The Wonders of Mugwort {Artemisia vulgaris}

Also, Known As:

Cingulum Sancti Johannis
Mugwort
St. John’s Plant

The mugwort is a shrubby perennial, with dark green deeply indented leaves and with several clusters of small reddish or yellow flower heads. The herb can grow up to three ft, or one m in height.

mugwort

This amazing shrub has been known since the ancient times, and reportedly, Roman centurions used mugwort inside their sandals so that their feet could remain in great shape. The shrub was also used by ancient Europeans and Asians in treating various ailments. The Greek physician Dioscorides of the 1st century AD supposedly stated that the Goddess Artemis, who gave inspiration to the plant’s genus name, used the herb to offer succor to women in the throes of labor and childbirth. The Physicians of Myddfai, a thirteenth-century Welsh herbal remedy collection, contains these important words, “”If a woman is unable to give birth to her child…

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Ashwagandha Root Extract Improves Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Patients Taking Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera, Solanaceae)
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), characterized by stressful, repetitive, and intrusive thoughts or obsessions followed by actions or compulsions, is thought to be linked to a defect in the serotonergic system. A common treatment is the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), but they are considered only mildly effective, with 40-60% of patients failing to respond. In Ayurvedic herbal medicine, ashwagandha (Withania somnifera, Solanaceae) is considered to be a rejuvenating and revitalizing herb. Its roots, which are used to enhance mental and physical health, have anxiolytic and antidepressant properties due to the presence of bioactive glycowithanolides, and the alkaloids withanine and somniferine are used for nervous disorders. Animal studies also have shown it to enhance serotonergic transmission. The goal of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was to verify the efficacy of ashwagandha root extract as an adjunct therapy to treat the…

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Your Apothecary Cabinet: Calendula Oil

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Marigold has much value today and in traditional cultures as a homeopathic remedy, but the oil extracted from the flowers, called calendula oil, is not far behind in providing benefits. Learn more about this oil distilled from the petals of the pot marigold or Calendula officinalis, and how you can harness its health and practical everyday uses.

What Is Calendula Oil?

Marigold is a genus of about 15 to 20 species of plants in the Asteraceae family. This flower is native to Southwestern Asia, as well as Western Europe and the Mediterranean. The common name “marigold” refers to the Virgin Mary, to which it is associated in the 17th century.

Apart from being used to honor the Virgin Mary during Catholic events, marigold was also considered by ancient Egyptians to have rejuvenating properties. Hindus used the flowers to adorn statues of gods in their temples, as well as to color their…

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Your Apothecary Cabinet: Common Base Oils

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Vegetable and herbal oil are used in creams, lotions, massage, facial and body oils, gels, and salves.

Sweet Almond (Prunus amygdalis var. dulcis) and Apricot Kernel (Prunus armeniaca): emollients, can relieve itchiness and dryness.

Arnica (Arnica montana): indicated for bruises, varicose veins, burns, strains and sprains, arthritis, and myalgia.

Avocado (Persea Americana): wonderful oil for regenerative skin care, indicated for dry, itchy, or mature skin, antioxidant, nourishes the skin.

Baobab (Adansonia digitata) and Marula (Scelerocara birrea): emollient, soothes inflamed skin, dry skin, sunburn.

Borage (Borago officinalis) and Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis): excellent regenerative skin care oils, nourishing, indicated for psoriasis, eczema, inflamed and dry skin conditions.

Calendula (Calendula officinalis): anti-inflammatory, wound healing, soothes dry irritated skin, insect bites, cell regenerative.

Coconut (Cocos nucifera): emollient, slightly occlusive to the skin, blend…

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Your Apothecary Cabinet: Herbal First Aid Kit…

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Being prepared with my favorite remedies gives me peace of mind on the road or trail, and keeps me from having to search out herbal products in an unfamiliar town — or from having to resort to padding my heels with mullein leaves to ease the agony of a broken blister while on a backpacking trip.

I’ve had plenty of opportunities to put my first-aid kit to use, from treating blisters and bug bites to motion sickness and colds. I choose simple, multipurpose remedies and store them in a small padded nylon lunch box that’s always ready to toss into the car. For backpacking trips, I pare my kit down to arnica gel, echinacea, peppermint and chamomile tea bags, crystallized ginger, insect repellant, a tin of herbal salve, a tiny bottle of lavender essential oil, and an assortment of bandages and moleskin.

With the following herbs and essential oils, you…

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Know Your Herbal Chemistry

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

A herbalist should be fully aware of details about the pharmacology of herbs, a basic understanding of it is more than enough. Herbs are used for healing the human body, they are considered to be holistic agents, and they are used on a physical and biochemistry level. Many pharmacologists try to find out the constituents of herbs, place them according to their chemical groups and have done numerous research and have found herbs to be very complex in their characteristics. Herbs contain a huge variety of chemicals like water, inorganic salt, sugars, carbohydrates, proteins that are highly complex, and alkaloids.

Plant Acids:

An example of weak organic acids is generally found among plants, lemon is the perfect example of citric acid. Organic acids can be split into those based on a carbon chain, and those, which contain a carbon ring in their configuration, but what both have in common is the…

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Your Apothecary Cabinet: The Healing Properties Of Herbs

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

There have been lots of pharmaceutical studies to evaluate the active elements present in herbs to discover the reason as well as the manner in which they work. A relatively outmoded method is to classify the herbs by exploring the types of health conditions that they can aid in curing. Identifying the actions of the herbs and the manner in which they may be employed together forms the basis of a comprehensive approach.

For example, in a number of instances, the action of herbs is owing to certain chemical or a blend of chemicals present in them – the sedative herb valerian is a perfect example of this. Alternatively, the action may also be owing to a multifaceted synergetic interaction between the different elements of the herbs. Nevertheless, the best way to comprehend the actions of the herbs is to consider them as characteristics all together and to interpret the chemical…

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Endangered Species; Herb Guide: Goldthread

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Health Benefits of Goldthread

Goldthread, also known as coptis or canker root, is a genus of perennial herbs that have been part of Asian and North American traditional medicine for hundreds of years. The roots of the plant look like a tangled mass of gold thread, hence its name. Herbal goldthread is actually the powdered rhizome, or underground stem, of the goldthread plant.

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Herb Guide: Senna

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Cassia senna syn. Senna Alexandria

Also, Known As:

Alexandrian Senna
Senna

The senna plant is a small shrub belonging to the Caesalpiniaceae family. Incidentally, the senna belongs to two genus of Cassia – C. senna is also known as Alexandrina senna and C. Angustifolia that is also called the Tinnevelly senna. While the first variety of senna is found along the Nile River in Egypt and Sudan, the second type is widely cultivated in southern and eastern parts of India. It may be noted here that some experts are of the opinion that both the varieties of senna belong to a single species – Senna Alexandrina. Despite such claims, it may be said that the two varieties of senna differ greatly both according to morphology (structure of the plants) and histology (tissue study). Hence, the theory that Senna belongs to one single species is yet to get the pharmacognosists’ sanction.

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Herb Guide: Cat’s Claw {Uncaria tomentosa}

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Also, Known As:

Cat’s Claw
Garabato
Saventaro
Una De Gato

Traditional herbalist and indigenous healers or shamans in South America make wide use of the herb called the cat’s claw in their remedies. All types of infectious diseases, many cancerous disorders and inflammations are normally treated using the cat’s claw herb by the Ashaninka Indians of Peru; in their view, this herb is a powerful and effective “health-restorative” herbal medication. The herbal cat’s claw based remedies are marketed essentially as an alternative preventive natural medicine in the west and the western pharmacopeia classifies the herb as an alternative treatment option for the treatment of disorders such as cancer, the human immunodeficiency disease or HIV and to treat all other infections in the body, in the West it is also used in the treatment of disorders such as arthritis, symptoms of asthma and ulcers – and other long-term or persistent inflammatory illnesses.

Traditionally derived knowledge, case reports and trials conducted without controls are…

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