Reply To: Herbal Therapeutics
Hi Nancy,
Thank you for this question, it’s a good one. You do seem to have a good grasp of the reasoning, since you essentially answered the question within your questions! 🙂
First to answer your direct questions about hawthorn and the salve vs. cream. Yes hawthorn flower tea/ berry decoction can be just as effective as a tincture (but see notes below on compliance and effort of taking enough) and certainly a salve of calendula, lavender, comfrey and arnica would be equally effective as a cream.
General notes on choices between herbal preparation types
There are a few reasons why one type of herbal preparation is chosen over the other. These include:
1. The therapeutic components (phytochemicals) in the herbs and their best extraction method for the use desired. E.g. Marshmallow root and doing a long cool infusion to extract the mucous soothing and healing polysaccharides, or a 90% alcohol extraction/tincture of calendula for it’s fungal busting components that are found in the resins.
2. Client/herbalist preference.
This can fall under a few reasonings. If you are able to choose from different preparations and they will all be effective in terms of extracting the desired components, you or a client, may choose one type of preparation over the other for practical reasons such as:
-reducing alcohol/no alcohol consumption (in this case teas, oils, honeys etc are better than tinctures)
-ease of preparation and taking it (often clients will find it easier to comply/remember to take tinctures over making and drinking tea)
-does the client have access to resources to prepare the herbal preparation (there are cases where someone may not have easy access to a kettle, cups etc. for tea making, therefore a tincture, vinegar or capsules are easier)
-you/the client may want to embrace the herbs in look, handling, taste and ritual to increase the relationship and healing power of the herbs. Tea is a great way to do this.
– Some clients, may prefer creams to salves due to the texture or feel. Some people find salves too greasy and vice versa, some prefer salves.
– some clients absolutely hate the taste of herbs, and although I think it important to engage this way, they may benefit from taking capsules if it is appropriate and it’s a matter of herbs or no herbs at all.
3. Storage/Shelf life:
Some herbalists prefer to work with preparations that have a longer shelf life (e.g. tinctures, sometimes vinegars etc.), simply because it is good to have the stock on hand.
4. Similar to point 1 and 3, some plants are best extracted/taken fresh, and this is hard to do in winter months, so fresh extractions are made from them. (e.g. lemon balm & St. John’s wort)
So on so forth, you see where I am going!
I think that if you are drawn more to teas and salves, that is wonderful and it is part of your unique relationship with the plants. This is still a very effective way to work with plant medicines, just keeping in mind the above notes and continually researching, reading and learning about which plants extract best in which forms along with communicating with the person you are giving the herbs to and their preferences.
I hope this is of some help and I’m so happy to hear that you are working with the herbs so often.
With warmth,
Benna