The Modern Herbal Dispensatory: A Medicine-Making Guide

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This comprehensive, full-color guide provides detailed, easy-to-follow instructions for making and using approximately 250 herbal medicines at home, including practical tips and numerous effective formulas developed and tested by the authors, both expert herbalists with years of experience. Readers who appreciate the health-giving properties of herbal medicines but are discouraged by the high price of commercial products can now make their own preparations for a fraction of the cost. The authors tell you everything you need to know about harvesting, preparing, and administering herbs in many different forms, including fresh, bulk dried herbs, capsules, extracts in water, alcohol, glycerin, vinegar and oil, and even preparations like essential oils and flower essences. The book also covers topical applications of herbs as salves, lotions, poultices, tooth powders, ear drops, and more, and includes an extensive chapter on herbal hydrotherapy.
"The Modern Herbal Dispensary "explains why different preparations of the same herb will obtain better results, demonstrating how capsules, teas, tinctures, or glycerites of the same plant will not have exactly the same effect on the body. Leading herbalists Thomas Easley and Steven Horne have tested and proven the herbal formulas they offer, along with suggestions for treating more than one hundred illnesses. They lay out the principles of herbal formulation and also provide instructions on how to prepare single herbs, a procedure that has been largely ignored in other references. More comprehensive than any other guide, thoroughly researched, beautifully illustrated, and presented with ease of use in mind, this book will take its place as the premier reference for those who want to produce all the herbal remedies they need, and to save money in the process.
Table of Contents
Introduction--Results: The Name of the Game
Chapter One--Preparations and Applications: Understanding the Many Ways of Preparing and Using Herbs
Chapter Two--Fresh Herbs: Growing, Harvesting, and Using Fresh Plants
Chapter Three--Dried Herbs: Using Bulk Herbs, Capsules, and Tablets
Chapter Four--Extracting Herbs: Equipment, Raw Materials, and Potency
Chapter Five--Liquid Preparations: Basic Extraction Techniques for Water, Alcohol, Glycerin, and Oil
Chapter Six--Topical Preparations: Making Liniments, Lotions, Butters, Balms, and Salves
Chapter Seven--Herbal Hydrotherapy: Healing with Enemas, Douches, Baths, and Soaks
Chapter Eight--Advanced Techniques: Percolation Extracts, Dried Extracts, and Chinese Methods
Chapter Nine--Aromatherapy and Homeopathy: Essential Oils, Homeopathic Preparations, and Flower Essences
Chapter Ten--Formulas and Dosages: Creating Formulas and Determining How Much to Take
Resources, Part One--Sample Formulas
Resources, Part Two--Single Herbs
Appendix One: Herbal Constituents and Solvents
Appendix Two: Sources for Materials"