Chinese Herb Providers

List of Chinese Herb Sources

Our guest in Episode 202, Robert Newman, L.Ac. was gracious enough to compile this amazing list of sources for Chinese herbs and plants.

Peggy Schafer in Petaluma, CA, grows Chinese herbs organically--she has seeds, plants, dried herbs, and tinctures:
http://www.chinesemedicinalherbfarm.com/about_us.html
http://www.chinesemedicinalherbfarm.com/products.html

Joe Hollis--Mountain Gardens: Joe grows herbs organically in Burnsville, North Carolina--he also has seeds, plants, and dried/prepared herbs and herb products; http://www.mountaingardensherbs.com/

Jean Giblette in New York has an organization and farm called High Falls Gardens. She's connected with a whole network of growers who grow Chinese herbs organically in the U.S.
and sell the fresh, dried herbs:
http://www.highfallsgardens.net/consortium/index.html

All of the growers connected with High Falls Gardens grow particular herbs each season, but also will contract-grow certain species they have available in specific quantities if requested. Jean's a source/contact for U.S.-grown dried Chinese herbs....she doesn't sell seeds or plants though you can correspond with her and she may be able to help you in certain limited cases. Also see:
http://localherbs.org/

Horizon Herbs: Richo Cech grows herbs organically in Oregon, selling seeds, plants, dried herbs and tinctures, and many other products, books, etc.;
http://www.horizonherbs.com/

Richters: Richters has herb seeds, plants, books and other numerous products, located in Canada;
http://www.richters.com/

Companion Plants, in Ohio: They sell seeds and plants of various herbs:
http://www.companionplants.com/

Forestfarm Nursery, in Oregon: They have a great selection of plants--particularly shrubs and trees, and many are from Asia and some of those are important species used in Chinese medicine (you do need to know what the latin name of the herb is before you look for it in their catalog......the plants aren't generally listed in connection with their herbal uses--they are listed in alphabetical order based on their latin names):
http://www.forestfarm.com/

All Green Seed: This is a small seed company in China; they sell seeds of various ornamental species as well as ones used in Chinese medicine; you need to e-mail them for a list of current ones they have available--you can also ask if they can find certain ones, but they may or may not be successful with that search process; the contact person's name is Yu:
winmars2003@yahoo.com.cn

Plant Delights Nursery, in North Carolina: Has a great selection of various perennial plants, a number of which are from Asia and some of those are used in Chinese medicine; need to know latin name of ones you want to find:
http://www.plantdelights.com/

Asiatica Nursery, in Pennsylvania: Great selection of Asian perennials, a number of which are used in Chinese medicine; again, you need to know the latin name of the herb you want to find; they have variegated varieties of some of the species--don't purchase those for medicinal purposes, even though they may be almost the same as the main species you are looking for:
http://www.asiaticanursery.com/

Rareplantsde, in Germany: Good selection of seeds of uncommon species, some of which are Asian species and some of those happen to be used in Chinese medicine; you need to know latin name of ones you want to find;
http://www.rareplants.de/shop/

Gardens North, in Canada: Good selection of seeds of uncommon species, some of which are Asian species and some of those happen to be used in Chinese medicine; you need to know latin name of ones you want to find;
http://gardensnorth.com/site/

Secret Seeds, in the U.K.: Good selection of seeds of uncommon species, some of which are Asian species and some of those happen to be used in Chinese medicine; you need to know latin name of ones you want to find;
http://www.secretseeds.com/

Poyntzfield Herb Nursery, in the U.K.: Some unusual herbs, a few of which are used in Chinese medicine;
http://www.poyntzfieldherbs.co.uk/nursery.html

The Royal Horticultural Society has a plantfinder search to locate plants sold by nurseries in the U.K.: Many nurseries in the U.K. have some very uncommon and hard-to-find Asian plants:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/plantfinder.asp

China National Tree Seed Corporation: They are located in China and generally only sell larger (wholesale) quantities of seeds, if you're interested in buying such amounts; they sell seeds of various ornamentals (some of which are used in Chinese medicine) and also specific Chinese medicinal herb seeds; make sure to click on the button on the top right for "English";
http://www.chinaseeds.com/index.asp

There are other nurseries in the U.S., Canada, and Europe that sell various ornamental and useful plants (and some of them sell seeds too), and they carry some plants, usually unwittingly, that are used as important species in Chinese medicine. Although there a few that specialize in herb plants and/or seeds, they usually they don't have too many species used in Chinese medicine, so I didn't list them above. But if anyone is looking for specific herb plants that they can't find from the specific above sources, let me know and I can tell you if there are any sources that are accessible to the general public that have those particular herb plants.

For places that just sell Chinese herbs in their dried form, there are a number of companies. Some of these will only sell to licensed acupuncturists and you must provide a copy of your license to them. Most of these companies will ship to you throughout the U.S......and possibly internationally in some instances.

There are a number of herb companies in San Francisco
such as Gan May and Kwok Shing:
www.google.com/search
http://sanfrancisco.zami.com/Food_Market/Herbs
http://san_francisco-ca.yellowusa.com/Herbs.html
https://www.asianaturalproducts.net/content/view/15/29/
(Asia Natural Products has very good quality, but they will probably require a copy of your acupuncture license)

http://www.looboo.com/list/US/CA/Los_Angeles/healthfood
Look for Harbin Deer Trading Co. in this listing

http://www.gfcherbs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1
(Golden Flower Chinese Herbs also carries VERY good
quality--they carry Spring Wind Herbs' bulk herbs and
Spring Wind Herbs' premium bulk herbs--but they will
also probably require a copy of your license)

Also, local Chinatowns and Koreatowns in numerous cities will have dried Chinese herbs available from various herb stores and you will even be able to find bags of various packaged Chinese herbs in Asian food markets in these Chinatowns and Koreatowns.

Robert Newman, L.Ac.
www.newmanacupuncture.com

Thanks, Robert
You da' man!

Marc