Herbal Medics Academy / The Human Path

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Herbal Medics Academy / The Human Path

Online and on-site (Hill Country Texas and Northern New Mexico) programs and courses.

Online, Central Texas and Southern California programs and courses in herbal medicine - including Clinical Herbalism, Advanced Herbal Medicine making, Austere and Wilderness Medicine, WFA and WFR certification, Family practice herbalism & Emergency Birth

09/09/2026

Its time for an herbal recipe! Turmeric pickles for fall canning time, with step-by-step instructions and amounts.

Curcumin degrades faster the more alkaline it gets — about fourteen hours to lose a tenth in acid, four and a half at blood pH. And it is destroyed by light, not heat: two hours of dry heat at 80°C costs nothing, six hours of sunlight costs everything.

So the ideal turmeric preparation is acidic, oily, cold and kept in the dark. Which is a description of a pickle, and one that has existed in India for a very long time.

Fresh rhizome, salt, citrus, oil and ginger. A teaspoon a day out of a jar at the back of the fridge — and whole rhizome carries a better-buffered curcuminoid mix than any capsule does.

Recipes, materia medica, medicine making lab notes and more all present in the Herbal Medic app in the Google Play and Apple Play store ... and through our courses.

09/08/2026

Turmeric is probably the most turbo-marketed herb of the last thirty years, and this marketing has at least partially obscured a genuinely useful plant behind a claim it cannot support.

In my experience, It is not a systemic pharmaceutical anti-inflammatory in a capsule the way it is pushed by both the supplement industry and even some allopaths.

However, it is a very reliable decongestant of stagnant tissue –In other words, it moves fluid and debris out of inflamed areas, moves bile, moves blood, and does its most dependable work either in the gut lumen or on the skin, where you can put it directly on the problem.
The whole difficulty with this amazing plant is that the rhizome holds three constituent classes that want three different solvents, the flagship fraction is barely absorbed, and every technique that “fixes” the absorption problem (e.g. black pepper) moves the herb toward the risk profile that has made turmeric the most-reported cause of herbal liver injury in the United States.

Getting it to the tissue, without causing damage in the process, is the big hurdle.

09/05/2026

Every WFA we teach includes hands-on training, scenario based instruction and a chance to practice it all under a little pressure, and every WFA on-site has an herbal first aid component.
Next up: Redlands CA, Oct 10-12th!

09/04/2026

Question of the Week - guess how you'd handle this before scrolling through the slides, and comment here to see how you did!

4 days into a 5 mountain hike, one of your group members becomes ill. He has a history of asthma.
He is short of breath, coughing, and tonight - he is breathless while sitting still. The cough has turned wet, and he's having trouble keeping up even on flat easy terrain.
His rescue inhaler isn't helping and he thinks it is asthma.

What do you do?

Comment here and then scroll through to see the answer!

09/02/2026

A student recently asked me about the heart contractility effects of an herb the other day and it made me realize that I need to make charts for all western body systems the way I do for nervines (for those of you familiar with that chart).

Here is one way to think about herbs that affect the cardiovascular system – whether used more for acute care or as part of a long-term protocol.

Hypertension, contractility strength, cholesterol, heart rate, plaque, endothelial health… these are all aspects of cardiovascular health seen from a western perspective that we can approach using botanical medicine.

For a PDF download of this chart and much more, check out our Herbal Medic web/phone app in Google Play or Apple Store.

09/01/2026

Storytime!
Black Walnut – Juglans nigra
Black walnut's most important clinical value for me has always been its incredible efficacy for fungal, parasitic, and stubborn topical (i.e. biofilm) infections.
Apothecary notes - black walnut has two therapeutic identities that require opposite menstruums. The "default" high-alcohol tincture captures juglone very well which is the right call for antifungal, antiparasitic and topical work.
However, that extract misses the mineral fraction almost entirely. If you're working from the older indications for demineralization, anemia, or brittle hair and nails, that preparation requires an ACV presoak with a higher water content (~50%) for maximum efficacy.
Species Variations -
Juglans regia (English or Persian walnut) and J. cinerea (butternut) are used similarly, although J. regia probably runs considerably lower in juglone. I have also used Juglans microcarpa (AKA texana) in the same way as J. nigra with very similar results and it is my opinion that very likely all the Juglans species are medicinally analogous.
It is arguably the part of the plant that is used which determines the action more than the species does, in my experience.
In other words:
Hull and leaf = Antimicrobial & Astringent + Wound healing and biofilm disruption
Root bark = Laxative & alterative
Nut = Food

***This is an excerpt from Sam’s Materia Medica as found on our Herbal Medics Phone app (HMA) which can be found in Google Play and the Apple Store

Want to view the Black Walnut cheatsheet? Make sure to follow The Human Path on IG for that!

08/31/2026

Working on your materia medica and trying to learn more plants? On Tuesday, make sure you check here for the deep dive on Black Walnut! New resources to help you know how to use this plant and what kind of pre-soak will help you to best maximize a formula for brittle nails and hair ... and what part of the black walnut to use for wound healing vs. constipation.

check back for all the details!

08/25/2026

Last chance to jump into tonight's open first live class of the Herbal Medicine for Professionals course!

Just grab your spot with this link and join the live class with Sam Coffman and Rebecca Lyons.
This class (HMP) is a foundation herbal medicine class that is an in-depth look at more than 72 herbs in its materia medica, talks about the legalities around starting an herbal practice, the basics of setting up an herbal clinic, an herbal first aid module, and each week - a run down on the body systems and what herbs are best suited for it ... AND 3 different medicine making projects.
Here's the link - come join us - it starts at 7pm central time.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/T-Ve7VzPRnilfLHjZnX0AQ

08/24/2026

Don't forget that tomorrow night is your chance to check out the Herbal Medicine for Professionals first live session, no cost! Just grab your spot with this link and join the live class with Sam Coffman and Rebecca Lyons.
This class (HMP) is a foundation herbal medicine class that is pretty in-depth, covers 72 herbs in its materia medica, talks about the legalities around starting an herbal practice, the basics of setting up an herbal clinic, a bit about herbal first aid, and each week - a run down on the body systems and what herbs are best suited for it ... AND 3 different medicine making projects.
Here's the link - come join us on Tuesday night.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/T-Ve7VzPRnilfLHjZnX0AQ

08/18/2026

The school is coming up on twenty years of classes and trainings, with much of it focusing on what to do if you didn't have all the resources you needed on hand.

We had an open office hours session last night that was focused on post-disaster medicine, and towards the end, we asked Dr. Pehrson a question that I'll often receive from healthcare providers who want to know when and how they'll be able to use the skills taught in this program safely.
I think Dr. Pehrson explains it best, so here is the recording!

https://classroom.herbalmedics.academy/courses/openofficehours/lessons/8-17-2026-open-office-hours-field-medicine-for-herbalists/

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San Antonio, TX

Telephone

+12108070645

Website

https://herbalmedics.academy/

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