There’s a lot of comfort in a warm cup of ginger tea or a spoonful of turmeric stirred into your morning routine. Herbalism — using plants for wellness — is one of the oldest and most universal human practices, and it’s still taught today by people who’ve devoted entire lives to it. In this guide, we’ll spend time with one of the most respected voices in modern herbalism and see how her decades of teaching translate into simple, everyday ways to work with plants.
What Herbalism Is, and Rosemary Gladstar’s Path Into It
Herbalism is the use of plants — as food, tea, tincture, or supplement — to support health and address everyday complaints. Nearly every traditional medical system in the world, from Ayurveda to Traditional Chinese Medicine to European folk medicine, developed its own herbal pharmacy, refined over generations of hands-on observation.
Few living teachers embody that lineage like Rosemary Gladstar, often called “the godmother of modern herbalism.” Gladstar has been practicing, teaching, and writing about herbs for more than fifty years. In 1978 she founded the California School of Herbal Studies, the oldest continuously running herb school in the United States, and in 1994 she founded United Plant Savers, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting native medicinal plants, where she still serves as founding president. She’s also the author of a dozen books, including Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide, and co-founder of Sage Mountain Retreat Center, a 500-acre botanical sanctuary in Vermont where she still teaches (Sage Mountain Botanical Sanctuary, “The Legacy of Rosemary Gladstar”).
In Rosemary Gladstar’s Teaching: Herbs as Everyday Allies
Gladstar’s core teaching is that herbalism belongs to everyone, not just specialists — that the plants growing at the edge of your garden or the spices already in your kitchen are a real, accessible starting point. As she puts it, “the plants have enough spirit to transform our limited vision” (Rosemary Gladstar, quoted on Goodreads) — a reminder that herbalism, in her teaching, is as much about relationship and attention as it is about remedy. In Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide, she profiles 33 common plants — among them ginger, chamomile, peppermint, and turmeric — walking readers through how to grow, harvest, and prepare each one at home.
A Closer Look at a Few Herbs Gladstar Teaches
Ginger is one of Gladstar’s foundational kitchen herbs — warming, easy to grow indoors, and simple to work into tea or cooking. It also has real clinical support for pregnancy-related nausea, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), part of the NIH (Ginger, NCCIH).
Turmeric, another staple in Gladstar’s teaching, is generally considered safe at food-level amounts. NCCIH notes that much of the promising research on turmeric’s active compound, curcumin, still comes from lab studies rather than large human trials — a good example of a plant whose traditional reputation is running ahead of, but pointing toward, where the clinical research is headed (Turmeric, NCCIH).
Chamomile is a gentle, classic bedtime herb in Gladstar’s work, and it has some genuinely encouraging clinical evidence behind it too — including a randomized, placebo-controlled trial that NCCIH references for generalized anxiety (Chamomile, NCCIH).
Peppermint, which Gladstar often recommends for digestion, has real short-term evidence for easing IBS symptoms in its enteric-coated capsule form — strong enough that the American College of Gastroenterology includes it as a clinical option (Peppermint Oil, NCCIH).
Ashwagandha, an adaptogen rooted in Ayurvedic tradition that Gladstar and many herbalists teach for supporting resilience to everyday stress, has some evidence behind specific uses, with more research on the stress-and-anxiety application still developing (Ashwagandha, NCCIH).
Bringing Herbs Into Your Day
Gladstar’s own advice for beginners is refreshingly simple: start with what’s familiar. Cooking with fresh ginger, turmeric, and garlic is a gentle, low-stakes way to get real exposure to these plants, and steeping a single herbal tea — chamomile in the evening, peppermint after a meal — is a lovely way to notice how your own body responds before reaching for anything more concentrated.
A Gentle Word on Quality and Interactions
Plants contain real, active chemistry — which is exactly why herbs can be so helpful, and also why it’s worth being a thoughtful shopper. Because dietary supplements aren’t regulated as tightly as medications, quality can vary from brand to brand, so look for companies that publish third-party testing results (certifications like USP or NSF are an easy thing to check for). A few herbs, most notably St. John’s Wort, are well known for interacting with certain medications, so it’s always worth a quick check with your doctor or pharmacist before adding a new herb alongside anything you’re taking — think of it as bringing your herbalism into partnership with your medical care, each doing what it does best, rather than one waiting on the other.
Tools and Products That Can Help
- Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide. A direct entry point into her teaching, herb by herb. Find it on Amazon
- Enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules. Matches the specific form used in the IBS research referenced above. Find it on Amazon
- Glass tea infuser or teapot. A low-cost tool that makes daily herbal tea practice easier. Find it on Amazon
- More resources coming soon
Go Deeper
- scienceandartofherbalism.com — Rosemary Gladstar’s home-study course and teaching hub.
- sagemountain.com — Sage Mountain Botanical Sanctuary, the retreat center Gladstar co-founded in Vermont.
- unitedplantsavers.org — the plant conservation nonprofit Gladstar founded in 1994.
- NCCIH — Herbs at a Glance — the best single resource for checking any specific herb’s evidence and safety profile.
Related on Radiance BioHarmonics: see our guides to Ancient Cultures (for the traditional systems, like Ayurveda and TCM, that many of these herbs come from) and Crystals and Grids for more low-cost, ritual-based wellness practices.
Sources
- Sage Mountain Botanical Sanctuary, “The Legacy of Rosemary Gladstar” — https://sagemountain.com/about/legacy/
- Goodreads, “Rosemary Gladstar Quotes” — https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/65426.Rosemary_Gladstar
- Wikipedia, “Rosemary Gladstar” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary_Gladstar
- United Plant Savers, official site (founding history) — https://unitedplantsavers.org/
- NCCIH, “Ginger” — https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/ginger
- NCCIH, “Turmeric” — https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/turmeric
- NCCIH, “Chamomile” — https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/chamomile
- NCCIH, “Peppermint Oil” — https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/peppermint-oil
- NCCIH, “Ashwagandha” — https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/ashwagandha
- NCCIH, “Herbs at a Glance” — https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/herbsataglance