Leslie Kenton Healing Herbs

The demand for clear, practical, thoroughly researched information on herbs has never been greater. Throughout history we have made allies of herbs and plants - we have cooked with them, healed with them, beautified and sanctified with them - yet modern urban life has robbed us of the knowledge of herbs that was second nature to our great-grandmothers. This book provides an authoritative guide to using herbs, presenting practical, easy to use information gleaned from years of personal experience and travel around the world. All the photographs in the book taken by Leslie herself using macro techniques.

From the cover HEALING HERBS by LESLIE KENTON

Science now validates many traditional uses of herbs. Here Leslie links modern analysis and discovery to traditional practices. For instance, the flowers of St John's Wort - Hypericum perforatum - have been used for thousands of years to ease anxiety and depression. Recent research indicates that this herb can be as effective as Prozac - yet without the side effects of drugs.

Leslie introduces you to her passionate, personal relationship with plants - how she gathers them and prepares them, how she uses them for healing and calls on them for beauty. The book includes clear instructions on making your own remedies - from infusions to tinctures. You will find an effective Herbal Detox program as well as a range of strategies for avoiding colds and flu, plus fabulous ideas for beating the blues and looking great. She even includes herbal first aid for everything from headaches to hayfever.

Leslie's intimate understanding of herbs led her to photograph them for this book. The result is a visually stunning display which invites the reader to share the beauty and sacred nature of these extraordinary plants and to rediscover their own personal relationship with herbs. This book leads you on a wonderful journey and invites you along the way to celebrate the magic of plant power.

Extract HEALING HERBS by LESLIE KENTON

For more than a million years our ancestors have lived with herbs. They cooked with them, healed with them, scented their bodies and sanctified their prayers with them. On a molecular level, the human body recognizes a herb when we take it. Discover the nature of a specific plant. It will enhance your life immeasurably. In a very real sense you can come to know a herb the way a woman knows her lover. When the spirit of a plant meets the spirit of a human expect magic. You won’t be disappointed.

My passion for herbs began when I discovered the help they could bring me and my family. Simple plants like nettle or golden rod (Solidago virgauria) have a natural cleansing and diuretic effect on the body. Traveling on airplanes my ankles would swell up. I discovered when I made a cup of golden rod or nettle tea the swelling would vanish. Fascinated, I began to read about what herbs can do for the immune system. I started to experiment with plants like goldenseal and echinacea, burdock and shiitake mushrooms. My family took them whenever any of us threatened to come down with flu or a cold. And, provided we took them in time, a single herb or a combination of plants would usually clear the discomfort before the full force of illness hit. A doctor friend, Gordon Latto, taught me that gargling with red sage and sticking a clove of garlic in its ‘paper’ shell in between the teeth and the inside of the mouth for a few hours a day would clear a sore throat and nip throat infections in the bud. Another doctor, Philip Kilsby, taught me the power of detoxification for balancing the body and mind. Meanwhile I developed a close friendship with Dr Dagmar Liechti von Brasch in Switzerland. DR Liechti, niece of the famous Swiss physician Max Bircher Benner ran the Bircher-Benner clinic for 40 years after his death. She taught me all about using herbs to handle women’s problems from PMS to menopausal symptoms.

Before long I began to wonder just how many other remarkable things plants could do for us. I was lucky enough to spend time with the famous Russian scientist I.I. Brekhman, expert in adaptogenic herbs whose research gained him the Lenin Prize for Science. From Brekhman I learned special plants such as ginseng, astragalus, and eleuthrococcus - Siberian Ginseng - strengthen a person’s ability to resist illness. They also make it possible for us to work (and play) longer and harder without experiencing the negative effects of prolonged stress.

That was more than twenty years ago. Ever since I have used herbs and flowers, fresh raw juices and vegetables, water and tender loving care to help the body protect itself from illness, to heal a sickness when it strikes, to calm an agitated mind, to induce slumber when unable to sleep, to clear depression – even to intensify the whitish-blond color of my hair and care for my skin. I have also used herbs to decorate my house and to sanctify my working space. Finally I have fallen in love with photographing them.

Throughout history we have made allies of plants. Traditionally it was the wise woman of the village to whom we went for help when a love-spell was wanted to secure a bond, when a child’s fever needed quenching, when pain cried out to be soothed, or solace was sought for a soul in grief. According to archaeologists, this love affair between humans and plants goes back somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 years – maybe more.

The classic definition of a herb is a non-woody plant which dies down to its roots each winter. Such a description is far too limiting. It was probably made up by 19^th Century botanists who had never heard if, let alone seen, the rainforest in which there is no winter for anything to die back in. Neither would they have ever heard of woody trees and shrubs such as hawthorn and ginko and elder which are some of the best selling herbs on the market these days. I define a herb quite simply as a medicinal plant. It can come from any climate and be a leaf, a bark, a flower or a root. It can be homegrown or wild, a weed, a spice, a plant which is used for its healing or culinary or beautifying properties.