It’s not often you come across a book that so profoundly describes the Herbal Extract Company philosophy however A Working Herbal Dispensary: Respecting Herbs as Individuals, by full time UK medical herbalist Lucy Jones, has done just that and in doing so has found a place on the top shelf of our herbal medicine library. Published in July this year (2023) it is a photographically illustrated guide on how to understand and engage with medicinal herbs based on tradition and experience. With a deep respect for the inherent natural wisdom in herbs Jones herself says, in the introduction, that the “herbs themselves play a starring role.”
In her fascinating second book (her first is Self-Sufficient Herbalism 2020), Jones shares the individual characteristics and medicinal virtues of 108 of the key herbs that she works with in her practice. They are mostly Western herbs, with some from the Tibetan medicine tradition which she has also studied. The monograph of each herb includes physiological actions, energetic qualities, emotional aspects, historical applications, case studies from Jones’s clinic, recipes for the home herbal apothecary and a charming magical associations section. The main premise of the book is “herbs treat people, not conditions”. “If we are to treat someone effectively with herbal medicine, we need to understand the underlying root cause of that person’s health condition. A treatment protocol suitable for one person with a particular ‘health condition’ may not be at all appropriate for another with the same condition,” Jones says.
The book was conceived in response to what Jones has noticed as a “growing tendency to view herbs in a way that centres around ‘what condition they can be used for’ or ‘what chemical constituent they contain’”. Thus, she writes about each herb as an individual that she knows and values, rather than just as a list of conditions it treats or the constituents it contains. “I know these pieces of information can seem quite helpful, especially to those who are beginning their herbal journey; however I rail against seeing and describing herbs primarily in this way. I believe that our relationship with herbs is reciprocal. Viewing herbs primarily in terms of ‘how they can be used’ does not recognise and honour them as individual beings, with their own healing intelligence”. This vitalist model for healing is a refreshing approach compared to the “use this herb for that symptom” mindset that is sometimes termed “allopathic herbalism” or the “one solution syndrome”. Instead the reader is encouraged to move beyond this method and match the herbs to people, rather than to diseases and thinking of them as pharmaceutical alternatives which can lead to inconsistent results and therefore a lack of confidence. “To do this matchmaking well, we need to understand herbs as unique beings,” she says. This is the true gift of a herbalist.
Jones also comments on the fact that herbal practitioners usually work with whole herbs rather than isolated constituents. “We may know about certain ‘headline’ constituents, such as alkaloids or tannins, but each whole herb has a myriad other compounds alongside these that support and moderate its action in the body. It would be incredibly complicated and hugely time-consuming to try to isolate all of the chemical compounds in each herb, let alone to test how each of them affects the body. It gets even more complicated when we add in the fact that herbs work in relationship with us, since each human being has an individual constitution, lifestyle, diet, habitual thought pattern, and past medical history.” Keep an eye out for this book in the reference section of our educational material.
Add new comment