Meghan Rhodes MCPP MAPA

The Best Medicinal Herbs to Have on Hand According to a Qualified Herbalist

There’s a lot of noise online when it comes to figuring out what the best medicinal herbs to have on hand for your family are. So take a deep breath and a step back from the scroll and take a moment with me - a qualified herbal medicine practitioner, director of a school of herbal medicine and mother who is her family’s go-to for supporting our health exclusively with herbs - as I take you through some important considerations when deciding the best medicinal herbs to have on hand for your family.

best medicinal herbs to have on hand

1. The Best Medicinal Herbs to Have on Hand Depend on Your Family’s Needs

Yes, there are the common first aid herbs for cuts, scrapes and bug bites and the classic combinations for supporting a healthy fever, but beyond that, your go-tos will largely depend on your family’s specific needs.

Some families are phlegmy, with everyone always coming down with chesty colds, sinus infections, ear aches and green mucous. The best medicinal herbs for them to have on hand will be different from a family who gets lots of tummy bugs, bloating, upset stomachs, constipation, etc.

So focus on your family’s needs. You already know what they are. And don’t worry about stocking up on the recommendations of every other person on social media claiming to be a herbalist. You wouldn’t stock your kitchen with foods your family doesn’t eat, so why stock your cupboards with herbs your family doesn’t need?

2. The Best Medicinal Herbs to Have on Hand Are Local to You

There are so many beautiful herbal books to access. (I always recommend ones that have been around for at least a few decades to my students over newer ones, as these are more likely to be written by longstanding, credible herbal medicine practitioners.) That being said, the world of medicinal plants is vast. You may find a herbalist you love, but who is based in a specific part of the US, for example, so her top recommendations are herbs local to her, but which we don’t necessarily have in abundance here in the UK.

An important component of herbal medicine is having sovereignty over your health and working together with the rest of nature. So whilst you may have a favourite herb or two from further afield (and that’s ok!), it’s worth building deep relationships and understanding with plants that naturally grow near you, or which you can grow yourself. This means you don’t have to rely on supply chains to access them. Rather, you can focus on paying attention to the rhythms of the rest of nature around you, noticing when something is in abundance and making a point of harvesting appropriately and storing that herb for a year when there may not be as much of it available.

Nature always provides us with what we need, we just need to watch, listen and respond.

3. The Best Medicinal Herbs to Have on Hand Are the Ones You Know Well

Each medicinal herb has an incredible range of ways it can support us, yet they tend to get pigeon-holed into being ‘good for’ one specific thing or another. Experienced herbalists like myself will always advise - instead of getting to know one thing about twenty herbs, get to know twenty things about one herb. Why?

Knowing a herb in-depth means you need to have fewer herbs on hand because you can swap, substitute and generally be more flexible with what you have. You’ll save space and money keeping a small set of core herbs, rather than stocking 100 herbs you don’t know much about. This also means you’ll have less waste, as those herbs you don’t know as well will hardly get used before they lose their potency. It also means it’s easier to keep track of when you’re low on something and need to stock up, so you don’t get caught without something you need. When your child is poorly now, even 24-hour delivery isn’t fast enough.

The other reason to work with herbs you know well is safety. Herbs are medicine and herbs are potent. Get to know a core set of plants that meet your family’s needs, both from the perspective of what sorts of things they tend to come down with, as well as what is safe for them. Chamomile is one of the most versatile herbs, as well as one of the safest, but if your family happens to be allergic to it, it’s not one for you to have to hand! Likewise, if someone is on prescription medication that doesn’t pair well with a particular herb, you’ll want to know that and avoid working with that herb.

Learning medicinal herbs and how to work with them takes time to build a relationship with them in order to really integrate them into your daily life and have herbalism be your go-to means of support for your family. Memorising a tick list of facts isn’t going to get you there, nor is grabbing ad hoc at plants you don’t really know much about, other than that they’re included in someone else’s recipe.

4. Remember, Medicinal Herbs Are Not ‘Green’ Pills

Yes, part of working with medicinal herbs is to ensure that what you’re supporting your family’s health with is natural and not harmful; however, another big part of herbalism is having resilience and autonomy over your own health, replacing worry with confidence, replacing panic with skills that are muscle memory. We all have to start somewhere on our herbal journeys, but if you stay in the early stages of thinking about medicinal herbs as ‘green’ pills you can just swap for allopathic medicines and use the same way (e.g. to suppress a fever or stop a headache without exploring and addressing the root cause) or if you get stuck in having to run to your reference books for someone else’s recipe for a wet cough or a stomach bug without knowing the herbs and why they’re in there, yourself, you won’t have unlocked the freedom herbal medicine can offer you and your family.

Think of it like cooking - do you want to have to rely on recipes and make sure you always do a shop for very specific ingredients to only use for each recipe, which can leave you stuck on a night when you’re missing something? Or do you want to understand how to cook different types of dishes, what sorts of ingredients you’d want to use, but also how you can easily make substitutions, adjustments, change the flavour a bit to suit your mood? Being restricted to someone else’s recipes and herbs is reliance. Being able to create your own recipes in the moment when you need them, flexing with substitutions for what you have on hand that will be just as effective is resilience.

So if you’re wondering what the best medicinal herbs to have on hand are for your family, instead of stocking up on someone else’s list, keep these important points in mind. First, focus on herbs that meet your family’s needs - what are the common things your family needs for support? Second, look to the herbs local to you, ones you can grow and forage, rather than ones from further afield just because they’re another herbalist’s favourite. Whichever herbs you choose, get to know them really well, so you can work with them consistently, effectively and safely. Finally, remember working with medicinal herbs means taking a different approach to supporting health, one that will grow your autonomy and resilience, rather than have you swapping ‘green’ pills for allopathic ones.


If you’re here in the UK, you’re very welcome to take the next step on your journey learning herbal medicine with us on our intensive herbalism course - Awaken Herbal Wisdom - which spans all four seasons. With up to three years of development available, our course gets herbalism both deep into your bones and your daily life. Although it is intense, it’s suitable for a wide range of herbalists, including budding family herbalists! You can learn more about our herbal medicine course here. Be sure to join our mailing list to see what the current cohorts are up to and get first access to the coming year's cohorts or enrol for the current year before it begins while places are available.

Whatever the next step exploring courses in natural medicine, I hope you enjoy the journey!

At Rhodes Roots & Remedies School of Herbal Medicine, our practice of herbalism is rooted in the belief that we must remember, reclaim and relearn our knowledge of our bodies, our autonomy and how to work with plant medicine in order to bring control of our own health back into our families and homes for a sustainable future for ourselves and the planet. Through our intensive herbalism course, we facilitate the development of confident, empowered herbalists, attuned to the messages of their bodies and the natural world. Living the deep wisdom of herbal medicine within themselves, their homes and their communities, they uplift themselves and others, creating a stronger society organically. We do hope you'll join us on your journey!

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