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erbal medicine is an ancient tradition worldwide. It is also a significant part of the modern economy: botanical dietary supplements are a multi-billion dollar business in the United States. Most of the world relies upon plant medicines for their primary health care by necessity, as expensive Western pharmaceuticals are often unavailable. In many developed countries, herbal medicines are still popular with consumers who hope that they may be more effective, safer, or cheaper than pharmaceutical products. As America becomes more multicultural, non-Western herbal traditions are increasingly practiced. Over two thousand different herbs are now used in the United States alone, and many thousands more worldwide. In recent decades, many of the traditional Western herbs have been subjected to clinical studies that have confirmed their value, while the use of other plants with lesser benefits or greater risks has diminished. Research programs also screen lesser-known plants for new chemical compounds that might one day form the basis of drugs to treat diseases such as malaria, cancer or AIDS.

 
 

 

 
 

 

The links to the right present images of herbarium specimens of some of the plants used by Western practitioners and consumers, with brief information on their uses and origins. References are not intended to be exhaustive, but may give pointers to botanical or medical literature for those who wish to learn more. Herbarium specimens serve as data to show where a particular plant has been found and as reference specimens showing the range of variation in the plant’s features, to aid in identifying future collections. Therefore, where the plant parts found in commerce are among those typically found on herbarium sheets (leaves, flowers, often fruits), comparison with herbarium material may assist in the confirmation of botanical identity. Each sheet in an herbarium bears a unique number, a label stating when, where and by whom it was collected, and often one or more slips indicating names that later scholars believed should be applied to the specimen. The name on a specimen may have changed either because the plant was at first misidentified, or because taxonomic revisions or nomenclatural corrections have changed the name of its species.

[The Missouri Botanical Garden is providing these web pages for informational purposes only. We cannot offer authoritative advice as to which herbs any particular person should take. As with every food and beverage, no herb can ever be totally harmless to all people under all conditions. Most of those listed below are considered safe when used properly, and in fact many can also be consumed as part of an ordinary diet, including some (e.g. cranberry, garlic, tea) that are popular in modern American cuisine. However, a few have sometimes serious side effects or contraindications or can have dangerous interactions with specific prescription drugs, while some medical literature accuses others of having side effects or interactions that have never actually been shown to occur. These issues can be extremely complicated, and we have not tried to address them in detail. Also, a few of these herbs are frequently used but probably provide little value to consumers; thus, the fact that we have included an herb on the list does not mean that we think it is ever worth buying. If you have questions about your own use of herbal medicines, please consult a knowledgeable physician, herbalist or pharmacist or a thorough reference work. We also want to remind you that the specimen images on these pages are not by themselves a sufficient resource to identify plants you collect from the wild. Some edible and medicinal plants should not be wildcrafted except by people with botanical experience and a good field guide, because poisonous plants exist that differ from them only in small features, which may not be visible in specimen images. For example, one of the ways of distinguishing valuable members of the carrot family from the deadly poison hemlock is to check the stem for very small hairs; a poisonous plant you collect might seem to look just like the edible plant in the picture. It would be much safer to avoid collecting such plants altogether.]

 

  

 

 

  
 

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