The Budding Botanist: Materia Medica

Making your own Materia Medica!

What is a Materia Medica?
-A comprehensive guide to the medicinal/therapeutic effects of a substance. In this case Medicinal Herbs.

What you'll need to create your own Materia Medica binder:

A Binder, preferably with a place to place to slide in a cover.
A color printer, or a place nearby to have lots of paper printed, such as a Staples
Dividers (Preferably ones where you can place tabs in the slots)
Sheet Protectors--Regular and recipe card pockets* (Optional, but really useful for keeping everything neat)
Paper and Card Stock (The card stock is for the recipe cards)
A pen or pencil for filling in information.
The print outs provided here (In beautiful full color. ;D )
(Optional if not using Sheet Protectors) A 3-hole punch
(Important!) Sources of information such as books or credible online sources (Best if they are newer than 2010)

*Recipe pocket sheet protectors tend to be more expensive then regular sheet protectors. You may want to make your own divided sheet protectors. Here's an Instructables tutorial on how to do that: Divide Your Page Protectors

Starting off I like to organize mine as:
      1. Herbal Information (Preferably in Alphabetical Order for easy finding)
      2. Body Systems
(a) Nervous System
              (b) Liver System
              (c) Respiratory System
              (d) Urinary Tract
              (e) Female Reproductive
              (f) Male Reproductive
              (g) Digestive System
              (h) Immune System
      3. Ailments & Illnesses (Information on common Ailments & Illnesses)
      4. Recipes (Your favorite herbal recipes)
      5. Preparations (Information on different kinds of herbal preparations)
      6. Notes (Extra notes on herbs, preparations, illnesses, etc.)

So here are the print outs for the Binder Cover and Dividers:
Materia Medica Binder Cover
Materia Medica Dividers

The dividers are a little out of order but are meant to be cut out anyway, all the art on the sides was done by me as well. I correlated an herb that helps each body system with the correlating body system:
(a) Nervous System → Ginko
(b) Liver System → Milk Thistle
(c) Respiratory System → Eucalyptus
(d) Urinary Tract → Cranberry
(e) Female Reproductive → Maca Root
(f) Male Reproductive → Saw Palmetto
(g) Digestive System → Dandelion
(h) Immune System → Echinacea

The 'Materia Medica' tab is just an optional aesthetic tab to put in front of the 'Herbs A-Z' or replace that tab if you so wish.

If you can't find proper dividers with place to put the tabs a good option is to laminate the tabs and then either tape them (Preferably with clear packing tape or clear duct tape *Scotch brand is good*) or glue them to a divider page, such as a sheet protector with a title page or just a piece of cut-to-fit construction paper.

Now that you have your dividers and your cover you'll need a good template for information to put in each. Luckily I have one here:

A page for herbal information:
Herbal Care Sheet

This herbal information sheet contains places to write in herbal information to place in your Herbs A-Z sections. It has a place for dosages, information on growing and wild crafting, and of course the highly important sources section where you can pencil in where you got your herbal information. It also has a place to place a picture of the herbs which you can either draw and paste or print a photo of and paste.

I suggest printing around 50 or so (Which is why a place with a copy center like Staples comes in handy.) Writing out the information for each herb will help you learn them faster. However if you are really worried about illegible handwriting I have a .docx file that you can edit in word or google docs to put in the information.
Herbal Care Sheet.docx

Please don't delete my copyright at the bottom.

Next is the Body Systems page, you'll only need 1 per system so 8 (You can print out more if you want to do individual organs within that system.)
Body Systems Care Sheet

And the .docx file for your word editor (Again, please do not remove the copyright at the bottom.):
Body Systems Care Sheet.docx

Once we have all the body systems down we can begin on our next section which is Ailments & Illnesses:
Ailments and Illnesses Care Sheet

And the .docx file:
Ailments and Illnesses.docx

Now the fun part, the recipes. You can find special page protectors that are made to fit recipe cards and I suggest it unless you have a recipe box you can sacrifice specifically for herbal recipes. I personally like to keep everything together and have found it's a lot easier to find what you need.

I have made some different colored recipe cards you can use to better organize, green for teas, blue for salves, red for tinctures, etc. organize them however you'd like:
Herbal Recipe Card -- Green
Herbal Recipe Card -- Blue
Herbal Recipe Card -- Red
Herbal Recipe Card -- Purple
Herbal Recipe Card -- Yellow

If you want to save paper I also have a .docx file containing all the colors, two to a page:
Herbal Recipe Cards.docx

Now that we have your favorite recipes down we can move on to an important part of making herbal remedies at home, the preparations! The preparations page should include how to make Salves, Tinctures, Infusions, Decoctions, Poultice and Compresses, and if you're really feeling advanced... Essential Oils, Capsules, and Tablets. There are others as well that you can look into, just make sure the sources are legitimate and you watch your dosage carefully, it will be different for each herb.

For the preparation sheet, I suggest at least 6 pages for each of the easier preparations, and if you plan to do research for the harder ones go ahead and print out 10 in case there's another preparation you find and would like to try.
Here it is:
Preparations Sheet
Preparations Sheet.docx

Finally we have the very last page to finish off our Materia Medica, the Notes page, put here any extra notes you have about any processes, herbs, ailments and illnesses, or general botany notes you believe will help you or anyone reading your Materia Medica.
Notes
Notes.docx

How much to print off of each (For 1 Binder):
Binder Cover -- 1
Binder Dividers -- 1
Herbal Care Sheet -- 50
Body Systems Care Sheet -- 8 (One for each system)
Ailments & Illnesses Care Sheet -- 10 (At least)
Recipe Cards -- 10-30 (Depending on how many recipes you want/can find)
Preparation Care Sheets -- 6-10 (One for each type of preparation)
Notes -- 5-10 (Depending on how many you think you might need.)
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Special Links for different kinds of Recipes:
Herbal Recipes --Practical Herbalist
Herbal Remedies -- Learning Herbs
Herbal Recipes -- Annie's Remedy
Herbal Recipes -- Herbal Remedies Info

Books for Herbal Information and Recipes:

Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health : - See more at: http://www.bulkapothecary.com/product/make-it/soap-making/books/rosemary-gladstars-herbal-recipes-for-vibrant-health-175-teas-tonics-oils-salves-tinctures-and-other-natural-remedies/?kpid=book-st62078&gclid=Cj0KEQjwhuqrBRCFuPz4ipOx5JIBEiQAZJ7F-hd0p-AXP3OiC0FZywAg33f2vSlwDw-kwfCwQlrFgSwaAgx88P8HAQ#sthash.eQh8nVGC.dpuf

Rosemary Gladstar's Recipes for Vibrant Health -- Buy it on Amazon

Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide -- Buy it on Amazon

The Herb Book: The Most Complete Catalog of Herbs Ever Published by John Lust -- Buy it on Amazon

Prepper's Natural Medicine by Cat Ellis -- Buy it Amazon

The Practical Herbal Medicine Handbook -- Buy on Amazon

If you don't like buying online, look in the New Age or Alternative Health section in your local bookstore or library. Try to make sure books/magazines/etc. are from a credible source (Science/medical journal, books by well received authors or large companies such as National Geographic) try to get books published 2010+ these will be the most likely to have the most up to date and correct information.

Links for Information:
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
MedPlus (National Library of Medicine)
University of Maryland Medical Center

Important: Use all Medicinal Herbs wisely! Watch dosages CAREFULLY and make sure your sources are credible. Meaning trusted and respected. The more reliable your source the safer and healthier your preparations and dosages will be. So stay safe!

~Lindsey Shemwell (The Budding Botanist)

The Budding Botanist

Materia Medica

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