From Ayurveda to Rongoā Māori
Communities around the world learned how plants nourish, care and heal. Here their traditions stand beside present-day use, with respect for every culture.
GrapeFolk magic and herbal magic
BuchuLocal African healing traditions
Indian tobaccoCherokee medicine
Lignum vitaeHerbal knowledge of the Caribbean
Yerba mateKallawaya healing knowledge
CautionNorth America · Herb · № 932
Tilia americana
A large broadleaf tree with heart-shaped leaves and fragrant flowers, related to the European lime. The flowers contain mucilage and flavonoids. The wood is soft and easy to carve; the inner bark gives strong fibre.
CautionNorth America · Herb · № 950
Lindera benzoin
A shrub of the laurel family with fragrant leaves and twigs and red berries.
CautionEurope · Herb · № 226
Tilia × europaea
Traditionally attributed effects: calming nerve remedy, induces sweating, vasodilating, restores the vessel walls, lowers blood pressure.
CautionAsia · Herb · № 732
Lindera aggregata (syn. L. strychnifolia)
Traditionally attributed effects: warms and moves qi in pain from cold; warms the kidneys in frequent urination.
CautionAsia · Herb · № 466
Clitoria ternatea
Traditionally attributed effects: root mildly laxative, diuretic, expels worms; seeds strongly laxative; for ascites, enlarged abdominal organs, migraine (flower juice), gonorrhoea, bladder irritation, ulcers, swollen joints.
CautionAsia · Herb · № 672
Buddleja officinalis
Traditionally attributed effects: cools liver heat in red, swollen, watery and light-sensitive eyes.
CautionAsia · Herb · № 418
Aquilaria agallocha
Traditionally attributed effects: stimulating, strengthens the heart, tonic, carminative, promotes bile; for skin diseases, gout and rheumatism, vomiting, snake bites, pain from wounds, bronchitis in children, headache, dizziness.
CautionSouth America · Food · № 916
Neltuma pallida (syn. Prosopis pallida)
A thorny tree of the pea family, related to mesquite, with sweet pods full of sugars. With its deep roots the tree holds the dry forest together.
CautionAsia · Herb · № 754
Alpinia oxyphylla
Traditionally attributed effects: strengthens kidney yang and holds in urine and semen; warms the spleen in diarrhoea and drooling.
CautionNorth America · Herb · № 955
Glycyrrhiza lepidota
A legume with long, tough, sweet roots, related to true licorice. The root tastes of licorice; it contains less glycyrrhizin than Glycyrrhiza glabra.
CautionAsia · Herb · № 465
Clerodendrum infortunatum
Traditionally attributed effects: bitter tonic, antipyretic, expels worms, laxative, promotes bile; externally for tumours and skin diseases, root for sluggish bowels.
CautionSouth America · Herb · № 889
Grimolobium pubescens (syn. Otholobium pubescens, Psoralea pubescens)
A shrub of the pea family with leaves in threes. It contains bakuchiol, among other compounds; extracts lowered blood sugar in experiments with mice. Studies in people are lacking.
CautionSouth America · Herb · № 924
Anadenanthera colubrina
A thorny tree of the pea family, related to yopo. The seeds contain much bufotenine, up to over twelve per cent, as well as some DMT and 5-MeO-DMT. As a snuff they cause violent physical effects and short visions.
CautionSouth America · Herb · № 856
Grimolobium glandulosum (syn. Otholobium glandulosum, Psoralea glandulosa)
A shrub of the pea family with glandular, fragrant leaves. Traditionally used for digestive complaints, diarrhoea and on wounds; good research is lacking.
CautionAsia · Herb · № 37
Ginkgo biloba
There is no conclusive evidence that ginkgo helps any health condition. A modest effect on dementia symptoms is possible, but results are inconsistent.
CautionNorth America · Food · № 962
Astragalus crassicarpus
A low legume with purple-pink flowers and thick, round pods that lie on the ground like small plums. Only the young pods are edible.
CautionNorth America · Herb · № 940
Eutrochium purpureum en E. maculatum (syn. Eupatorium)
Tall, purple-pink flowering plants of the daisy family, related to European hemp agrimony. They may contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which damage the liver with long use.
CautionSouth America · Herb · № 925
Mimosa tenuiflora (syn. Mimosa hostilis)
A thorny tree or shrub of the pea family with feathery leaves and white, fragrant flower spikes. The root bark contains much DMT. Taken by mouth, DMT normally does not work without an MAO inhibitor; why the jurema drink is still said to work is not clear.
CautionNorth America · Herb · № 990
Asclepias tuberosa
A milkweed with bright orange flower umbels that attract many butterflies, and a thick, tuberous root. For a milkweed it contains few cardiac glycosides, but it does contain steroids that in larger amounts can cause weakness, seizures and eye damage. The root was listed in the United States Pharmacopeia as pleurisy root, an expectorant.
CautionOceania · Herb · № 844
Pipturus albidus
A native Hawaiian plant whose leaves are drunk as a tea.
CautionSouth America · Herb · № 883
Desmodium molliculum
A low plant of the pea family. Traditionally used for inflammation and wounds; research is limited.
CautionEurope · Herb · № 47
Crataegus monogyna, C. laevigata (en C. pinnatifida)
Studied for heart failure with conflicting results. For most conditions there is little or no good evidence.
CautionNorth America · Herb · № 929
Dermatophyllum secundiflorum (syn. Sophora secundiflora)
An evergreen shrub or small tree of the pea family with purple, grape-scented flowers and hard, bright red seeds. The seeds contain cytisine, a poison resembling nicotine. A single seed can be fatal.
CautionAsia · Herb · № 685
Patrinia scabiosifolia (en P. villosa)
Traditionally attributed effects: detoxifies, drains pus and moves the blood in pain with heat.
CautionAsia · Herb · № 140
Santalum album
Used in Ayurveda as a 'cooling' remedy for skin irritation and urinary complaints; the oil is used in aromatherapy. Clinical evidence is limited.
CautionSouth America · Herb · № 982
Souroubea guianensis
A low shrub or climber of the Marcgraviaceae family, with nectar cups that attract butterflies and moths. From two related Central American species (S. sympetala and S. gilgii) researchers isolated substances that reduce anxiety in animals: betulinic acid and amyrins. In people this has hardly been studied.
CautionNorth America · Food · № 937
Fragaria virginiana
A wild strawberry with small, very tasty fruits. Its cross with the Chilean strawberry gave rise to the garden strawberry in eighteenth-century Europe.
CautionNorth America · Herb · № 961
Monarda fistulosa
A mint with lilac flowers and strongly scented leaves, related to Oswego tea. The volatile oil is rich in carvacrol and thymol, which are antiseptic.
CautionSouth America · Herb · № 907
Anadenanthera peregrina
A tree of the pea family with flat pods. The seeds contain a lot of bufotenine and also DMT and 5-MeO-DMT. As snuff they cause almost immediate muscle twitching, nausea and short visions in which things often seem very large.
Featured · Central America and the Caribbean · Curanderismo
Salvia divinorum
A sage with large leaves containing salvinorin A, a very potent substance acting on the kappa opioid receptor. Brings short-lived, often intense changes in perception and the feeling of leaving the body.
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43 traditions
How communities built up and passed on their knowledge of plants, region by region.
113 recipes
Soups, teas and dishes in which herbs play a leading role.
146 formulas
The classical Chinese formulas, also listed by condition.