Plants are endowed with important nutrients and potent healing compounds. When you brew plants in water, the resulting beverage, herbal tea, is imbued with those constituents, carrying them into your body, where they are quickly absorbed. Teas are easy to prepare, inexpensive, nutrient rich, and delicious! In Healing Herbal Teas, you'll find profiles of forty-five common herbs with extraordinary therapeutic potential, along with advice on obtaining, storing, and brewing teas from them. Have a specific health concern you'd like to address? Author Brigitte Mars offers more than 100 simple formulas for a vast range of health concerns, from relieving allergy symptoms to clearing up the skin to nourishing a growing baby in utero. Want to customize your own herbal blends? Mars, who is often applauded for her ability to bring together the wisdom of disparate healing traditions, shows you how, offering basic guidelines as well as theories from different cultures and eras. And, as Mars explains, teas are not just for sipping! For treating everything from wounds and rashes to sore muscles, colds and flu, and dandruff, try topical applications of tea. If you become a true tea aficionado, you'll want to share your passion by indulging in the high culture of tea: tea parties. These events can be organized to welcome guests, to renew friendships, or to simply celebrate life. Inside, you'll find ideas for organizing tea parties, as well as Mars's favorite recipes to serve with teas. Book jacket.