Re: Herbs debate forum suggestion

I had heartburn the other day and went to a pub and told the wench behind the bar, she whipped me up "bitters and soda water" and I drank it. It sort of helped a little.

I thought "What is this thing called bitters ?" but didn't ask b/c they probably don't know. I suppose bitters is anything that's bitter, with some bitters being better than other bitters. But there's lots of things that could be called bitters, so when someone says "bitters" to me, its really kind of meaningless unless they specify exactly what's in it, but most bitters suppliers that have been around a long time won't tell you, because that's a trade secret that distinguishes their product. I'd prefer to discuss it in terms of particular plant species, but that may be an impractical approach. Hops is kind of bitter.

Herbs can be problematic if there are no standards. Some herb extracts on the markets are "standardized", for example milk thistle is sometimes standardized to contain at least some amount of silymarin , or saw palmetto is standardized to contain at least X amount of some kind of sterols or other.

I think herbs in a bag, like buying spices, you really don't know what you're getting if they're not standardized with some assay on a label, its like spices, some brands of rosemary are better or fresher than others. Then there's variances in growing conditions, climate, soil nutrients, etc. and they all contribute to product quality and active ingredient concentration - not to mention impurities. Do they treat herbs that are imported from China with sulfuryl fluoride to control pests ? Methyl bromide ? I don't know but I bet the USA import authorities must require some kind of treatment so that the "whatever worm" or insect species doesn't invade the USA. I remember when I was a kid going from Tennessee to Arizona and there were people at the border who asked if we were brininging any plant matter and I said I had some cotton bolls I picked and they wouldn't let us bring them in !!

Not to mention , some people could be allergic to some kinds of herbs. , etc. things like that. It could be a good discussion forum. Of course there's always bound to be people who want to get ornery, best to just ignore them.