How to make a medicinal herbal tea- tips to making your natural home remedies more effective.

Hi folks,

I'd like to share a few thoughts on making medicinal teas from various types of plants. These are a few simple tips to make your home remedies more effective.
   We should keep in mind that when making a medicinal tea, this is not the same thing as making a beverage tea. A medicinal tea must be much stronger, and at times may taste bad (add a little honey to sweeten the taste if necessary). Use a larger portion of herbs, and give them more time to steep/ decoct. The liquid should have a strong color and taste when it is ready. Sometimes we need a little bitter medicine to help us feel better in the long run.

1) Leaves and flowers: Many herbs and plants have flowers and leaves with medicinal properties that can benefit us. When we make a tea or decoction from these parts of the plant, we must remember that there are beneficial essential oils that are lost when we boil them. For this reason it is better to use water that is 30 seconds off (below) boiling point. For a tea, take the water off of the heat and pour into your pot over the flowers and leaves, cover the lid, and let steep for 10 minutes. If you are adding leaves or flowers to a decoction, add them at the end for not more than a few minutes and keep the lid on.

2) Roots and bark: These parts of the plant should be boiled (decocted). Depending on if they are fresh or dried, you may want to decoct these medicinals anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. If they are dried herbs, a longer decoction time is appropriate. For example, when I make ginger tea from fresh ginger root, I will often boil the root for 15-20 minutes. If I am making a decoction of dried Chinese herbs, I usually cook them for 45-60 minutes.

3) Quantity- Not only should you make your herbal teas strong, you should ingest them frequently- 2-5 times a day depending on what the herbs are and what you are using them for. A single cup of weak tea is usually not enough to be effective. Have a strong cup at least 2 or 3 times a day (morning, afternoon, evening). Depending on the situation, some general guidelines are to take your herbs 5 days in a row and then take 2 days off. Or a week on, a week off. Or a month on, then 2 weeks off. These variations depend on which herbs you are taking, if it is for an acute or chronic condition, and how you respond to the specific herbs.

Consult an experienced herbal medicine practitioner before embarking on a self- prescribed herbal program.

There are many books and teachers out there that deal with plant/ food medicine. The two books that I find myself consulting the most right now are "The Way of Herbs" by Michael Tierra, and "Healing with Whole Foods" by Paul Pitchford.

stay well,
Keith Judelman, EAMP