The Bioregulatory Medicine Institute | Author Lanny Kaufer
Medicinal Herbs of California: A Field Guide to Common Healing Plants is intended to shine a light on the largely overlooked Indigenous plant medicines of California.
After compiling a list of 200 plants, native and non-native, known to have historical uses either in California or wherever they grew before being introduced to California, author Lanny Kaufer whittled the list down to 70 that met these criteria:
• Sufficient evidence of Indigenous medicinal use of the plant
• Sufficient modern scientific validation of its Indigenous uses
• Growing wild on California trails in sufficient numbers to justify small-scale, sustainable collecting
• Not already thoroughly covered in similar books
The book introduces the principles of herbal remedies and guides readers through identifying, harvesting, cultivating, processing, and incorporating more than 70 locally abundant medicinal plants into daily life. It includes many color photos and detailed descriptions of each medicinal herb, including its common and scientific names, where it's found, identifying characteristics, conservation status, interesting lore, and recipes to put its botanical healing power to work.
Unlike any other field guide on the market, this one includes over 300 citations to books and journal articles that Kaufer sourced for the information. After publication Kaufer created a hyperlinked bibliography on his website, HerbWalks.com, to help readers annoyed by the inconvenience of manually transferring URLs character-by-character from the printed bibliography in a book into a web browser.
For anyone interested in herbal medicine, California native plants, or sustainable foraging, Medicinal Herbs of California is an essential and practical resource. Whether you are a beginner looking to explore plant-based healing or an experienced herbalist seeking deeper knowledge, this book provides a well-researched and accessible guide to the medicinal plants of the region. Highly recommended for nature enthusiasts, foragers, and anyone curious about the healing power of plants.
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Bioregulatory medicine is a total body (and mind) approach to health and healing that aims to help facilitate and restore natural human biological processes. It is a proven, safe, gentle, highly effective, drugless, and side-effect-free medical model designed to naturally support the body to regulate, adapt, regenerate, and self-heal. BRMI is a non-commercial 501(c)(3) foundation and will expand and flourish with your support. Our goal is to make bioregulatory medicine a household term.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for the direct care of a qualified health practitioner who oversees and provides unique and individualized care. The information provided here is to broaden our different perspectives and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.