Commonwealth Podcast For Holistic Herbalism

In today’s episode we continue our exploration of the herbs on our home apothecary shelves. This week we made an extra effort to share formulation ideas for these herbs!The hawthorns – Crataegus spp. – are best-known for protecting the heart and vasculature. The quercetin, anthocyanins, and bioflavonoids in the leaf, flower, & berry of this giving tree help modulate inflammation and reduce allergic expressions. Hawthorn berry is flexible enough to prepare in a variety of ways and it formulates well with other herbs. Today we drank a formula with: hawthorn berry, pine needles, mugwort, damiana, juniper berries, and orange peel.Curcuma longa is our good friend turmeric. It’s famous as an anti-inflammatory herb in a general way, but we think of it particularly as a digestive herb. It’s also very good as a topical remedy. You can prepare a “ginger family reunion” blend with Zingiberaceae plants: turmeric, ginger, cardamom, grains of paradise, galangal… Or, if you like the 80s, you can make “Karma Chameleon te