Lovage or Levisticum officinale is a herb native to the Mediterranean region of southern Europe. Lovage has an ancient history. It was introduced into Britain by the Romans and brought here by early English colonists. Lovage is also known as sea parsley, and the leaves and stem of the lovage plant ...

Mugwort is the cousin of Wormwood and St John's Wort. In medieval times people used mugwort to make a beer called "gruit" and the beer was drunk from a mug and it seems likely that this is the reason mugwort is called this. 'Wort' means plant, herb or root in old English. It is also a native ...

Slippery elm (scientifically known as 'Ulmus rubra' and native to eastern North  America) is an elm with coarsely textured leaves and a rough outer bark. Here is some surprising info that will certainly interest you to pick some up on your next health-food store visit. Read on for our Top 5 Health ...

Camu Camu or Myrciaria dubia is a sour cherry-size fruit that grows on small bushy trees on the banks of rivers in South America, particularly in Peru and Brazil and is now cultivated in Japan too. It has been used traditionally for hundreds of years by the Amazonian Indians, as food, pain reliever ...

Lion's mane mushroom, or the bearded hedgehog, is a medicinal, parasitic fungus found in North America, China, Japan and Europe. With the most common species being Hericium erinaceus, this mushroom comes under the 'nootropic' (i.e., smart drug and cognitive accelerator) group of foods having been ...

Tamarind is a sticky, fleshy, pulpy fruit with a sweet and tangy taste that grows within brown pods. It’s been a widely used spice-condiment staple in the South-Asian kitchen for thousands of years. However, the fruit is not only used for culinary purposes, but also for medical ones thanks to its ...

I’m a big advocate of the Mediterranean diet simply because it’s both nutritious and delicious. Whilst olive oil and tomatoes may spring to mind, pomegranates are also integral to Mediterranean cooking, yet they receive little attention here in the UK. A type of berry, they consist of an inedible ...

Another of the major league medicinal mushrooms, reishi or 'Ganoderma lucidum', is native to several regions across Asia, such as Korea, China and Japan and can currently be found growing on hardwood trees worldwide in tropical and subtropical climates. "Reishi" is the Japanese word for this ...

October, my favourite month. It’s a chance to indulge your inner child by crunching through fallen leaves on your walk to work and carving pumpkins for Halloween (interesting we have a particularly orangey sky in the UK today) somewhat of a tradition in my household. Now is also the time when I ...

Potentially the most powerful member of the fungi kingdom, the chaga mushroom or 'Inonotus obliquus', contains possibly the greatest medicinal properties of all herbs. It's a parasitic but also symbiotic fungus that grows primarily on birch trees in cool climates and has been used for its profound ...