Recommended Resources

Learning Herbalism

You can learn a lot with self-study, and there are a lot of free resources out there that are good - here are some of our favorites!

We release a new episode of the Holistic Herbalism Podcast weekly (more or less) - you can find them all in iTunes, your favorite podcast app, and on our website here!

We offer a selection of free herbal education videos on our YouTube channel.

And check out our blog for lots of great information on clinical herbalism, as well as our Instagram feed!

Conservative & "Evidence-Based" Sources

• World Health Organization - Monographs on Selected Medicinal Plants
• Health Canada's Natural Health Product Monographs
• European Medicines Agency - Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products - Monographs & List Entries
• Expanded Commission E Monographs
• Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases, by James Duke at USDA Agricultural Research Service

Practical Info From Practitioners

• Henriette's Herbal Homepage is one of the oldest and best herbalism websites on the internet. Use the search bar and you'll get results from historical texts, curated selections from discussions on herbal email lists over several decades, Henriette's own excellent blog posts, and more. She moderates an active email discussion list as well.
• Medical Herbalism - "A Journal for the Clinical Practitioner", is edited by Paul Bergner, our mentor and friend. The North American Institute of Medical Herbalism is the site for his distance learning programs.
• The Institute for Traditional Medicine is a great resource for info on Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well as Ayurvedic and Western herbalism.
• Plants for a Future has a very wide array of profiles of medicinal herbs, food plants, and other beneficial botanicals.
• Stephany Hoffelt's Domestic Medicine offers both rigorously researched history and authentically lived experience in equal measure. Much well-needed myth-busting to be found here!
• Toi Scott of Queering Herbalism offers a ton of resources for anti-oppression and social justice matters relevant to herbalism, including a list of POC healers.
• Competent Care for Transgender, GenderQueer and non-Binary Folks - Larken Bunce & Vilde Chaya Fenster-Ehrlich have put together this great resource, including herbal considerations.
• herbcraft.org - Heed the advice left to you by the previous students: "Read everything jim mcdonald has ever written. Twice." He also has a very extensive curated list of the writings of other herbalists on various topics here.
• The team at Herbal Reality are doing great work to bring grounded, practical, relevant information about herbalism to the public.
• Northeast School of Botanical Medicine is run by 7Song, and this site includes an abundance of his handouts and class materials. Check out his blog, too!
• Rosalee's herbal blog roll will keep you busy for a good while!
• The American Herbalists Guild is a professional organization for herbalist in the United States. They have many helpful resources.

Historical & Ethnobotanical Sources

• Henriette's Herbal Homepage is an excellent place to get information from historical sources on herbal practice in the Western traditions. Use the search bar and you'll get results from many historical texts (alongside Henriette's own excellent blog and articles, selections from mailing list discussions over the years, and more).
• The Southwest School of Botanical Medicine is the late Michael Moore's website, with tons of his own work as well as publications from the Eclectics and Physiomedicalists. (This is Michael Moore the herbalist, not Michael Moore the filmmaker.)
• The Canon of Medicine, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (1025) - A foundational text of the Unani-Tibb tradition.
• The Complete Herbal, Nicholas Culpeper (1814) - A classic of English herbalism.
• The Physiomedical Dispensatory, William Cook (1869) - A particularly strong example of writing from the herbal physicians of the 19th century United States.
• A Modern Herbal, Maud Grieve & Hilda Leyel (1931) - This work grew out of pamphlets Grieve wrote based on her experiences growing and working with herbs during the first World War, and became an English and American herbal classic.
• Native American Ethnobotany Database, by Dan Moerman at University of Michigan. As with all databases and ethnobotanical works, consider this a simple starting point, not a definitive authority on indigenous botanical practices. (That is to be found with each people.)