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· sweetNot a cup
Sassafras
Sassafras albidum
A sweet woods root of the spring pot — and a modern caution.
Hollow energy · Irritable skin · Puffiness
Ground, build, and settle
Earth· sweetGenerally safe
Burdock
Arctium lappa
A long taproot that goes to the clay — food first, blood-cleaner second.
Irritable skin · Hollow energy · Puffiness
Ground, build, and settle