“I have known the dry herbe which came from beyond the sea sold in Bucklersbury in London…. Yet it may be more truly said of phantastical Physitions, who when they have found an approved medicine and perfect remedy neere home against any disease; yet not content therewith, they will seek for a new farther off, and by that means many times hurt more than they helpe. Thus much I have spoken to bring these new fangled fellows backe againe to esteeme better of the admirable plant than they have done, which no doubt have the same vertue now that then it had, although it growes so neere our homes in never so great quantity.” John Gerard, A Historie of Plants, London, 1597

• Herbal medicine results from the remarkable scientific facts, without which life would not have evolved the way it did. Herbalists, it seems in almost every culture on earth, are the conduit between nature’s primary natural medicines and the human race.

• Biodynamics is the organic quality assurance system that seeks after the mysterious quality of vitality. Grounded in the understanding of life’s rhythmic connections to the planet within the cosmos, Biodynamics is based on anthroposophical analyses of the impulses that led to settled ‘agri-cultures’, some ten or more millennia ago.

• Rutland Biodynamics arose following some of the last lectures given by Hein Zeylstra at the College of Physiotherapy. These anticipated the Aristolochia scandal and concerned the way in which the health of our patients are put at risk by global economic interests that commonly result in cut-throat, cheap and nasty manufacturing practices in herbal medicine. This became Rutland’s inspiration to offer something better.

• We grow the vast bulk of our own herbs here in Rutland rather than buy and warehouse commercially dried plant material of indeterminate age, origin and efficacy. Uniquely, this also allows us to recycle our ‘used’ herb back into the soil. For a decade, our own on-farm lab has worked tirelessly to scientifically unravel something of the mysteries surrounding the complex qualities of medicinal herbs.

• We are dedicated to vibrant and active complex medicines, brought to the practitioner in as close a likeness as we can to the way in which they evolved in Nature. We do not chase the goal of cheapening the techniques of production that have been tried and tested by generations of herbalists.

• Nature did not design dead materials to be biologically active but uses living complexes. In the same way and for the same reasons, our business is established around the use of fresh organic extracts, whenever possible.