January 2023
Chia is a Sage! That's right, those amazing little seeds come from Salvia hispanica. Sage seeds. No wonder it's a superfood. While we're dreaming of green plants under the snow & ice, we decided to create a Make Better Medicine style recipe out of goodies in our herbal pantry: dried berries, herbs/spices, nuts, Coconut milk, Cacao powder, and Chia seeds combined in Chia Power Porridge. Come follow along in our free one-hour class. And for a recent scientific review of the constituents and medicinal properties of Chia, hop over to PubMed to download this PDF. If you haven't signed up for our mailing list yet, swing by the ElderberrysFarm site & you'll get the full recipe when you sign up. If you're already on our list, that is coming in our next email!
MiniMini preview: Chia has an amazing nutrient profile ... ~ 34-40% fiber, ~ 16-21% protein, ~ 20-30% healthy fats, mostly omega 3 (ALA), a rich mineral content, and plenty of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory polyphenols including rosmarinic acid!
Other exciting projects brewing ...
We've opened registration for our in-person Honey Pharmacy Workshop at Elderberry's Farm in Paonia, Colorado (June 8-11, 2023). In this four-day immersion we'll practice making rich herbal infused honeys, formulating and creating elixirs, making double-infused oxymels, and creating amazing medicinal meads from our herbal infused honeys. Registration is limited to 20. See you there?
Our Make Better Medicine classes, Solubility & Extraction and Extraordinary Elixirs! (& Herbal Infused Honeys) will be available again later this year when we've finished our next class in the series. I think we'll make it all about the arts & sciences of crafting excellent herbal tinctures ... percolations, macerations, fresh herb tinctures, instant Vitamix tinctures ... the relevant solubility concerns, how to make your menstruum, and how to math it all out the easy way to end up with a concentrated, consistent product. Scroll down to join our mailing list & we'll keep you posted!
Currently we're updating our popular Herbal Constituents course that goes in-depth to explore the nature of constituents, synergy and variability, how constituents contribute to the actions and energetics of Western herbs, and how to use our knowledge of them in clinical practice. We're aiming to have this one ready for you in March 2023. Each class will include a live webinar with Lisa Ganora ... If you really want to understand constituents and basic botanical chemistry, this could be the class for you!
Herbal Constituents, 2nd. Ed., is a unique addition to the botanical literature
Written in a down-to-Earth style by a clinical herbalist with extensive training in chemistry, physiology and botany, this book is designed for anyone who wants an in-depth understanding of medicinal plant constituents in the context of human physiology.
Herbal Constituents presents the most important concepts and research on phytochemical compounds in medicinal foods and herbs.
Basic Language of Phytochemical Structure
In a clear, step-by-step fashion, the reader is first introduced to the basic language of phytochemical structure including bonding, polarity, functional groups, isomers, and more. This non-mathematical presentation distills the information that is important for understanding the personalities and activities of constituents in medicinal herbs.
Making Herbal Medicine:
Extraction, Solubility, Solvent Polarity & More
These chapters address areas of interest for the botanical practitioner including solubility and extraction of herbal constituents, polarity of solvents and solvent systems, and other influences on solubility, phytochemical stability, and reactivity in extracts. We also explore synergy and variability in herbs and formulas, and the role of standardization.
Herbal Constituent Categories
The book presents a detailed and thoroughly referenced chapter for each of the major categories. Each chapter contains numerous illustrations and explanations of the botanical occurrence and physiological activities of the constituents, and is based on up-to-date research considered in the context of traditional usage.
Extensive Illustrated Glossary
Herbal Constituents concludes with an extensive illustrated glossary having some 250 entries that will be helpful for those needing to review some of the most important concepts and terminology from organic chemistry, biochemistry and phytochemistry.
Meet the Author
Hi! I'm Lisa, author of Herbal Constituents. It's my pleasure to offer this updated and expanded 2nd edition to students and practitioners of botanical medicine.
More about Lisa
