What happens at a herbal medicine consultation?

• Your initial consultation will usually last about 1 hour, and subsequent visits around 30 minutes.
• The herbalist will ask you about the main complaint you are seeking help with, but also about any other medical problems you have, medications you take, and other relevant details. It may be useful to take along details of medications and/or any recent test results to your herbal consultation. 
• Your pulse and blood pressure will usually also be taken on your first visit, and the herbalist, with your consent, will conduct any other physical examinations that may be required. 
• Together with your herbalist, you will 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 companies still actively seek lead compunds from the plant kingdom.

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