The Earthwise Herbal Repertory

by Matthew Wood

  Thuja occidentalis

  Northern White Cedar (homeopathic and herbal)

  Thymus serpyllum

  Mother of Thyme

  Thymus vulgaris

  Thyme

  Tilia spp.

  Linden, Lime Tree

  Trametes versicolor

  Turkey Tail Mushroom

  Tribulus terrestris

  Goat’s Head Sticker

  Trifolium pratense

  Red Clover

  Trifolium repens

  White Clover

  Trigonella foenum-graecum

  Fenugreek

  Trillium spp.

  Trillium, Birth Root

  Triticum repens

  (see Agropyron repens)

  Tsuga canadensis

  Canada Hemlock

  (Note: Not to be confused with Conium maculatum, Poison Hemlock.)

  Turnera diffusa

  Damiana

  Tussilago farfara

  Coltsfoot

  Ulmus fulva (U. rubra)

  Slippery Elm

  Umbellularia californica

  California Bay Laurel

  Uncaria tomentosa

  Cat’s Claw

  Urtica dioica, Urtica spp.

  Nettles, Nettle

  Usnea barbata

  Usnea

  Ustilago maydis

  Corn Smut

  Vaccinium macrocarpon

  Cranberry

  Vaccinium myrtillus

  Bilberry

  (Note: Other Vaccinium species can substitute for V. myrtillus.)

  Vaccinium spp.

  Blueberry, Huckleberry

  Valeriana officinalis

  Valerian

  Veratrum viride

  American Hellebore (toxic; homeopathic dose only)

  Verbascum thapsus

  Mullein (leaf, root)

  Verbena hastata

  Blue Vervain

  Verbena officinalis

  Vervain

  (Note: These two verbenas can be used interchangeably.)

  Veronica officinalis

  Speedwell and other V. spp.

  Veronicastrum virginicum

  Culver’s Root (purgative)

  Viburnum opulus

  Crampbark

  Viburnum trilobum

  American Cranberrybush

  (Note: These are referred to in the repertory as Viburnum spp.)

  Viburnum prunifolium

  Black Haw

  Vinca major

  Greater Periwinkle

  Vinca minor

  Lesser Periwinkle

  Viola odorata, V. spp.

  Blue Violet

  Viola tricolor

  Pansy

  Viscum album

  Mistletoe (moderate dosage)

  Vitex agnus castus

  Chaste Berry

  Vitis vinifera

  Grape

  Withania somnifera

  Ashwaganda

  Xanthium spp.

  Cocklebur

  Xanthorrhiza apiifolia

  Yellowroot

  Yucca filamentosa

  Yucca

  Zanthoxylum americanum

  Prickly Ash (large dose painful to consume)

  Zea mays

  Corn Silk

  Zingiberis officinale

  Ginger

  2. Energetics: Constitutions and Tissue States

  The most effective constitutional system for medical use is based on physical build (thin/medium/thick), because build is closely related to long-term health developments. Thin people tend to get the same diseases, based on undernourishment and nervousness; medium-built people fall prey to accidents and heat-related problems; and thick people tend to suffer from lack of exercise and overeating. There are several alternative medical systems that divide people into three such groups. The oldest is the system of tridosha in Ayurvedic medicine, which is thousands of years old. This correlates neatly with systems that were independently developed in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century in conventional and alternative Western medicine. Like most American herbalists, we use the Ayurvedic terms vata, pitta, and kapha, which correlate with thin, medium, and thick.

  The energetic system used here is the “tissue state” model of the physiomedicalists, because it is best suited to the Western herbal model (out of which it evolved). However, all energetic systems have characteristics in common. The most effective way to describe energetics in a holistic framework is binary—yin and yang, excess and deficient, hot and cold, tense and relaxed, damp and dry, etc. The tissue state model uses three binary sets (excitation/depression, atrophy/stagnation, tension/relaxation, or heat/cold, dry/damp, tense/relaxed).

  The Ayurvedic or Tridoshic Constitutions

  The trifold system of analysis in Ayurvedic medicine is thousands of years old. It is based on the idea of three different “tints” or “tinctures” (doshas) entering into the composition of each person. The doshas are derived from the five elements of India. Air and Ether (dryness and wind) produce the thin, dry, nervous type (vata). Fire and the oil aspect of Water or liquid create the strong, medium-built, ardent type (pitta). Earth and the watery aspect of Water create the thick, damp, well-nourished, purposeful type (kapha). These correspond almost exactly with a system developed independently in the West in the nineteenth century in which constitutions were described as nervous (thin), motive (robust), and vital (visceral, thick).

  In the twentieth century, psychologist William Sheldon determined through extensive population studies that there are three basic somatotypes, with corresponding psychic tendencies: ectomorph (thin), mesomorph (medium), and endomorph (thick). His theory is that, in the ectomorph, the organs of the fetal ectoderm (nervous system and skin) predominate, while in the mesomorph the fetal mesoderm (muscles and bones) dominates, and in the endomorph it is the vital organs (gastrointestinal, lymph, and endocrine systems, etc.). This is an extremely useful categorization from a therapeutic standpoint; we often find stress (excess or deficiency) in the organs emphasized in the three types.

  Dosha can refer either to the congenital constitution or to disorders created by what biomedicine calls “stress.” Sometimes the constitution is the source of the problem, while at other times the disease pattern has been superimposed on the constitution. Thus, we might treat either the innate constitution or the imposed pathology.

  Some remedies act more on the constitution, while others act more on the pathological imbalance. For instance, Lycopodium is an excellent remedy for the vata constitution, while Althaea officinalis (marshmallow) is an excellent remedy for a person who is suffering from dryness, no matter what their constitution. On the other hand, Lycopodium is sometimes indicated for a superimposed condition, while Althaea fits a congenital constitution. For this reason, descriptive keywords in the repertory such as damp, dry, thin, medium, or nervous are not usually designated as constitutional; they often only refer to temporary pathology. Only when the remedy has traditionally been associated with the congenital constitution, gender or age will that be designated.

  The Three Doshas

  The vata dosha is composed of the elements of air and ether, which translate to dry and tension (lack of space causes tension), so the vata person has less digestive juices, causing a thin, dry constitution. He or she is more nervous from tension and thin physique—lack of “insulation” around the nerves makes them more sensitive. In Western constitutional terms this type would be described as an “ectomorph,” “asthenic,” or “nervous constitution.” The ectomorphic constitution is associated with the ectodermic layer of the fetus that develops into the nerves, senses, and skin. Vata conditions are drying, nervous, tense, and wasting.

  Pitta is framed from the elements of fire and water. However, in Ayurveda “water” is broken into the two liquids: water and oil. Fire is composed of oil, not water per se. This makes much more sense. The pitta person is active, ardent, a “doer,” and is warm or hot and combustive. The oil is like a fuel that burns up. The buil
d in medium, with red or sallow, dark complexion, and firm, active muscles. Some pitta people are blond, red haired, red-blond, or fiery in complexion, while another kind is a dark, lean, and sallow—what the Greeks would have called the “choleric type.” In Western terms, this constitutional type is the “mesomorph,” whose system emphasizes the mesoderm that forms the muscles of the body, including the heart. Pitta conditions are excessively warm, hot, and combustive.

  Kapha is composed from the elements of earth and water, so it is slower moving, gentler, and more relaxed as a doshic influence and as a constitutional type. “Water” in this instance contains both water and oil. The former is relaxing and cooling, the latter lubricating and relaxing. Together with the solid earth, this makes the kapha constitution cool, relaxed, slow, and heavy, with tendencies to retention and stagnation. Unlike vata, this type is well-nourished; with age kapha people can become overweight. More than anything, however, kapha is relaxed. In Western terms kapha is analogous to the “endomorph” made from the endomorphic level of the endoderm, which develops into the organs, bowels, viscera, glands, and endocrine system. Hence, the kapha person has a strong digestion and metabolism—too strong, perhaps. Kapha conditions are damp, cold, stagnant, slow, sluggish, dull, thick, sthenic.

  Vata (Ectomorph, Asthenic, Thin)

  • Albizia (“lost capacity to feel joy”—Donahue) • Althaea (dry mucosa and skin) • Ballota (nerve debility) • Amygdalus (delicate constitution with pale skin) • ANGELICA (dry, thin, pallid; poor digestion and gas, but tendency to accumulate fluids) • ARALIA RACEMOSA (warming nutritive; weak, enfeebled nervous system; anemia, general debility) • ARCTIUM (worry, dryness, poor lipid digestion) • AVENA (frazzled, oversensitive, hyperreactive; nerve exhaustion) • BETONICA (thin, elderly) • Borago (“nervous wreck”) • Capsella (muscle atrophy; fibroids, weak uterine muscles) • Celastrus (thin, withered, dry and delicate state with poor nutrition and low anabolism) • Cetraria (weakness in children and elderly; chronic, congenital) • Chondrus (similar to Cetraria) • CINNAMOMUM CASSIA (thin, fair; moist skin, sweats easily—Huang) • Codonopsis (sweet and moist nutritive; weak, thin, nervous, dried out, tired, bloated, shallow respiration) • Dioscorea (thin and undernourished; intestinal and other spasms; poor assimilation by small intestine; decalcification, especially in the hip joints) • ELEUTHEROCOCCUS (nervous; dark circles under the eyes) • Galium (nerve disease) • Gnaphalium (thin, nervous) • Hydrangea (thin, dry, nervous, weak) • Inula (thin and pale) • Lavendula (apply oil on side of head; nervousness, exhaustion, tension, extreme mental states; panic, anxiety, irritability; headache) • Leonurus (freaked-out expression; poor bone development) • LYCOPODIUM (homeopathic; thin, withered, dry, and full of gas) • Lycopus (nervous; looks like a hunted animal) • Medicago sativa • MELISSA (nervous) • Mitchella (women; thin, tall, angular, dark-haired, athletic, too much in their minds) • Nuphar (dry vagina; pelvic tension) • Nymphaea (weakness, exhaustion, “pinings, wasting and consumption”—Salmon) • Origanum (high-strung persons who push themselves to tiredness, but can’t relax) • PANAX QUINQUEFOLIUS (neurasthenia, loss of fluids, dry, atrophy, debilitated habits, exhaustion of brain and nervous system) • POLYGONUM MULTIFLORUM (aging and drying of joints; dry throat, thirst, cough due to dry lungs; gray hair from kidney-yin deficiency) • Prunus serotina (thin people that are too hot) • Rhus spp. (nervousness, weakness; children and the elderly) • Rosa (asthenic and anemic) • Scutellaria (“sedates fire in the small intestine that would otherwise burn energy too quickly; good for skinny people; holds energy in the body, good for overthinkers; the perfect nervine; doesn’t drag on the rest of the system”—LeSassier) • SALVIA (dry, withered; premature menopause, andropause—Light) • Selenicereus (thin, nervous, neurasthenic; hyperthyroidism, heart palpitations and irregularities) • Stellaria (weedy, thin, dry, and malnourished) • Tilia (see Pitta) • TRIFOLIUM (insufficient secretions) • Verbascum (general dryness and atrophy) • Vinca (sclerosis, hardening processes) • Vitex • WITHANIA (“depleted, exhausted, underweight”; “elderly with poor memory”—Kuhn and Winston).

  Pitta (Mesomorph, Medium)

  • ACHILLEA (robust, sanguine persons with red, full-blooded complexion, blue veins) • Amygdalus (fair, thin-to-medium build, common with histaminic irritation) • Arnica (athletic constitution) • BUPLEURUM (“medium to slightly thin”; dark-yellow, greenish-yellow, greenish-pale, lusterless complexion; firm muscles, dry skin; “wiry to thin pulse”—Huang) • Eupatorium perfoliatum • Galium (cooling) • Gnaphalium (allergies) • Hydrangea (hard, bitter, willful, stubborn, cynical) • Lobelia (often full-muscled) • MEDICAGO SATIVA • Monarda fistulosa (robust, passionate, creative) • Nuphar • Passiflora (driven, type-A people; use during the day) • Prunus serotina (specific for the problems of redheads) • RHEUM (pitta/kapha; large, strong, hot—Huang) • RUMEX CRISPUS (large, strong; red cheeks, yellow around nose, mouth, eyes; strong digestion; pitta, aging into kapha) • Scutellaria (reduces heat; see vata) • TILIA (vata/pitta; “race-horse type, whose energies are squandered in quick speech and a mind that flits from subject to subject”—Parton) • Valeriana (full, excitable) • Zea mays • Zingiberis (muscle relaxant).

  Kapha (Endomorph, Plethoric, Thick)

  • Acorus (boggy digestion and cloudy thinking, thick white coat on tongue corresponding to “phlegm misting the orifices of the heart”—Donahue) • Angelica (excess mucus, dry) • Arctostaphylos (relaxed, toneless tissues with draggy, weighty feeling; feeble circulation, lack of innervation) • Capsicum • Chimaphila (great kapha eliminator; water retention; kidney and spleen yang deficiency) • Commiphora myrrha (relaxation and depression, poor circulation and depressed cell life) • Comptonia (cold center; diarrhea; spleen yang deficiency) • Gnaphalium (middle-aged, adrenocortical-dominant men with big, muscular bellies; to reduce cortisol) • Guaiacum (heavy, damp, cold, depressive; stomach depressed) • Helichrysum (essential oil; same as Gnaphalium) • Myrica (boggy mucosa) • Oplopanax (bogged down, unable to assert self, “water failing to become wood”—Donahue) • Phytolacca (large, bulky persons with large glands, breasts, swellings, and congestions) • RHEUM (robust, strong, firm muscles; reddish, oily, or greasy and dirty skin; thick, darkened, red lips; large appetite—Huang) • RUMEX CRISPUS (similar to Rheum but less intense personality—Wood) • Satureja (endocrine, adrenocortical and sympathetic nervous system deficiencies; stimulates cerebral cortex and sexual glands; weak immune system—Kenner, Requena) • Trigonella (averse to exercise, overweight; slack muscle tone, stagnant lymphatics) • Tsuga canadensis (warms the kidneys and feet) • Zingiberis (large, damp, cold).

  Appearance under one dosha does not rule out application in another.

  The above designations into the three categories are based on the experience of myself and others. The only source book I have found that uses this system, and from which I have drawn heavily to confirm or add to the above lists, is The Male Herbal by James Green (2007). He names three types: the seer (vata), warrior (pitta), and monarch (kapha).

  Energetics of Western Herbalism

  In order to practice herbalism in a holistic fashion, we need a system for recognizing and describing patterns. Throughout the Old World, we find some form of “humoral” medicine in which the body (and its medicines) are analyzed in terms of hot and cold, damp and dry conditions. Nineteenth-century botanical doctors worked out a model of three, four, or six “tissue states.” I have combined the Greek qualities (hot, cold, etc.) with the tissue states of the nineteenth century physiomedicalists (excitation, relaxation, etc.).

  Greek, Chinese, and Ayurvedic medicine has been designated as “humoral” by historians of medicine. However, both ancient and modern people also thought in terms of “energy,” vital force, qi, or prana, and today the term “energy medicine” or “energetics” is popular while “humoralism” is only used in academia. Of course, “energy” can be considered a “humor” or substance.

  The ener
getic model we use in Western herbal medicine comes from a combination of the Greek system, nineteenth century physiology, and the practices of Native American people. Indian medicine is usually considered “animistic” (spirit-based), but it is also based on the elimination of humors through the use of the sweat lodge, purging, and emesis, so it too should be considered humoral (or energetic)—as well as animist. See Virgil Vogel’s American Indian Medicine (1970) for extensive accounts of Native American health practices.

  Samuel Thomson, the popularizer of herbal medicine in North America, absorbed the teachings of his mentor, Mrs. Benton, the “wise woman” in the neighborhood. Her emphasis was on keeping the perspiration healthy. This is a Native teaching, not Greek or European. Thomson taught that it was necessary to maintain healthy perspiration by “warming the center” and “keeping open the skin” by expelling cold from inside to outside.

  Thomson’s model was developed further by Dr. Alva Curtis, who taught that the body reacts to stimulation in a threefold cycle—excitation, contraction, and relaxation. This is based on Albert Haller’s observation in the mid-eighteenth century that the motor nerves operate in these three phases. This observation is still a foundation of modern neuroscience; it is called the “E-C-R cycle.” Curtis, however, extended the observation to propose that all bodily activity follows this cycle. This idea was taken up by the physiomedicalists (followers of Thomson and Curtis) and enlarged to six imbalances: excitation, depression, atrophy, stagnation, contraction or tension, and relaxation. I have called this “the forgotten energetics of Western herbalism.” See my work Vitalism (2000) for information on Thomson, Curtis, and physiomedicalism and The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism (2004) for the tissue states in particular. We no longer need to call it “forgotten.”