John Christopher, and it was a treat to fi nd his standard of excellence at a
time that many people paid little attention to such details. He insisted on
using only clean, wild-crafted or organic herbs, processing them in a way
that retained their vibrancy and quality, much as earlier herbalists had
done. Pesticides are a fact of modern farming methods, and “poisoned
herbs” could be found in his day just as they are now. Dr. Christopher
taught his students to choose carefully the sources from which they
bought their herbs and to check how they were stored and later prepared.
For this reason, he liked herbalists to prepare and even pick their own
herbs, in order to make their own tinctures, ointments, and other
preparations to a high standard.
He even went as far as to insist that anything prepared for external use
should be of the same quality as that for internal use. His legacy of high
standards lives on with many of his students, now excellent herbalists in
their own right. To this day, herbal preparations vary in their quality and,
sadly, I have met people who have not had benefi cial experiences from
some preparations. This is very likely due to the poor quality of the
original herb or to the way it was prepared.
Twenty years ago it was hard to fi nd organically grown herbs, so my
personal choice was to grow my own as much as possible, to seek out
organic herb growers in Britain, and to import from American wild-
crafters when I needed to. Nowadays, needs and trends have changed
dramatically, and access to good-quality herbs has become relatively easy.
Nevertheless, my own experiences do not necessarily refl ect the norm, so
the whole issue deserves a closer look.
There is a recognized need for greater control on herb quality. As a
result, rules and regulations have been put into place in Britain by the
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) which is
addressing the quality, origins, storage, and preparation of herbs grown in
or imported into Britain. The problem of quality has become more
pressing in recent years as herbalism’s popularity increased the need for
herbs. To meet the ever growing demand, a few importers have become
less fussy, and some herbs have been substituted or adulterated — as has
been proved by laboratory testing.
Toxic metals have been found among some imported herbs. Fecal
matter has been found among some crude herbs — where human feces
have been used to fertilize fi elds. Radioactive waste has also been found,
as some herbs are still collected in and around disaster areas, often by
poor people who are eager to make a living and for whom herb collecting
is still a way of life. Medical and other toxic wastes are buried or burned,
and the fumes and leakages from these can contaminate the herbs in the
area. Since the 1940s, there has been a thirty-three-fold increase in the
the plants themselves 25