Building a Local Materia Medica
Summary Steps
Finding Local Medicinal Plants
Take a walk in an accessible area with a decent amount of vegetation and low risk for pesticides and pollution. Bring a medicinal plant field guide and try to identify as many as possible
Take notes on:
- Identity and identification
- Location
- Availability
- Amount growing
- Access and harvesting permits
- Any other information that seems useful
Researching Found Plants
Never harvest before research has been done.
At home, research as much as possible about each plants found:
- Seasonality
- Ailments it is used for
- Specific actions that are useful
- How common it is
- Toxicity concerns
Brief Explanation of Medical Terms Used
| Action | Effect of the herb |
| Indication | Specific conditions the herb is useful for |
| Contraindication | Situations where the herb should not be used |
Organizing the Information Acquired
- Notebook with index
- Note key words that you would want to look up later: herb names, ingredient names, kinds of preparations, effects, ailments, etc.,
- Recipe card box
- Digital document/s
- Reference list/library index
An "at a glance" summary:
| Scientific Name | Binomial name |
| Common Names | Local names, and names found in reference texts |
| Parts Used | |
| Actions | Effect of the herb |
| Indications | Specific conditions the herb is useful for |
| Body Systems | Parts of the body the herb affects |
| Contraindications | Situations where the herb should not be used |
Toxicity and overdose concerns
Identification features
| Commonality | Rare/endangered/hard to grow/etc. |
| Physical appearance | |
| Seasonal availability | Growing, flowering, and fruiting |
| Locations found | Geography and local areas |
| How to Acquire / Harvest | Note retailer and other specific harvest instructions to keep plant healthy and constituents active. |
| By part |
| [Part Used] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preparation | Application | Ailment |
| + toxicity and overdose concerns |
Planning for Future Research and Investigation
- Things you still need to learn about.
- Things you do not have but don't need right now
- What should be in the list, but isn't.
Medicinal Properties to Focus on
Necessary Care
- Frequent illnesses
- Muscle ache and soreness
- Colds, allergies, flus, digestion problems
- Skin problems: drying, acne, itching
- First aid medications
- Minor wounds, burns
- Mild sprains and strains
- Insect bites and stings
- Illnesses to be treated if they arise quickly
- COVID
- Over-the-counter medicine substitutes
- Pain relief
- Itching
- Sore throat
- Colds
- Disabilities and chronic illnesses management
- Diabetes, Crohn's disease, arthritis, fibromyalgia
- Pain management
- Consider: UTIs, yeast infections, physical injuries, mild wound infections, toothaches
Body Systems Commonly Dealt With
- Skin
- Lungs
- Heart and circulatory system
- Stomach
- Reproductive system
- Brain and nervous system
- Bladder and kidneys
- Liver
- General immune system
Useful Actions
- Antihistamine
- Anti-inflammatory
- Antimicrobial
(antibiotic, antifungal, antiviral) - Antacid
- Antispasmodic / spasmolytic
- Astringent
- Carminative
- Expectorant
- Mucilaginous
- Pain relief
Note that there are numbing herbs, and herbs that relieves specific kinds of pain but not others
Types of Herbal References
Field Guides
Usually devoted to regions: can be hyperlocal, political boundaries, bioregions. Good for familiarizing with regional plants.
- Medicinal plant field guides: usually doesnt detail how to use the plants
- General field guides: usually not very medically detailed, but may be divided into plant categories
Herbals
- General plant profiles: how it's used, action, indications, contraindications, energetics
- May or may not include physical plant descriptions, growing locations, harvesting practices, and plant parts utilized.
- Should be used in conjunction with other sources
Others
- Introductions to herbal medicine: may be a beginner's herbal, but may also give an overview of the body and how plants affect it
- Topic-specific guides: health concern, body system, herbbal discipline
- Medical history, anthropology, and philosophy
- world medical traditions, political theory (decolonization, mad liberation, biopower), philosophical concepts on what is the body and what constitutes truth and how knowledge is generated
- Read and discuss with people
- Synthesize, criticize, and build on existing ideas
- Get context for the world we live in
- Innovation instead of repeating tradition
Reference Vetting Tips
- Read, and read a LOT
- Google authors and get context about who they are, their experience, and associated controversies
- Be skeptical towards books and authors that claim traditional knowledge, especially Asian medicine and American indigenous practices.
- Pay attention to how authors handle scientific-sounding terms
- AVOID
- Books that make sweeping claims about popular topics
- Has grand promises to cure every disease especially recent ones
- "Popular knowledge" about diet, sugar, and obesity
- Faux-scientific language
- Dishonesty about personal hypothesis and sources vs. institutionally accepted claims
- Presenting known debunked pseudoscience as truth