Botanical medicine is something that I am personally very interested in. In the past, I educated myself on herbs because of my deep interest. I made various plant medicines, such as tinctures, water and oil infusions, syrups, decoctions and spice blends. I have also enjoyed making herbal salves, lip balms, lotion bars and tea blends. I have personally taken on the perspective that learning how to carry out these processes comes in handy for several things, such as gaining general familiarity, engaging in hands-on learning and simply enjoying an extremely relaxing hobby. I remember how much of a creative flow I got into while engaging in my herbal creative projects. 

However, since beginning naturopathic medicine school, I have stopped making my own herbal products even though I have been learning about herbs in my classes. But I have definitely come up with some ideas and projects that I would like to engage in, either during breaks—or at this point—maybe after graduation in December!

Herbal projects aside, I have luckily been able to exercise some of my herbal creativity this trimester in the Advanced Naturopathic Botanical Prescribing course. In this course, we have been focusing on creating patient-specific botanical tincture prescriptions that have been individually formulated for patient cases. I have been enjoying the opportunity to ponder about the herbs I have learned so far, think about their effects, indications, contraindications and specific pharmacology. I have enjoyed making 100ml botanical tincture prescriptions that fit the patient cases that we are provided. I also appreciate getting feedback on my herbal selection, dosage, safety and overall synergy of the botanical tincture.

I realize that my old hobby of herbal medicine projects is far from over. In fact, I am quite sure that my experiences and learnings at NUHS will result in future herbal projects that incorporate my naturopathic medicine training. I cannot wait until I finally get a chance to get back into my creative hobby again!

For more information about botanical gardening and medicine, check out NUHS Botanical Garden Expands and Exam Week is Done & A Dive Into Botanical Medicine.

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