The Ultimate Guide to the "Anti" Herbs
The Plant Path: Herbalism, Medical Astrology & Spagyric Alchemy
Sajah Popham
4.8 • 570 Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Look at just about any materia medica, and you will see the word "anti" in front of many an herbal action. These are subtypes of the antimicrobial action, such as antibacterial, antifungal, antiseptic, antiviral, antiparasitic, antiamoebic, and antimalarial.
When you see these words, it is easy to assume that the herbs they describe are like natural pharmaceuticals designed to "kill" pathogens. However, that framework can mislead you and sometimes lead to poor clinical choices.
In this article, we'll rethink the entire premise of "anti-herbs" and explore how they really work.
Here's what you'll learn:
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Why the "anti-" framework (antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, etc.) can create an allopathic mindset about herbs
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That many herbs work by increasing host resistance rather than killing microbes directly
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Why the "antiviral" label is often misleading — and why there's no such thing as a true broad-spectrum antiviral
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What scientific Petri dish studies actually tell us (and where the big leaps in logic happen)
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How the "herbal antibiotic" idea falls short — and whether herbs can disrupt gut flora or drive resistance
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Why organ affinity and tissue energetics matter more than chasing the pathogen
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Common pitfalls caused by over-focusing on "killing" instead of restoring balance
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An introduction to my top 10 broad-spectrum "anti" herbs
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ABOUT THE PLANT PATH
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The Plant Path is a window into the world of herbal medicine. With perspectives gleaned from traditional Western herbalism, Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine, Alchemy, Medical Astrology, and traditional cultures from around the world, The Plant Path provides unique insights, skills and strategies for the practice of true holistic herbalism. From clinical to spiritual perspectives, we don't just focus on what herbs are "good for," but rather who they are as intelligent beings, and how we can work with them to heal us physically and consciously evolve.
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ABOUT SAJAH
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Sajah Popham is the author of Evolutionary Herbalism and the founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism, where he trains herbalists in a holistic system of plant medicine that encompasses clinical Western herbalism, medical astrology, Ayurveda, and spagyric alchemy.
His mission is to develop a comprehensive approach that balances the science and spirituality of plant medicine, focusing on using plants to heal and rejuvenate the body, clarify the mind, open the heart, and support the development of the soul. This is only achieved through understanding and working with the chemical, energetic, and spiritual properties of the plants. His teachings embody a heartfelt respect, honor and reverence for the vast intelligence of plants in a way that empowers us to look deeper into the nature of our medicines and ourselves.
He lives on a homestead in the foothills of Mt. Baker Washington with his wife Whitney where he teaches, consults clients, and prepares spagyric herbal medicines.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey there everybody and welcome back to the plant path. |
| 0:13.2 | And in this episode, going to be discussing what I like to call the anti-urbs. |
| 0:19.9 | No, these are not the herbs that are against other herbs. |
| 0:25.0 | But nor are we as herbalist anti-herbs. |
| 0:29.3 | Now, I'm talking about the herbs that have anti-in-front of their properties. |
| 0:36.3 | And here specifically I'm referring to what I like to think of as |
| 0:40.1 | subtypes of anti-microbial. These would be things like anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, antipseptic, |
| 0:49.7 | anti-viral, anti-parasitic, anti-amibah, anti-malarial, anti-anti, anti, right? And, you know, |
| 0:58.9 | it's funny. For a long time, I've been really kind of against this way of thinking about herbs |
| 1:07.5 | because I think it bears a slight risk. And that is that the risk of potentially |
| 1:18.9 | leaning down a pathway of a very allopathic way of thinking about herbs. You know, |
| 1:24.8 | when we think about an herb as being antibacterial, you start treating it like |
| 1:31.0 | a quote, herbal antibiotic. Or when you see the word antiviral next to an herb, it's very common for |
| 1:41.0 | people to think that that herb is going to kill any type of virus that you might come into contact with, right? |
| 1:48.1 | Whether that's a herpes simplex virus, whether that's human papillomavirus, whether that's COVID, whether that's the flu, the common cold, etc., etc. |
| 2:01.7 | And this can lead to some mistakes in how we apply herbs for pathogens, right, for infectious states. |
| 2:13.8 | Now, when we look at the anti-herbs um you know it for a very long time like i said i have not |
| 2:22.4 | really been too keen on this way of thinking but as uh paul bergner humorously states he's had |
| 2:29.5 | multiple experiences in his plant path where his what did he call call it, his karma runs over his dogma, |
| 2:36.8 | which I thought was a funny way of saying it, meaning that you kind of have to reassess and |
| 2:43.0 | rethink your approach to things. And I would say, I've had some similar experiences for this |
| 2:50.1 | in regards to the anti-type herbal actions, |
... |
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