Categories of Herbal Remedies
When you learn about herbalism to support your well-being, you need a solid understanding of the various types of herbal remedies that exist and how to work with them. This blog is a reference for herbal remedies, which I’ve categorized into:
- consumable herbal remedies– remedies we can take orally or drink
- topical applications and gargles– remedies applied to your skin or rinsed in your mouth
- aromatherapy and hydrosols– remedies involving aromatic herbs, essential oils and possibly hyrdrosols, and finally
- ambient and plant-influence-based remedies– plants and plant preparations in or around your environment (though sometimes consumed to work with a subtle influence as opposed to plant constituents) that support you in bringing in certain energies or influences to help you hold intentions or energetically care for yourself.
I offer these categories for your knowledge acquisition, but plant remedies deliver benefits in multidimensional ways. For example, a tea can deliver herbal constituents to your body while the herbs are offering something visual experience and the aroma is influencing your mood.
Read more about how herbs are multidimensional in my Plants Wake Us Up post here (link forthcoming).
This is an extensive index of herbal remedies, but not all-encompassing!
Consumable Herbal Remedies
These are remedies we can take orally or drink.
- Therapeutic Strength Teas (not the same as using a tea bag and calling it a day!)
- Herbal Infusions and Herbal Decoctions
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- Infusions are stronger-than tea brews of herbs. Decoctions also tend to be strong and are how we extract constituents from harder plant materials such as bark, roots, and seeds.
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- Herbal Tinctures, Glycerites and Elixirs
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- These are remedies that have been extracted into liquid bases, usually consisting of water, alcohol, and/or glycerine. Elixirs often combine tinctures with honey.
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- Herbal Syrups, Honeys, and Oxymels
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- Sweet remedies that utilize bases of syrup (usually sugar, water honey and perhaps alcohol to stabilize), or honey. Oxymels have vinegar and honey so are sweet and sour!
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- Herbal Capsules
- Herbal Throat Sprays
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- These are herbal preparations to support the throat and usually are tinctures diluted with honey or glycerine.
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- Herbal Powders & Culinary Herbal Remedies
Why work with consumable remedies?
You might choose these forms when it makes sense to take herbs through your digestive system rather than absorbing them through your skin or inhaling them in a steam. You may want to nourish yourself with nutritive herbs.
Or perhaps you want to experience the taste of herbs! Often the taste tells us something about its qualities. Some bitter herbs that help digestion, are most helpful when you can taste them.
Herbal syrups and honeys can be wonderful for children.
Also, sweet remedies are thought to go deeper into the system by some herbalists, which is wonderful when healing the impacts of trauma.
Culinary use is also an option if you prepare a lot of your food. Some herbs may enhance your body’s ability to utilize nutrients. Tinctures, glycerites, and capsules can be convenient and make dosing easy. They are also compact and easy to transport.
When you might not want to work with consumable or oral types of herbal remedies
If you’re trying to work with an injury or condition related to the skin, potentially you may find that another form is more effective. These are generalities, though! For example, a skin condition such as acne, could be related to something internally like your liver benefiting from some support and a consumable remedy may be more fitting.
Topical Applications & Gargles
These are ways to work with herbs on your skin or by rinsing your mouth. Some herbs can be absorbed through the skin or support oral health in a gargle.
- Herbal Oils (Not an oil with essential oil mixed in)
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- This is an oil that has extracted constituents and often aroma from plant material. It is a very gentle remedy, and one to consider for young children as well as more regular self care practices when you’re trying to encourage calmness in your system and/or care for your skin. Herbal oils can be the base for salves (see below,) and personal skin and hair care.
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- Massage Oils with Diluted Essential Oils (Different than Herbal Oils)
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- These are vegetable oils with drops of essential oils diluted into them. These tend to be more concentrated with volatile oils than an herbal oil (see above,) and the aroma may be stronger. They also are going to have more cautions than herbal oils to consider, and you can see my post on essential oils for more on this.
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- Poultices
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- These are patches or pouches made of fresh or dried herbs that are directly applied to the skin. They can be applied directly or secured in clothe, such as cheese cloth.
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- Herbal Baths
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- This can include herbs mixed into a bath, or making a large amount of tea or infusion (imagine a giant Ball jar) and adding it to bath water.
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- Salves
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- These are herbals that have been extracted into an oil, then combined with beeswax and poured into small glass jars or tins to be applied to the skin
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- Herbal Gargles
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- This is a preparation of water and herbs (a tea) or a diluted tincture that you would gargle with.
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Why work with topical herbal remedies or herbal gargles?
If there is a contraindication for consumable herbs, there may be an alternative topical option (depending on what is needed).
Relaxation for some people can come from working with touch, and herbs can create another plane for this.
Sometimes, an ailment or discomfort on or below the skin can be supported with an herbal application, such as bruising, infections, or tissue damage.
Garlges can be helpful for the throat during coughs and colds, as well as supporting oral health.
Why you may not want to work with topical applications or gargles
Allergies could be a deterrent and it’s always important to start slow with a small amount of herbal remedy in a small area if you’re unsure if you may have allergic response.
Similarly if you have something sensitive in your mouth and you’re not sure what it is, a gargle may need to be researched before you try it.
Some people have sensory sensitivities and if this is you, it may not be a pleasant remedy type.
Aromatherapy & Hydrosols
These aromatic-based remedies that often involve working with essential oils and hydrosols (safety and therapeutic notes in link) or in herbal steams.
- Essential Oils
- Inhalation Methods: Aromatherapy Diffusers, Personal Inhalers, and Other Quick Aromatic Applications
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- Diffusers are devices that disperse into the room. Personal inhalers can be carried around and are small tube with a cap and a core in the center that holds a cotton wick with drops of essential oil on it. Other quick aromatic application examples are simply a drop of essential oil on a cotton ball, inhaling from the bottle itself, jewelry with a tiny diffuser compartment on it, or a patch that’s designed to be placed on the skin with the aroma of an essential oil.
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- Hydrosols
- Herbal Steams
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- Link above for a post on this, but in brief this entails placing herbs into steaming water to inhale the volatile oils from it.
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Why work with aromatherapy?
For people who respond positively to aroma, this can be very helpful in difficult moments. It’s a quick and potentially pleasurable way to respond to a variety of hardships. Some examples are calming anxiety, grounding during times of overwhelm, and tending to a grief process.
Can be a quick mood lifter and bring you in touch with sensual experience.
Additionally, aromatherapy can help hold intentions related to healing, connection to others, relaxation, or transitioning from one part of the day to the next.
Hydrosols are very gentle and safe. They may be good remedies for babies, during pregnancy, or when other remedies are too potent for the need.
When you might not want to work with aromatherapy
Living with pets, babies and young children as well as some health conditions may mean you want to inform yourself of safety topics for essential oils. I have an extensive blog post about essential oils and safety notes here as a starter in understanding.
Ambient & Plant-Influence-Based Remedies
We do not always need to consume or absorb (as in a topical application) to benefit from the resources that plant remedies bring. Plants have an influence on us. Here are some remedy forms that work in your immediate environment and on a more symbolic, influential level.
- Plant Essences (also called Flower Essences, but I find that term misleading since essences come from various plants)
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- These are remedies that are not so much about constituents. Plant material is collected and placed into spring water and allowed to sit for a period of time to take in the influence of the plant. That water is then stabilized with glycerine or alcohol and bottled. The remedy can be used in someone’s bath, sprayed on their body, or taken by the drops to bring on the influence of the plant.
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- Herbal Pillows
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- These are pillows stuffed with dried herbs. Often, they are small pillows that someone may keep in their bedroom to help connect with their dreams.
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- Herbal Smokes/Smoke Cleansing
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- A collection of dried herbs is burnt and used to clear a space energetically or the smoke is used to cleanse someone from what they may be carrying emotionally or energetically. Some indigenous cultures work with herbal smudges in ceremonies and there are various traditions across the world and through time. (Please see “When not to work with ambient and plant-influence-based remedies” drop down for a note on cultural appropriation and harvesting issues.)
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- Herbal Sprays
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- This could be a hydrosol, which is a very dilute byproduct of an essential oil, or a plant essence in a spray bottle (see first item on this list). These are sprayed in or around your environment for such things as clearing energy, supporting meditation, or prepare yourself for a personal ritual.
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- Plants in Your Environment
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- Simply bringing plants in your surroundings imparts their influences, subtly if you’re still and observant enough to receive it.
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Why work with ambient and plant-influence-based remedies?
Another time is when your system is absolutely depleted from over extending yourself or a chronic health condition and you don’t want to put anymore of a load on your system. I’ve seen a gentle positive response by people in my practice who are managing a chronic condition and worked with White Lotus essences to assist them in focusing on being rather than doing. (That is not to suggest this would work for everyone.)
You may also be working with a cultural practice of yours (as opposed to culturally appropriated) where you are guided by plants or participating in a ceremony with them.
Additionally, I’ve found these helpful for when we (as in all of us humans) are working through a piece of healing, are struggling or going into some type of intentional time period that needs process and we want to hold a certain energy. An example would be compassion for something that carries a stigma, or grieving that is asking for tenderness. Or like when I created this blog and had too many ideas, I needed support with discernment. I worked with Yarrow in an essence form. I was able to clarify my intentions and use them to decide what goes into the post! If my discernment was adequate, maybe what you’re reading is instructive?!
When not to work with ambient and plant-influence-based remedies.
An important consideration that sometimes comes up with burning herbs and traditional plant knowledge is cultural appropriation. This is when someone takes on cultural practices without permission. If a plant ritual is not part of your culture and was not shared with you, you may be appropriating. If you feel drawn to using a practice outside of its cultural context some good questions to ask are: what draws me to this practice?, is there another way I can fulfill this desire, aspiration or need that’s within my culture or that I devise myself?, and have I been provided permission to work with this practice? If you don’t have fitting practice in your own culture, I would recommend working in your own traditions, and/or creating new or unique ones for yourself if you’re inspired to work with plants in this way or seek out the work of people who are sharing traditions in their full context. Lastly if you’re of European descent and want to learn some traditions, herbalist Sarah Sorci has two books that may support you in learning about some of these traditions.
There have also been issues with over harvesting and while this is important for working with any type of herbal remedy, ones that are sought out for burning, mediation or rituals can sometimes be hardest hit, such as is the case with frankincense and white sage. and researching plants to make sure the plant isn’t in danger, or find one that is cultivated (grown on a farm as opposed to harvested in the wild). Another consideration with herbal smokes, is that some people are sensitive to smoke and aromas or may have lung conditions. So if you or someone near you have sensitivities or lung/breathing issues, this may not be a good choice.
I find that there are way more types of remedies than most people know about and I hope this post has expanded your knowledge and excitement of what’s possible with herbs!
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Cheers to your well-being and pleasure with plants,
Quai
