To sip or to smoke: the herbal alt to traditional remedies

Anyone can receive the medicinal benefits of botanical herbs regardless of method. Most often, the process of extracting the essence of plants involve tinctures (alcohol concentrates), tea (steeping or simmering in water at high temperatures), compresses (soaking material in plant oil or water-based extractions), and many more. But one ancient method scarcely used, but becoming more popular today, is smoking. 


Smoking as a mode of administration is not only reserved for cannabis to tobacco. The same effects that one would receive from ingesting herbs through a tea or tincture, for example, can also be achieved through a herbal blend of smokable plant material. Smoking not only provides similar benefits to other ways of bodily absorption, the effects are quicker due to herbs’ almost-instant contact with the bloodstream. Thus, common issues like insomnia and bodily pain can immediately be ousted by way of smoking a peppermint/skullcap/blue vervain botanical blend due to their terpene compounds and aromatherapeutic qualities released when inflamed.

“... common issues like insomnia and bodily pain can immediately be ousted by way of smoking a peppermint / skullcap / blue vervain botanical blend ...”

Another major perk of medicinal herbs is its powerful influence on tobacco smokers looking to wean off cigarettes. Smoking herbs can greatly reduce nicotine cravings.* This can be done by adding botanical compounds to cigarettes, and increasing the smokable plant to tobacco ratio until you’re left with only herbs. In fact, some herbs like Lobelia do an amazing job of binding to the same pleasure-center receptors in the brain as nicotine.

*Source: International Journal of Collaborative Research on Internal Medicine & Public Health white paper: “Efficacy of a smoking cessation intervention using the natural agents” pp. 809-815