Why Medical Herbalism Belongs on Every Herbalist's Shelf

The Plant Path: Herbalism, Medical Astrology & Spagyric Alchemy

Sajah Popham

Alternative Health, Health & Fitness, Medicine

4.8 • 570 Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

I'm excited to bring you the second book in our review series, David Hoffman's indispensable tome Medical Herbalism: The Science and Practice of Herbal Medicine. This was one of my first serious herb books and also served as my university textbook.

If I had to make one herb book recommendation to you, this would be in the top five, if not the top three. In this post, I'm going to walk you through what's in this book, what I like about it, and why I'm recommending it to you and all herbalists.

In this post, you'll learn what this book has to offer, including:

An overview of the book—what's included and what I find most useful
An excellent discussion of treatment approaches by body system
How Hoffman's simple, logical formulas can shape your practice
Why Hoffman's action-based approach to herbal medicine is so effective
Who this book is for—and why I keep coming back to it

————————————

CONNECT WITH SAJAH AND WHITNEY

————————————

To get free in depth mini-courses and videos, visit our blog at:

http://www.evolutionaryherbalism.com

Get daily inspiration and plant wisdom on our Facebook and Instagram channels:

http://www.facebook.com/EvolutionaryHerbalism

https://www.instagram.com/evolutionary_herbalism/

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyP63opAmcpIAQg1M9ShNSQ

Get a free 5-week course when you buy a copy of the book, Evolutionary Herbalism:
https://www.evolutionaryherbalism.com/evolutionary-herbalism-book/

Shop our herbal products:

https://naturasophiaspagyrics.com/

————————————

ABOUT THE PLANT PATH

————————————

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.

————————————

ABOUT SAJAH

————————————

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.

————————————

WANT TO FEATURE US ON YOUR PODCAST?

————————————

If you'd like to interview Sajah or Whitney to be on your podcast, click here to fill out an interview request form.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Well, hello there, everybody.
0:11.6	Welcome back to the plant path.
0:13.6	Sage of Popham here, founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism and Naturea
0:18.4	Sophia Spajerix.
0:19.8	And we're going to do another book review um this time we're
0:24.2	going to do one of my first like actually serious herb books this was actually my textbook from when
0:32.0	i was attending basseer university this is medical herbalism by dav Hoffman. And as you can see, my version of
0:41.4	medical herbalism is very well loved and read. And I should probably get a new version of it,
0:48.2	honestly. But I kind of like my beat up old version because it just looks well loved. And I've
0:53.2	used this book a lot. And I got to tell you,
0:58.1	if I've got one, if I was to make an herb book recommendation, you know, this one, this one's up
1:04.2	there for me, especially for those of you, like, who would I recommend this book to? I would recommend this book to any of you that want to have a little bit more of, I would say, a scientific understanding of the herbs and cultivating a way of thinking about the herbs, thinking about how you would use them to treat people
1:31.2	in more of a, I guess, conventional medical sense. This is a little bit more, this is not like
1:38.9	your down-home country folk herbalism kind of home remedy kind of book right this is more as the name implies
1:46.5	i would say a little more medical level a textbook basically um for how to think about and apply
1:55.4	herbal medicine now what i want to do in these book reviews just kind of walk through a little bit of like
2:01.3	what's in the book, what I like about it, and why I would recommend it.
2:05.7	So part one of medical herbalism is really based on principles and practices.
2:10.1	What I like about it is that he, as a big chunk of the first part of this book, is on
2:16.6	phytochemistry.
2:21.4	This was my first book that introduced me to phytochemistry. I loved the breakdown of the different categories of chemicals in plants,
2:30.0	some examples of chemicals and the herbs that contain those chemicals,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Sajah Popham, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Sajah Popham and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.