Making Plant Medicine

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 276 pages
• Published by: Horizon Herbs February 28, 2000
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0970031203
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0970031204
• Book Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 11.2 ounces

Product Description
Making Plant Medicine is about making herbal medicine. This is a modern medicine making book and formulary with its roots in original herbalism designed for every medicinal herb gardener to cultivate the full potential of the plant-human relationship. Richo Cech tells very good stories based on his experience as a global wanderer, herbalist and medicine maker. In the context of his lifelong love of gardening, he has procduced this long-awaited book that is original, amusing and absolutely useful.

Part 1: Medicine Making
* drying and processing herbs
* making tinctures the easy way
* the mathematics of tincturing and solubility factors
* basic formulas for fresh and dry tinctures, including dosages
* vinegar extracts, glycerites, herbal succi and syrups teas, decoctions, herbal oils, salves and creams poultices, compresses and soaks

Part 2: A Gardener's Formulary
This section covers well over 100 herbs that are readily cultivated in North America. The listings include: conservation status, parts used, specific formulas, practical uses, dosages, contraindications and an overview of alternate species.

Since the beginning, the garden has been a haven of good values, both physical and spiritual. The act of gardening provides a balm for every wound. May your medicine be of the garden, and may it be of benefit to all.

About The Author
Richo Cech is an internationally recognized expert on the cultivation, processing and usage of medicinal plants. His early work in African archeology and ethnobotany coupled with a life-long interest in seed saving eventually materialized in an extensive collection of seeds. This collection became the basis for Horizon Herbs, a company dedicated to the worldwide dissemination of medicinal herb seeds. Richo serves on the executive board of United Plant Savers, an organization dedicated to the conservation of Native American medicinal plants. Richo strongly believes that organic cultivation of medicinal plants provides a necessary alternative to the harvest of precious plant resources from the wilds. Richo is the author of a popular series of pamphlets on the cultivation of medicinal herbs and a new book entitled "Making Plant Medicine." Horizon Herbs, PO Box 69, Williams, OR 97544-0069 (541) 846-6704.

Reader Reviews
Are you ready to begin making your own tinctures, vinegar extracts, herbal infusions and teas as well as other decoctions? Richo Cech, long time herbalist par excellence describes how to macerate, use various solvents or menstruum solutions, and create complex combinations or medicinal compounds. Although Cech clearly prefers an alcohol-based menstruum, he supplies formulas for other approaches for those who cannot tolerate alcohol. I have found the formulas which don't require alcohol provided by James Green in THE HERBAL MEDICINE-MAKERS HANDBOOK easier to execute and less costly because they don't use as much fancy equipment and my husband will use them, but Cech insists that to make long lasting solutions you will want to use grain alcohol or a good brand of Vodka as well as the "proper tools". I use essential oils for various purposes, and dried herbs in teas, and in my experience both hold up at least one year. We use them so fast I can't speak to longevity or shelf life (At this very moment as I type, I have applied an oil mix to my right hand to relieve pain from various causes such as arthritis and carpel tunnel, and it is working fine). I suppose if you are making up batches for sale you might have more concern with preservation, but I wouldn't worry about using an alcohol based formula on a child so much as tinctures are mostly diluted in water. (Cough syrup is an exception). If you are a gardener (or not) and are wondering how to preserve some of nature's bounty for medicinal (compressesses, salves, creams and other medicinal compounds) you might consider buying both books (Cech and Green) and conducting your own experiments, to see which approach works for you. This book has a dearth of illustrations, or else I would give it more stars.