One Man’s Very Subjective Opinion on the 12 “Best” Herbal Books and Resources Out There

Submitted by Adam Stark.

Without further introduction, here’s the list (in alphabetical order by author last name)

• The Botanical Safety Handbook, 2nd edition by Zoe Gardner & Michael McGuffin, editors.  (Please note: I specified second edition!) The Expert Advisory council on this book is a who’s-who of American medical herbalism.  The scholarship is meticulous, drawing from deep wells of traditional understanding, clinical experience, biochemistry, and the formal scientific literature.  This is over 1,000 pages of solid BOOK, 15 years in the making.

• Out of the Earth by Simon Mills.  Out of print now, with the remaining copies getting up there in price.  This is my favorite book to start to delve into energetic concepts like the Five Elements, how taste effects physiology, expansive/contractive properties, and constitutional typing – at least to “scientific” Westerners like me.  For an overview of herbal conceptual framework, I cannot think of a better book.

• Plant Medicine in Practice: Using the Teachings of John Bastyr by Bill Mitchell.  A great materia medica from a great man, passing on to us conversationally what he learned from another great man that came before him.

• Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West by Michael Moore.  You gotta love Michael Moore.  I never met the man, but he’s always hulking around in the photos I see of him behind his giant, bushy beard like a giant, grumpy Santa Claus (he was 6’4”, and big-boned), cigarette in mouth, not a trace of smile on his lips.  He was also one of our finest herbalists.  And, I would argue, our very finest herbal writer.  This is the man who once defined borborygmus (in writing!) “the feeling of gerbils in wetsuits surfing goofy-foot across your transverse colon.”

• The Natural Pregnancy Book/Naturally Healthy Babies and Childrenby Aviva Romm.  If you want to bring herbs into someone’s home and someone’s heart, to start them on this path for life, start them with these two books.  Written in supple, confident prose, these books are as accessible as they are impressive.  These days, Aviva has an “M.D.” after her name, but her allegiance and heart is, and always will be, with the plants.  Aviva trained as a midwife, and was a founding member and president of the American Herbalists Guild.

• Herbal Vade Mecum by Gazmend Skenderi.  Skenderi is not a practitioner, but a scholar and consultant in natural products.  Vade Mecum is Latin for “go-with-me (book).”  This volume isn’t a textbook.  It won’t teach you everything you need to know.  But it packs 800 herbs into 450 pages.

• Adaptogens by David Winston and Steven Maimes.  Adaptogens are the stress-response herbs, the ginseng-class herbs, the deep restorative tonics.  And this is the definitive work on the topic – and the most important book on herbal treatment for stress, anxiety, and fatigue – by a noted Cherokee, Eclectic, and Chinese herbalist.

• Veterinary Herbal Medicine by Susan Wynne & Barbara Fougere.  If you’re going to drop $100 on a book about veterinary herbal medicine, make sure you get your money’s worth.

…and on-line:

• http://www.itmonline.org/herbs.htm is the Institutes of Traditional Medicine’s article index.  ITM still functions as a non-profit to promote the teaching and use of Traditional Chinese Medicine.  Their medical director, Subhuti Dharmananda, is a great teacher, a true scholar, and occasional iconclast.  That this resource is free… all I can feel is gratitude.

• www.Pubmed.gov.  Yes, the National Institutes of Health online medical database is full of multisyllabic jargon, and occasional herb-skepticism.  It’s also the world’s largest repository of published medical literature.  And it’s your tax dollars at work.  Take advantage of them.

• http://www.SWSBM.com is the old Southwest School of Herbal Medicine website.  You want to find all 2,000 pages of an old Eclectic material medica, online, for free?  This is where you’re going to find it.  The website ain’t pretty…

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Adam Stark has been working with and writing about herbs for more than 15 years. He is a co-owner at Debra’s Natural Gourmet, and the founder, formulator (and namesake!) at Adam Herbs.

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