Recent scientific research include: Clinical trials Fifty patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) were randomised to receive daily supplements of Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) (2 capsules, 750mg each) or placebo (2 capsules) for 12 weeks. In addition, all patients were given advice on implementing dietary and physical activity change. Those of cinnamon showed significant improvements in NAFLD characteristics, specifically, fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, gamma glutamine transpeptidase, homeostatic model...


Read More

Brookfield Herbal is currently waiting to hear if it will be granted an alcohol licence. This will allow me to produce my own home-grown and wild-crafted tinctures for use in the clinic. Meanwhile, I have been using vodka to make small test batches of nettle, raspberry and elderflower tinctures. Today I thought I'd experiment and make some fresh parsley (Petroselinum crispum) seed tincture: it doesn't appear that parsley seeds are commonly used in contemporary herbal medicine, although they are reported to be stimulating, drying, antiseptic, antispasmodic with particular actions on urinary...


Read More

After more than a week of wet weather, today I was able to harvest cowslips from Brookfield Herbal's garden. Cowslips (Primula veris) have a very subtle relaxing perfume, and are known for their sedative and anti-spasmodic quality. Mrs Grieve in her herbal refers to cowslips as "....strengthening the nerves and the brain, and relieving restlessness and insomnia. The Cowslip was held good 'to ease paines in the head and is accounted next with Betony, the best for that purpose.'" Fresh or dried flowers - just the yellow corolla plucked out of the surrounding green calyx (see photo below) - can be used...


Read More