Herbal Healer: What is turmeric?

Note: This week's column is dedicated to the memory of Jacquie Demaree, dedicated teacher and avid reader of the Herbal Healer.

Herbal Healer: What is kidney vetch?

Commonly seen growing on top of “green roofs” in Switzerland, kidney vetch carries the nickname “woundwort” owing to its marvelous capacity to heal minor cuts and scrapes. Viewed side by side, this botanical medicine and common clover would appear as fraternal twins, the obvious difference b…

Herbal Healer: What is carline thistle?

During the Middle Ages the Emperor Charlemagne—Carl the Great to the German tribes—was losing soldiers to a dreadful plague. Folklore has it that an angel gave the ruler this herb, which was named in his honor, to stem the tide of this deadly epidemic. A natural hygrometer of sorts, carline …

Herbal Healer: What is speedwell?

Owing to its wide variety of healing applications, this herbal panacea was highly regarded by northern Europe’s Germanic tribes. Indeed, an ancient meaning of the word “speed” is “thrive.” Any botanical reputed to offer a toolbox filled with cures would, indeed, be one associated with the co…

Herbal Healer: What is potato?

Today’s promised land overflows not with milk and honey, but with mountains of French fries and chips made from fried oils and the potato, the largest vegetable crop on Earth. Thus, our modern tastes and food choices have turned an otherwise health foods dynamo into a leading contributor to …

Herbal Healer: What is lady’s bedstraw?

Among several herbs carrying the popular name bedstraw, Galium verum—or lady’s bedstraw—wields a coumarin scent that possesses the power to repel fleas. All of these plants were used to stuff mattresses, but the wealthy—the lords and ladies of Merry Olde England—apparently had the privilege …

Herbal Healer: What is ramson?

Upon waking from their annual period of hibernation, Europe’s brown bears would gorge themselves on their freshly uncovered ramson (wild garlic) bulbs. This powerful gusto for ramson moved the scientific community to name this herb Allium ursinum—ursa being the Latin word for bear. The lure …

Herbal Healer: What is njangsa?

As tall as a fifteen-story building, the njangsa tree accentuates the hustle, bustle and color found in West African rainforests. A number of edible caterpillars flock to its chewier portions before themselves becoming a source of protein foods for local human populations.

Herbal Healer: What is potato onion?

Spring gardening is that time of the year when good planning can result in bountiful harvests for months to come. Selecting a variety of edibles assures that many different lessons in the art of raising food will be learned as the days lengthen into the light-filled calendrical gems that sho…

Herbal Healer: What is corchorus?

Also known as jute—when its fibers are used for cloth—and Jew’s mallow—when its nutritious leaves are eaten as a vegetable—corchorus has been raised for food and medicine for countless centuries in its native Africa, as well as in India and parts of southern Asia. Cleopatra’s legendary beaut…

Herbal Healer: What is celosia?

Blessed with vivid colors and showy flowers, celosia is a favorite among gardeners seeking ornamentals that rate high in eye appeal. To the cook and the practitioner of folk medicine, this member of the amaranth family is also reliable in the kitchen as a nutritious food and in the clinic as…

Herbal Healer: What is beechnut?

Black bears love them. Porcupines love them. Even flying foxes love them. The 3-sided nut produced by the stately American beechnut tree is savored by other creatures, as well, including the human forager. Before agriculture—the labor-intensive raising of annual crops—there was arboriculture…

Herbal Healer: What is caralluma?

Out of approximately 120 species belonging to the caralluma genus, one member has managed to graduate with honors from the scientific scrutiny that explored the age-old claims regarding its weight-loss ability.

Herbal Healer: What is carob?

It tastes like chocolate (without the caffeine!), it appears in several important Biblical tales and the weight of its seeds provided the basis for measuring the relative purity of objects made from gold (the carat). Often called the locust tree, carob’s edible pod is often referred to as St…

Herbal Healer: What is white kidney bean?

The “Three Sisters,” namely, beans, maize (corn) and squash, characterize the core of Native American agriculture. Long considered among the simplest of foods, these staples kept a number of farming tribes viable and well fed over many centuries. Grown together, the Three Sisters crops forme…

Herbal Healer: What is shagbark hickory?

If you love pecans—especially in a well-made, mouth-watering pecan pie—then you’ll love the hickory nuts produced by the amazing shagbark hickory tree. Native to Indiana and its neighboring states, this towering giant is unique among its hickory clanmates.

Herbal Healer: What is bupleurum?

Bupleurum (boo-plur-rum) plays a major role in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), where it is referred to as chai hu. Its medical magic resides in the root. Easy to grow from seed, bupleurum brightens up any garden or flower pot with its clusters of dainty greenish-yellow blooms. Florists w…

Herbal Healer: What is argan?

Located in the Western Mediterranean—most notably in an arid stretch of southwest Morocco—the argan tree projects the perfect image for a plant capable of reaching “senior citizen” status. Thorny with gnarled trunks, an argan stand of trees can reach the age of 200 years. Just as interesting…

Herbal Healer: What is wheat grass?

One of the healthiest foods that we can put into our bodies is the sprouted grass—and its juice—raised from the simple wheat berry. Like the air that we breathe, wheat is everywhere. Did you have a bagel, pancakes, French toast, waffles or Wheaties cereal this morning? Then you have wheat co…

Herbal Healer: What is apple mint?

Like the Jolly Green Giant, both the leaf and the height of the apple mint impress with their size. If the Mint Family Reunion committee offered a souvenir T-shirt, apple mint would be the big kid asked to stand in the back, while its cousins—peppermint, spearmint, horehound, lavender and th…

Herbal Healer: What is mastic?

This resinous gum exudes from cuts made in the bark of a small tree that grows in Northern Africa and among islands and countries located in the eastern Mediterranean. The tear-shaped drops of mastic gum are associated with Saint Isadoros, whose martyred body was dragged under a mastic tree.…

Herbal Healer: What is mountain spinach?

Native to the steppes of northern and central Asia, mountain spinach was introduced to English gardens in 1548 where it thrived as both an ornamental—owing to its strikingly beautiful reddish-purple leaves—and a tasty leaf vegetable. Because it remains popular in French kitchens, this attrac…

Herbal Healer: What is garden cress?

Sharing kinship with watercress and mustard, garden cress is relished for its tangy, spicy taste and aroma. From a medicinal standpoint, this native of Egypt and the Middle East provides a treasure trove of natural cures through the creative uses of its seeds, leaves and roots. Over the cent…

Herbal Healer: What is ivy gourd?

With its showy flower and inviting red fruit, this tropical vine provides food and green healing agents to its grateful devotees.

Herbal Healer: What is Malabar spinach?

Offering your taste buds a mild, pleasant hint of spinach, the large leaf of this fast-climbing vine also brings a list of nutrients to the table and useful home remedies to the medicine chest. Also known as Indian spinach, this native of tropical Asia probably first appeared in India or Indonesia.

Herbal Healer: What is prairie turnip?

Napoleon was in a pinch. His drive for supremacy across Europe in the opening decade of the 19th century was a costly venture. Funds were needed and France’s folly — selling the vast expanse of the Louisiana Purchase for a mere $15 million — quickly became fledgling America’s pot of gold; in…

Herbal Healer: What is the fiddlehead fern?

When Star Trek: The Next Generation was launched on the small screen in 1988, one of the more notable episodes was titled, “Too Short a Season.” For the gourmand who waits an entire year for the fiddlehead fern to unfurl its curl, that title aptly describes the rapid arrival and departure of…

Herbal Healer: What are black-eyed peas?

Technically a bean rather than a pea, the black-eyed pea has been cultivated in China and India since prehistoric times. By 1674 this nutritious legume had reached the Western Hemisphere via slaves forcibly relocated from their West African homeland. It conquered Southern cuisine just as the…

Herbal Healer: What is ramp?

Also known as wild leek, ramp shares family ties with both garlic and onion, bearing the odor of the former and the taste of the latter. Still a virtual unknown in the produce section, ramp’s claim to fame is its contribution to the name of one of America’s largest cities. 17th-century Frenc…

Herbal Healer: What is caigua?

Caigua (pronounced kai-wa) hails from Peru, where it has served the native populace as both food and medicine for countless centuries. The ceramic art of the Moche—a pre-Incan culture that thrived between 100 AD and 800 AD—frequently celebrated agricultural subjects, which often included cai…

Herbal Healer: What is Jerusalem artichoke?

This crunchy root vegetable comes with an intriguing history along with a wide spectrum of uses. Native to North America, it bears no connection to the ancient city of Jerusalem. Nor is it related—except by similarity in taste and a shared membership in the daisy family—to the artichoke. Twi…

Herbal Healer: What is honeybush?

Honeybush is the popular, better-known name of Cyclopia, a genus of flowering plants growing only in small regions on the southern tip of Africa. The lovely yellow flower produced by honeybush fills the home with the scent of honey while the teapot is placed in first gear, slowly simmering o…

Herbal Healer: What is bobinsana?

This native of the Amazon Basin has been used for healing the body and for enhancing spiritual, shamanic activities through countless generations.

Herbal Healer: What is tepary bean?

What is tepary bean?

Herbal Healer: What is canna?

Every family reunion features members who share similarities, as well as individuals who have little in common with the herd. Plants often tell the same story. Both banana and ginger are edible plants as well as popular flavors that enliven our beverages and baked goods. They stand worlds ap…

Herbal Healer: What is eclipta?

While also known as false daisy, there is “nothing but the truth” when it comes to listing eclipta’s impressive arsenal poised to combat numerous ailments. A member of the sunflower family, this botanical has a track record that stretches back thousands of years.

Herbal Healer: What is kepel fruit?

In this age of accelerating extinctions visited upon countless plants and animals, one occasionally runs across a single vanishing species that has features that are so fascinating as to make its demise lamentable—even painful—to watch. Perhaps the saga of the kepel tree will motivate humani…

Herbal Healer: What is benzoin?

Arab traders once provided an essential link between East Asian suppliers of exotic plant medicines and their consumers in Europe. Once travel by sea began connecting these far-flung markets, the spice trade led to fierce international competition that eventually spawned centuries of warfare…

Herbal Healer: What is everlasting?

Think of the tiny, delicate, roundish paws of kittens and you have an image of everlasting’s dainty golden yellow flowers. Perhaps its common name issues from the fact that this vibrant shade of sunshine is not lost to seasonal aging or even drying. For this reason everlasting’s spicy, aroma…

Herbal Healer: What is vetiver?

Walking past a clump of vetiver grass, one would hardly imagine that this humble, nondescript plant has been empowered by nature to treat baldness, stop termites dead in their tracks and reinforce the soil near vulnerable levees, thus helping in flood control efforts. Add to this the fact th…

Herbal Healer: What is fishwort?

Lousy smell, lovely flower, and lots of cooking and curing qualities. That’s fishwort! This East Asian herb is also called lizard tail and bishop’s weed.

Herbal Healer: What is black mustard?

Its seed valued by those who cook and those who cure, black mustard is the spiciest member of its family. Its seed a mere one millimeter in length, black mustard is thought to be the plant referred to in the New Testament (Matthew 13:31-32) when Jesus marveled at the ability of the tiniest s…

Herbal Healer: What is simarouba?

Also known as the paradise tree and dysentery bark, this tropical native may soon find its historic role as a versatile healer expanded as it becomes a major player in the emerging biodiesel fuel industry.

Herbal Healer: What is macela?

To paraphrase an old saying, "One person's weed is another person's herb." With its unusually long list of traditional healing abilities, macela fits this description like Cinderella's shoe.

Herbal Healer: What is kawakawa?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Today's column marks the 400th edition of Herbal Healer that has appeared in the Times. We'd like to thank both Ted PanDeva Zagar and our readers for contributing to the continuing popularity of this weekly feature.

Herbal Healer: What is langsat?

Virtually unknown on the produce shelves in western countries, this delectable fruit is popular across Southeast Asia. The langsat tree bears an enchanting bloom that is the official flower adopted by Indonesia’s province of South Sumatra.

Herbal Healer: What is mongongo?

A Kung tribesman in Southern Africa once remarked, “Why should we garden, when there are so many mongongo trees in the world?” Considering how valuable the tree’s wood, fruit, nut and oil are to its neighboring peoples, one can only answer, “Why, indeed!” When arboriculture—by definition dep…

Herbal Healer: What is gevuina?

Also known as Chilean hazelnut, gevuina is an attractive evergreen grown as much for its ornamental beauty as it is for the nutritional value of its nut. A diamond in the rough, gevuina has not yet been the focus of commercial endeavors to the degree that its myriad uses have earned.

Herbal Healer: What is bilimbi?

Known as the cucumber tree, bilimbi provides food from its fruit and medicine from leaf, flower, seed and twig. Unusual in that its fruit resembles pickles, bilimbi is a relative of the carambola, more commonly known as star fruit.

Herbal Healer: What is gambooge?

Resembling a small pumpkin, the small, sour fruit of the gambooge tree is an established ingredient in a number of weight loss products offered worldwide.