Blog Resources
Our blogs are a key component of our mission to promote public & educational awareness of using medicinal plants for health, as medicine, and to prevent disease.
While the UK lags behind other nations in embracing medicinal plants, science is proving their fundamental importance to our health. Medicinal plants, when used properly, are natural, safe, and effective
Here, we invite you to explore the world of medicinal plants for your health. Our growing collection of blog posts offer practical tools and guidance to help you embrace them responsibly and effectively.
Before diving into the blogs, feel free to learn more about our overall approach at the end of this page – what our blogs provide, responsible use, and medicinal plants for health, prevention and safer treatments, all rooted in the latest scientific research.
Check back often for new posts and updates!
Are there safer alternatives to drugs for respiratory health
Alternatives to Drugs: Asthma
While no one should stop taking a drug they’ve been prescribed for asthma, unless first consulting a health care practitioner, a recent article in the British Medical Journal highlights the urgent need to tell patients with more prominent warnings on the packet of the risks of taking montelukast (Singulair), an oral treatment for asthma, as recommended by the drug regulator (MHRA).
Common (English) Ivy to support respiratory health
Aid respiratory health with this anti-viral respiratory supporting medicinal plant.
There are safe plant medicines, that have been used by humans for centuries, that carry the same efficacy as drugs with fewer if any side-effects. Only a select few of these plant medicines have been studied in controlled clinical studies. For example in patients with bronchial asthma there are plant medicines that safely decrease airway resistance and improve forced expiratory volume. These plant medicines include dried Ivy Leaf Extract
The importance of tea to look after your brain
Everyone wants to prioritise cognitive function, and adopting preventive measures through dietary choices is not only straightforward but also delicious. So can tea contribute to the wellbeing of your brain?
Chinese star anise: Affirming traditional applications, highlighting its potent biological activities
While awaiting clinically-verified evidence, a substantial body of supporting information attests to the traditional medicinal efficacy of Chinese star anise. Its range of bioactive components mean that it offers us numerous benefits.
Overall Approach and Responsible Use
Our Blogs Provide
Easy-to-Follow Guides and Recipes: Learn how to incorporate medicinal plants into your daily routine.
Support for Key Areas of Health: Explore ways to improve immune, digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular, brain, and skin health.
Solutions for Modern Challenges: Find plant-based approaches to managing anxiety, depression, insomnia, and cognitive decline.
Sustainable Practices: Learn to grow, source, and prepare plant remedies in ways that respect both your health and the environment. Increasing wild green spaces (which naturally contain native medicinal plants) provides a place for wellbeing in the community, and is essential to restoring biodiversity, especially in the UK, one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.
Health, Prevention, and Safer Treatments
Incorporating a diverse range of medicinal plants into our diets and lives can:
Improve Physical and Mental Health: Medicinal plants not only support health and help address causes of many chronic conditions, they also enhance our life and overall wellness.
Prevent Chronic Disease: Edible medicinal plants – including herbs, spices and a range of fruit and vegetables, contain vital compounds that help reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and cognitive decline, and that are antibiotic, antiviral, antifungal and immune supporting.
Provide Safer Treatments: When used correctly – the correct plant medicine and at a therapeutic level, plant medicine can effectively treat a range of common conditions, often with fewer side effects (e.g. lower addiction risk) compared to pharmaceuticals.
Responsible Use is Essential
While medicinal plants are powerful allies for health, proper use is crucial:
Consult Experts: Speak with a NIMH medical herbalist or healthcare professional before using medicinal plants for children, during pregnancy, or if you have a medical condition, allergy or take medications.
Never Stop prescribed medications without professional advice.
Choose Reputable Sources: Always source plant products and supplements from trusted suppliers -from companies that list their full ingredients, prepare products correctly to standards.
Do not buy or harvest endangered species.
Transforming Health (and the NHS) with Medicinal Plants
Our evidence is grounded in robust scientific research, combined with an understanding of the unique benefits of each plant. By reconnecting with the natural world, using science as the bridge to educate the public and health professionals, we rediscover how plants help us thrive.
Only Way Forward: If we start teaching medicinal plant use, nutrition, and health & wellbeing awareness alongside core subjects like maths and English now, we could transform our nation’s health within a generation—removing the strain on the NHS by addressing its challenges, like an ageing population and a rise of long-term illnesses.
Is it possible to imagine a time when humans can be more self-sustaining, and our healthcare systems primarily address unavoidable illnesses supported by adequate medical resources?
