Happy Monday everyone!  I hope everyone is nice and relaxed today (and not to worn out from the Superbowl festivities from last evening)!  I know that we've touched briefly on the use of herbs as a form of alternative or complimentary medicine in some of my other blogs.  Today I'd like to start a brief, introductory level course on herbology, beginning with the common properties of herbs and some of the herbs having these properties.

All herbs are selected for healing purposes based the effects they have on the body or their "properties" (and many herbs have more than one property).  For example, if you suffer from insomnia you'll want to take herbs or herbal combinations that are sedative in nature.  These herbs are known for quieting the nervous system and include herbs we've touched on before for relaxation, such as catnip, valerian root, and skullcap.  If you have an infection, you'll want herbs that have antibiotic properties, meaning that they inhibit the growth and/or destroy bacteria and viruses, such as echinacea or goldenseal root.  You may also want to take herbs that have an alterative effect on the body, meaning that they cleanse the blood when infections or other toxins are present, such as echinacea (one that does double duty!), marshmallow root, red clover and dandelion. 

The article that I linked to is a great overview of the various properties of herbs, but is NOT comprehensive or complete by any means.  It does however cover the most commonly used properties as well as listing many of the herbs in each category. If you are interested in learning more, there are numererous good books on the subject available at Amazon.com or your local bookstore.  Here is a link to one of my favorites by Penelope Ody.  I'll see you tomorrow!