V. of 5 fields

Herbalism

Esoteric Labs answers questions in Western herbalism, the tradition that runs from the Greek and Roman materia medica through the medieval and early modern herbals to the physiomedicalists, the Eclectics, and modern phytotherapy. A condition is answered through the plants the tradition uses for it, differentiated by the person's presentation, with the logic of formula building: the lead herb, the supporting herbs, the correctives.

What it draws on

Theophrastus and Dioscorides; Galen's qualities and degrees; the Salernitan Circa Instans and Hildegard; Avicenna and Ibn al-Baytar; Gerard, Parkinson, and Culpeper with his planetary rulerships; the American Eclectics, Felter and Ellingwood, and the physiomedicalists; Maud Grieve; Weiss; and the modern monograph standards, Commission E, ESCOP, and the WHO monographs. Each plant comes by common and botanical name with the part used, its energetics, its actions, and the typical preparation and dose as the herbals and monographs record them: infusion, decoction, tincture with its ratio and strength, glycerite, syrup, salve. Where a plant's classical use has been revised, the current understanding is given and the change named.

Questions it answers

Across the traditions

The materia medica is shared with Chinese medicine through the Bencao and with Ayurveda through Dravyaguna; the planetary rulership of herbs ties to astrology; anthroposophy has its own plant medicine.

Reference

Questions answered

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