Pick first, dry later: choose your own medicinal plants

Thanks to ChatGPT, everyone is talking about artificial intelligence (AI) again. Plant fans like me wave no, because we've already been using AI for a long time in nature: just pull out your smartphone, take a photo of a medicinal herb and the plant identification app tells you which plant is growing in front of you. So it's simply easier to pick medicinal plants yourself.

Of course, apps like Plantnet or Floraincognita don't do all the work. But that's neither necessary nor helpful, because sensory perception plays a decisive role in picking medicinal plants, explains Dr Rainer Stange, a specialist in internal medicine and former head physician of the naturopathy department at Berlin's Immanuel Hospital: "The taste, smell and colour of the plant, but also the personal preparation - picking, drying, grinding - contribute to its effectiveness as a non-specific effect."

If you pick your own medicinal plants and perceive them with all your senses, the effect is enhanced. This seems understandable, even if there are no studies on the subject, as is in fact often the case in folk medicine.

However, there are good reasons why you should pick plants: you're outdoors, you're exercising and you're filling up on vitamin D, because the best time to pick is when the weather is fine. You become familiar with the plants in your direct environment, and pick some of your own food and natural remedies in the process.

You can use the freshly picked medicinal herbs to cook or make tea. There are three options for anyone wanting to preserve medicinal herbs for longer: they can be dried (to make tea or to inhale with the herbs), macerated in oils (for body oils, for example) or preserved with alcohol to make tinctures. Examples of possible uses include drops for coughs, insect bites, shampoo, cystitis, sleeping problems and many others.

What plants are suitable for picking and what tools do I need?

When picking medicinal plants, scissors or a knife can be useful for cutting off parts of the plant. "But you can also pick them," says expert Rainer Stange. For larger quantities, a flat basket, cloth bag or paper bag is suitable for transporting home. Plastic bags are less suitable, as the plants mould more quickly in them.

It's best to collect different plants in different cloth or paper bags. In fact, this prevents the active substances from mixing and influencing each other during transport, which is not always desirable.

You should collect the different plants in different cloth or paper bags.

You should pick plants that you recognise with certainty. "In many cases, these are mint, dandelion, camomile, daisy and also marigold," advises Rainer Stange. The mint and the camomile can be used in particular for digestive problems, while marigold can be used to make an ointment to promote healing for light wounds. Daisy is delicious in any wild herb salad, but it was also popular in folk medicine in the past as an herb for boils or ulcers.

What you shouldn't collect

A very important point according to Stange: "It's essential that the effect is quickly noticeable."

With regard to St John's Wort, for example, the expert advises against picking and treating it, at least if you want to use this herb against depression. This is because St John's Wort can influence the effect of synthetic medicines. What's more, the content of active substances varies greatly from one site to another and from one plant to another. In other words, it is not possible to guarantee a particular effect.

"Picking plants yourself has its limits, which we must respect," says Rainer Stange. But there are also ready-to-use preparations based on St John's Wort available in pharmacies, which are standardised, meaning they always contain the same ingredients and are therefore more suitable for use in cases of depression.

But.

But: from St John's Wort, you can also make what is known as red oil and apply it externally to wounds. To do this, you need to pick the medicinal plant yourself. It's best to get help to do this. If you're interested in natural medicine, Stange advises: "The best thing is to take a course in your own country, where an experienced herbalist will show you the plants that grow near you."Most of the time, you'll even learn what they can be used for. And in other courses, you learn which medicinal plants you can use and what preparations you can make yourself.

Medicinal plants: what to look out for when picking

There are a few things to bear in mind when picking wild herbs in general:

• avoid polluted areas (motorways and possibly the edges of fields and country lanes polluted by pesticides);
• do not pick up after it has rained (wet parts of plants mould more quickly);
• don't pick browned or pest-infested parts of plants
• don't pick everything so that the plant can grow again the following year (to do this, leave at least 1/3 of the plants available);
• start with few plants and harvest only those you know;
• if it helps and you feel like it: create a herbarium with pressed and dried plants;
• if necessary, use an application to determine plants, but even then, only collect plants that can be determined with certainty and that cannot be confused with others.

Another important point: before collecting, find out the best time to do so. This differs from one plant to another and from one part of the plant to another. Basically: the aerial parts of the plant, such as the flowers and leaves, are harvested in spring and summer. The berries and seeds in late summer and early autumn, the roots on the other hand in autumn or spring.

Drying plants: where is the right place?

Once you've proudly brought your full basket of herbs home, don't turn on the tap directly or put the herbs underneath. Washing causes them to lose important active substances. The only exception: very dirty roots. Dirty parts, leaves and the like can be pulled out or cut up.

The right place to dry herbs is dry and dark, such as a pantry or attic. But any other dark, dry room in the house is also suitable. Be careful: the plants must not receive too much sunlight. "If they do, they can lose quality", explains Rainer Stange. Here again, roots and bark are an exception: they can be dried in the sun.

How to dry different plant parts correctly

It's best to tie up large parts of the plant with string and leave them to dry in hanging containers. Then remove the dried bunches in good time to prevent too much dust settling. Smaller parts of plants dry better when spread out, for example on a large sheet or in a flat basket. Paper is also suitable as a drying medium.

It takes a little time for plant parts to dry: a few days to several weeks depending on the season and the plant part, and longer in spring and autumn than in summer. The flowers and leaves dry more quickly than the whole herb. You'll know that your medicinal plants have finished drying when they crackle and crumble between your fingers, but if possible they haven't lost any of their colour. Incidentally, roots crack when broken, if they are dry.

Storing dried plants correctly: how to do it

As with drying, storage should be in as dark a place as possible. Dried plant parts are best kept in dark, airtight jars (made of brown glass, for example) or ceramic containers. Wooden containers are only suitable under certain conditions: essential oils evaporate quickly in wooden or textile containers or react with oxygen.

Dried plants can be stored for one to three years. The active substance content generally decreases sharply after about a year. Pay attention to the smell and colour: if both fade, so does the effect. Then it's a matter of collecting new plants and drying them. Now you know how to do it.