients and spend a small fortune on specific concoctions. Many of them are standards in our house but I found a few new ones I’m looking forward to trying. Recommended.

I read a digital copy of this book for review.

[Stephanie Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave simple, clear instructions on how to use a wide variety of plants. I appreciated the author covering a wide array of plants and how they could help with my wellbeing. They cover the history of herbal medicine, gear you need to use plants, how to harvest each plant and store it, and how to use it. Herbal medicine was often women’s medicine and many of the practioners would be burned at the stake as witches during the dark ages. Learning how to use herbs helps reclaim control over our bodies. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to get more involved in taking control over their body with medicinal plants.

[Erica Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great resource for anyone wanting to get into, or learn more about, herbal medicine.

The basics are well outlined and clearly explained. I was particularly impressed with the care and detail put into describing the best way to prepare each herb. And I was thrilled at the selection of recipes that address all manner of ailments.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an informative book. Love how the author has given you information on how to use the plant, a picture of what the plant looks like and how to make the herbal remedy. ARC provided by Netgalley, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Kerrific Kerr · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book with lots of great information for the beginning herbalist. A great addition to any home library. Perfect for the homestead.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down the best herbal education book I’ve read!

[PottWab Regional Library]

A

[Bri Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! It was very informative. This provides basic knowledge for beginners to thrive. Thank you netgalley for this book in exchange for my honest review.