This week we continue our investigation into the best-selling herbal supplements in the US. First, an update: the 2024 Herbal Market Report data is here!

The overall picture is very similar to the 2023 data, with most items on the lists simply changing position. The overall market had a 5.4% increase, topping out above $13.2 billion for the highest annual sales on record. Direct-to-consumer commerce – via websites like Amazon, for instance – continues to be the largest fraction of sales.

In the mainstream list, the biggest story is the increase for “mushrooms (other)”, which reached #26 despite not appearing at all in prior years. This listing includes lion’s mane, turkey tail, and other mushrooms – but not chaga, cordycpes, or reishi (those are tracked individually). Also of note, the sales numbers for saint john’s wort in 2023 were adjusted to the tune of a $20 million increase! This would place SJW at #17 on that year’s list, instead of being absent from it. This makes much more sense, since SJW has been such a popular herb for so long.

In the ‘natural expanded’ list, the most notable increase came for “algae (other)”, which would exclude spirulina & blue-green algae as well as chlorella. Sea moss / Irish moss (Chondrus crispus), as well as other seaweeds, are the big drivers of this increased interest in “algae (other)” – largely due to TikTok trends around ‘detox’ and ‘cleansing’. Mullein, moringa, milk thistle, rhodiola, chaga, and oregano also had >20% increases, while the biggest decrease in sales came for wheatgrass/barleygrass, continuing a slow decade-long slide.

Today’s herbs, aloe and flax, are both plants whose modern incarnations and sales points are quite different than their historical applications. In the case of aloe, the stimulant laxative effect of its latex was historically its most valued power. Today, it’s more popular for the gentle demulcent/emollient effects of its gel. As for flax: its oil is very susceptible to oxidation and was previously used in things like paint and varnish more than for human consumption. Today, cold-pressed & refrigerated oil, or fresh-ground seeds, can be a good source of anti-inflammatory omega-3s and other essential fatty acids.

24. Aloe – Aloe vera

• Aloe in King’s American Dispensatory (1898)
• Aloes in A Modern Herbal, M. Grieve (1931)
• Aloe vera at Herbal Reality

25. Flax seed / Flax oil – Linum usitatissimum

• Linum in The Eclectic Materia Medica, Harvey Wickes Felter (1922)
• Flax in A Modern Herbal, M. Grieve (1931)

Flax & aloe are two examples of soothing demulcent herbs, which can calm irritated & inflamed guts. Our course on Digestive Health discusses the effects of demulcents as well as carminatives, antispasmodics, vulneraries, and other key categories of herbs which can help resolve the whole range of digestive upsets. Hippocrates said “all disease begins in the gut”, and supporting this critical system is often key to unlocking chronic health problems.

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

When Ryn first met Katja, she was in the habit of inflating her age a bit. Why? Because as an herbalist – at that time – it was preferable to present as older, even as an ‘elder’, if possible. Times have changed, and now “influencerbalists” dominate the social media world’s public face, for herbalism as for so many things. Staying young forever looks almost plausible, when it’s shown through short-form videos on a tiny screen…

It’s not, though. We’ll all age, and that will mean some things don’t work as well as they used to, don’t feel as good as they used to, don’t heal as fast as they used to. We’ll get tired, our hair will thin, our faces will wrinkle. All the amazing new products and one-weird-tricks will not stop these things from happening.

We don’t need to stop them. They’re part of life. In just the same way that yes, it’s OK to be a plus-sized herbalist, it’s OK to be an aging herbalist. Chasing immortality is a fool’s errand, and it can distract both from more effective means of mitigating discomforts, and from the benefits this stage of life brings. (Yes, they exist: perspective, experience, even a peaceful detachment – these are the purview of the elder.) Aging is OK.

We do have some herbs to recommend, though! In this episode we discuss…

• ginseng (Panax ginseng) – Famously an “herb for elders”, and indeed able to raise energy levels, enhance congnition, improve stress responses, and much more. Yet ginseng will be much, much more effective if its influences are supported by nourishing food and frequent low-level movement.
• solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum) – Our very favorite herb for restoring moisture, and thus flexibility, to the joints and connective tissues. You can purchase a solomon’s seal salve from Healing Spirits, or find tinctures, salves, and other sol’seal remedies from Cortesia.
• nervines, e.g. blue vervain (Verbena hastata), hawthorn (Crataegus spp.), heather (Calluna vulgaris), linden (Tilia spp.) – Consider working with nervines both for day-to-day mental & emotional steadiness, but also as aids to intentional introspection. Walking or sitting while pondering your past and present, with the support of nervine herbs, is a practice that will help you process your experiences and understand your current stage of life more deeply.
• demulcents, e.g. linden, marshmallow (Althaea off.), sassafras (Sassafras albidum), elm (Ulmus spp.) – As we age, we tend to dry out! These herbs help us remain fluent and soft. For elders, it’s often good to combine these with carminatives such as fennel, ginger, or cardamom.

If you’d like to start taking care of your body for the long haul – no matter what age you are today – our Community Herbalist program will equip you to do so! This program prepares you to support your family & community with holistic herbal methods.

Like all our offerings, this bundle of self-paced online video courses comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Herbs #22 and 23 on the top-selling herbs list for 2023 were milk thistle and black cohosh.

Today we continue our series on commercially popular herbs, and share our views as herbalists on the actions, benefits, and applications of these.

Milk thistle is widely known as an excellent herb for the liver, and this is a case where the common wisdom is correct. It’s one of the safest herbs out there, and fortunately, it is also widely available and inexpensive. Hepatoprotective and even able to regenerate damaged liver tissue, it is at the same time a very gentle and benign plant. But don’t try to make tea with it!

Black cohosh’s reputation is as a remedy for PMS and menopausal symptoms, and often this is attributed to phytoestrogenic activity or constituents. The reality is murky – and has remained so despite decades of argument and investigation on both sides of the claim. Regardless, black cohosh can often help. We find it best to view the herb through the lens of its action as a relaxant. If PMS or menopause are showing up with lots of tension, it’s worth a try and most likely to help. But we can also apply that action much more broadly, for injuries, spasms, and (certain kinds of) headaches.

22. Milk Thistle – Silybum marianaum

• Milk Thistle: Herb of the Week
• Milk Thistle at Herbal Reality
• Milk Thistle in A Modern Herbal, M. Grieve, 1931 – presented in this text alongside multiple other thistles, which allows for close comparisons among them.

23. Black Cohosh – Actaea racemosa

• Wuttke, W., Seidlová-Wuttke, D. Black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) is a non-estrogenic alternative to hormone replacement therapy. Clin Phytosci 1, 12 (2015). doi: 10.1186/s40816-015-0013-0.
• Mohapatra S, Iqubal A, Ansari MJ, Jan B, Zahiruddin S, Mirza MA, Ahmad S, Iqbal Z. Benefits of Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) for Women Health: An Up-Close and In-Depth Review. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2022 Feb 23;15(3):278. doi: 10.3390/ph15030278. PMID: 35337076; PMCID: PMC8953734.
• Black Cohosh at Herbal Reality
• Cimicifuga in King’s American Dispensatory, 1898 – has an impressively long list of indications and applications for this remedy.

If all you’d heard (before today) about black cohosh was that it’s “good for menopause”, you might want to check out our Reproductive Health course! We discuss the whole range of human reproductive variability and herbal medicines to support all kinds of people. We even bust a few reproductive-health myths and herban legends. (Hint: vitex is not “a miracle herb for all women”!)

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Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!