Customer Reviews

The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook: A Home Manual

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Herbal Medicine-Makers Handbook blends the herbalist author's natural home remedies with his perspectives on the art of herbal medicine's applications, with recipes for folk extractions including plenty of recommendations for usage. The result is far more in-depth than your usual herbal recipe book, packed with insights on how to extract herbs, make tinctures, and apply them properly.

I have lots of great herb books, but this one is the first that gives me detailed and practical information about how to MAKE preparations myself. Green's gentle sense of humor make it approachable, but he also is responsibly thorough. The book is fun to read and I've made my first tincture. I very highly recommend the book to someone who actually wants to USE herbs for healing.

I have collected and given away many medical herb books, mostly because they were inferior to my needs. This Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook has made it easy to find the herb I need. I am also able to read the ways to use the herb; tinture, lotion, extract, decoction, infussion, tea, salve. I use this book as a refresher and a source of new herbs in treatment. It has become my primary source book for new and innovative ways to help people.

Have you ever come in from the garden on one of those balmy days when the sun is "just right" neither too hot nor too cold, but warm enough to draw the aroma from your flowers, and thought to yourself, "I would love to preserve that smell for a rainy day." Well, you can by bottling tonics, elixirs, hydrosols, syrups and other concoctions that upon opening in the middle of winter, have the power to transport back to summer days, and perhaps even cure the nasty cold or flu affecting you, or even better, help prevent your becoming sick in the first place.

James Green is the most transparent of human beings, an admiral characteristic in someone who is a healer. Green lives what he writes about, and has for a number of years. He is witty, wise, and compassionate. His methods are clearly described and discussed. You too can make many of his products using standard kitchen equipment in your own home.What you make will have your own imprimatur as you will have control over the process and can modify the steps as need be.

Green makes medicine. Some herbalists disagree with the idea of focusing on herbal products as part of a medical model, preferring instead to practice only the holistic healing which concentrates on prevention by focusing on the context within which the individual lives. Sometimes, however, no matter what you do, you get sick. Green not only shows you how to create products to deal with these lapses, he suggests ways to address them. Recipes as well as clear instructions for making tinctures, syrups, and other concoctions are included. You will probably get well just because they generally smell so good.

Finally a book that takes the magic of herbalism and adds a healthy dose of structure, science and common sense. As a beginning herbalist, I find the information contained in the book extremely useful and not found in many other places. This book has earned its place on my favorite list.

While this book only deals with a limited number of herbs (and one fungus!) the techniques Mr. Green describes are easily adapted to almost any plant. I was expecting mostly a book of recipes for various oils, balms, creams and so forth, but there are surprisingly few of those, usually only 2 or 3 per chapter. Instead, the author describes the method for making the desired concoction, lists suggestions for which herbs work particularly well in the given medium, and leaves the reader to decide what will suit his or her needs. Mr. Green has a great sense of humor, and applies it liberally throughout his work. What could have been a dry book is actually a fun and interesting (and informative) read.

James Green's "The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook : A Home Manual" is one of my new favorite books on herbal forumlation. Green makes the subject not only easy to understand but he talks to the reader in such a way that makes the subject extremely accessable. Green has taken all the percieved diffuclty or mystery out of making your own medicines. I keep my copy right next to my herb cabinet where I can get right at it!

I was looking for a easy to reference book that would teach me to make medicines at home...a sort of "cook book" for home made medicinals.

This book is FULL of information but it was organized in such a way that I found it extremely hard to simply look up the "medicine" I might want to make and begin or even to tell which of the many methods were recommended, or better than others.

And there were very few of what I would call "recipes". It teaches you how to make certain bases (menstruum?), and then gives you doses of herbs to add to that base - useful so you don't poison yourself - but not very helpful if, like me, you don't know much about which ailments those herbs treat. That information is in the book, but not easy to find. I was frustrated trying.

The extremely new age text really put me off too, sample: "Plant spirits will respond likewise. They are highly conscious. They are of the same spiritual essence we are. They adore us, and they communicate this to us with every vibration of their pure positive energy" and in his ritual of communion (that you should perform while harvesting the plant) "Later, go dancing. Dance to the rhythm of the drummers and the shakers; close your eyes and visualize and feel the energy of this plant. Dance this energy; like attracts like. In this state of consciousness, other nature spirits can come to you as you dance, or later that evening. Remember, plants participate in very active night lives."

I am returning the book...too much of the above, and not enough of the actual, practical instructions I was looking for and expected after reading the majority of the reviews.

This is a great book, recommended as reading for a Pharmacy of Botanical Medicine class for second year students at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, in Tempe, AZ. The only think that I noticed glaringly missing so far is a matrix/chart of the top hundred or so herbs and weight/volume ratios and optimum alcohol percentages for proper tinctures. This is hard-to-find information and is necessary for medicine making. Other than that, two thumbs up.

There is so much information presented in this book which is excellent for those who are just beginning in their herbal adventure or as a reference for those who are more advanced. It discusses several methods of using herbs from tinctures to percolation. You'll never go wrong with this book in your library.