Basic Herbs

 

Basic Herbs 101 is an introductory class designed to give you a taste of herbs and what they are used for. In this class we will cover thirty herbs, three per week, lasting the minimum of 10 weeks. 

Herbs have many aspects to them, so I am using the scientific name, Folk names and common names for these herbs. The scientific name is the most important name herbs have. The first name is the Genus and the second name is the species. Since many plants have multiple species the scientific name is the best way to identify the herbs.   

Data sheets are used to explain the herbs. These sheets list the basic information you need to learn basic information about the herbs. 

We are covering one poison plant per week. I feel it’s important to learn all about the poisonous ones as we must be really careful not to get these herbs into our system. Learning what poisonous herbs is helps learn the different herbs from each other. Some of these herbs are deadly. I recommend you do not use the poison plants, use substitutes as needed. You could use gloves while handling poison plants so you do not get the herb on your skin. 

Poisonous plants have helped us magically but shouldn’t be used for cooking. Many of these poisonous plants are utilized pharmaceutically some of these herbs are useful medicinally. Do not try this on your own. 

Herbal books were handwritten before 1440; these were copied and were written many times resulting in many editions and errors. Early texts written covered several uses of the herb such as magically, practical usage and mythic or folklore. These were written together in some texts. 10% of the worlds plants recorded are herbs.