Plants and their European monographs
- Ginkgo — Ginkgo biloba L., leaf
European Medicines Agency monograph (EMA/HMPC/321097/2012): well-established use for age-associated cognitive impairment and mild dementia, which applies to a refined dry extract and not to an infusion; traditional use, for the powdered leaf, for heavy legs and cold hands and feet in minor circulatory disorders. - Lemon balm — Melissa officinalis L., leaf
European Medicines Agency monograph (EMA/HMPC/196745/2012): traditional use for mild mental stress and to aid sleep, and for mild gastrointestinal complaints including bloating. - Peppermint — Mentha × piperita L., leaf
European Medicines Agency monograph (EMA/HMPC/572705/2014 Rev. 1): traditional use for digestive disorders such as dyspepsia and flatulence.
From “Before You Begin”
The book’s safety page, quoted as it stands. Read the whole page — it is free.
- Seven recipes are remedies, taken on a course. Nothing is gained by drinking them for pleasure.
- The other two — the standardized dry extract of ginkgo leaf for age-related cognitive impairment (Chapter 19) and powdered ginger root against nausea and vomiting in motion sickness (Chapter 33) — belong to pharmacy preparations, not to a tea, and the chapters say so.
- Ginkgo, Chapter 19, affects platelet function and interacts with anticoagulants.
- Ginkgo is here for a different reason: its chapter explains why a tea of the leaf is no substitute for the pharmacy extract.
- Pregnancy. Twenty-six of the twenty-eight recipes here are restricted in pregnancy — most because safety has not been established rather than because harm has been shown, but the answer is the same either way. The two that carry no restriction are the rosehip brew of Chapter 26 and the sea buckthorn of Chapter 28, both of them fruits eaten as food across Europe.
The recipe is in the book
Chapter 19 gives the rest:
- the amounts and the steps
- what each plant does in the cup, and on what basis
- who should not drink it, from what age
- how much, and for how long