Plants of the Gods: S6E5. From Ayurveda to Acupuncture: An Interview with Herbalist William Siff

Now, in your book, The Plant Medicine Protocol, you have major focus on dealing with stress, preventing stress, curing stress.

And I noticed that in honor of this broadcast that you have reduced the price as an Internet download to $4.

which is quite the bargain.

So I want to encourage everybody to check it out.

But I also want to emphasize that the book itself is a real feast for the eyes, the quality of the photographs and the stories.

So I have my copy on my bookshelf and I have my copy on my iPad.

And that's a way to follow up on this and be able to read this at your leisure.

But I want to talk about something that most people don't know about, and that's demulsions.

So can you tell us a bit about demulsions and why they're important?

Demulcins, yeah, demulcins are plants that, generally speaking, demulcin has a component in there, a compound called mucilage.

And mucilage are carbohydrates that when the plant material contacts water, the water rushes in to the cells of the plant material and then the cells give up this constituent that is called mucilage.

And mucilage has a component of being sort of slimy and goopy and thick and gelatinous in plants such as marshmallow root or slippery elm bark.

or psyllium husk, or aloe vera leaf, all contain this compound, this mucilaginous compound.

And this whole category of plants that contain this compound are called demulsants.

And demulsions are a very important category of medicinal plants for lots of reasons, one of which is this compound is very healing to the body in a lot of different ways, especially the GI tract.

It has a quality of laying down this moisturizing barrier throughout the entire GI tract as it moves its way down.

And that is very important for healing inflammatory issues in the gut, which are quite common, you could say.

And even if there's not an overt inflammatory condition that is named and diagnosed, the gut takes a beating.

you could say.

And there's a lot of abrasions and there's a lot of irritation that goes on in the gut with a modern diet and again, stress.

And this mucilaginous compound, when we consume it, it actually lays down like a healing salve throughout the entire GI tract.

And this is very good because it allows healing to occur on the gut barrier underneath where this, the gut barrier underneath the mucilage, so it's protecting it while it has a chance to heal and it has compounds in it that accelerate and amplify the healing of the gut.

And so it's a very important substance in that way.

And it's also a really great source of soluble fiber.

that feeds and nourishes the microbiome.