This episode begins an intermittent series we’ll be doing this year, covering the top-selling herbs in the United States and giving you our thoughts about them. From the perspective of a practicing herbalist, these herbs are frequently pigeon-holed into very narrow ranges of application – the “what is it good for” answers are quite limited!

The Herbal Market Report from the American Botanical Council comes out every year, with data about herbal supplement sales for the prior year. Check it out and take a look at the “mainstream” and “natural channel” best-seller lists – you might be surprised at what’s on there!

If you’re an herbalist, you should be well-educated about the herbs people take most frequently. You should know what’s popular, and why. You should know how to talk to people about these herbs, how to correct misconceptions, how to offer more effective alternatives, and which ones are worth the money. We’re hoping this series will help you do that!

If you’re new to herbalism – yay, we get first crack at forming your opinion of these herbs! 😄 More importantly, this will serve as an introduction to marketing literacy in the realm of herbal supplements, as well as some good materia medica study.

In today’s episode we cover psyllium, elder berry, turmeric, and ashwagandha.

1. Psyllium – Plantago ovata

• HHP 205: Herbs A-Z: Pinus & Plantago
• Plantain: Herb of the Week

2. Elder berry – Sambucus nigra, S. canadensis

• Elder: Herb of the Week
• HHP 216: Herbs A-Z: Sambucus & Sassafras
• Elderberry and Cytokine Storms

3. Turmeric – Curcuma longa

• HHP 184: Herbs A-Z: Crataegus & Curcuma
• HHP 149: Our Top Topical Herbs for Acne

4. Ashwagandha – Withania somnifera

• HHP 226: Herbs A-Z: Withania & Zanthoxylum
• Ashwagandha: Herb of the Week
• HHP 155: Equinox Thoughts On Balance & Amphoteric Herbs

Whether you’re a brand-new beginner or an herbalist with experience, it’s always helpful to study the herbs in depth! Our comprehensive presentation of herbal allies is in our Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. It includes detailed profiles of 100 medicinal herbs!

Like all our offerings, this self-paced online video course comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, and more!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Welcome to 2025, everyone! Let’s give the year a bitter start – that’s better than a bitter end, right? If you don’t think so yet, listen to this episode and by the end, we’re sure you’ll agree!

Bitters are a truly indispensable piece of an herbal toolkit. They – like demulcents, adaptogens, and alteratives – can achieve things in the body which pharmaceuticals, acupuncture, and other healing modalities simply cannot replicate. Bitters are one of the herbalist’s superpowers!

In this episode, we cover:

• bitter as signal – and why their actions on the body are nearly immediate
• bitter deficiency syndrome – a uniquely modern human problem
• energetics of bitters – is bitter always cooling, or is it more complicated than that?
• actions of bitter herbs – digestion-activating, fluid-draining, liver-awakening… mind-centering…
• bitter-tasting constituents – and an ode to the flexibility & variety of bitter taste receptors
• subcategories of bitter herbs: pure bitters, mild bitters, aromaic bitters, inulin/berberine/artemisinin-bearing bitters, fungal bitters, warming/relaxant/moistening bitters, …
• how to take bitters – drops, sips, chews, and more.

Since they’re so helpful – and really, not only for digestion – we address bitter herbs in many of our courses. Quite possibly all of them, now that we think about it! They’re that important. Bitters get a significant mention in:

• Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica
• Herbal Medicine-Making
• Holistic Nutrition & Digestive Health
• Basic Phytochemistry
• Neurological & Emotional Health

Like all our offerings, these are self-paced online video courses, which come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!

If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

A brief update this time, to let you know about some herbal holiday gifts we’ve put together for you & yours!

Herbal Activities Calendar

The best way to learn herbalism is to do a little bit every day – so we’ve built you a whole activities calendar that will feed itself automagically right into your own calendar of choice (Google, Yahoo, Outlook, etc). You can even set notifications so that you don’t forget to try fun new herby things!

• View the Herbal Activities Calendar
• Instructions for adding the Herbal Activities Calendar to your calendar system.

Herbal Wallpapers

Each week we’re putting out a matching set of herbalism wallpaper images for your phone and your computer. The desktop version has a mini materia medica info, and the one for your phone has a tiny bite-size bit of info – and a lot of herbal beauty & inspiration.

They’ll help you learn your botanical Latin names, they’ll help you with plant identification, they’ll help you learn herbal actions, and best of all, they’ll help you fit herbs into every day!

• View & Download Herbal Wallpapers

20% Discount on EVERYTHING

Until the end of December, you can use the code CHAMOMILE at checkout to get 20% off of everything we offer!

You can use this code for gift purchases, too! Your loved one will be automatically enrolled in the course you buy for them. Remember to check “This is a gift” during checkout.

Every course, every full program, all the one-off courses… the discount works on everything. It works for the payment plans, too.

• View All Courses & Programs

Don’t forget to use code CHAMOMILE at checkout!

If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!