Adaptogen An agent that reduces reaction to various stressors, which subsequently helps to restore and maintain normal balance.

Adjuvant A substance that helps and enhances the pharmacological effect of a drug or increases the ability of an antigen to stimulate the immune system.

Ayurvedic A system of traditional medicine practiced in India.

Biodynamic Developed in the early 1900's, biodynamic farming takes into consideration both biological cycles and also "dynamic" aspects of the farm, with the aim to achievebalance between physical and non-physical aspects.

British Pharmacopoeia A book containing an official list of medicinal herbs describing their preparation, testing and usage.

Commission E monographs Published by the German government it contains information on the uses, side effects, and drug interactions of more than 300 herbs.

Density A measure of how much mass is contained in a given unit volume.

Essential fatty acid A component of a "fat" molecule that is essential to human health, but cannot be manufactured in the body.

Flavonoids A group of chemical compounds that are found in all vascular plants. In the diet, flavonoids are found in many fruits, vegetables, teas, wines, nuts, seeds, and roots. Many of the medicinal actions of foods, juices, herbs, and bee pollen are directly related to their flavonoid content.

Mycelium The main structure of fungus: a loose network of the delicate filaments consisting of the feeding and reproducing hyphae.

ORAC Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity is a a widely used testing method, which measures the anti-oxidant activity or capability of a food ingredient. The higher the measurement, the better the ORAC value.

Oxidation The process in which molecules react with oxygen to decompose or produce damaging free radicals

Pharmacognosy The study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties of drugs, drug substances, or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well as the search for new drugs from natural sources.

Prebiotic Substances which promote the growth of certain bacteria (generally beneficial) in the intestines.

Proteolytic A general term referring to any enzyme which digests or splits large proteins into smaller sections or amino acids.

Solvent Substance that is capable of dissolving another substance. In the manufacture of herbal extracts this may be a combination of water, alcohol or harsher solvents such as methanol, acetone, hexane.

Sulfites Sulfites occur naturally in a number of foods and are also sometimes added to herbs for their preservative properties. Sulfite sensitivity occurs most often in asthmatic adults.

Synergistic The action of two or more compounds acting together in such a way that the total effect is greater than if each compound acted alone.

TCM Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is based on a concept of balanced qi (pronounced "chee"), or vital energy, that is believed to flow throughout the body. Disease is proposed to result from the flow of qi being disrupted and yin and yang becoming imbalanced. Among the components of TCM are herbal and nutritional therapy, restorative physical exercises, meditation, acupuncture, and remedial massage.

TLC Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) is a chromatographic technique that is useful for separating organic compounds. Because of the simplicity and rapidity of TLC, it is often used to identify plant species and to check the purity of herbs.

United Plant Savers (UPS) A non-profit organization with a mission is to preserve native medicinal plants of the United States and Canada.

Wildcraft(ing) Wildcrafting is the gathering of plant material from its native uncultivated environment. There are some ethical concerns about how this is practiced sometimes, which may lead to extinction of important medicinal herbs if not done using sustainable practices.