Richard Adams Herbalist

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Richard Adams Herbalist

Richard Adams FNIMH MCPP MBHMA is an established Medical Herbalist, or Phytotherapist , with ov

About me page
Richard Adams FNIMH MCPP MBHMA is an established Medical Herbalist, or Phytotherapist , with over 20 years of experience. He enjoys a general family Practice, in Greenwich, London, that is informed by medical science but is essentially holistic in the Western tradition.

22/12/2025

The winter can be cold, dry, and challenging. How do you respond to strains and stresses? The Iceland moss has evolved resilience by adapting its form and producing a rich biochemical makeup to increase its ability to survive in the most extreme environments like the Icelandic tundra. Learning from and accepting gratefully the gifts of the Iceland moss we too can protect our well-being.

But first, it’s called a moss, but it is really a lichen composed of a robust entanglement of fungal hyphae and algae that enables it to absorb and retain moisture, protect it from UV radiation and microbial assaults (bacterial and fungal) and to store sugars that enable it to grow slowly in nutrient scarce conditions. As it grows it forms dense mats that holds the soil to the earth preventing erosion from the fierce winds and continuous freeze thaw cycles.

The moss was used by Lapland mothers to cradle their babies’ and so the herb has come to symbolise, for some, maternal love. It was also ground down into some flour for food in hard times. Traditionally north European herbalists used it to soothe the respiratory and digestive systems, so I was trained to use it in dyspepsia, gastritis, bronchitis and sore throats. Learning to respect the herb and its ecosystem for what it had learnt millions of years before me.
Thank you Cetraria islandica.

21/10/2025

Could cucumber help with joint pain?

An 8 week clinical study, published in Nutritional Outlook (October 16, 2025) of adults with moderate joint health issues demonstrated that a dietary supplement extracted from Cucumber improved joint function and mobility significantly better than placebo. These preliminary findings suggest the potential of Cucumis sativus L. as a beneficial supplement for improving joint pain and mobility.

03/08/2025

Sage
Sage was held in high esteem in 12th century Europe and was widely used in Lammas festivals. It was thought to generally strengthen the ageing body. The name is derived from the Latin word salvus meaning ‘safe’ and ‘sound’ as in wellbeing. Salvia officinalis helps restore mucous membranes relieving congestion and discharge in various bodily systems. It follows that it is good for the digestion, helps regulate the menstrual cycle, and reduces hot flushes during menopause.
Gerard, the English 16th century herbalist, wrote of Sage: it "quickens the senses and memory” and recent research papers point to a significant impact on brain function and age-related cognitive decline.
How much to use:
Sage has a strong spicy flavour and is strong acting, so it is advisable not to drink more than 3 cups a day. Note, It is not suitable to take while pregnant or breastfeeding. However, this does not stop you using it as a gargle for mouth ulcers, gum disease and sore throats.
Thank you, wise old Sage.

24/03/2025

Dandelion an herb for the Vernal equinox
The Vernal equinox is a time to invite balance and renewal into your mind, body, and spirit. Day and night are equal length, and each day will grow in length, light and warmth through Spring till the Summer solstice.
In early spring the herb Dandelion arrives. It grows from sea level to 10 thousand feet. It grows in wet friable soils or compacted dry soils. It is found in meadows or city pavements. It serves the soil by attracting earthworms plus it helps to activate compost. It adapts and transforms meeting every challenge it faces.
The medicinal herb Dandelion or Taraxacum officinalis is a traditional spring tonic in the British Isles and fresh leaves have been eaten as a salad herb at least since the Tudor times some five hundred years ago. It is rich in nutrients like vitamin C, A, K, calcium, and potassium. It supports kidney function being Nature’s own water tablet countering any depletion of potassium in the body. Bitter oils and resins in the Dandelion support the function of the liver increasing bile production, aiding digestion and clearing waste products from the blood.
For me Dandelion epitomises Nature’s dynamic cycle of clearing out the old and preparing the way for the new. Enjoy the brighter days!

07/08/2024

The Climate and Nature Bill UK Please consider helping

Zero Hour is the campaign for the Climate and Nature Bill, a plan for a new UK law that addresses climate change, global warming, and the nature crisis in line with the most up-to-date science. The Bill is the only proposed legislation before the UK Parliament that ensures a comprehensive and joined-up approach to the emergency we all face.

Will you help the campaign by asking your MP to enter the private members’ bill ballot on 5 September in order to bring the Climate and Nature Bill back to Parliament?

1,586 organisations, politicians, faith leaders and scientists from all parts of the UK are backing the Climate and Nature Bill.

If your MP is one of the top 20 winners of this ballot, they’ll be able to progress the CAN Bill on its journey into the statute books. Zero Hour has been building the alliance for the CAN Bill since 2020. This is an opportunity to get the UK on the right track. The MPs’ ballot isn’t the only mechanism for getting the Bill introduced, but it is an important one.

Will you email your MP today and ask them to commit to backing the CAN Bill in the private members’ bill ballot?
To do this via the Zero Hour Campaign website, visit https://www.zerohour.uk/write-to-your-mp/
To see which MPs are backing the Bill already, go to https://www.zerohour.uk/supporters/
For details of the Bill’s provisions go to https://www.zerohour.uk/climate-and-nature-bill/
House of commons site: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3707

Thanks to St. James Church Piccadilly website for bringing this to my attention.
Richard.

28/07/2024

We are fast approaching August just passed the height of Summer. It is the time to reap what we have sown in the body of the Earth and give thanks. Going back perhaps three thousand years the Gaelic speaking peoples of this land celebrated the first harvest during the feast of Lushana which is named after the Sun God Lugh from Gaelic mythology.
The first harvest was thought to be sacred its grain and fruit embodying the Sun Gods life force. Some of its seeds were saved for the following years crop and some was used to bake the first bread of the year.
The cutting down of the crop can be seen as a sacrifice and the seed as holding the potential for regeneration or rebirth. Here we find a natural cycle echoed in the stories handed down by our ancestors of Ceres and Persephone, John Barleycorn and Jesus Christ.
In the Celtic tradition the herb most associated with abundance and the protection of the harvest is Mint. No one knows why but it could be to do with Mint traditionally being used to preserve bread and to protect the stored seed from microbial and insect attack.
Medicinally Mint helps you to digest foods and protect your gut from food borne bugs. It is also an environmentally friendly insect repellent due to its oils principally Menthol. These oils are known to help with intestinal colic and is listed as a treatment for Irritable bowel syndrome in the British National Formulary (BNF).
Mint especially peppermint has cooling and relaxing properties which makes it ideal for a refreshing cup of Summer tea.
My simple minty Summer infusion
1. Put one litre drinking water in a suitable clean glass jar.
2. Add ½ cup fresh peppermint leaves or ¼ cup dried peppermint leaves.
3. Leave to stand on a sunny windowsill for two hours.
4. Chill in fridge
5. Strain before drinking adding brown sugar to your taste. (You can also vary proportions of peppermint to amounts of water in line with how minty you like it).

05/05/2024

Summer and ecosystemic regeneration

After damage or destruction there is regeneration. Whether on a cellular or Planetary level a breaking down and building up happens in Nature. At Beltane in early Summer, we celebrate the generation of the new.

In the British Isles we have the story of two trees, the Holly King, and the Oak King, who are locked into a cycle of destruction and regeneration. In the Summer the Oak king is in the ascendant laying out a carpet of green abundance over the land. At the Autumn equinox the Holly king begins to dominate, and the leaves fall from the trees. This evolutionary cycle continues around and around year after year.

Herbal medicine, when aligned with such principles, is powerful. A good example is the use of a medicinal herb called Fibraurea tinctoria.

This tropical tree grows in South East Asia. In Sumatra the leaves are used as an analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial wound healer. It is chewed, fed on, and the pulp is placed on the wound. Over the next five days the wound will close and be infection free. Within a month the tissue will regenerate completely leaving barely a scar behind. Remarkable enough you might think, but what makes this even more ecologically resonant is that this self-medication was performed by a close relative of ours - a wonderful wild Sumatran Orangutan!

Photos of before and after self medication:

18/09/2023

Autumn in the northern hemisphere is a damp darkening season post equinox. A time to consider balancing Autumns qualities with the colourful roots, squashes, mushrooms, herbs and spices so generously provided by Nature. Carry the drying warmth of Summer into the cool dampness of autumn by making warming spicy food and drinks to supporting our mind and bodies through the colder months. Uplifting herbal circulatories like cinnamon and ginger help to balance the Autumn melancholy with heart-warming joy. In this way we may embody some of Summers fiery warmth to see us through the losing of the light.

Autumn Apple tea:
Using your favourite tea or green tea, in infuser or bag, add 1cm cubes of sweet apple, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon and fresh or powdered ginger to your mug and add sweetener and fresh lemon to taste. Brew tea for 5 mins depending on the strength you like and after drinking you can eat the 'cooked' apple pieces.

21/03/2023

Oxalis acetosella an herb for the vernal equinox
Last weekend I enjoyed a community choir performance of Handel’s Messiah. The uplifting Hallelujah chorus reminded me of an herb historically used as a food and medicine – the Hallelujah plant. This is a small woodland and hedgerow herb with leaves consisting of three heart shaped lobes, and five white petal flowers with purple veins that all fold up at night and in inclement weather. It blooms in Spring between Easter and Pentecost when Psalms ending in Hallelujah are sung. Hallelujah is a Hebrew interjection expressing joy, praise, and gratitude.
This plant is more commonly known as Wood sorrel or Oxalis acetosella. As a medicine it was used for: fevers, scurvy, wounds and more. Like rhubarb and spinach, however, it contains high amounts of Oxalic acid, from which its scientific name is derived, so it should not be eaten in large amounts and avoided by people suffering from kidney stones and gout. It is nevertheless an edible plant full of vitamin C. which explains its use for scurvy. Commonly used as a salad herb in Tudor England it has an acidic, lemon like taste that lifts a salad and other foods given to us out of the Earth – Hallelujah.

20/12/2022

It is that time of the year for us to find some greenery and bring it inside. Christmas trees, usually evergreen Pines, are a tradition brought over from Germany by the Victorians. Further back Celtic peoples used to celebrate the Winter solstice with bonfires of Scots pine and dressed Pine glades with lights and shiny decorations.
In ancient Greece Pines were consecrated to a Mother Goddess called Rhea who was the daughter of Gaia and the sky god Uranus. In China Taoist people ate parts of the Pine tree as part of a practice to achieve health, powers, and a long life even to the point of immortality. They became known as the Immortals. It was said that Pine resin, put into the subsoil for a thousand years produced a mushroom, fu-ling, that gave eternal life. So it is that many cultures have chosen the Pine to symbolise eternal life and regeneration.

As a medicine using Pine needles, nuts, bark, and resin has been equally well spread. I found to my delight the usage is alive, well and common from Finnish people I met this last Summer. Medical science informs us that the Pine is rich in natural compounds called polyphenols that have anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and cell protecting properties that may help to prevent chronic complaints associated with aging like arthritis, lung, and circulatory conditions. What intriguing echoes this information has with our ancestor’s symbolic relationship to this shining, evergreen, life preserving Pine tree.

22/06/2022

This iconic small star shaped golden flower has entered our consciousness in many ways across cultures and down the ages. Its generic name, Hypericum, comes from the Greek ‘hyper’, or ‘above’, and ‘eikon’, for ‘holy image’. At summer festivals throughout Europe the plant was often placed above images of those you wished to protect because the herb was thought to have the sun like power to dispel dark forces. Intriguingly, nowadays the prepared herb is a licensed drug for mild to moderate clinic depression in Germany. The species name perforatum comes from the oil producing glands that look like perforations or holes in the leaves of the plant.

The Celts (a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age Europe) used Hypericum to celebrate the Summer solstice. To this day it is customary in the Isle of Man (Britain) to wear a sprig of the herb on Midsummer's Day. As the Celts became Christianised the name adopted was St John’s wort. St John the Baptist was the patron saint of The Knights Hospitallers who guarded the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem and protected pilgrims as they travelled to the Holy Land. During the Crusades they cared for the wounded, and this is where the herb's reputation as a wound plant or vulnerary was established.

Research has shown that the blood red oil produced by this medicinal herb has anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties. Perhaps not surprisingly then hypericum oil is an ancient skin remedy for …….. can you guess?.... Yes. sunburn.

02/05/2022

Violets for May Day
Wildflowers including Violets have long been a part of May Day celebrations. This group of herbs has come to be widely associated with love, humility, and modesty. So perhaps not surprisingly, in Christian art, the Holy Mother Mary is often depicted with Violets.
There is much we can learn from these medicinal herbs like their responsiveness to evolutionary pressures for instance. Astonishingly, Violets have developed the ability to flower twice a year once above ground and once below. A curious echo of the ancient Greek myth of Persephone who was said to be picking Violets when she was abducted by Hades. The below ground flowers are called cleistogamous from the Greek words cleistos, which means closed, and gamos, meaning marriage; in other words, they are self-pollinating flowers that never open to the light of day, pollinator or breeze, yet they produce viable fruit and seeds.
One of the existential threats, to particularly Viola odorata or Sweet violet, is over picking by human beings. No doubt encouraged by the delightful odour they give off. Instead of picking, you could always grow this hardy plant in your garden. You could then harvest the edible leaves and flowers for your salads while safeguarding the herb so we may continue to work with it as a food and herbal medicine as we have done since the time of the ancient Greeks.

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26 Maidenstone Hill
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SE108SX

Website

http://www.richardadamsherbalist.co.uk/

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About me page Richard Adams FNIMH MCPP MBHMA is an established Medical Herbalist, or Phytotherapist , with over 20 years of experience. He enjoys a general family Practice, in Greenwich, London, that is informed by medical science but is essentially holistic in the Western tradition.