50 traditions
Healing traditions
Explore the world's healing systems — their philosophy, region, and the herbs, foods, and remedies each tradition draws on.
Ayurveda
One of the world's oldest healing systems, balancing mind, body, and spirit through herbs, diet, and lifestyle.
Traditional Chinese Medicine
A 3,000-year-old system built on qi, yin-yang balance, and the five elements, using herbs, acupuncture, and movement.
Western Herbalism
A living tradition rooted in ancient Greek and Roman medicine, refined over centuries into modern phytotherapy.
African Traditional Medicine
Rich healing practices across hundreds of cultures, using plants, ritual, and community to restore wholeness.
Indigenous / Native American
Sacred plant knowledge passed across generations by hundreds of tribes, honoring the deep relationship between land and healing.
Unani / Islamic Medicine
A Greco-Arabic tradition preserving and expanding the works of Hippocrates and Galen through Islamic scholarship.
Mediterranean
Ancient Greek, Roman, and Arab traditions blended into a culinary and medicinal heritage still widely practiced today.
Kampo / Japanese Medicine
Japan's adaptation of TCM, refined for over 1,500 years into precise herbal formulas integrated with modern medicine.
Korean Traditional Medicine
Hanbang medicine uniquely developed Korean formulations emphasizing constitutional medicine and the four body types.
Tibetan Medicine
Sowa Rigpa — the science of healing — blends Ayurveda, TCM, and Buddhist philosophy into rare high-altitude plant medicine.
Persian Medicine
Avicenna's Canon of Medicine systematized ancient Persian healing into one of the most influential medical texts in history.
Thai Traditional Medicine
A system rooted in Buddhist principles, blending herbal medicine, massage, and spiritual healing practices.
Latin American Curanderismo
A vibrant mestizo tradition merging indigenous plant wisdom with Spanish colonial medicine and Catholic folk healing.
Amazonian Plant Medicine
Ancient shamanic traditions from the Amazon basin holding thousands of years of rainforest plant knowledge.
Caribbean Folk Medicine
A syncretic blend of African, Indigenous Taíno, and European herbal traditions shaped by the islands' rich biodiversity.
Brazilian Phytotherapy
A unique fusion of indigenous Amazonian, African, and Portuguese healing traditions backed by growing clinical research.
Siddha Medicine
One of the world's oldest medical systems, originating in Tamil Nadu, using metals, minerals, and plants to restore the body's elemental balance.
Jamu
Indonesia's ancient herbal tradition spanning over 1,200 years, using turmeric, ginger, galangal, and hundreds of tropical botanicals for daily wellness.
Vietnamese Traditional Medicine
Thuốc Nam — a uniquely Vietnamese system blending TCM influences with indigenous southern herbs, emphasizing accessible local plants for everyday healing.
Mongolian Traditional Medicine
A nomadic healing system blending Tibetan Buddhist medicine with the steppe's hardy plants, adaptogens, and animal remedies to withstand extreme climates.
Russian & Siberian Folk Medicine
A rich tradition of forest and steppe botanicals — adaptogens, mushrooms, and cold-climate herbs — used for centuries to build resilience and longevity.
Celtic & Norse Herbalism
Ancient Druidic and Norse plant wisdom carried through medieval Europe — hedgerow herbs, sacred trees, and forest plants woven into folk healing and ritual.
Appalachian Folk Medicine
A mountain tradition passed down by Scots-Irish settlers and Cherokee people, rich in goldenseal, black cohosh, ginseng, and generations of botanical wisdom.
Ancient Egyptian Medicine
Documented in the Ebers Papyrus (1550 BCE), Egyptian medicine combined frankincense, myrrh, aloe, and over 700 plant remedies with spiritual ritual.
Yoruba & West African Medicine
Yoruba Ifa medicine and broader West African traditions unite plants, divination, and spiritual healing — with bitter leaf, African basil, and moringa at the core.
North African & Amazigh Medicine
A sophisticated tradition rooted in Amazigh (Berber) knowledge, blending argan, henna, nigella, desert plants, and Arab-Islamic medicine.
Māori Rongoa
Rongoa Māori is a living healing system of native New Zealand plants — kawakawa, mānuka, harakeke — intertwined with wairua (spiritual wellbeing).
Aboriginal Australian Medicine
The world's oldest continuous healing tradition, spanning 65,000 years, using eucalyptus, tea tree, desert plants, and deep knowledge of Country.
Andean & Incan Medicine
Kallawaya healers and Incan medicine combined high-altitude plants — maca, muña, chanca piedra, and cat's claw — with ceremony and profound knowledge of the Andes.
Hawaiian & Polynesian Medicine
La'au lapa'au — Hawaiian plant medicine — and broader Polynesian healing traditions use noni, kava, turmeric, and coastal plants for body and spirit.
Filipino Traditional Medicine
Hilot and Albularyo traditions blend indigenous Austronesian plant knowledge with Spanish colonial influence, using lagundi, sambong, and bayabas alongside prayer and hands-on healing.
Mayan Traditional Medicine
Mayan h'men healers use copal, pericón, chaya, and rainforest botanicals alongside ceremony and the sacred Tzolk'in calendar — a cosmological system of diagnosis and healing still practiced today.
East African Traditional Medicine
Across the East African highlands, savanna, and coast, healers use moringa, frankincense, teff, and endemic medicinal plants alongside divination and community ritual.
Cape & Southern African Herbalism
The Cape Floral Kingdom — the world's most biodiverse — gave rise to centuries of Khoi-San and Cape Malay healing using buchu, rooibos, honeybush, and fynbos plants unique to southern Africa.
Sri Lankan Traditional Medicine
Deshiya Chikitsa — Sri Lanka's indigenous healing system — blends Ayurvedic principles with uniquely native plants such as polpala, kothalahimbutu, and weniwal for formulas distinct from mainland India.
Kazakh & Central Asian Medicine
Rooted in the steppe traditions of the Silk Road, this nomadic healing system uses hardy adaptogenic plants, fermented koumiss, and Turkic ethnobotany passed through generations of traveling healers.
Ancient Babylonian Medicine
The world's oldest written medical texts — cuneiform tablets from 2000 BCE — document hundreds of plant remedies including cedar, myrrh, thyme, and henbane at the foundation of Western pharmacy.
Mapuche Medicine
Mapuche machi healers combine ritual, spiritual diagnosis, and the extraordinary plant diversity of Patagonia and the southern Andes — one of South America's most vibrantly alive healing traditions.
Sufi & Islamic Mystical Medicine
Sufi healers integrated Prophetic medicine (Tibb al-Nabawi) with mystical healing, using rose, saffron, frankincense, black seed, and Quranic recitation to heal the body and purify the soul.
Slavic & Eastern European Folk Medicine
Baltic and Slavic healing traditions preserved through wise women (babki) and village healers — using birch, yarrow, wormwood, and banya (sauna) culture across the forests of Eastern Europe.
Hausa Traditional Medicine
The Hausa people's Boka healers maintain one of West Africa's most systematised oral pharmacopoeias, using baobab, desert date, neem, and tamarind in precise formulas for body and spirit.
Khmer Traditional Medicine
Cambodia's Kru Khmer healers blend Theravada Buddhist principles with Austronesian plant knowledge, using galangal, noni, and jungle botanicals in formulas inscribed on the temple walls of Angkor Wat.
Shipibo & Upper Amazonian Shamanism
The Shipibo-Conibo of the Peruvian Amazon practice deep plant cosmology — using ayahuasca, master plant dietas, and hundreds of jungle medicines in ceremonies that interweave song, vision, and healing.
Taoist Herbal Medicine
Taoism gifted the world the concept of tonic adaptogenic herbs — he shou wu, reishi, ginseng, astragalus — emphasising longevity, harmony with natural rhythms, and the cultivation of vital essence (jing).
Santería & Afro-Cuban Medicine
Lucumí/Santería maps Yoruba Orishas onto Cuban biodiversity — each deity governs specific healing plants, creating a vibrant syncretic medicine where ritual, community, and botany are inseparable.
Micronesian & Melanesian Medicine
Indigenous healing traditions across Fiji, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands use kava, morinda, breadfruit leaves, and reef-edge plants in community healing ceremonies with deep spiritual roots.
Malagasy Traditional Medicine
Madagascar's extraordinary endemic flora — over 80% found nowhere else on Earth — supports a distinct healing tradition using ravintsara, rotra, and kinkeliba with deep Southeast Asian and African roots.
Himalayan & Nepali Folk Medicine
Nepal's high-altitude healers use rare Himalayan botanicals — yarsagumba, kutki, jatamansi, and nardostachys — growing at the crossroads of Ayurveda, Tibetan medicine, and indigenous Newari healing.
Scandinavian Folk Medicine
Nordic folk healing preserved in Icelandic sagas and Norwegian manuscripts — using yarrow, elderflower, meadowsweet, juniper, and pine resin to survive and thrive in the world's harshest climates.
Aztec & Mesoamerican Medicine
The Aztec Badianus Manuscript (1552) documents over 184 medicinal plants — epazote, toloache, copal, and cacao — in sophisticated formulas whose legacy lives on in Mexican traditional medicine today.