What happens at a herbal medicine consultation?

• Your first consultation will last about 1 hour, and subsequent visits around 30 minutes.
• As well as asking you about the main complaint you are seeking help with, the herbalist will ask you about any other medical problems you have, medications you take, and other relevant details. You can help by taking along details of medications and/or any recent test results to your herbal consultation. 
• Usually, your pulse and blood pressure will be taken on your first visit and, with your consent, the herbalist will conduct any other physical examination necessary. 
• Together with your herbalist, you will then establish health priorities and work out a strategy to address these. This may involve 'homework' for you, such as taking a herbal prescription, modifying your diet, or keeping a log of your symptoms or food/drink intake.

What's in a herbal prescription?

At least 25% of drugs prescribed by doctors derive directly from plant material, while many more are synthesized copies of single plant constituents or their analogues. Drug manufacturers still actively seek lead compunds from the plant kingdom.

Unlike pharmaceutical medicines, however, herbal medicines contain many active constituents extracted from one or more parts - e.g. roots, bark, flowers, leaves or berries - of whole plants. These can have several simultaneous, and often complementary, therapeutic actions. Also, one component of a plant may sometimes counterbalance potential harmful effects of another.

The medicine may take the form of a fluid extract (most commonly an alcohol or glycerine-based tincture) or you may be prescribed a tea, powder or capsule, or a cream, lotion or oil for topical use.

Medical herbalists will always source their ingredients from ethical suppliers using sustainable sources and, where possible, organic production methods.