I apologise in advance if this is a tad too political for your liking. For the record, it is for mine too, but I just couldnt stand by and let this ridiculous matter go without having brought it to your attention.

You see, here in Australia there is this group that call themselves ‘Friends of Science in Medicine’, a bunch of more than 400 doctors, medical researchers and scientists who have taken it upon themselves to bully our universities into closing down all alternative medicine degrees. The many disciplines that this covers, such as traditional Chinese herbal medicine, chiropractics, homeopathy, naturopathy, reflexology and aromatherapy, have been called “quackery” and the vice chancellors of the universities that teach these courses have been told that their reputations are trashed by failing to support only evidence-based medicine and science.

How nice of these people to be so concerned for the reputation of our universities and how lucky we have them to save us from our ignorant ways….NOT!

The group, which names world-renowned biologist Sir Gustav Nossal and the creator of the cervical cancer vaccine Professor Ian Frazer among its members, is also campaigning for private health insurance providers to stop providing rebates for alternative medical treatments.

A co-founder of the group, Emeritus Professor John Dwyer, of the University of NSW, who is also a government adviser on consumer health fraud, said it was distressing that 19 universities were now offering “degrees in pseudo science”.

“It’s deplorable, but we didn’t realise how much concern there was out there for universities’ reputations until we tapped into it,” Professor Dwyer said. “We’re saying enough is enough. Taxpayers’ money should not be wasted on funding [these courses] … nor should government health insurance rebates be wasted on this nonsense.” Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/tertiary-education/scientists-urge-unis-to-axe-alternative-medicine-courses-20120125-1qhtm.html#ixzz1kdNpBzZW

Demand for courses in complementary medicine continues to grow throughout the country, surely this has to be a sign that the population WANT these studies to continue. I’m not sure where Prof Dwyer thinks his REAL science started out but I think that perhaps his education is not as complete as he might think.

Please people, as much as you can, support this matter. Let your voices be heard. Education is a right and let popularity dictate what is being taught and what is not. It is not a political matter and as such people like ‘Friends of Science in Medicine’ should keep their narrow little minds out of what they do not understand.

Friends of Science in Medicine are…. “actually not that interested in evidence, because the overwhelming evidence is that putting CAM into universities has increased the standards, decreased the fringe element, and improved public safety, so it definitely smacks of dogmatism,” said Dr Wardle” a NHMRC Resaerch Fellow at the University of Queensland’s School of Population Health and co-director of the Network of Researchers in Public Health and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NORPHCAM), an international group promoting clinical research in CAM.

Working With Winter Wood

There’s been a break in the monthly UK Herbarium blog parties but they’re back as of the 20th February and the call for submissions for the first blog party of 2012 has been announced by Sarah from Tales Of A Kitchen Herbwife

Sarah’s call… “It may be you work with them creatively or educationally – admiring their unencumbered outlines or familiarising yourself or others with their individual bark patterns and markings. Maybe you work with the bark medicinally or create wonderful pictures through bark rubbings. You may work with leaf buds in their dormant forms admiring their different colours and textures or making your own flower essences or infused oils or salves.

Share with us your experiences in words and pictures by creating your blog post and sending it to me before 20th February so that I can publish all those links on that day. I look forward to receiving your contribution.

If you don’t have a blog, but would like to write an article, let me know and we’ll arrange a host blog for your post. I look forward to reading everyone’s thoughts.”

The next Discovering Herbal Medicine Seminar is entitled “Mind, Mood, Mentation.… Herbs for the Brain” will be held on Sunday 17th June 2012 at the ‘Early Day Centre’, 1 Kenton Road, Earley, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 7LE. Seminar programme includes presentations on ‘Anxiety, Depression and Mood Swings.’ by Stuart McLean and ‘Nutrition to Increase Memory and Reduce Anxiety’ and ‘Avoiding Alzheimer’s Disease’ by Dr Ann Walker.

After lunch Freda Miller and Ann Walker will give a guided Herb Walk, followed by talks on learning from case histories, tips and a question and answer session. The cost of the day is £60 which includes lunch and 3 tea/coffee breaks. Further details and booking forms can be obtained from the Discovering Herbal Medicine website.

I’ve been to several of these highly informative and interesting seminars over the past few years, you can read a review of the last one I went to in October 2011 on my Herbal Haven blog.

If you’re local to me in the Derby area and you have nothing better to do once a month on a Wednesday evening, why not pencil a visit to the Herbal Haven Herb Group into your diary? I’ve been talking about doing this for a while now, and now it’s time to put things into practice I left the Mercian Herb Group in late 2010 and I dearly missed the folk who I used to meet up with once a month, but travelling to Coventry to give talks and demos began to tell on me after a while, so the idea to start a herb group local to me germinated and now it’s time to plant it out and watch it grow. Sarah head who I founded the MHG with has set up Wolf’s Meadow Herb Group in the West Midlands, so if you’re in the West Midlands you can go to her Thursday night meetings more details to follow on her group.

The Herbal Haven Groups first few meetings will be held at my house in Sinfin, Derby using my garden and kitchen to explore the wonders of herbs, our first meeting with take place at 7pm on Wednesday 4th April, places are limited to 12 initially so if you’d like to attend please let me know to book your place.
There is no annual membership fee for the group, instead we make a charge per meeting which is £3.50 which goes towards the cost of providing refreshments, paying for guest speakers, printing handouts and for materials for our hands on sessions and later once we’ve acquired enough funds hire a meeting room with suitable facilities. The group will meet once a month, after the first meeting in April we’ll meet on the first Wednesday of the month throughout the year with the exception of August when we’ll meet on either the 25th or 26th for a group visit to a Derbyshire herb garden.

2012 Programme

Wed 4thApril – Back To Basics: Growing The Herbs That Are Best For You Talk & Demo
Wed 2nd May – Edible Herbal Flowers Talk & Demo
Wed 6th June – Making Herbal Bath Treats & Cosmetics Talk & Demo
Wed 4th July – Cleaning The Home Using Herbs Talk & Demo
Sat 25th or Sun 26th August – Group Visit To Hardwick Hall Herb Garden & Picnic
Wed 5th September – Using The Herbal Harvest To Make Simple Herbal Remedies
Wed 3rd October – Spice Up Your Life: Looking at using spices in the kitchen and in the many other ways.
Wed 7th November – Herbal Crafts For Christmas: Making Herbal Scented Gifts & Decorations.
Wed 5th December – Christmas Social: Herbal Pot Luck Supper, Quiz and Herbs of Christmas Past Talk

If you’re new to herb groups or herbs and you’re wondering what to expect from a night at the Herbal Haven Herb Group, I aim to give a warm, friendly and informal herbal experience. My talks are given with humour, lots of personal anecdotes and experiences get thrown in to the mix. We’ll vary between herbal talks and demonstrations, where I show you how to make something herbal and provide a handout for you to go home and give it a go yourself, we’ll watch herbal films, discuss the latest herb books on the market, each month we’ll take a brief look at a different herb and it’s uses. They’ll be taster nights, culinary herb demonstrations and lots of recipe swapping. During the spring and early summer its hoped that members will swap their excess herb seeds and plants with others. As a group we can also make savings by buying bulk herbs and essential oils via my wholesale contacts.

There will be occasional weekend workshops held on either a Saturday or Sunday depending which day is most convenient for group members for a small fee. During the workshop you will be able to try your hand at making anything from DIY herbal remedies, herbal cosmetics, herbal soaps, herbal oils and a variety of herbal craft items. We’ll take trips to herb gardens in the East Midlands area, sometimes further afield and generally enjoy learning about the delights of herbs and pooling our collective herbal knowledge. If members are keen and willing we’ll also organise some wild herb forages in the local area where you can learn to identify such herbs as Wild Garlic, Nettles, Garlic Mustard, Chickweed and Cleavers in the spring and a similar walk can be organised in the autumn to gather Elderberries, Blackberries, Hawthorn Berries and other wild herbs for use in making simple home remedies and gifts, a handout of recipes will be provided at the end of the walk. So as I said above, if you’re interested and want to be added to the Herbal Haven Herb Group mailing list or book your place then please get in touch via email debs@herbal-haven dot co dot uk just edit the spaces and dots to look like .co.uk

If you’re a Derby based herbalist who would be interested in joining the group and offering talks on different aspects of medicinal herbs I’d love to hear from you, or if anyone out there has a herbal talent for aromatherapy, gardening or any herb topic and would like to contribute to the group likewise I’d love to hear from you to.

PS. Can fellow herb bloggers spread the word about the new group, you may have some people in the Derby area that read your blog and may be interested in the group but haven’t found my blog yet!

Flower Essences, Flower Magic

The call for submissions for this months blog party has just been announced by Sarah from Tales Of A Kitchen Herbwife and with the roses just coming in to bloom, flowers on the honeysuckle, hawthorn and Rosemary and so many more herbs besides it isn’t hard to experiment with flower remedies if you’ve never done it before.

Sarah call goes like this… “What are they? How do you make them? What do they mean to you? The aim of this set of posts is to discover how you relate or don’t relate to flower essences. How do you learn the energetic property of the plant? Do you read a book, discover an internet article or ask the plant to tell you? How do you use the finished essence? Do you use the original infusion or do you use a homeopathic dilution? Have you noticed any difference? What do you use flower essences for? What are your stories? Can you share them with us, no matter how strange or bizarre.

Please let me know if you wish to take part in the blog party (the more the merrier). Once you’ve written your blog post, send me the link to the article by email at sarah at headology dot co dot uk by 20 May. I know there isn’t much time, but this month is proving frantically busy both on a work and gardening front for me, so please bear with me.

If you don’t have a blog, but would like to write an article, let me know and we’ll arrange a host blog for your post. I look forward to reading everyone’s thoughts.“

Spring Wild Foraging/Wild Crafting & Spring Herbal Gardening

The April UK Herbarium blog party is being hosted by Leslie over at Comfrey Cottages all the way across the big pond in Illinois in the USA, Leslie has been a part of our developing herbal community for a while now but has never hosted a blog party before. For her topic she’s chosen one that every body should be able to take part in, no matter where you live or what state your garden currently is in.

From Leslie’s blog “I have chosen for a theme Spring Wild foraging/Wild crafting and Spring Herbal Gardening I am hoping that everyone who wants to be able to participate has a spot they can forage in, but if not, I think by including the herbal gardening in the theme all should definitely be able to participate who want to:)

If you have your own blog, then add your post before April 20th and email me the link at honeylover at care2 dot com– I’ll post all the links on this blog that evening. If you don’t have your own blog and want to participate, you can email your submission as a word document to Debs at the UK Herbarium , debs at herbal-haven dot co dot uk and she will add it the UK Herbarium blog as a guest post.

I realize that not everywhere in the world is it feeling very spring like yet, and some of you might even still have snow, so if it isn’t quite time for you to garden or forage yet, still feel free to post about past adventures or ones you have plans for. The same applies to gardening. I look forward to any new tips, recipes or other ideas you come up with to share!”

I went out scooping what was available locally and found a lot of Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) locally whilst out walking, I couldn’t resist harvesting a small bag full for adding to my lunchtime salad, so my foraging for 2011 is under way. Looking forward to reading everyone’s posts and seeing the many different interpretations of the theme.

Article: Anna Pavord

Photo: Debs Cook

Who was it that said that Australia was the best place to get out of he’d ever been in? Christopher Robbins quoted it when I asked him to explain his journey from Queensland, where he studied plant physiology, to the UK, where he now practises as a medical herbalist. His present occupation synthesises in a very neat way the two interests that have been with him, one way or another, for the whole of his working life: plants and medicine.

At first, at the Institute for Development Studies and the Centre for Agricultural Strategy, plants dominated. Then, working with the Coronary Prevention Group, medicine came to the fore. Robbins’ own father had been a GP in Brisbane and, only recently, he has discovered that his grandfather, also a doctor, had a pharmacy in Brisbane, specialising in herbal medicines that he imported from the US. “So, in a way, you could say I’ve come full circle.”

I went to see Robbins because I wanted him to suggest a living medicine chest that anybody could grow (or gather). Obviously, the plants had to be easy to identify and in no way similar to anything that might be dangerous. The difficulty lay in restricting the list to 10. Once started, Robbins couldn’t stop: meadowsweet – excellent in treating gastritis; lavender – relaxes the nerves; comfrey – one of the best poultices for a pulled muscle; English marigold – anti-fungal action against simple problems such as athlete’s foot.

Unsurprisingly, Robbins’ list included some plants, such as dandelion, that we gardeners are inclined to eliminate rather than cultivate. “The point about dandelion is that it is bitter,” explains Robbins. “Bitters are brilliant. When that taste hits the receptors at the back of the tongue, it stimulates saliva, so we can chew more easily.” It also stimulates peristalsis, the churning of the muscles in the alimentary tract, and that helps to shift food through the digestive system. Essential gastric juices are secreted, all because of those bitters. We have not helped ourselves, says Robbins, by increasingly choosing foods that are not bitter.

“Bitterness has been bred out of most lettuce now,” he points out. “And we peel cucumbers to get rid of the slightly bitter skin.” The French manage things better. Their chicories and endives still have that bitter kick that starts off useful responses in the gut. So, top of the Robbins list are:

Dandelion The French name (pis-en-lit) is the best clue to its usefulness in the home-grown medicine chest: the leaves are a strong, safe and very effective diuretic, for anyone suffering from water retention. The bitterness aids digestion and acts also as a liver tonic. In some country areas, the milky sap that oozes out when you pick a leaf is still used to banish warts. The easiest way to use dandelion leaf is raw, in a salad. The common weedy ones are fine to eat, now, while they are young. But if you are in the extraordinary position of having no dandelions pushing up in your flower beds, you can grow the fancy French variety ‘Pissenlit a Coeur plein’ (Suffolk Herbs £1).

Nettle Stinging nettle is packed with vitamin A and vitamin C, and has almost twice as much iron in it as spinach, so it’s not surprising that it makes a brilliant spring tonic. We perhaps are not so keen now on flailing around in nettle beds to ease rheumatism. The sting inflames and warms and that process eases the ache in rheumaticky joints.

The simplest way to prepare nettle is in a soup and now is a great time to make it, before the leaves get dark and tough. The recipe I use is from Cooking Weeds by Vivien Weise. You need 500g potatoes peeled and cubed, 2 chopped onions, some butter, 1 litre good stock, 100g stinging nettle leaves stripped from the stems, 2tsp lemon juice, salt, pepper, 200ml double cream, 50g roasted, flaked almonds, 1 grated carrot. Fry the potatoes and onions until translucent. Add the stock and simmer for 10 mins. Add the nettle leaves and simmer for another 10 mins. Liquidise and add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Reheat and stir in half the cream. Serve with the rest of the cream, the almonds and the carrot ready to garnish the soup.

Chickweed This is a very common annual weed, sprouting now on disturbed ground with pale green leaves. The starry white flowers come later. It’s the best of all plants, says Robbins, for treating itchy or inflamed skin. The simplest way to use it is as a poultice. You can pick a bunch of the stuff, wring it slightly to release the sap, then bind the poultice to whatever part of the skin needs it. If you suffer from mild eczema or dermatitis, try it. It won’t be hard to find, as each plant carries about 15,000 seeds and they germinate in almost every month of the year.

Elder “A medicine chest all on its own,” says Robbins. You can use bark, leaf, flower and berry. The flowers, which dry up mucus, are used for colds and flu, the leaves and bark, infused, provide an effective balm for minor burns and the berries, cooked, act as a laxative. They shouldn’t be eaten raw. Elderflower cordial is easy to make and freezes brilliantly, if you pour it into plastic water bottles (the 50cl size is best). To make it, put 2 pints of boiled, cooled water, 25 heads of elderflower, 1 sliced orange, 1 sliced lemon, 60g citric acid and 1.4kg of sugar in a bowl. Stir it every time you go past it. After 48 hours, strain the mixture and bottle it. If you are not freezing it, keep it in the fridge.

Lime Much used in France, as a daily tisane, though not so much in the UK. Robbins quotes research showing that children with flu recover more quickly when treated with an infusion of lime flowers than they do with antibiotics. A tisane of lime flowers helps reduce blood pressure, anxiety, irritability. Pick them in late June or early July.

Hawthorn Nobody I know would bring hawthorn flowers into the house – round where I live they are still considered very unlucky. Robbins, though, recommends the fruit, produced in autumn, to be taken as a tea. The small round haws, used fresh or dried, provide a valuable tonic, especially for the heart.

Mahonia Medical herbalists use the bark of mahonia, steeped to make an infusion, as a treatment for psoriasis. Now is the perfect time to prune overgrown mahonias, taking out a few of the tallest stems down to within 30-45cm of the ground. So don’t waste the bark. Strip it to reveal the surprising yellow stem underneath, and get infusing.

Geranium Not the geranium that’s properly a pelargonium, but the herbaceous plant, whose root or rhizome, dried and infused, makes an excellent wash for mouth ulcers. Medical herbalists also use these infusions to treat diarrhoea and enteritis.

Feverfew There’s a golden version of this plant (Tanacetum parthenium ‘Aureum’) which is very pretty and no less effective against headache and migraine than the plain, green-leaved kind. I just pluck it and chew it, but it is very bitter. For a slightly more palatable dose, pour boiling water over a few leaves, strain and drink with a teaspoonful of honey.

Lemon Balm This, as its name suggests, has long been used as a remedy by anyone feeling exhausted and run-down. It “strengthens the brain” says the 17th-century plantsman, John Evelyn. I rather regret hoofing it out from among the bearded iris. My brain could do with some strengthening.

For more information, track down a copy of Christopher Robbins’ ‘Household Herbal’, splendidly comprehensive but currently out of print. Christopher Robbins Website

Article Source: The Independent Online

Article: Sam Hawkins

Photo: Debs Cook

From a small child I’ve always been fascinated by the powers of plants. From the almost instinctual use of Dock leaves for nettle stings to the heady, narcotic scent of Elder on a summer’s day, they left me enthralled. I remember clearly the sense that each one was put in its place for a purpose, although at the time I had no idea what that was.
As I grew older my interests came to encompass the lore behind each plant, their places in rituals and magic’s and the age old handed down wisdom that came with each one. The way they tasted, felt, smelt…all left me wanting to know more.

I suppose the one thing that kept my interest over all the years was the realisation that the knowledge of plant lore, which once would have been commonplace, was now such a scarce thing as to be sought out rather than taken for granted. There seemed to be no end to the usefulness of plants, from culinary to medicinal and it soon became clear that I needed some real guidance and advice.

I started browsing textbooks and recipes but discovered very early on that without some practical guidance I was never going to have the confidence to actually start following through with any of my research. From some of the books I read, you’d have been forgiven for thinking that a chemistry degree was needed to make a simple salve. So I turned to the internet for inspiration, and that’s where I came across Sarah Head and The Sanctuary.
It was one of those moments when I realised that actually, this long held dream of mine could become a reality.

Soon after contacting Sarah about the apprenticeship, she asked what my hopes were for the forthcoming year. Such a simple question and yet it really forced me to stop and think about exactly what it was that I did want to achieve. It’s one thing to say “I want to know about herbs” but quite another to break that down and think about what that statement actually meant to me.

The obvious aspect was to gain experience in the making of teas, vinegars, salves, tinctures and other herbal preparation and following on from that to gaining the knowledge to help family and friends with minor ailments. Hand in hand with that, for me, came the desire to learn more about growing and harvesting herbs, not to mention identifying them!! Once I had those goals down I started to think about what else these skills would bring to me, besides the practical knowledge. From a personal point of view I really wanted to be more in touch with nature and her seasons and gain a deeper understanding of all she has to offer.

Another wonderful aspect was getting to meet like-minded people with a shared enthusiasm for herbs and nature. On my first workshop at Sarah’s a group of us were engaged in making vinegars around the kitchen table; one person grating ginger, one person chopping garlic, one (brave) lady slicing chillies, yet others filling jars, adding vinegar and spice; when one lady, Maria I think, remarked “There’s something very special about so many hands working to create a single remedy”. That for me summed up the whole day. There really is something almost magical about sharing experiences and learning from one another, it feels…well….right.

Spending that one day at Sarah’s made a remarkable difference to me. It really gave me the confidence to finally start experimenting on my own and putting the theory I’d learned into practice. The most revealing thing I took away was just how simple and straightforward making these remedies actually was. From the rocket-science approach of some books, it was such an amazing revelation for me that actually, with a few fresh ingredients, some vinegar and some willing hands; a person really could create something wonderful. Not an unpronounceable ingredient in sight!

It really confirmed for me that becoming an apprentice was a landmark decision for me and would really open my eyes up to a whole new herbal world and the excitement when the first task sheet came though surprised even me! Far from the days when I would have read through the practical task with dread, I looked forward to pottering around in my little kitchen creating ‘lotions and potions’, as my husband kindly referred to my first attempt at salve making!

It seems remarkable to think that all these things have happened in such a short space of time, a few weeks really. I feel like I’ve set my feet on such an exciting and fascinating path and couldn’t have asked for a nicer group of people to stroll along it with me.

The Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB) carried out an online survey of their subscribers to find out what they knew about herbal medicine (HM); what challenges (if any) patients’ use of herbal medicine caused for them; their awareness of the regulatory status of HM; and what sources of information they used to inform themselves about herbal medicines. The results give an insight into, mainly, UK doctors’ attitudes and knowledge since the vast majority of replies came from UK doctors – both hospital and GPs. In seeking answers, the survey asked 15 questions.  The overall tone of the responses was generally negative or respondents indicated lack of knowledge or confidence about herbal medicines.  Thus, whilst three quarters felt that HM was helpful in some circumstances, 22% felt that it was rarely or never helpful and the remainder didn’t know. Although the majority (almost 82%) thought that the publics’ attitude to HM was generally positive, 72% thought that this faith was misplaced and that the public were poorly informed about it. In terms of doctors’ own knowledge, no doctor felt that his/her knowledge was very good, but 31 respondents (19%) felt that it was ‘quite good’ and 18 respondents even felt that their knowledge of HM was nearly as good or better than their knowledge of prescribed medicines.

Even though a majority of doctors (77%) worried about their patients taking HM without informing them, only 40% of doctors ‘always’ or ‘on most occasions’ asked their patients.  When asked about whether they would seek further information about HM before starting or adjusting other medications,  21% would not and this was frequently because they did not know where to obtain HM information or how to assess the information if found, whilst 11 respondents  would’ usually advise the patient to stop taking the herbal medicine in any case’.

When asked ‘where’ they would seek information about HM, a range of sources were given such as books, colleagues with an interest in HM, specific websites and even patients themselves. However, half of the respondents said they would or did use internet searches such as Google. Other sources of information included Boots the Chemist, Holland & Barrett, and pharmacists. Only 2 respondents specifically mentioned herbalists – one whose friend was a herbalist and one who had visited China and wrote that Chinese doctors are ‘very well trained in herbal medicines’.

Interestingly, whilst 84% of respondents believed that HM was not well regulated, 74% also admitted to knowing ’very little’ or ‘nothing’ about the regulatory arrangements.

http://dtb.bmj.com/site/about/DTB_survey_on_herbal_medicines.pdf

Article Courtesy of Greenfiles

Making cards using pressed herbs, an example of my Herbal creativity

The next UK Herbarium Blog Party is being hosted by the lovely Lucinda over at Whispering Earth, her chosen theme is Herbal Creativity. Another superb topic because there are so many things that come under the creativity banner here’s what Lucinda has to say…

“This is a very broad topic covering anything that inspires us or encourages our creative side. You might want to share some herbal crafts that you particularly enjoy, a short story or poem inspired by herbs, a herbal drawing or photographs or a recipe that you are particularly proud of, be it culinary, cosmetic or medicinal. This blog party is about ideas you have enjoyed playing with and also about sharing with each other some of the ways in which herbs inspire us in all the many facets of our lives.

If you have your own blog then add your post before March 20th and email me the link at whisperingearth at gmail dot com – I’ll post the links to all the entries here that evening. If you don’t have a blog but would like to join us anyway you can email your piece as a word document to Debs at the UK Herbarium on debs at herbal-haven dot co dot uk and she will add it to the UK Herbarium blog as a guest post.”

I have a few things to potentially blog about, but I’m stuck as to which one to go with! I’ll have to put my thinking cap on, the topic made me realise how many creative herb projects I’ve stocked piled the equipment to do but not got round to trying yet, including herbal dyeing, soap making, paper making and loads more eek! Hopefully this year won’t be so busy and I’ll finally get chance to try and master some new herbal crafts! Looking forward to reading about everyone else’s herbal creative streaks later this month!