Which treatment should I book?

I offer two types of appointments. The functional herbal and nutritional therapy appointment is for people with complex, chronic or recurrent health problems, including autoimmune conditions, recurring infections, circulatory problems, cancer prevention, fatigue, PCOS, menopausal and other women's health issues. This appointment lasts around 90 minutes. I also offer acupuncture treatment, which can be used as a stand-alone appointment or alongside herbal and nutritional therapy to support the care plan.

I've booked an appointment. What happens next?

When you book a functional herbal and nutritional therapy appointment I will send you my intake form and GDPR consent form. It is best to allow up to two weeks to complete the intake form before your appointment. I will usually also ask you to complete a simple food journal. At your appointment we will review the intake form together, discuss your main health concerns, and piece together a timeline of your medical history. By the end of the session you will have a personalised plan which may include dietary or lifestyle changes, individualised herbal formulations from my onsite herbal dispensary, herbal products or nutritional supplements, and stress management techniques.

How many treatments do I need?

Generally speaking, the longer you have suffered from a problem the longer it takes to resolve. A general rule of thumb is that for every year of ill health you might need a month to improve your health. With functional herbal and nutritional therapy I generally see patients once a month to begin with. Follow-up appointments can be online or by telephone, which makes them much more convenient. For acupuncture, weekly or fortnightly appointments are more effective, reducing in frequency as improvements occur.

Can I order repeat herbal prescriptions?

Absolutely. Once an effective herbal prescription has been established, most patients prefer to have repeat prescriptions posted out to them. You can order repeats by email or by using the contact form on the website. I will send an invoice by email or text and once it has been paid your medicine will be sent to you by second class post.

Can I take herbal remedies alongside drugs from my doctor?

This is an important question and it really depends on what medications you are taking. Some herbs should not be taken alongside prescription drugs. Your doctor is not usually trained to know which herbs are safe in combination with their prescriptions, but your medical herbalist is trained to know which herbs might interact with prescription drugs and which should be avoided.

Should I tell my doctor I am taking herbal medicines?

Yes. I can provide information to explain why I am recommending a particular herb or supplement if required. I am also happy to speak to your doctor if they would like to contact me regarding your care, though you will first need to provide me with your written consent to allow me to do this.

What payment methods do you accept?

If you make an appointment via my secure online calendar you have the option to pay at the time of booking or at the appointment. I can accept in-person payments in the form of cash or debit or major credit cards. For repeat prescriptions or lab tests, I can send you an invoice by email or text that you can pay by following a secure link. I can also accept a cheque for this type of transaction, though this will take a little longer to process.

What is the difference between herbal medicine and homeopathy?

Herbal medicine and homeopathy are two entirely different disciplines. Herbal medicine uses whole plant extracts that contain active chemical constituents which have measurable effects on the body. A medical herbalist holds a BSc (Hons ) degree and has completed a minimum of 500 supervised clinical hours. Homeopathy uses highly diluted substances and is based on a different philosophy entirely. The two should not be confused.

Herbal Medicinal Actions for Digestion

Summary

Herbal medicine sorts plants by what they do in your body, and those categories are called medicinal actions. For digestion, the main ones are bitters, carminatives, antispasmodics, demulcents, astringents, the bile herbs, the prokinetics and the bulk laxatives. This post explains each action, what it does inside you, the herbs that carry it, and what the trials have found. The full reference list of digestive herbs, organised by action, is free to download at the end.

Key takeaways

A herbal action describes what a plant does in your body, so herbs that share an action can stand in for each other.
Bitters work through taste receptors in your mouth and gut, and those receptors release the hormones that run your digestion.
Peppermint oil improved IBS across ten trials, helping one extra person in every four who took it.
Curcumin matched omeprazole for indigestion pain in a 2023 trial, and taking both added nothing.
Tormentil, an astringent, shortened rotavirus diarrhoea in children from five days to three.
Psyllium husk raised the response rate in chronic constipation from 41 to 66 per cent across 16 trials.

If you have been told that indigestion, bloating or an unpredictable bowel is now something to manage with a tablet, you are probably wondering whether there is another way. Herbal medicine has been answering that question for a very long time, and it has a system for it. Every medicinal plant is described by what it does in your body, and those descriptions are called medicinal actions. A herb that gets your digestive juices going is a bitter. One that eases wind is a carminative. One that soothes an irritated lining is a demulcent. Once you know the actions, you can see what each herb on a long list is for. This post explains the actions that matter most for digestion, the herbs that carry them, and what the research has found. The full list, organised by action, is free to download at the end.

What a herbal action is

An action is the effect a herb has on the way your body works, and it is different from a condition the herb is used for. The same plant usually carries several. Peppermint is a carminative and an antispasmodic, so it is used for wind and for cramping alike. Ginger is carminative, antispasmodic and anti-nausea, which is why it covers a bloated stomach and travel sickness in one plant. The standard textbooks of Western herbal medicine are organised this way, action by action, before they get to any condition.

This is how a herbalist chooses. I am not matching a herb to the name of a condition. I am matching the actions a person needs to what is actually happening in her digestion, and then choosing the plants that suit her. The actions below are the ones that come up most often for digestion. Each has centuries of use behind it, documented in the European herbal monographs, and each has trials that have tested that use.

Bitters: the herbs that start digestion

Bitters are plants with a strong bitter taste, and the taste is the point. Gentian root, dandelion root and leaf, wormwood and centaury are the classic ones. When bitterness lands on your tongue, your body reads it as a signal that food is on the way. Saliva increases, your stomach begins producing acid and enzymes, and your gallbladder gets ready to release bile. So a bitter taken ten or twenty minutes before a meal prepares the whole digestive tract for what is coming. That matters most if you feel full and heavy after eating, or if food seems to stay in your stomach for hours. It matters if you have lost your appetite too. The European monograph for gentian records exactly this use, for temporary loss of appetite and mild digestive complaints. The dose is around a gram of root in a cup of hot water before meals. Dandelion has a matching record for fullness, wind and slow digestion. Gentian is a herb I have used in my own dispensary for over twenty years, and nobody forgets the taste.

The research has caught up with the taste. Bitter taste receptors are not only on your tongue. They line your stomach and small intestine as well. A 2024 review describes how bitter compounds arriving there trigger the release of the hormones that regulate digestion and appetite. In a trial in 28 healthy adults, a bitter compound delivered into the small intestine raised the hormones that slow the stomach and signal fullness. It lowered blood glucose after a meal too. That trial used quinine, so it tells you about the receptor and not about gentian. And, the old advice to taste your bitters has its own support. In a small crossover study, gentian only produced a measurable change in the circulation when it was tasted. Hidden in a capsule, it did nothing. I have written more about bitters, including why autumn is the time to start them and how they improve your digestion.

Carminatives: the herbs that ease wind

A carminative is a herb that relieves wind and the bloating and cramping that come with it. Most of them are aromatic: peppermint, fennel, caraway, aniseed, dill, cardamom, ginger and chamomile. The volatile oils that give them their scent relax the muscle of the gut wall. So trapped wind can move on instead of stretching the bowel, and the spasm that makes that stretching hurt eases too. This is the action behind a cup of fennel or peppermint tea after a heavy meal. The European monographs list peppermint leaf, fennel and caraway for bloating, wind and mild cramping, as teas of one to three grams.

Peppermint oil is the best studied carminative of all. Taken in coated capsules that open in the intestine, it has recognised use across Europe for spasm, wind and abdominal pain in irritable bowel syndrome. In ten trials in 1,030 people with IBS, it improved the condition overall. For every four people who took it, one improved who would not have done on placebo. When researchers ranked everything tested for IBS in 51 trials, peppermint oil came first, ahead of the antispasmodic drugs and soluble fibre. The oil blocks the calcium channels that make gut muscle contract, which is how several antispasmodic drugs work too. It also settles the cold receptors that make an irritable gut feel pain. Caraway belongs with it. Fullness, feeling full after a few mouthfuls and upper stomach pain are what doctors call functional dyspepsia. For that pattern, a 2023 Cochrane review found peppermint and caraway oil together helped in three trials in 305 people. The response rate was one and a half times that of placebo. Fennel has less trial work of its own, and most of it comes from combination products. But, it has centuries of documented use for exactly this, and it is the gentlest of the three for children.

Antispasmodics: the herbs that ease cramping

Antispasmodics overlap with carminatives, because relaxing the gut wall does both jobs, but the emphasis is different. Where the trouble is cramping and colicky pain, the herbs that matter are chamomile, lemon balm and peppermint, with cramp bark and wild yam further down the list. Chamomile has been used for spasm and bloating for as long as there are records. The European monograph gives it for minor gut complaints such as bloating and minor spasms, from six months of age upwards. Lemon balm has a matching entry for bloating and wind, and it does something the others do not. It calms the nervous system at the same time as the gut. That is useful because your gut and your nervous system talk to each other constantly, and cramping often gets worse under stress.

Chamomile and lemon balm are almost always tested in combinations, so that is how the evidence reads. In a trial of 120 people with functional dyspepsia, a six herb formula built on chamomile, lemon balm, peppermint and caraway was taken for eight weeks. Complete relief came for 43 per cent, against 3 per cent on placebo. In babies with colic, a chamomile, fennel and lemon balm preparation cut crying time from around 200 minutes a day to 77 within a week. The placebo group barely changed. And, the antispasmodic action itself can be watched. When peppermint’s menthol is sprayed onto the gut wall during an endoscopy, it stops the muscle contractions in over half of patients across 14 trials. Side effects were no more common than on placebo.

Demulcents: the herbs that soothe an irritated lining

A demulcent is a herb rich in mucilage, the slippery gel you get when you soak linseed or chia. Marshmallow root, slippery elm bark, linseed and liquorice are the main ones. When that gel passes over an irritated lining, it coats it, so acid and food stop rubbing on a surface that is already sore. This is the action for heartburn, for a raw feeling after a stomach upset, and for the gut that seems to react to everything. It is also the action to understand if you have been told that suppressing acid is the only option. A demulcent works on the surface, not on the acid. The European monograph for marshmallow root lists it as a demulcent for mild gastrointestinal discomfort, at two to five grams of root steeped in cold water. Cold water and not boiling, because that draws out the mucilage without the starch. Linseed has the same demulcent entry, five to ten grams soaked in water, and recognised use for constipation on top.

There is little trial work on demulcents in the gut, partly because a mouthful of mucilage is hard to disguise as a placebo. What there is supports the mechanism. In laboratory work on human cells, not in people, marshmallow root polysaccharides formed a protective layer on the cell surface and stimulated the cells to repair themselves. And, in a small uncontrolled pilot in 31 people with IBS, a slippery elm formula improved bowel frequency, straining, pain and bloating in the constipation type. One practical point: mucilage slows the absorption of anything taken with it, so take a demulcent an hour apart from any medicine.

Astringents: the herbs that tighten and dry

Astringent herbs are rich in tannins, the compounds that make strong tea dry your mouth. Tormentil, agrimony, oak bark, bilberry and raspberry leaf are the digestive ones. Tannins bind to the proteins on a surface and tighten it, and they leave a thin protective layer on top. In your gut that means less fluid leaking into the bowel and a lining that is harder to irritate. So astringents are the herbs for diarrhoea and for a bowel that is loose and urgent. The European monographs give tormentil and agrimony for mild diarrhoea, as a tea or a tincture. Both carry the sensible instruction to seek advice if it goes on for more than three days.

Tormentil is the astringent with the clearest trial. In 40 children with rotavirus diarrhoea, tormentil root drops shortened the illness from five days to three. Within 48 hours, 40 per cent were free of diarrhoea, against 5 per cent on placebo. In a pilot in 16 adults with active ulcerative colitis, three weeks of tormentil halved the disease activity score. C-reactive protein, the blood marker of inflammation, came down from 8 to 3. The tannins were undetectable in the blood, which means the herb was working on the surface of the gut and not from inside the body. Laboratory work on a layer of human gut cells shows the same thing: the tannins stay bound to the surface instead of passing through.

Bile herbs: choleretics, cholagogues and hepatics

Three actions belong together here, because they all concern bile. A choleretic makes your liver produce more bile. A cholagogue makes your gallbladder release it. A hepatic is the wider term for a herb that supports your liver. Bile is what breaks fat into droplets small enough to digest, and it keeps the bowel moving. So when bile flow is sluggish you get a recognisable pattern: fullness and nausea after fatty food, pale or floating stools, and a bowel that is slow. Artichoke leaf, dandelion root, turmeric and milk thistle carry these actions, and most bitters are choleretic as well. I have written separately about the herbs that improve fat digestion. One real caution: herbs that move bile should not be taken if you have gallstones or a blocked bile duct. A herbalist would check that before using them.

Artichoke leaf is listed for indigestion with fullness, bloating and wind. In a trial of 247 people with functional dyspepsia, six weeks of artichoke leaf capsules improved the condition and quality of life more than placebo. Because bile carries cholesterol out of the body, artichoke lowers cholesterol as well. In nine trials in 702 people, total cholesterol fell by around 0.45 mmol/L and LDL by around 0.4. Turmeric has its own entry for fullness, slow digestion and wind, and it has the most direct comparison in this whole post. In a 2023 trial of 206 people with functional dyspepsia, curcumin at 500 mg four times a day was set against omeprazole at 20 mg a day for 28 days. A third group took both. Pain scores fell by the same amount in all three groups, and taking both added nothing. The herb matched the drug. Omeprazole is prescribed medication and I do not advise on it, so that is a report of what the trial found and not a suggestion to swap. Milk thistle is the hepatic on the list, given for indigestion and fullness and to support liver function. I have written about it in my post on natural liver support.

Prokinetics and anti-nausea herbs: ginger

A prokinetic is a herb that moves things along, so the stomach empties on time and the bowel keeps its rhythm. Ginger is the one everybody knows. It has recognised use across Europe for nausea and vomiting in travel sickness, at one to two grams of the powdered root an hour before travelling. It has a traditional entry for bloating, cramping and loss of appetite too. It works at the stomach. In a crossover trial in people with functional dyspepsia, 1.2 g of ginger before a meal made the stomach empty faster. Half the meal had gone in 12 minutes instead of 16. For nausea, the strongest evidence is in chemotherapy. In 35 trials, ginger capsules taken alongside the usual anti-sickness medicines cut severe acute nausea by around 80 per cent. And, in a 2025 trial in 80 people with functional dyspepsia, twelve weeks of a ginger preparation improved pain, indigestion, reflux and constipation scores against placebo. Fresh root grated into cooking, sliced into hot water, or taken as a capsule all count. It is one of the few herbs on this list that most people already have in the kitchen.

Bulk laxatives: the herbs that keep your bowel moving

The last action is the one most people meet first, because constipation is what sends most of us to a chemist. Herbal laxatives come in two kinds. The stimulant ones, senna and cascara, irritate the bowel wall into contracting. They are for occasional use only, because the bowel gets used to them. The bulk ones, psyllium husk and linseed, are closer to food than medicine. They absorb water, swell, and give the bowel something to push against, which restores its rhythm without irritating it. Psyllium husk has recognised use across Europe for habitual constipation and for constipation predominant IBS. The dose is seven to eleven grams a day with plenty of water.

The trials agree. In 16 trials in 1,251 adults with chronic constipation, fibre supplements raised the response rate from 41 per cent to 66 per cent. Psyllium at over 10 g a day for at least four weeks did best, with more wind in the first weeks as the only cost. Linseed did as well as a prescribed laxative in a trial of 90 adults. At 50 g a day of ground seed, bowel movements went from two a week to seven over four weeks. Both need water. A heaped tablespoon of linseed goes into a full glass and is never taken dry, because it swells wherever it meets liquid.

Where this leaves you

Once you can name the action, you can read a herb list. A list that says chamomile tells you nothing. A list that says chamomile is a carminative, an antispasmodic and mildly bitter tells you when it is the right plant and when something else is. That is what the download below gives you: the digestive herbs organised by action, with the terms explained. Matching those actions to what is actually happening in your digestion, and choosing the plants that suit you, is the work a herbalist is trained to do. If you take prescribed medication, that matching includes checking what is safe alongside it. A personalised consultation can help you to understand what is happening and provide support to fit your situation.

Download the digestive herbs list

The free reference list covers the herbs for the digestive system, organised by medicinal action, with each term explained. Enter your email below and it will be sent to you.

MEDICAL HERBALIST & FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE