Blog Resources
Our resources promote public and educational awareness in using medicinal plants to enhance health, prevent disease, and provide safe, low-risk medicine.
Plant-based medicine in modern healthcare is not a return to outdated traditions, but the vanguard of evidence based advancements, grounded in science, history, and clinical experience. It is a necessary part of our healthcare.
Science increasing validates the vital role of medicinal plants in human health:
- as powerful disease preventative agents
- to treat certain conditions with fewer, if any, side-effects compared to the single chemical drug equivalent for the same condition
- as key components to maintaining mental wellbeing
- because of the above, as the key source of drug discovery
Here you can explore how using medicinal plants and being in nature regularly, enhance our health. Reclaim a lost heritage in the UK with this growing collection of blog resources offering expert information, practical tools and guidance to help you discover the benefits of medicinal plants, responsibly and effectively. Before reading the blogs, learn more about our overall approach, that is rooted in scientific research.
Check back often for new posts and updates!
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.
The Waiting Gardens of the North
We’re pleased to have been working in association with renowned Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz, for his current exhibition The Waiting Gardens of the North at Baltic. Commissioned by Baltic in partnership with the IWM
Wild garlic and garlic for disease prevention
Wild Garlic Allium ursinum (wild garlic or ransoms), and including information on Allium sativum (garlic). Make garlic part of your regular diet. Garlic is a readily available powerful foodstuff medicinal plant.
Four Thieves Vinegar
Food is Medicine Salvia officinalis Common/European sage Add all ingredients to a clean glass jar, ensuring all herbs are covered by the vinegar. Allow to stand for one month in a
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 medicine 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.
Help Prevent Chronic Disease: Edible medicinal plants – including herbs, spices and a range of fruit and vegetables, contain vital phytochemicals that help reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cognitive decline, and that are immune supporting, anticancer, antibiotic, antiviral and antifungal.
Provide Safer Treatments: When used correctly – the correct plant medicine and at the correct therapeutic level for the condtion, plant medicine can effectively treat a range of common conditions, often with fewer adverse effects (such as addiction risk) compared to single agent pharmaceuticals for the same condition.
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 with Medicinal Plants
Our evidence is grounded in scientific research, combined with an understanding of the unique benefits of each plant. By reconnecting with the natural world, and our forgotten knowledge of using the medicinal plants around us, using science as the bridge, we rediscover how plants enable people to thrive.
Only Way Forward: If we start teaching medicinal plant use, nutrition, and health and 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?
