Below are a list of web links which horse people should find of interest in acquiring hard-to-find herbs and accessories. Note, I am of the philosophy that in most cases (there are important exceptions), medicinal herbs which can be harvested locally, picked fresh during the proper growth stage, and processed under proper procedures are the best and most potent to use. The herbalist is always taking large risks when he buys from the general mass health food stores, discount chains, and even many speciality herb houses. They will often obtain herbs that were not harvested properly, stored optimally, and processed correctly. Many herbs will be imported from third world countries that use huge amounts of pesticides and herbicides to grow their crops. Many of these foreign crops are not stored or shipped properly to these shores. Many herb shipments are routinely irradiated upon arrival to the USA. It is always best to do everything, one's self. Of course, in a modern society, this is often too time consuming or the herb that is needed cannot be had locally. Suppliers do offer valuable sources for medicinal herbs that cannot be easily had. Just be very careful who you buy from.
One should be aware that many times, Herbal Medicine does not work because of low quality herbs. Dr. Schulze is known for his classic example of comparing homemade Echinacea and lobelia tinctures to that which may be purchased on the commercial markets. A potent Lobelia inflata tincture should impart to your throat a scratchy sensation. It is almost impossible to get this desired sensation of strength from store bought Lobelia tinctures. They are far too watered down to give therapeutic value to any treatment. Same would hold true for Echinacea, placing this potent herb in the mouth should give the taster, a numbing, tingling sensation. Try getting this proper effect from many store bought Echinacea products-few can stand up to this type of potency test.
The below suppliers generally seem to deal in high class herbs with perhaps the exception of Ameri-herb. I list Ameri-herb because it is an alternative to the more expensive herb houses and I have personally puchased from them, but Ameri-herb does seem to deal in cheaper third world herbal products. Just be aware that Herbal Medicine cannot heal without potent plants.
AmeriHerb, Inc .........................I have puchased many of my bulk herbs from this company for years. For topical herbs used in liniments, poultices, etc, they have proven to be a reasonalbe source. An example would be: Pau d'Arco bark at $4.30/pound, Kava root at $13.60/pound, etc. They are at P.O. Box 1968, Ames, Iowa 50010-1968. Phone orders: 1-800-267-6141.
Pacific Botanicals .................... a high class operation, delivering potent bulk herbs.
Herbal Advantage, Inc ............another mail order house said to deal with excellent potent herbs.
Blessed Herbs ............................... online mailorder house.
Mountain Rose Herbs ......................... appears to be a first rate herbal supplier.
Starwest . . . . . . . . . a very high quality supplier, but they only deal wholesale to professionals and other large volume buyers. A tax number will be needed when ordering. Prices seem competitive.
As you may gather from my website here, I am not likely to fall for hype from commercial herbal or other alternative medical companies, spending a lot of dollars for supplementation that is mostly marked-up because of promotional hyperbole. I am a believer in doing it yourself and saving money! I have been studying alternative medicine for 25+ years and I only do two daily. One is 6 grams of liposomal Vitamin C daily which I make myself and you can read about on this page. The second is a modified Budwig Protocol where I take 30 grams of a high linoleic seed oil, like safflower seed along with 10 grams of a high linolenic oil, like Flax oil. A total of 40 grams of oil mixed in 80 grams of cottage cheese every day. Because these seed oils are so prone to going rancid and because when you buy them commercially, they may very likely be rancid, I press my own fresh. Both of these procedures for me has vastly improved my health, but they do require some investment in tools to make, but you end up saving a lot of dollars in the long run. One needs an ultrasonic cleaner for the lipo-C and a good seed press for the fresh oils. Such machine investment may seem like a lot, but how much is good health worth, really?
I consider the above seed press one of the best investments anyone interested in health could make! I bought one after dealing with those cheap Chinese presses for years while pressing my own whole flax seed into medicinal flax oil. Pressing it yourself is really the only way to get the freshest seed oil because buying commercially, it will often will be rancid or going rancid. The best test for rancidity of these high PUFA seed oils is taste. If it tastes the least bit off or bad, it is rancid! I bought this model NF-80 seed press from SARAS LLC (Cold Press Oil Tech.com) which is the USA distributor for the Turkish manufacturer, Karaerler. They are about half the price of similar presses made in Europe. My inquiry to the company produced a quick response and we soon made a deal for me to purchase one of their NF-80 seed presses. Amazingly, that press arrived at O'Hare in Chicago from Turkey within 5 days of payment though I understand they do have models in stock here in the USA. They wanted me to have the latest model. If you are considering a useful, more sophisticated press, check them out!
