Native to the Mediteranean region, cultivatedAgrimony originates from the United States, Southern Canada and Northern Hemisphere - Abundant throughout England, but in scotland it is more localized.

Agromony is used as an anti-inflammatory, mild astringent, deobstruant, diuretic, tonic, and vulnerary. It is also used for skin eruptions and diseases of the blood such as blotches, pimples, and scrofulous sores.

Can also help with diarrhea, especially mild,acute diarrhea, digestive trouble, sluggish stomach conditions, stimulates the appetite, helps with kidney and bladder disorders and liver conditions.

Annatto comes from Tropical america ad i also cultivated elsewhere.

Annatto is a traditioanl remedy for diabetes, especially in the West Indies, but the carotenoids are orange-yellow pigments mainly used as  natural colourings for foods, including fish fingers, medicines, fabrics and-reputedly-to dye maggots for fishing, to make them more tempting.

The bixins do not possess vitamine A activity, despite being carotenoids. The hypoglycaemic activity has been confirmed experimentally and attributed to trans-bixin 

Native to the Mediterranean region but found in many parts of Asia and Africa, and cultivated commercially in India.

This herb is important in Ayurvedic medicine for bronchitis, asthma, and variuos respiratory and digestive diseases, including colic and diarrheoa, both internally and applied in the form of a poultice. It is used traditionally for cholera, as a liver tonic and for habitual drunkenness. The active principle is usually considered to be thymol, which is antiseptic, anti-fungal, insecticidal and molluscicidal. Extracts have also shown anti-platelet effects and hypotensive activity and the molluscidal and fungitoxic activities have been well-documented

Native to the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, Africa and all parts of Asia, growing in stoney and semi-arid regions: cultivated widely. It flowers all year round.

Ashwagandha is used to enhance fertility in both men and women and as a aphrodisiac. It is also widely used for inflammation, colds, asthma, and many other disorders, and is considered to be an adaptogen. Many of the effects have been substantiated, both pharmacologically and clinically.

Numerous other actions, including antioxidant effects, have been documented

Bladderwrack is a seaweed found very commonly in colder waters. Bladderwrack is used as an anti-obesity agent, nutritive and source of trace elements.

A beneficial effect has been demonstrated on obese patients in a small study carried out in Italy. Bladderwrack has been shown to have antibiotic activity.

Seaweeds are a good source of iodine; however they tend to acumulate toxic waste metals such as cadmium and strontium when grown in a poluted environment and should be avoided in these circumstances.

Blue Flag is a wetlands perennial plant native to eastern North America and exported from here to Europe. Its stout stem grows from a thick, cylindrical, creeping rootstock and bears two ranks of swordshaped long, narrow leaves. Each stem has 2 or 3 large, blue or purplish flowers featuring three petallike, spreading or recurved sepals below and three petals, smaller than the sepals, above.

Blue Flag can help with: Chronic vomiting, heartburn, chronic gastritis, and enteritis, liver and gallbladder ailments, migraine, and dropsy,

Blackberry is a trailing perennial plant that grows in dry or sandy soil in the northeastern and middle states of the U.S and is cultivated elsewhere. The slender branches feature sharp, recurved prickles. The fruit is an aggregate of  black drupelets collectively called the blackberry.

Blackberry can help with: Diarrhea, chronic appendicitis, dropsy, and leucorrhea.

The chewing of the leaves for bleeding gums goes back to the time of christ.

Thought to originate in Europe but now found throughout the world. The plant is semi-aquatic, growing on riverbanks and in marshy places.

Aromatic, spasmolytic, carminative, it is used mainly for flatulence, colic and dyspepsia. The rhizome has ben used candied and in the form of an infusion since ancient times. In China it is used after strokes.

The oil has anticonvulsant activity, anti-inflamatory, analgesic and antibacterial activity.

Indigenous to the Mediteranean region and southern parts of Rusia, cultivated widely elsewhere.

Fruits normaly seperated into two mericarps; each ovoid, compresed, winged, about 2-3mm wide with three longitudinal ridges on each side and four dorsal vitae. On the flat comisural surface there are two more vitae and the pale carpophore.

Carminative, stomachic. Used frequently in gripe waters for wind and colic in infants. the seds have ben used as a diuretic, and the activity confirmed measured as an increase in urine flow.

Goats rue grows wild in Europe, and naturalized in Britain.

An errect, branched plant reaching 1.5m. The leaves have 6-8 pairs of elongated leaflets and the tip terminates in a small point.

Goats rue is a traditioanl herb used to treat diabetes and hypoglycemic. It can also be an aid in helping with weight loss, and both these effects are ascribed to the prescence of galegine. Mice fed with galegine showed reduced food intake and consequent weight loss, with no overt toxicity.

Kelp is a Sea Vegetable, it is brown with long stems. It contains concentrated sources of minerals and nutrients including Iodine, potassium, magnesium, calcium and iron.

Kelp is best known for its high Iodine content, which has a vital role in health and vitality. Iodine is used by the Thyroid gland to produce the hormone thyroxin that helps regulate the speed at which our body burns fats and sugar, as well as controlling cholesteraol levels. 

It can also help maintain healthy skin and hair.

A common herb growing in dry grassy places in Britain, throughout Europe and parts of North America. Stems are slender, angular, bearing whorls of linear leaves with downy undersurfaces and revolute margins. Flowers very small, bright yellow, in terminal panicles. It tastes slightly bitter and acid and is odourless

Ladies bedstraw is used as a diuretic, alterative. Contains similar compounds to clivers and used for similar purposes. The flowers have been used to make cheese instead of rennet, hence the synonym.

Native to Argentina and Chile, cultivated in Europe and North Africa and elsewhere.

The leaves occur in whorls of three or four on the stem, lanceolate, up to 10cm long with the lateral veins almost at right angles to the midrib.

Antispasmodic, sedative, antipyretic. The oil is reported to be antispasmodic, and anti diarrhoeal activity has been observed. The hexane extract has been suggested to possess antagonistic activity on beta-adrenergic receptors and affect calcium.

Lemon Grass is thought to be indigenous to tropical Asia, but now found widely in throughout the tropics. The antibacterial efects have been demonstrated in a number of studies. The oil is also anti-fungal against Candida albicans, and various trichophyton speices.

The sedative and anxiolytic properties have also been assessed, but toxicity remains a concern, and the analgesic effects confirmed.

Lemongrass oil can cause sensitivity and oral use should be avoided, although when used as flavouring in cookery the herb is considered safe.

Ladies mantle is a common British and European wild plant.

A variable group of similar microspecies, usually hairy but sometimes glabrous. Leaves up to about 5cm in diameter, having 7-11, rounded, serrate, palmate lobes.

Astringent, styptic. Used for excessive menstruation and diarrhoea, with some success, and topically for leucorrhoea and pruritis. The flavonoids inhibit elastase and trypsin in vitro and confer angio-protective effects

Cultivated in warmer climates across the globe,. Lemon peel is believed to support the reduction of certain types of skin cancer. This herb has also been used to treat colic and upset stomach.

Lemon peel is a good source of Calcium, potassium, and vitamin A.

Though most people peel the skin off the lemon and only eat the fruit, the lemon peel is used medicinally.

Native to the Mediterranean region growing wild in the mountainous district of the south of France, in northern Greece and in the Balkans.

The root, leaves and seed are used for medicinal purposes.

Formely of culinary purposes, but now its use is restricted almost wholly to confectionery, the young stems being treated like those of Angelica, to which, however, it is inferior, as its stems are not so stout nor so succulent.

Mandrake is found in woodlands in Canada and the Eastern U.S. The plants reach about 6-18inches in height and it grows in patches

The flowers grow into a pulpy, lemon-yellow berry which ripens in late summer and is the only part of the plant that isnt poisonus.

Extracts of the plant are used for genital warts and some skin cancers. In China and Japan it is used to treat snake bite and tumors of the genitals. Native North American tribes would eat or drink a brew of the powder as a laxative or to get rid of intestinal worms. The powder was also used as a poultice to treat warts and tumorous groths on the skin.

Myrrh comes from Northeast Africa and Arabia. The oleo-gum resin exudes from fissures or incisions in the bark and is collected as irregular masses or tears, varying in colour from yellowish brown, often with white patches.

Myrrh is used internally for stomach complaints, tonsillitis, pharyngitis and gingivitis, and externally for ulcers, boils, and wounds. It is analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic, anti-ulcerogenic and has an anti-carcinogenic effect on solid tumours in mice.

Orris is cultivated in Italy and Morocco and grown in many countries, including Britain, as ornamentals.

The rhizome may be peeled or unpeeled. The better quality rhizome is peeled, creamy-white, irregular in shape, often flattened or constricted in places and bearing small marks where the rootlets have been removed

Orris has been taken for coughs and diarrhoea as an infusion. Spasmolytic and anti-ulcer properties have been described, orris is also used in dental preparations, in cachous and in perfumery, due to the pleasant odour of violets of the essential oil.

Cultivated throughout the United States, especially in the South.

Poke root is used in chronic rheumatism and regular conjunctivitis, used as an ointment it is used in psoriasis, tineacapitiss, favus, and sycosis, and other skin diseases. Specifically, poke root is indicated in the treatment of the lymphatic system. Poke root plays a role in helping to maintain the healthy functioning of the lymphatic system. It is especially indicated in mastitis, where it can be used internally and as a poultice.

It is also an indicated remedy in the treatment of adenitis. Poke root has been indicated as a remedy in the treatment of cancer, with a success in alleviating certain forms

Native to the West Indies to South America and to the Far East.

Quassia occurs in commerce as logs, chips, or shredded. The wood is whitish,  becoming yellow on exposure to the air

Quassia has been used clinically as a fresh infusion to treat head lice, quassimarin has been reported to have anti-leukaemic properties, it also caused a reduction in the weight of testis, epididymis and seminal vesicles, and a decrease in serum levels of testosterone.

Quassia extracts have been used to expel threadworms, administered as an enema.

Native to North America, the root usually occurs in tapering, tough, fibrous pieces. It is greyish-brown externally with a pinkish-white wood, showing numerous small resin glands.

Queens delight is generally given as a tonic and blood purifier in combination with other remedies.

The diterpene esters are irritant, however they are unstable and unlikely to be present in most extracts and preparations. The extract is sometimes used homoeopathically and is not thought to pose any risk.

Common on arable and wasteland throughout Europe and Russia.

A woody perennial, with roundish leaves, oval or trefoil spines, flowers in leafy spikes, pink, papilionaceous, with the wings equalling the keel. The root is more or less flattened, twisted and branched, deeply wrinkled and brown in colour

Diuretic, anti-lithic, anti-inflammatory, expectorant. Rest Harrow is used mainly for its effects on the urinary system, as an infusion.

Habitat is Peru, Bolivia, root is woody, cylindrical, deep reddish-brown and rough externally, with a coarsely fibrous bark and hard, tough, woody centre.

Astringent. Rhatany is used as ananti-diarrhoeal, styptic, anti-haemorrhagic and vulnerary. It may be used as an infusion or decoction internally for diarrhoea or haemorrhage, including menorrhagia, as an ointment or suppository for haemorrhoids, topically for chilblains and wounds, as a lozenge, gargle or mouth wash for gingivitis and pharyngitis.

Comes from Europe, Asia, and North America, including Britain, further south on mountains. Rose root has been used in traditional European medicine for over three thousand years, mainly as a tonic. Modern research has shown that it increases the bodys resistance to any type of stress by regulating the bodys hormonal response.

Its been shown to have a protective effect upon the neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine in the brain. It has an enhancing effect upon physical endurance and sexual potency. A decoction of the flowers has been used to treat stomach aches and intestinal discomfort. The raw flowers have been eaten in the treatment of tuberculosis.

Native to the Mediteranean region, cultivated in Spain, rance, Italy, and the midle East. Formerly used as a carminative, diaphoretic and emenagogue.

In Chinese medicine it is used for depresion, shock, and menstrual dificulties. it is used mainly as a colouring and flavouring for food.

More recently Safron has ben shown to improve ethanol-induced impairment of learning behaviour, and is ben further investigated as a possible treatment for neurodegenerative disorders.

Native to the editeranean region, cultivated worldwide. It may be used as an infusion to reduce perspiration and also as a gargle or mouthwash for pharyngitis, tonsilitis, sore gums, mouth ulcers and other similar disorders.

Rosmarinic acid and other components are anti-inflamatory. Sage extracts and oil have ben reported to be antimicrobial and antispasmodic. a product containing Sage and Alfalfa has shown promise in aleviating some menopausal symptoms in women.

Skunk cabage comes from orth America. Rhizome obconical, up to 8cm long, dark brown, knoted and wody. It is transversely wrinkled and bears numerous rots and rot scars, it tastes acrid and is unpleasent.

Antispasmodic, diaphoretic, expectorant, sedative. Used mainly for bronchitis and asthma.

It is also known to have iritant properties and the fresh plant may cause blistering.