herbal medicine

noun

|Updated on: 11 Jun 2018

Definition of herbal medicine

1 : the art or practice of using herbs and herbal preparations to maintain health and to prevent, alleviate, or cure disease

2 : a plant or plant part or an extract or mixture of these used in herbal medicine

See herbal medicine defined for kids

Recent Examples of herbal medicine from the Web

The class covers how acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine may help in regulating pre- and post-menopausal hormone changes.

— linda mcintosh, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Poker Tourney raises $250K for Boys&Girls Club...community news," 25 May 2018
Proponents of Western and herbal medicine are often at odds with each other.

— stephanie eckelkamp, Good Housekeeping, "Meet The Registered Nurse And Herbalist Who Grows Her Own Natural Cures," 28 Aug. 2017
Xi has undergone three years of various infertility treatments, including taking a bitter herbal medicine for three months, three rounds of ovulation induction therapy and one laparoscopic surgery to restore displaced tissues in her uterus.

— serenitie wang, CNN, "Recovering from one child: China's growing fertility problem," 7 May 2018
Researchers have used the samples to test the whitening effect of white peony—a fixture in Chinese herbal medicine—to develop skin-lightening products.

— Bloomberg.com, "L’Oréal Is Growing Chinese Skin to Test Products," 16 Jan. 2018
Its parts—from seeds to roots—can be consumed and are frequently used in local cuisine and for herbal medicine.

— erin flaherty, Marie Claire, "Beauty Travels: Exploring Cambodia and the Power of Sacred Flowers," 15 Jan. 2018
Meanwhile, Morton was studying herbal medicine and Ayurveda.

— shawn wen, Bon Appetit, "You Need to Know About This Small-Batch Tea," 28 Feb. 2017
Animalkind A Bloomfield Hills veterinary hospital is using traditional Chinese herbal medicine to treat dogs with a common type of spleen cancer, as part of a clinical study that began in August to prolong the canines’ lives.

— hasan dudar, Detroit Free Press, "Michigan pet hospital to test Chinese herbal medicine on dogs with cancer," 22 Sep. 2017
During our eyesalve study, chemist Tu Youyou was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of a new therapy for malaria after searching over 2,000 recipes from ancient Chinese literature on herbal medicine.

— erin connelly, Smithsonian, "Medieval Medical Books Could Hold the Recipe for New Antibiotics," 19 Apr. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'herbal medicine.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.