Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4695 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-05-04
• Rating: Exempt
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1

DVD Description
Unleash the power of plants and soothe the symptoms of everyday ailments the natural way.

Whether you’re struggling with insomnia, the kids have eczema, or your partner is feeling under the weather, this series could have the answer.

With easy recipes ethnobotanist James Wong shows how to make simple creams, salves, teas and much, much more from the stuff growing in your window box, the local garden centre or in the hedgerows. Using the flowers, fruit, vegetables, roots, trees and herbs that are all around us James provides preparations to help relieve a whole range of common conditions, including acne, anxiety, cold sores and general aches and pains – plus great ideas for beauty fixes such as bath bombs and shampoos.

The book to accompany the BBC television series is available now from bookshops nationwide

Customer Reviews

Home-made natural remedies. Practical, helpful and entertaining
This series shows how we can treat everyday ailments using remedies based on freely available plants and remedies. It's extremely accessible and shows exactly how to prepare home treatments, often at a fraction of the cost of commercial lotions and creams. (There's no grow-your-own recreational drugs involved! This is all strictly medicinal).
The are six episodes of 30 minutes each, with a different focus each time; trees, herbs, flowers, vegetables, roots and fruit. Each programme follows the same pattern of explaining how many medicines have always been developed from the natural world, and how we can extract the important active ingrediants from many plants to make our own remedies.
James Wong is a cheery and engaging presenter who also happens to be a qualified botanist. He makes the creams and lotions in his own kitchen, often with a member of the public to help him, so you're encouraged to dive in and have a go yourself.
None of the recepies is hard to follow although quite a few use some specialist ingrediants which you'll need to get from health food stores or a pharmacy. Some of the lotions take quite a long time to prepare, too, so you may need to make them several weeks in advance. And not all of them smell great!
Over the course of the series, James suggests remedies to help with insommnia, acne, smelly feet, sore throats, eczema, muscle aches and pains, lice, varicose veins -- even improving memory. Each programme shows actual sufferers trying a remedy. They don't always work, but the results are very impressive and should encourage anyone with a long-term problem to have a go (following the medical guidelines, of course).
There's also plenty of information which suggests plants that are useful to grow yourself, and the companion book further develops these themes. Grow Your Own Drugs: Easy Recipes for Natural Remedies and Beauty Treats

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole series, although when you watch several episodes at once the level of repetition does become quite irritating (it's one of those shows which tells you what's coming up half a dozen times, as if you can't remember what happens in half an hour!).
It certainly inspired me to be more open-minded about things like ginkgo tea and an artichoke/hawthorn bar which lowers cholesterol. Think I'll give the garlic vinegar footbath a miss, however!
Overall, excellent informative TV. Very enjoyable and enlightening. If only the programmes were longer, and in a little more depth...
8/10

Re Grow your own drugs by James Wong
What a fantastic dvd! James makes it fun as well as being informative. Wish i could meet him and learn all he knows! So nice to have alternatives to chemical medicines. Such a shame that most of us have lost the know how to heal ourselves. Go James!!
The only thing I was disappointed in was the number of recipes. Wish there had been more for the cost of it... but thats also because i enjoyed it so much that it left me wanting for more!

Fab & Fun!!
Great DVD makes loads of sense tried a few of the recipes and they are great!!

Highly recommended!