Wednesday 10 January 2018

Cannabis sativa my personal story with this Herb


Cannabis sativa- An overview of the medicine and my personal relationship with the herb.
by Haskel Adamson

Published in 'The Herbalist' Journal vol.10, NO.2, Autumn 2017

In this article, I will give an overview of the recent use of Cannabis sativa as a plant medicine.
Much of the research work done on Cannabis, is by pharmaceutical research agencies who are prone to isolating chemicals within the plant, and this does not always gel with the way many herbalists prefer to work. As a herbalist, I see the limitations of isolated extracts and standardized herbal products. However, in the case of Cannabis, the picture is complicated by the legal status of the plant, and its use as a psychoactive recreational drug and its psychoactive effect as a medicinal plant. Removing the psychoactive component has enabled to plant to be considered to have greater potential therapeutically. It is sometimes suggested to me by patients that it is the non-psychoactive parts that are the medicinal part. This is not true, and the picture is much more complex, which I will try and explain in this article. 
In the five years that I studied Herbal Medicine at university, Cannabis was only mentioned twice as a medicine. Once in my Middlesex Chinese Medicine course the seeds were mentioned as a bulk laxative for the elderly. At Westminster University’s Western Herbalism course the pressed seed oil was mentioned as something to add to creams. These applications both use hemp, which is Cannabis sativa, mostly grown on a field scale for seeds (hemp oil), and fibre for clothes, paper, building materials and recently to process into CBD oil.
The other forms of Cannabis sativa grown for their medicinal flowers, are also known as Cannabis sativa (indica). These contain currently illegal amounts of the cannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). This psychoactive form of the herb can be differentiated botanically into Indica, Sativa or Ruderalis depending on their growth patterns. Traditionally Indicas and Sativas have been thought to produce different cerebral effects. Indica are short and squat plants usually grown in temperate regions in a shorter growing season. Their effects are more sedating and relaxing. Cannabis sativa growing generally closer to the equator, with a longer season, is taller (closer in form to Hemp), and its effects are more stimulating cerebrally, hence more anti-depressant but more likely to cause anxiety. Many strains grown today are hybrids of indica/sativa, and combine the growth characteristics and cerebral effects of the two. The difference between Hemp (Cannabis sativa) and Cannabis grown for the medicinal flowers (Indica/Sativa) is one of selective breeding, over millennia, and that flowers do not produce many Cannabinoids (e.g. THC / CBD) in colder climates such as the UK.
It is surprising, that Cannabis sativa (indica) wasn't mentioned in the herbal degrees I studied on, as it was prescribed by doctors in the UK from the 1840’s up until 1971.
Irish physician William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, who had studied the drug while working as a medical officer in Bengal with the East India company, brought a quantity of cannabis with him on his return to Britain in 1842. A plethora of medical papers were published on the drug right through the Victorian age. Queen Victoria’s personal physician published several these, which is why it is presumed that Victoria may have been prescribed it. As alkaloids were isolated and synthesized in the early twentieth century, Cannabis quickly became unfashionable drug to use. Having a non-alkaloid mode of action, it could not be standardized, and it gathered a reputation as a drug of recreational use.

California has this year voted to legalise Cannabis, as a recreational drug/herb. It has been legal for 20 years in California as a medicine. This means that if a patient has a condition that fits the list of known diseases that are eased by the herb, then they can take their prescription card into any Cannabis dispensary and choose a strain of herb, dispensed in dry herb form, tincture, oil, topical products and dermal patches. The range of conditions it can be prescribed for are: Anxiety, Arthritis, Cancer, Chemotherapy Side Effects, Chronic Pain, Depression, Fibromyalgia, Glaucoma, HIV-AIDS, Migraine Headaches, Multiple Sclerosis, Radiation Therapy Side Effects. And, “any other chronic or persistent medical symptom that substantially limits the ability of the person to conduct one or more major life activities (as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990) or, if not alleviated, may cause serious harm to the patient's safety or physical or mental health.” 
The herb is now legal for medicinal use in over half of the states in the USA, and nearly half of the countries in the EU.
 It is currently legally prescribed in the UK, licensed as the drug Sativex. Prescribed for spasticity in Multiple Sclerosis, it is also available on private prescription for neuropathic pain, when other drugs are not sufficiently helping.  GW pharmaceuticals who manufacture Sativex, are also developing Cannabis based drugs and are running stage 2 clinical trials for childhood epilepsy and schizophrenia. Stage 3 trials for Glioma (rare malignant brain tumour). These are not synthesized compounds of the herb but isolated extracts, either a 1:1 THC: CBD ratio for Sativex and Glioma, or pure CBD for epilepsy and schizophrenia.
 The breadth of clinical applications for Cannabis is huge. A wealth of scientific research has been done on the herb and its isolated cannabinoids for over 160 years. The International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) has been organising annual conferences since 1990. For an idea of the wealth of scientific papers dedicated to his herb look at https://grannystormcrowslist.wordpress.com/ . Collated by a retired nurse it is a work of great dedication. There are many 1000’s of medical studies listed.
So, you may be asking, “How can this psychoactive plant have benefit for childhood epilepsy and schizophrenia, when a known side effect of Cannabis use is Psychosis?” This is possible because the main active constituents of Cannabis - the Cannabinoids - can be isolated or concentrated, either in a laboratory, or by plant breeding techniques. The term skunk comes from selective plant breeding, resulting in a flower with high levels of the psychoactive Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and corresponding low levels of the calming and antipsychotic Cannabidiol (CBD). Most of the flowers grown in the UK for the recreational market fit this skunk pattern.  Wild grown strains are more likely to have a more balanced THC/ CBD ratio. Some plant breeders in decriminalised countries are increasing levels of CBD into the plants, particularly for the medical market. Medical users in the UK who grow their own medicine are doing the same.  CBD can also be extracted from non-psychoactive hemp plants, grown in the UK and globally. This is legally sold in the UK, and quality varies dramatically, including the amount of CBD found in the same volume of medicine. E.g. 30mg of CBD might be found in 10 ml of the CBD oil, and in another product 1000mg of CBD could be found in 10 ml of the oil. CBD can also be extracted from the flowers of certain selectively bred plants which have very high levels of CBD and low (but illegal levels of THC). These are considered superior to Hemp based CBD products because they also contain the essential oils found in the flowers, of non-hemp flowers which are considered to create an entourage effect with the cannabinoids and be therapeutically superior. But these CBD flower based products are not readily available in the UK because the legal limit for THC is so low (0.05%), and not many European suppliers have the technology to extract the THC out of the products, to allow them to be legal. Many patients would also wish to not have any THC in their products. Therefore, Hemp based CBD proliferates the European markets.  CBD from Hemp based products is extracted from the whole plant grown on a field scale. A paste is extracted which contains roughly 8-12% CBD and this can be further processed or diluted into a carrier oil. As hemp is a bio-accumulator it is imperative that hemp based CBD comes from organic agriculture,
There are 113 different cannabinoids found in the plant. THC and CBD are the most abundant and the most researched.
THC or its precise isomer (−)-trans-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is the most studied cannabinoid. It is a partial agonist of CB1 receptors in the brain and CB2 receptors in the body.
 It is particularly used for neuropathic pain, increasing appetite, reducing muscle spasm. Reducing the side effects of chemotherapy including neurological damage associated with it.  Since 1975, Munson AE (et al) have showed through animal testing the Anti-neoplastic activity of THC and other cannabinoids. It has taken up to now for a drug company to evaluate the herb in clinical trials, because of negative political pressure on academic institutions. Only four universities in the UK are allowed to study Cannabis. 
THC containing cannabis however useful is a strong medicine. It is not suited to all patients. It has the potential for a range of side effects. Titration is necessary for patients who are not experienced in the use of the herb, in order to avoid side effects. The side effects include: anxiety, abstract or philosophical thinking, disruption of linear memory, paranoia, dry mouth, auditory and visual hallucinations at high doses. These side effects are much less likely to happen when equal amounts of CBD are found in the cannabis used or added to the THC strain used. Although some patients will find the herb a panacea, and not notice any side effects; other will not be able to tolerate the side effects.


 Obviously, THC does not always induce side effects, its popularity as a recreational drug is based on its euphoric and sensory enhancing properties. The fact that it is both calming and stimulating, puts it potentially into the category of psychedelic; that it alters cognition and sensory perception. As a psychedelic, many people who have never tried it before may struggle at first with the altered state of consciousness it brings. Therefore, patients are most likely to use it only if they have a serious and chronic health condition and if they have tried all other options.
Many people who use the herb recreationally, especially those who have used it for many decades, could be said to be using it medicinally, whether to relax, sleep, reduce period pain, other pain, or to be in another place from normal, the same way people use alcohol. Other recreational / medical users can be seen as using the herb in an unhealthily dependent way, where they avoid reality by constantly using the herb. Many medical users feel stigmatized for their use of the herb, particularly in countries where it remains illegal, and a cultural and political stigma around its use prevails.

CBD oil has become a popular extract of the herb in the UK and around the world. Its miraculous benefits in childhood epilepsy are a major factor for the decriminalization of the herb in the USA. Although the market for it is full of businesses jumping on the bandwagon of the latest herbal panacea, it is used successfully for a range of conditions, such as epilepsy, anxiety, reducing the side effects of conventional cancer therapies, muscular- skeletal diseases caused by inflammatory injury. Despite the USA federal government not legalizing CBD or THC, they have held a medical patent on these cannabinoids and in their abstract for the patent they state that:  
“Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new-found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention.”


My personal journey with cannabis is that I smoked it regularly from the age of 19 -23, at which time I began to get paranoid on smoking it, and felt it restricted an emerging sense of my own spiritual path. So, for many years I had no contact with the herb at all.
18 years later I was asked if I could get hemp oil for two patients. Hemp oil is a recent euphemism for Cannabis essential oil. After researching this, I had to say that I couldn't supply this product as it was illegal. I began to study the uses of the oil in the treatment of cancer, in relieving pain and side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments, and people attempting to cure themselves of cancer. This was mostly from following forums of oil users. I also joined the ICRS and started to study scientific papers on the subject.
 My house mate at the time had Myelofibrosis and we started to research her condition and its treatment with the oil. After much deliberation, she sourced some oil (THC: CBD ratio 1:1) and over the course of 6 weeks saw her blood counts drop dramatically showing a great benefit from the oils use. Blood tests were done on a weekly basis and improvements were immediate and sustained. She did take a large amount of oil, building up to 0.8g per day and found the side effects of fatigue and confused thinking to be strong, but temporary and ceased when she eventually lowered the dose and stopped taking it.
 The oil can be extracted using a number of different solvents, with the solvent being evaporated away, leaving a concentrated resinous oil. This is a class A drug in the UK, meaning highly illegal. It is also known as Rick Simpson oil (RSO) named after a Canadian campaigner who promoted the use of the oil widely. It is also confusingly called Hemp oil.
I attended a meeting of the Brighton Cannabis Club, and met an MS patient Clark French and an Epilepsy patient Kieron Reeves. They had decided that to get Cannabis legalized for medicinal use, they would have to start a campaigning group targeted specifically at making medical use legal first, as that is the way decriminalisation has happened in the USA and the EU. I helped them set up the United Patients Alliance (UPA) a patient advocate and campaigning group. Our first meeting was attended by Caroline Lucas MP, and Professor David Nutt, the ex-government drugs Tsar. They both spoke of the need to decriminalise medical use of the herb.
 I then introduced my UPA colleagues to Rt. Hon. Norman Baker, who at the time was the minister in charge of drug policy. We were invited to Whitehall to give a presentation to the home office and one month later Mr. Baker did make a public announcement that medical patients should not be criminalised for using the herb. Unfortunately, a liberal minister in Theresa Mays home office had little chance of turning this view into law, and shortly after he lost his seat in the commons. Norman Baker has recently agreed to become an active patron of the UPA.

What I find surprising in the herbal world is the lack of interest in this important herb from the professional bodies. I would like to see the NIMH and CPP have an active and positive stance on the decriminalisation of Cannabis for medical use. I would also expect the herb to be taught about in the degrees. After all other illegal herbs are taught about.
Functional medicine courses have modules teaching the chemistry of the herb and its therapeutic potential. It is very likely to be decriminalized for medicinal use in the UK in the next few years and I would like Herbalists to be at the vanguard of professionals able to prescribe it. 


Wednesday 13 March 2013

Spring Herb Walks and teaching days 2013

Nettles,  a powerful herb of spring emerging from a bed of Snowdrops- the floral symbol of winter.


21March: on the spring equinox, start the first day of spring learning about herbs.
to start the day,We will sow seeds of medicinal plants,  drink tea made from the same plants and discuss their actions, properties. We can often experience the qualities of plants through tasting them, and spending time with them.  Getting familiar with plants through growing them from seed, through to maturity, flowering and harvest is a great way to learn about medicinal plants. You will come away with a seed tray of a selection of plants.
In the European tradition of 4 element herbal medicine, spring is the season of childhood and youth, the personality type of Sanguine.  So we will focus on herbs to help the sanguine; roman chamomile, valerian, nettle and hawthorn.
We will also make a simple home remedy to take home, using one or more of the herbs we have sown and tasted.
Venue is my home in rodmell where i have my herbal dispensary and where we are building an innovative permaculture garden and forest garden with stunning views of the Ouse valley, lewes and the sea.
Bring a note book and a packed lunch.

11-3pm £35 booking essential

*24 March- Herb Walk
Meet at the Linklater pavilion to explore the medicinal plants growing on the railway Land nature reserve.
The railway land is a fascinating nature reserve as it contains a number of different habitats, right on the edge of town. As you enter there is the post industrial ex railway sidings. The river Winterbourne ends here too pouring its clear light blue waters into the muddy ouse. There are pristine water meadows, and swampy woodland, and we can see it all in the two hours.
Come find garlic mustard, cleavers, nettle, and many other herbs bursting forth with the spring energy.
 3-5pm £15

1May Planting and harvesting  medicinal plants, making remedies.
Use this day to follow on from the first experiential day in March, equally suitable for beginners too.
Explore the Rodmell food and herb forest, one of the most stunning locations you will find for a garden in Sussex. We will taste, explore and make remedies from a small number of plants, sowing seeds and harvesting.
Spring will be in full flow and the first of May (Beltaine) is a magical time in the calender, and i thought a great day for connecting to the land and learning about herbs.
11-3pm £35 Booking essential

5 May - Herb Walk
Downland medicinal plants, on some of my favourite foraging sites.
The area leading up from the prison up to the old route of the race course, and on towards black cap, is a wonderful area with massive diversity of plants. Partly because it is grazed, and because it is ungrazed  and wild. We'll see hypericum, mayflower, vervain, deadly nightshade, and burdock and many others.
Bring a small bag for collecting samples, and a notebook if you want to take notes.
meet at spital Rd by the prison
3-5pm £15

Friday 24 August 2012


Herbal Medicine

       Herbal medicine is both powerful and subtle in its actions, herbs range from the pot of pepper  Piper nigrum which sits as a permanent object on our dining tables, used as a stimulant and carminative to digestion; through to potentially poisonous remedies such as Lily of the valley Convalleria majalis which when used in the right dose and under professional supervision can extend life and wellbeing, through its cardiac glycosides.
Herbal Medicine is integral to the cultural, evolutionary, spiritual and developmental nature of humanity. As well as being the oldest form of medicine in the world it is still today the most widely used form of medicine in the world. Herbal medicine is both a science and an art. It is understood by many means modern and ancient, all have their advantages and limitations.  Modern scientific means such as controlled trials, and laboratory research clearly prove the powerful healing effects of plants on the body. For example the link below:
NHS research shows Hypericum as effective as pharmaceuticals for treatment of depression. (see page 12)
Many of todays pharmaceutical drugs are synthesized from plant medicines.
Empirical understanding of herbal medicine such as the traditional use of plants is passed down the generations of practitioners and lay users.
How plants heal is often culturally defined. In the modern western university training of Herbal medicine we use bio-medical science to explain the actions of plants on the body, yet traditional medical systems such as the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic medicine from India have become extremely popular in the West as they help us see an individuals illness in relation to the wider world. We call this holistic medicine and in England we also had such a system until the 18th century. The Greek humoral system explained the actions of herbs based on their energetic actions, and of their balancing the four humours of the body. In clinical practise i find energetic medicine an essential adjunct to understanding modern medical science. Understanding an individual patients pattern of illness is not always explained by a simple medical diagnosis. Each individual will experience illness according to their own constitution and life experiences. Understanding the individual patient is as crucial to healing as understanding the plants and the pathology.

It is the complexity of Herbal remedies that gives them their safe use. I do not use standardised extracts of herbal medicines as they create a a product out of balance with nature, and it is the connecting with nature which i believe gives Herbal medicine its power to heal.
Since i started making my own herbal medicines myself i am more drawn to using local plants. I find that my understanding of a plants uses grows exponentially as i plant seeds, watch the development, harvest and process the plant  myself. However i do use plants from around the world when i cannot find a local which gives me the same effect. My training in Chinese medicine has given me a high regard for Chinese tonic herbs. British Medical herbalists also use many North American herbs such as Echinacea, and Black Cohosh, because in the Nineteenth century  American herbalists who had learned their skills from Native Americans and Pioneers brought a resurgence of Herbal Medicine back to the UK.
Herbal medicine has always been a world wide trade, as can be shown by exotic herbs found in neolithic burial grounds.
Because of intensive agricultural production and todays commercial pressures it is essential that we can trace our food and herbal medicines to safe sources. I only buy herbs from organic growers or small producers i know personally. I believe my hand made herbal remedies to be as good and usually better than most on the market.

Saturday 9 April 2011



Tuesday 1 March 2011

New course for April - A practical introduction to herbal medicine


Violet harvest 2010,and now they are flowering again


Saturday April 2, 2-4pm and Tuesday evenings 5-26 April 7-9pm, in Lewes, Sussex

The aim of this course is to enable you to feel confident to harvest, make and use herbal medicines for your self, your family and friends. Led by Haskel Adamson a practicing medical herbalist based in Lewes.

"Traditional herbal medicine connects us to with the healing power of the divine through plants that grow around us."

In five sessions we will explore many local plants, each session will combine practical skills in medicine preparation with the theoretical background of herbal medicine.

A booklet will be provided at the first session with information about the topics of all of the sessions

The five sessions will include

1 Herbal identification and harvesting

In this first session we will be out in the field, learning the botanical basics to ensure safe collection of medicinal plants.

We will learn the appropriate time to harvest different parts of plants

Where to harvest plants

How to identify plants with the use of a plant finder

2 Herbal infusions and decoctions April 5, 7-9pm

We taste test a range of herbs

Water extracts of herbs, when to use

Why and to use teas, decoctions or deep decoctions

3 tinctures/ liqueurs April 12, 7-9pm

Tinctures are the preferred form of dispensing herbal medicines for

Western herbalists. Find out why!

We will go through all the stages of producing a tincture from freshly harvested plants. We will learn about concentrations, alcohol strengths, and doses.

4 Infused oils, and topical preparations

Moving onto topical herbal medicine, we will make a few infused oils from freshly harvested plants. These can be used directly on the skin, or in the bath, and will be the basis for our next session on making ointments and creams.

5 Ointments and cream making

Using local beeswax and our infused oils we will make an ointment, the simplest solid skin preparation we can make. Then we will learn a much more complicated procedure of getting oil to mix with water to create light and nourishing creams.

Price £75 (concessions £50) and includes samples of products made, and info sheets on all the sessions





course fee







Friday 1 October 2010

Making rosehip syrup with eight year olds from Wallands School

The Lottie project asked me to join in with one of their school parties for a Herbal medicine making session. What a treat it was, i loved working with the children. Every other week a group of 12 children visit the community allotment in Lewes run by Sarah Rideout and Tanya Lewis, to grow some fruit and veg and often to harvest and cook themselves lunch. Their organisation Common Cause promotes gardening and growing locally.
This is the season of berries, bright and alluring to children, but often children are nowadays taught that all wild berries are poisonous. It was good to teach their benefits. I brought some Thyme from my garden, Some Liquorice from my dispensary and after putting the Liquorice on to simmer we went of to collect Rose hips together. This was a fun part of the morning and gave the children real ownership of the finished product. Rose hips were collected in WWII in their tonnes to provide English children with Vitamin C when supplies of oranges couldn't get here. They contain the highest concentration of Vit. C of any (certainly indigenous) fruit.
I think that its really important that children are taught sometimes by non teachers as i don't have to conform to any "standard practices " or education agendas. We took the hips back to the camp kitchen and i smashed the hips up in a tea towel between rocks before putting them into the Liquorice brew. They had 15 minutes simmering gently and the Thyme went in for the last five minutes of this. The whole brew was poured into a muslin bag and pressed through the press you can see. Though not strictly necessary, i thought the children would like to use some machinery, and the press added to the theatre of the event. Everyone had a spin of the press, and the resulting decoction was returned to the clean pan and sugar added. Three kilos of sugar added to 2 Litres of decoction. Yes its a lot of sugar, some people use a ratio of 1:1, some 2:1 sugar:liquid, mine was in between. I didn't want their syrups to go mouldy. When the sugar had melted the syrup was poured into sterilised bottles , labelled by the children, so they could take it home. A certificate of excellence in potion making was awarded to each child.

Wednesday 7 July 2010

Herb walk around central Lewes town




I led my fourth herb walk of the summer today. We met at the castle gate in the middle of Lewes, and ambled around the lanes, and alleyways of the medieval town. It was so good to be in the centre of Town, yet to be away from cars, and taking the slow route around town. We first came across Pellitory of the Wall, growing out of the Castle wall. This herb in the same family as Nettle is used for conditions relating to gravel and stone in the urinary tracts. It action is cooling, diuretic (increasing flow of urine), and demulcent (soothing to the tissues of urinary tract. For such complaints it it used more often than any other herb.


Next we came across a cultivated wonderful scented Damask Rose growing above the wall of the bowling green. The bowling green was the old jousting area of the castle grounds and the archery practise area. The bowling club is still a male bastion, only the sport is now a sedate one, though i believe the mortality rate of the sport is as high as jousting. The rose, fragrant and a symbol of summers joy, lifts the heart and raises our spirits. Rose is considered cooling in fevers, and an action in common with all its relatives in the rose family is that it is astringent, drawing in tissues.Its essential oils lift the spirits and it is used as a nervine, to soothe the furrowed brow. Rose hips are used as a soothing syrup for chest infections , also being high in vitamin C and the flavonoids that make vit. C easily absorbed by the body.
Fifty yards on we came across four Lime trees Tilia cordata shading the view north over the Sussex Weald. One tree was still in blossom, past its full fragrance when its perfume fills the neighbourhood. The flowers are revered in France as a tea 'Tilleul', a relaxing digestive remedy, it is wonderfully relaxing to drink,and was used as a relaxing diaphoretic, to promote sweating in a fever and therefore reduce the body's temperature. This century experiements have found the plant able to reduce blood cholesterol, lower blood pressure through relaxing the blood vessel walls. Its wood is the finest for carving, and the inner bark can be woven into a coarse rope or binding.

Walking down the alleyway down to the Paddock we found Elderflowers Sambucus nigra mixing their scent with that of the mock orange. The children in our party tasted a petal of the mock orange, and they were quite delicious.
Elderflowers as well as all parts of the Elder tree are widely used in Herbal medicine. A classic combination for the common cold or early stages of flu being Yarrow , elderflower and peppermint. Drunk as an infusion regularly and often . Elderflower is astringent to the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, reducing the inflammation that occurs in a cold and drying the overproduction of cattargh. For this same reason i use it in hayfever. They have a history of use in bronchial disease, and in eruptive fevers such as measles and scarlet fever. Externally an ointment was used for wounds, burns and scalds, chill blains and used for horses wounds in WW1. Distilled elderflower water was a common cosmetic for sunburn and freckles and generally toning the skin.
On the summer solstice up on Firle beacon a came was passed around at dawn which had elder flower stalks lining the base of the sponge, really fragrant as the essential oils released by the baking get trapped within the cake.
We saw Greater Celandine, in the poppy family, its bitter alkaloids are strongly acting on the liver, stimulating this organ to break down chemicals , its used only by practising herbalists, and used in many gall bladder and hepatic conditions.

On the left of the Paddocks entrance gate we found Lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis These tiny flowers are heady scenters , and were traditionally carried by brides and set upon the wedding table. To be collected and given to your true love every spring. In Sussex we have the best wild spread in the country. Medicinally they are also restricted to use by Medical herbalists only. They contain cardiac glycosides with a direct action on heart , and a diuretic with an action sililar to Digoxin, the commonly prescribed drug synthesized from Foxglove Digitalis . It slows the heart beat whilst making the beat more effective , thus pumping more blood. It is also easier to prescribe than Digitalis which is liable to accumulate in the body with poisonous effects.
Calendula officinalis pot marigold is used for as a healing herb topically for cuts , scrapes etc, in creams and ointments, and also for spots and swellings when the 90 % alc tincture applied neat is really effective. Its the resins used within the petals that require an oil base or such a high % of alcohol.
We saw the oriental opium poppy still the most effective pain reliever in the world In Victorian England it was used to power the industrial revolution as 'mothers little helper', sold in corner shops to soothe small children whose parents were out working for long hours.
We also and talked about nettle, yellow dock, Plaintain, Artichoke, Borage and bitter chickory,
but i've run out of time to talk about these now. Try making tea out if them and see what happens.