Herbal Medicine also known as Medical Herbalism, Herbology, or Botanical Medicine is based on the use of plants and plant extracts for their therapeutic properties. Sometimes the scope of herbal medicine is even extended to include fungi and bee products, as well as minerals, shells and certain animal parts. With a deep understanding of these various natural substances, as well as the patients' symptoms and constitution, professional herbalists use specific herbs to create balance within the patient's body. As this balance is restored, healing is stimulated and the patient regains health. Various styles of medicine that include the use of herbs include Traditional Western Herbalism, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Naturopathy and Clinical Ayurveda.

Herbal medicine, one of the oldest therapeutic practices known, has been used by all cultures since ancient times. Cultures developed around the use of natural resources to survive, and plants have always been a crucial part of this phenomenon. Over centuries of observation and trial and error, people of various cultures developed vast knowledge around the medicinal properties of plants, their extracts and other natural substances. This has now evolved into detailed and well-defined pharmacopeias of various traditions. Even many of our modern pharmaceutical drugs are derived from traditionally used plants or are synthesized forms of essential plant compounds. From Traditional Western Herbalism to Ayurvedic Herbology and Traditional Chinese Medicine, the use of herbs for their therapeutic properties is once again gaining great popularity in our world today.

Typical treatments in herbal medicine will differ slightly depending on the style being practiced. Practitioners will diagnose the patient's illness by taking a complete medical history, asking questions of the patient's current symptoms, and might also use techniques like observing the patients pulse, their tongue and complexion. Once diagnosis is complete, specific herbs will be prescribed in the form of liquid or powered extracts, tinctures, or in unprocessed form to brew at home. Patients will later return for a check up to and to obtain more herbs if needed. The number of visits needed ultimately depends on the patient's condition and how they react to the treatment.