Practical Herbs 2: A Review

pract-herbs2

I’m going to preface my remarks by warning you: I’ve been a Henriette Kress fan for years and was thrilled to get a sneak peek at her new book.

Practical Herbs 2 is as wonderful as Practical Herbs.  Down-to-earth advice for a variety of ailments, detailed descriptions of 20 herbs, directions for making a variety of herbal preparations …

One of my favorite things, especially in the herbal solutions sections, is that she doesn’t limit herself to herbs. Some problems can be due to deficiencies in vitamins, diet, lifestyle, etc, and she doesn’t hesitate to tell you when you should be taking a vitamin supplement or going for a daily walk rather than or in addition to an herbal preparation.

When she’s writing about individual herbs, not only does she give you color photos (generally of more than one Species) and a written description, the instructions for harvesting and drying are detailed – down to how to deal with the itchy hairs on Burdock seeds.

Ever the scientific herbalist, she does use some technical terminology and gives the main chemical constituents for each herb described. It may glaze some peoples’ eyes but this information is necessary to understand why the herb does what it does.

As with Practical Herbs, my Virgo nature had difficulty with the fact that she doesn’t group information together. The herb information pages are broken up by recipes, herbal solutions to medical issues, and some further information. However, that problem is solved by the extensive index.

If you don’t have her first book, you should get it as the second builds on the first. The two together are a marvelous resource for someone interested in using herbs for health.

4.5/5 stars