In the pre-antibiotic days (and perhaps again soon since antibiotics are losing their effectiveness), every home had a garden with medicinal herbs, and every homemaker collected them and made medicines for family use. Questions naturally arose: when best to harvest? how best to prepare?

These instructions were published in the nineteenth century:

Collecting of Materia Medica

2nd. Barks -- Barks may be stripped from the tree or shrub any time when the sap prevents it from adhering to the wood. The exterior portion must be shaved off; the bark then cut thin, and dried in the shade.

3rd. Medicinal Plants -- Medicinal plants should be collected while in blossom, and also dried in the shade; their virtues, however, are not essentially diminished any time before frost appears.

4th. Flowers and seeds -- Flowers and seeds should be collected when they are fully ripe, and likewise dried in the shade. All vegetables, after having been dried, should be kept from the air, and preserved airtight, or in a dry place. in this way they may be preserved for many years, without losing any of their medicinal properties.

Preparations

Infusions or teas -- Put a handful of the herb into a tea-pot, add one pint of boiling water, and let it stand fifteen or twenty minutes: dose, a full draught three or four times a day, unless differently prescribed. To promote perspiration, take it warm.

Decotions -- Make the same as infusion; but continue the boiling till all the strength is extracted.

Component parts... -- Plants are chymical compounds, prepared by the hand of nature; and, although despised by the foolish as simple, they are more ingenious than can be made by the greatest chymist in the world. Nor will his productions bear any comparision with them as regards beauty or medical properties; and the reson is, because one is made by man, therefore imperfect; the other by the Creator, and therefore absolutely perfect.

The American Practice, 1856

Related Resources

HerbMed a project of the Alternative Medicine Foundation, Inc. is an "Interactive, electronic herbal database providing access to the scientific data underlying use of herbs for health. An evidence-based information resource for professionals, researchers, and the general public."

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