Intermediate~13 hours12 lessons

Building a Clinical Materia Medica

Develop deep working knowledge of 20-25 core plants, the discipline that makes formula-building possible

Twelve lessons on how to develop the kind of plant-by-plant knowledge that lets you build formulas rather than follow recipes. You will learn how to read monographs critically, run single-plant tastings, organize a personal materia medica notebook, and master the categories of action that show up in nearly every clinical situation — nervines, adaptogens, digestive bitters, cardiotonics, respiratory herbs, and vulneraries.

Taught by Deidre Starner, Master Herbalist

What you'll learn

Read any herbal monograph critically, identifying its sources, its bias, and the cross-checks needed before trusting it
Run a single-plant tasting protocol on yourself and document tissue-level effects with enough rigor to be useful next year
Maintain a personal materia medica notebook with consistent structure across plants
Speak the seven major action categories fluently and place at least three plants in each
Build a 25-plant working materia medica that supports formula-building across most common clinical patterns

Course outline

1
Course Welcome — Why You Need Your Own Materia Medica
30 minFree preview
2
How to Read a Monograph — Sources, Cross-Checking, Bias
50 minFree preview
3
The Personal Materia Medica Notebook — Structure and Discipline
50 min
4
Plant Tasting Protocol — Single-Plant Testing on Yourself
60 min
5
The Core 25 — Picking Plants to Master First
55 min
6
The Nervines — Trophorestoratives, Sedatives, Stimulants
60 min
7
The Adaptogens — Real Definitions and Real Examples
55 min
8
The Digestive Bitters and Their Western Names
50 min
9
The Cardiotonics and Vascular Plants
55 min
10
The Respiratory Plants — Demulcents, Expectorants, Antitussives
50 min
11
The Vulneraries and Topical Workhorses
50 min
12
Capstone — Your 25-Plant Materia Medica Brief
65 min