Open Source Apothecary At Home
An open, evidence-graded handbook for managing health problems with plants, ferments, infusions, oils and the preparations you can make at home — and a plain account of where the evidence is good, where it is weak, and where the traditional answer has been shown not to work.
Everything on this site is drawn from indexed clinical literature — systematic reviews, meta-analyses and randomised trials — retrieved from PubMed, with the conclusion of each study quoted verbatim and linked. Where a preparation is needed, the method is given with the chemistry that constrains it. Where the evidence is absent, the page says so rather than filling the gap with confidence.
The five rules
- Not medical advice. This cannot see your medication list, your kidneys or your pregnancy. A clinician can.
- Natural is a category, not a safety rating. Hemlock is natural.
- A failed remedy is recorded as failed. So it does not come back with the same confidence on the next page.
- Strongest evidence first. The thing that works usually is not the thing that was asked about.
- Red flags beat remedies. Every page names what means stop.
Browse
Start here
What this is, how to use it, and the five rules
1 entriesFoundations
How to read a claim, and why most natural-medicine claims are weaker than they sound
5 entriesPreparations
How to actually make the things — infusions, tinctures, oils, salves, ferments, distillates
11 entriesGrowing it
How to grow, harvest and dry the plants themselves — and what the agronomy literature says about potency
11 entriesThe herbs
One page per plant: what it does, the evidence for it, how to prepare it, and how to grow it
40 entriesThe twelve-month course
A free, seasonal, twelve-unit course through the whole handbook — the open version of a paid herbal programme
13 entriesBuild your own box
What a monthly herbal box contains, and how to assemble the same thing yourself. Nothing here is for sale.
2 entriesSafety
Interactions, toxicity, and who must not use what
7 entriesDigestion
Stomach, gut, liver, bowel
12 entriesMuscles, joints and nerves
Pain, arthritis, cramp, migraine
8 entriesHeart and circulation
Blood pressure, cholesterol, veins
5 entriesMetabolic and endocrine
Blood sugar, bone, iron, thyroid, weight
5 entriesMind and sleep
Anxiety, low mood, insomnia, focus
6 entriesBreathing and airways
Cold, cough, sinus, asthma, allergy
5 entriesSkin and wounds
Wounds, burns, eczema, acne, bites
9 entriesUrinary and reproductive
UTI, prostate, menstrual, menopause, lactation
13 entriesInfection and immunity
Colds, flu, and the gap between what is sold for immunity and what the trials show
3 entriesBrain and nerves
Memory, dementia, Parkinson's — where the honest answer is usually not a supplement
3 entriesMouth and eyes
Teeth, gums, dry eye, and when a dental problem needs a dentist today
1 entriesHousehold emergencies
The things that are not rememedies at all — fever, dehydration, burns, bites, choking
5 entriesReference
Dose tables, plant index, glossary, the open data
3 entries