The Pirate Review - 10 Essential Herbs

Lalitha Thomas has written a "common man's herbal" that is straightforward, useful and... dare I say it... entertaining!

I swear to you, I'm not a hippie. I may have been born in the late '60s and grown up in California... I might have partaken of the odd bowl of granola on occasion... but dangit, tofu and spirulina do not have a place of honor in my kitchen. I don't even own a broomstick skirt and my brownies don't have that odd "baked at 4:20" taste. I shop at Safeway and eat frozen Ding-Dongs. I AM NOT A HIPPIE!

So how can I justify owning a book like 10 Essential Herbs by Lalitha Thomas?

Well, I suppose I could lie. "Uh, my weirdo auntie from Berkeley gave it to me." "I misread the cover when I was at the bookstore, and then they wouldn't take it back." "My friend Milkthistle Wolfkin left it here. Yeah, that's the ticket." But alas, that would be wrong. The truth is, I took a leap of faith and bought it on the recommendation of a friend.

The friend in question probably could be a hippie—at the very least she's quirky. She's a firm believer in home births, homeschooling, herbal self-help instead of doctors, the evils of refined sugar and a number of other ideas ranging from the slightly unusual to the outright dangerous—like not vaccinating your children against childhood diseases (ulp). When she started praising this book, to be honest, I didn't know what to expect. But when I found a copy at the local bookstore and started browsing, I was intrigued.

Lalitha (it's her full legal name, though the editor at Hohm Press added the surname "Thomas" to keep the book low on the Kookmeter) is largely a self-taught herbalist. When she began, she was overwhelmed by the huge amount of information available on various herbs. Whether you study folklore, medical research or both, there are THOUSANDS of medicinal plants—enough to faze the average person with only a casual interest in natural medicine. Eventually Lalitha got the idea into her head that if she could boil it down to a reasonably small number of highly useful, readily available herbs and their various healing properties, she'd be onto something. This book is the result of her labors—a matter-of-fact, very readable guide that invites you to take responsibility for most of your own health needs using a core group of ten herbs.

"So which are the Ten Essentials?" I hear you cry. They are Cayenne, Chaparral, Clove, Comfrey, Garlic, Ginger, Onion, Peppermint, Slippery Elm and Yarrow. (The Appendix also makes reference to a three-herb mixture called People Paste, and the new edition contains additional information on Echinacea.) They were chosen because of their wide-ranging availability—the most unusual herb on the list, Chaparral, is usually available in well-stocked health food stores—and their ability to heal a wide variety of common ills. Each herb has its own chapter, complete with a "Personality Profile" explaining its individual properties and benefits, and a short mnemonic rhyme to help you remember what it does (a bit cutesy for my taste, but hey, whatever works). The introductory chapter explains how to use the book—not only information about decoctions, tinctures and infusions and when to use them, but more broad-ranging ideas on holistic healing, where one attempts to treat the underlying problem rather than simply dosing the symptoms. For those who just can't wait for relief, there's also an extensive index where you CAN look up problems by symptom, and find exactly what and where the recommended treatments are in the book.

If the book simply succeeded at being helpful, I would have given it four stars—but Lalitha goes beyond mere functionality, employing a writing style that is not only down-to-earth and friendly, but often entertaining. The book is filled with anecdotes relating personal experiences with herbal healing, which she calls "TASOLEs" (True Actual Stories Of Lalitha's Experiences); all are interesting and quite a few are hilarious. If the suggested herbal application is impractical or not available, Lalitha usually lists several supplementary ideas to try instead. She's not like your grandma who dispensed her horrible "home remedy" that was worse than the disease, or made you eat raw garlic regardless of the social consequences; if something is possibly going to feel or taste unpleasant, she gives you fair warning and even makes suggestions about how to get around the icky aspect of the herb.

This is all very well and good, but do her ideas WORK? In a word, yes! Everything I've tried in this book, with one exception, has done what Lalitha promised it would. (The exception is the 21-day Chaparral Cleanse, which was nothing but three weeks of enduring an extremely nasty brew. Not very helpful, Lalitha.) There are a few ideas I haven't tried, such as the aforementioned garlic enema application. As Lalitha herself points out, "Taking an enema of any kind is not my idea of an entertaining activity." But I have tried peppermint and ginger baths, yarrow tea, garlic as a natural antibiotic, cayenne for brushing my gums (quite the eye-opener in the morning) and several other ideas, and I'm sold on the results.

There are, of course, situations where simple herbal self-help is not going to cut it. Lalitha makes it patently clear to anyone who hasn't already caught on—don't mess with breaks, sprains or life-threatening illnesses yourself; SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP IMMEDIATELY! But for the aches, pains, sniffles and coughs of everyday life, you'll be hard-pressed to find a book more immediately useful than 10 Essential Herbs.

You don't even have to appreciate granola to use it.