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| The Preparation of Herbal Medicines |
| From a therapeutic perspective, the basic way of using herbs is to take them internally since it is from within that healing takes place. The ways of preparing internal remedies are numerous, but with all of them it is essential to take care with the process to ensure you end up with what you want. |
| Teas |
| There are two ways to prepare teas: infusions and decoctions. There are some basic rules of thumb for choosing which method to use with what herb, but as with all generalizations, there are many exceptions. |
| Infusions are for nonwoody material such as leaves, flowers and some stems. |
| Decoctions are necessary if the herb contains any hard or woody material such as roots, barks or nuts. The denser the plant or the individual cell walls, the more energy is needed to extract cell content into the tea, thus explaining the value of decocting. An important exception would be |
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