A hardy root from the high Peruvian Andes, grown at around 4,000 metres for up to 2,000 years. Andean families have long eaten it as a staple food and an energizing tonic, and today it's one of the most popular "superfood" roots for energy and vitality.
A red seaweed from rocky North Atlantic shores that Irish families boiled into a soothing drink for coughs and colds, and that Caribbean kitchens turned into a thick, spiced milk drink for strength. Today it's a popular gel and gummy sold as a mineral-rich "superfood".
A hardy Arctic and mountain root that Scandinavian, Siberian and Russian folk medicine have long used for endurance, cold winters and recovering strength. Today it's one of the best-known "adaptogens" for everyday stress and tiredness.
A small Florida palm whose dark berries were food for the Seminole and Ais peoples and became the best-known men's herb in Europe and North America. Here's what tradition and research say about it, and who should be careful.
One of the oldest spices in the world, cinnamon was traded from Asia to Egypt as far back as 2000 BC. Ayurveda, Chinese medicine and Persian medicine all use it as a warming herb for digestion, circulation and the womb, and modern researchers are studying it for period pain and metabolic health.
Ginseng has been the prized "root of strength" in Chinese medicine for centuries, and American ginseng was a woodland medicine of Indigenous peoples before it became a major export to China. Here's how the two ginsengs differ in tradition, what modern studies show for energy and fatigue, and who should be careful with it.
