The Foundation of Herbal Medicine

A reader said it best: "Dr Tilgner goes through each system of the body and explains what various attributes of herbs affect that body system, and why. She then gives case examples of when she used those types of herbs in a clinical setting, and also picks a few herbs with those attributes to go into further detail of ALL of those herbs uses, as well as their contraindications and chemical composition."  Herb school in a book is what you get from this scholarly tome. A must-have herbal handbook for the herbalist, nurse, physician, pharmacist, or doctor mom who wants a textbook-level education on herbal remedies that includes evidence-based medicine.  This book is an important contribution to preserving fundamental aspects of traditional herbal medicine while also incorporating up-to-date scientific principles garnered from Dr. Tilgner's training in naturopathic medicine, and contains the foundational building blocks of herbal medicine.

• Learn the medicinal actions of over 245 healing herbal remedies.
• 120 herbs featured with in-depth coverage on each plant including how it tastes and smells, special tendencies of the herb, actions, properties, dosage, active herbal constituents, contraindications and mechanism of action as well as information on clinical interactions with drugs is included.
• A resource to help practitioners integrate herbal therapy into their practice with clients or patients.
• A resource for lay people to understand how the herbs support various body systems.
• A training manual for Western herbal practitioners who wish to incorporate the use of herbs into a holistic, science-based practice.
• Special formula or recipe boxes are included to give secondary actions of the herbs in each category. This assists you in choosing the best herbs for a given formula.
• Learn to choose herbs by knowing how they support healthy functioning of each body system as well as targeting common ailments.
• Herbs and herbal actions are organized by body/organ systems. Each chapter focuses on one organ system, with a review of that organ system from a naturopathic physicians functional medicine point of view.
• The book focuses on the functional process underlying the health conditions, rather than a disease process.
• Please see the "Look Inside The Book" feature above for an example of how the chapters are organized and presented.  You will find this book to be a very unique offering.
• More than 1200 scientific citations to support the traditional and clinical information.

You can use this encyclopedia of herbal medicine to turn a common plant into an amazing tool for healing. This herb book provides wisdom in the form of basic building blocks that Western herbal medicine is built on. You will be introduced to herbs through their actions and properties within the context of the bodies major organ systems. Each chapter has an introductory physiology review of the organ system it covers. Paul Bergner put it succinctly when he said, "Herbal ABC's contains the elements of four books including a traditional herbal, a clinical herbal, a scientific herbal, and a general reference for the application of herbal medicines." This is a book for the herbalist/practitioner as well as the layperson who wants to get into the nitty-gritty of understanding all the fundamental hows and whys for the use of the most common herbs in western medicine. Due to its inclusion of up to date scientific data with over 1270 supportive research citations, even practitioners well versed in herbal medicine will find new and interesting facts about herbs that will keep them riveted until they finish the book.

Reviews

"Dr. Tilgner has a real knack for taking dry, scientific data, turning it into a fascinating read, then bringing it down to earth with practical applications, cases and traditional wisdom." - Deborah Frances R.N., N.D., author of Practical Wisdom in Natural Healing

"Herbal ABC's is a new kind of Herbal for the 21st Century. It is four books in one covering pathophysiology, an herbal materia medica, a scientific herbal and a textbook on the science of nutrition and lifestyle. The book will be equally valuable for students of the younger generation, as for those already continuing to practice, study, and learn in our field." - Paul Bergner,  North American Institute of Medical Herbalism

"Dr. Tilgner, one of America's best-known herbalists and naturopaths, has written a book filled with accurate, usable information that is infused with the wisdom of a true physician. This should not only be on every herbalists bookshelves, but all interested in competent herbal medicine." - David Hoffmann, FNIMH, author of Medical Herbalism & The Holistic Herbal

"I enthusiastically recommend Sharol Tilgner's books as a standard for Western Naturopathic herbal medicine. In this her latest, she succinctly teaches how herbs are prescribed according to bio-physiological indications." - Dr. Michael Tierra, East West School of Planetary Herbology

"Herbal ABC's is equally a traditional herbal, a clinical herbal, a scientific herbal, and a general reference for the application of herbal medicines. It is structured chapter-wise on traditional herbal actions and applications, an arrangement most useful for actually using the plants. In each category, Tilgner has selected a handful of the most important clinical pearl remedies from her long practice. The chapters are punctuated with case studies, stories, and anecdotes from her clinical experience, and also with her intuitive insights. Most remarkable is the exploration of the scientific research into the fields of pathophysiology and plant constituent science. Dr. Tilgner takes the scientific herbal to an unprecedented new level in her exploration of specialized literature, presenting it with a high level of functional scientific literacy. I have literally been waiting for decades to see an herbal describing animal trials which then states Of course we have to be careful about extrapolating animal research to human application . . . and we see this and similar functionally literate interpretations as the norm in her presentations of scientific material. Like her Herbal Medicine, which is three books-in-one (materia medica, formulary, and medicine making handbook) this book contains elements of books on four different topics, each done in depth, but synthesized into a single reference book. It is a pathophysiology book, exploring in-depth topics such as liver detoxification, cytokines, or lymphoid tissue, for each of its major sections, and taking the most contemporary science into account. In this regard it offers material in a depth that is not available in other contemporary herbal books. It goes in similar depth into the science on constituent categories such as demulcents, tannins, immunomodulators, phytoestrogens, nootropics, and others. Blended into this is a textbook on the science of nutrition and lifestyle. We don't just learn the liver detoxification pathways and how plants may affect them, but we also see the nutrients necessary for their proper function. We see how stress, sleep debt, and other factors affect the physiology. And finally as its title implies, it is a reference book on herbal materia medica, covering the chief clinical actions of more than 245 herbs, with more than 100 of these featured for more in-depth coverage. Ultimately I see Herbal ABC's The Foundation of Herbal Medicine as a new kind of Herbal for the 21st Century. In North America since the 1980s, we have evolved a community of elder herbalists who, like Sharol Tilgner, have acquired a multifaceted mastery over decades of applied work in the different skill sets of herbalism: clinical practice, medicine making, reading of science, or study of older medical texts or systems. Herbal ABC's is perhaps the first fruit of this new and multifaceted and integrated mastery in North American herbalism. The book will be equally valuable for students of the younger generation as for those already continuing to practice, study, and learn in our field." - Paul Bergner, North American Institute of Medical Herbalism

About the Author

Dr. Sharol Marie Tilgner is an herbalist, licensed naturopathic physician, farmer/gardener, teacher and herbal medicine maker. Her mission is to inspire and empower with the healing wisdom of herbs. She has spent much of her 58 years wildcrafting, growing, preserving and using medicinal herbs. This is her passion and she wishes to share her experience in her books Herbal Medicine From the Heart Of The Earth and Herbal ABC's The Foundation of Herbal Medicine.