CHAPTER EIGHT

Herbs in the tea formulas

The herbs in the tea formulas that were described in the previous chapter have passed numerous safety evaluations and are considered by most herbalists as effective ingredients. All of these herbs have been used for centuries, some of them were already in use during the ancient Graeco-Roman period of herbalism described in Chapter 2.

In the following pages, there is a brief review of each of the herbs. The ingredients are these, arranged in alphabetical order:

Of these, certain ingredients are included in most of the teas due to their known benefits, good taste, and common use by European herbalists: anise, fennel, hops, lemon balm, licorice, peppermint, and valerian. In particular, peppermint is in all but one of the tea blends (not in Laxative Tea), serving as the basic health tea. It is common practice to have a base ingredient in most blends in other herbal cultures as well: Chinese teas often use ginger, jujube, and licorice as base ingredients, while Indian blends often include myrobalans fruits (a combination of the three), and Indonesian remedies often have turmeric as their base. Here is how Künzle explains the special value of peppermint:

All varieties of mint dissolve old residues and eliminate waste matter and obstinate flatulence and are, therefore, used against almost all ailments of man and cattle. Besides, they increase and further the healing power of other herbs.

To assist in understanding the therapeutic contributions of the formula ingredients, following is a table of terms used in the herbal literature to describe the actions of herbs.

TERMS USED TO DESCRIBE THE ACTION OF HERBS