The cupboard
Kitchen herbs & spices
Filter by element or search a plant. Traditional kitchen and folk use — four tastes, not a clinic monograph.
Any feelingBloatingNauseaIndigestionRestless sleepFrayed nervesWorriationChill & congestionCoughSore throatClosed sinusesHeadacheCold hands & sluggish bloodStiff jointsDull focusFeverish & flushedDrynessPuffinessIrritable skinHollow energyCrampy cycle
Earth· sweetSweet first warms, then cools, and it softens. It is relaxing — the reason sugar went into cough syrups — nutritive, building, and hormonally active. Sweet herbs feed the brain and nerves, nourish spleen and pancreas, and coat dry tissue. They cleanse by moving blood toward the organs that wash it.
2 plants
Earth· sweetGenerally safe
Fennel
Foeniculum vulgare
The after-dinner seed that lets wind leave quietly.
Bloating · Indigestion · Nausea
Ground, build, and settle
Earth· sweetCaution
Fenugreek
Trigonella foenum-graecum
Maple-scented seeds that cook like food and comfort like broth.
Hollow energy · Indigestion · Crampy cycle
Ground, build, and settle