Herbs & Spices: What’s The Evidence They Might Benefit Our Health?

2025-06-10

Kerry Bone, a herbalist who has spent 40 years working in the field, joins the podcast to discuss just what the evidence is that certain herbs and spices might benefit our health. Today we are bombarded with so much confusing information telling us what to eat, when to eat, and often how particular medicinal plants are particularly beneficial to our health. So, today I hope our conversation gives the opportunity to find out what the latest data suggests. One area Kerry discusses is ...

Kerry Bone, a herbalist who has spent 40 years working in the field, joins the podcast to discuss just what the evidence is that certain herbs and spices might benefit our health.

Today we are bombarded with so much confusing information telling us what to eat, when to eat, and often how particular medicinal plants are particularly beneficial to our health.

So, today I hope our conversation gives the opportunity to find out what the latest data suggests.

One area Kerry discusses is pain managment. He explains that research now indicates that the painkiller paracetamol has a poor safety profile (something also discussed in my podcast with NHS pain consultant Dr Deepak Ravindran) and is not very effective, so reveals we thinks we should also be looking more at herbal alternatives such as curcumin and Boswellia.

And Kerry reveals the herbs and spices that he takes every day.

Kerry Bone is the Principal of the Australian College of Phytotherapy. He also founded the Masters of Health Science (Herbal Medicine) course at the University of New England in 2004, and served there as Associate Professor from 2004 to 2012. He is co-author of more than 40 scientific papers on herbal research, and currently serves on the editorial board of the journal Phytomedicine. In addition, he has written a number of textbooks on herbal medicine and is also a co-founder of the company Mediherb.

The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director. You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com

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