Local Herbs vs. Imported Herbs

Every single time that the subject of herbal medicine comes up in a class I teach someone asks “isn’t it better to use local herbs? Don’t they work better in our bodies?” Since this is such a common question, I’m sharing my thoughts on it here, beginning with a quote from my book Seven Peppercorns (in italics).

A question that comes up a lot in my classes is: Aren’t local herbs better for you? It’s a valid and interesting question, to which there isn’t a simple answer. There is certainly truth to the idea that we resonate with our environment and that which grows in it; yet, we have had a global spice trade for thousands of years, and there is no denying the medicinal effects of many imported herbs. If we agree that food is medicine, we can see that we have been medically nourishing ourselves with herbs from faraway places for a very long time. In the West, from black pepper to cinnamon, from ginger to cloves, we have been introducing these foreign herbs to our bodies for millennia. Still, some things, such as honey, are clearly more beneficial if locally harvested, and there is the environmental factor of export/import to consider. This is a book on Thai medicine, so the use of herbs that must travel the globe to reach you is inherent; but some can be found around the world, and I do encourage use of local sources whenever possible.

In order to imbue nonnative herbs with a local energetic, there are two things you can do. One is to find local nutgrass root, which grows all over the world, and make a tea of it. Drink this tea when ingesting foreign herbs medicinally. Nutgrass picks up the energetics of a particular region, climate, or season, and harmonizes whatever you are taking with that place. The second thing that you can do is to take locally harvested raw honey** with your medicine, as this will have the same effect.

Personally, with some exceptions, I think that Thai herbs are just as good as, and in some instances better than, local herbs. But it depends on the herb in question. The thing about environmentalism is more important to me in general than the question of the efficacy of herbs from far away. In my experience they work very well, but I know there is a high environmental cost in shipping. However, if you are going to reject foreign herbs because of transportation, then you'll probably have to stop using cinnamon, black pepper, sugar, many wines, rice.... I could go on and on about things that directly affect our bodies that we ingest and import every day.

The point about food I think is somewhat important. when the local vs. imported herbs conversation comes up, all of my students, when asked, always agree that food is not only medicine, but it is a primary medicine. Yet no one has ever said to me “wouldn't it be better to not use cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, cumin, turmeric or nutmeg etc. in food cooking?”. Every single herb I just mentioned is used in Thai herbal medicine. If I talk about them in relation to herbal formulas, people say "wouldn't it be better to use a local herb?", but if I talk about them in a dinner recipe, no one asks this. So I think it's good to notice that we already have a harmonious relationship with many herbs used in Thai medicine.

The other part of this that bears mentioning is that it is extremely difficult to categorize western herbs into the Thai medical herb categorization system. Western herbs are categorized by a system that puts them into categories such as antipyretic (reduces fever), diuretic (increases urination) soporific (causes drowsiness) etc. In Thai and Ayurvedic medicine herbs are categorized by taste - salty, sweet, astringent, pungent, aromatic, sour etc. Each taste has an effect on the elements (traditional medicine the world over is element based). You cannot substitute one categorization system for another. It does not work to look at a Thai herb and examine it through the western theory and say "oh, this herb is antipyretic" and then go and find a local western antipyretic herb. You must use the Thai taste system if you are using Thai medical theory. To figure out the taste category of an herb is very very difficult in many cases. The person doing it would have to have a very deep and clear understanding of the taste system. And they would have to be trained in identifying herbs. They would then I think have to fast for a certain amount of time before eating the herb and then sit and notice what the herb does to their body. They would need to do this with all of the different parts of the plant. The leaves, the flowers, the seeds, the root, the stem - because different parts of plants have different qualities. They would then need to do it again during different seasons - because different seasons produce different effects in a plant. So you can see, this would be very hard to do. I am sure that it took thousands of years for the plants in Thailand (and India and China…) to all be categorized.

There are some herbal medicine schools in the west that say that they are teaching Chinese or Ayurvedic theory using western herbs but I will be honest with all of you; I have strong doubts. I am unaware that anyone has actually done the work that it really takes to do this correctly. I think that mostly they have used western science to identify similar properties in herbs that grow in the west with herbs from the east and assumed this is enough. Because to do the true way would take an extremely rare person to be able to do this who has a lifetime to dedicate to just doing this - probably actually several people and several lifetimes.

Okay, all of that said, here is the thing. I agree with my students who say wouldn't it be nice to use local herbs! I would love to go outside into my yard and pick my medicine. And if I could go back in time about 20 years I might tell my younger self "hey, you are going to grow up to really love herbal medicine - perhaps you should start studying Native American herbal medicine". But then I would not be here teaching Thai healing arts. Because the thing is, I have to choose. I don't have enough time to study Thai medicine to the depth that I would like to know it. So I definitely don't have enough time to study Native American medicine to the depth that it would deserve as well. I respect both of these traditions and I can completely understand why someone in the Americas would choose to study Native American medicine or why someone in Europe would choose to study traditional European herbal medicine. For now, that just isn't my path and until it is, I'll mostly use the herbs that go with the system I am studying.

One more note about what I just said. I have noticed that everyone I know in the U.S. who says "I'm studying western herbal medicine so that I can use local herbs" is actually studying European herbal medicine. I don't know any western herbalists who are studying Native American herbal medicine. I don't understand this, since Native American herbal medicine is the local traditional system where I live and there are Native Americans who still practice it so if one really wanted to practice local herbal medicine, one could find someone to study real local traditions with, which would mean finding someone who knows the medicine of a local Native American tribe. If someone here is thinking "I"m going to switch gears, give up Thai massage, and study local herbal medicine" and you are in the Americas, I encourage you to actually study true local herbal medicine. This will be the most harmonious with the plants in your yard.

But really, of utmost importance here, I want to say again that the Thai herbs I have worked with have tremendous efficacy no matter what country the person who is using them happens to have their feet in when they use them. And the vast majority of the time the people I have given Thai herbal treatments to (internal or wound care) have not been eating local honey or nutgrass infusions. The herbs just work. Just like how when you slice up some ginger and drink it, it settles your belly, even if the ginger didn't grow in your country. It just works.



**please always buy honey from local beekeepers who you can ascertain put the needs of the bees first. Bees work incredibly hard to make honey, with a bee producing about 1 teaspoon of honey in its entire lifetime. Many honey suppliers have cruel practices in the way that they keep bees, but this is not necessary. Find a source of kindly harvested local raw honey if at all possible