Making Plant Medicine with Bidens pilosa

Beggar's ticks or Biden's pilosa, Biden's species, there's a bunch of different species that are all analogous medicinally, is a pretty amazing plant. I use it a lot, especially in the season coming up with cold and flu season, I use it a lot. I use the flower, I use the leaf, I use the stem, I use the root, I use the whole plant, and it's an amazing plant. I love to use this plant. You can find it all over the world. I've seen it in Central America and Mexico, we see it all over the US. Excellent herb. So the question always comes up, how do we use this? We could use this in nasal sprays, you know, intranasally, we can use it in gargles and throat gargles, and we can use it in mouth and gum applications. There's a poultice, we can use it as a tincture, obviously as a glycerite, we can use it as a decoction, we can make a tea out of it. There's so many ways to use this herb. Well, guess what? That's the way it is with every single herb there is out here. We have to learn how to make medicine out of these herbs. It's one thing to identify it and just say, well, just make a tea out of it. It's another thing to know that there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of different ways to make medicine out of every one of these herbs. And here I am, back in the apothecary now, where we have, among hundreds of other herbs, a couple of gallons of the Bidenspelosa that I was just showing you outside. And this is an herb that I like to extract in a multi-fractional manner. I find that I get better quality herb from that when I do it that way. So what does that actually mean, multi-fractional? That means using a variety of solvents in different orders, depending on what herb we're using, and in different concentrations, and then being able to mix all of that together and end up with a much more complete extraction of what that plant is than I would have if I'd just done a straight up alcohol, you know, 40% or vodka tincture, as many people are used to doing. These medicine making skills are so critical that we literally introduce them in the first introductory course that we offer, the Introduction to Herbal Medicine for Professionals. That's kind of the doorway into most of our other programs, the HMP, as it's called. That's what we're doing right now, is packaging up all these herbs, the cones, the percolation cones, the different pieces that the students get to put together at home to be able to extract herbs individually and in multiple solvents, even, depending on which course they're taking. So if you're taking the apothecrist, or if they're taking the HMP, or many of our other medicine making courses that we offer at the school, all of them have some package of materials that go out to students so that they can actually work with the herbs. I don't know any other way that's possible to really become proficient at working with herbs than to actually have to make your own medicine. I think it's absolutely critical that you do that. So with the Bidenspilosa that I was showing you, I talked about the fact that it can be used as an, for instance, I use it a lot for, say, sinus infections, especially sinus infections where there's probably a biofilm present, where they're just consistent, almost chronic issues that come back time and time again. Every time there's an allergy season, person ends up with another sinus infection. Bidens is great for that. It's great for upper respiratory tract infections as well. I use it even in urinary tract infections. But Bidens is not really that strong of a medicinal plant unless you do a strong extract of it. There are several herbs like that, a few right off the top of my head that I feel as strongly about are plantain, echinacea, and so Bidens is in that category. So it's important here to not just be able to recognize the plant and be able to harvest the plant and maybe even be able to use the plant, but also to be able to make medicine out of it and understand how to make potent medicine that is clinically, has a clinical potency to it. So what are the solvents that I would use for Bidens? Well, we would absolutely use water, right? Hot water is kind of the universal solvent and that's useful, very useful for us. We would absolutely use glycerin in this. I like to use some ACV, some apple cider vinegar in this as well. And I like to use a little bit of honey in it. And then finally, not only for its extraction capabilities as a solvent, but also for preservation, I use alcohol. Now how you mix all of that stuff together and keep it from precipitating and what order you do it in is a little bit more tricky. It's not that it's going to be horrible or bad, it's just, it's not going to be as effective if you don't extract in a multi-fractional way with this as well as many other herbs. Okay, I know this is a short video, but hopefully that's helpful to start maybe thinking about some of these concepts that are very important when you're working with herbs, when you're working with herbal medicine. If you're interested in this, check out our website, herbalmedics.academy or thehumanpath.net, either way will get you there. And check out the classes and the courses we have starting this fall. We have the apothecary, we have the HMP, and we have the acute care herbalism course, which is taught by myself and Dr. Steve Pearson. It's really good as well and gets you into the concept of medicine, of herbal medicine. If there's no higher care available, what would we do in remote post-disaster and austere settings? Thanks, we'll see you next time.