"Herban Legends and Clinical Pearls in the Female Reproductive Materia Medica"

Presenter: Paul Bergner
Original Date: July 26, 2025

An Herban Legend is a persistent, widely and firmly held belief about a plant and its medicinal effects which is not true. A clinical Pearl on the other hand is a useful and reliable property or indication for the herb, unrelated to the Legend. The origin of an Herban Legend or its rationale is obscure or forgotten, and is usually based on misinterpretation of science or tradition. It is repeated, believed, and repeated again from textbook to textbook, across a generation until it becomes “common knowledge”. A large number of such Legends are present in North American Herbalism for the category of female reproductive system herbs, usually relating to supposed hormonal effects. Each of the herbs we discuss will also have one or more reliable Clinical Pearls. We will discuss Actaea species, Angelica sinensis, Withania, Dioscorea, Humulus, Paeonia, Trifolium, Vitex, and the Viburnums.

Bio: Paul Bergner is Director of the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism. He has practiced nature cure, medical herbalism, and clinical nutrition since 1973. He completed 50 semester hours of doctoral level medical studies at the National University of Natural Medicine in 1986-1987. He has published the Medical Herbalism Journal since 1989, and has trained students continuously in teaching clinics for medical herbalism and clinical nutrition since 1996 where he has mentored more than 400 students through an 8-month residency. He has taught nutrition at both the undergraduate and graduate levels of academic study. He has authored seven books on topics of medical herbalism, Chinese medicine, ethnobotany and folk medicine, nutrition, and naturopathic medicine.

NUNM is accredited by the North American Naturopathic Continuing Education Council (NANCEAC). This activity qualifies for 1.5 General CEUs