Eclectic Herb Celebrates 44 Years of Herbal Tradition

In 1982, my late husband, Dr. Ed Alstat, founded Eclectic Institute in Portland, Oregon. Ed was a naturopathic physician and a pharmacist, and as a triple Aquarius - was an absolute visionary. At the time, there were not many herb companies around, and hardly any of quality. As a pharmacist, he has watched people coming in to get their medications every month and wondered when they were going to get better, and started thinking there had to be a better way. Then after graduating from naturopathic school, he wanted to create products that he could feel confident recommending to his own patients. That was the beginning of everything: a simple resolution to make people well.

He took his inspiration from the Eclectic physicians of the late 1800s and early 1900s, who turned away from the harsh medical practices of their day and embraced herbal remedies. That spirit is where our name comes from. Forty-four years later, it still guides us in everything we do.

One of my favorite stories about Ed is how our freeze-dried nettle capsules came to be. It actually came about accidentally. Ed was experimenting with trying to find out whether herbs could stay fresh on their journey to a freeze-drier. The reciever was supposed to test the integrity of the herbs after transportation, but instead had freeze-dried, encapsulated, bottled, and tested them, and then shipped them back.

At the time, the entire company was on a 90-acre rural farm, and we had a business manager with bad allergies. One day was particularly bad, so Ed told him to go take the echinacea sitting in the lab. He came out of there dramatically better, and it transpired that he had taken the freeze-dried nettles instead. 

Ed was amazed and wanted to understand what he had noticed. The staff tried the freeze-dried nettles with similar results, and word of mouth started to spread about the previously unknown incredible effectiveness of nettles on allergies. Ed teamed up with Dr. Paul Mittman on a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of freeze-dried nettles for hay fever, published in Planta Medica in 1990.

The way that Ed took a simple observation all the way to a clinical trial is pretty characteristic of his nature. He was very perseverant, and that led to the discovery of one of his great gifts to herbal medicine - the insight that freeze-dried nettles can help people with their allergies. Those capsules went on to become one of our best-loved products, and nettle is still at the heart of our line, from our Nettle Leaf Capsules to our Nettle Quercetin Capsules.

Ed had a deep love of plants, he grew up spending a lot of time on his grandfather's farm and could always be found at his happiest in his garden. His respect for the plant kingdom ultimately shaped how we continue to care for our herbs today. he understood that processing matters, the best herbs are fresh and the best way to preserve that freshness is through freeze-drying. If you have ever worked with fresh plants, you know how much there is to love: the color, the scent, the texture, and the sheer complexity of everything inside a leaf or a root. Holding on to as much of that fresh character as possible has been at the heart of our work from the beginning.

To me, freeze-drying is one of the most beautiful ways to honor a plant. We gently take away only the water, at low temperatures, and the herb keeps so much of what made it special: its color, its aroma, its natural character. Nothing is cooked out of it, and nothing is added to it. When you open a capsule or scoop a powder, you are meeting a plant that was fresh not long ago. We have a couple of giant freeze-driers at work, and I also have a personal freeze-drier at home that I use for all the herbs in my garden. There is a huge difference in quality between airdrying plants and freeze-drying plants, so it is worth the extra time and expense to go the extra step and freeze-dry plants.

There is also something beautifully clean about this approach, not heat, no fillers, and nothing added. We freeze-dry locally grown herbs, fruits and vegetables in small batches, in-house, and 95% of our freeze-dried herbs are US-grown. The whole herb stays at the center of every formula, with no fillers, sweeteners or preservatives. Learn more about the freeze-dried advantage and our sustainability practices.

Ed's curiosity also led him to Lomatium dissectum, a plant with a long history of use by Indigenous peoples of western North America. Drawing on his training in pharmacy and naturopathic medicine, he developed Lomatium Isolate, the first preparation of its kind through a process that separates selected constituents from much of the root's resin.

That detail matters, because lomatium preparations that contain the resin have been linked to skin rashes in some people. I find it a thoughtful, very Ed way of approaching a powerful traditional root: respect it, study it, and look for a better way to prepare it. Today, our Lomatium Isolate Glycerite is one of our best sellers, and it still carries that spirit of careful, curious work.

Ed loved the work of John Uri Lloyd, a 19th-century pharmacist, chemist and herbalist, and one of the great minds of the Eclectic medical movement. He lived in an age of snake oil and miracle cures, when botanical extracts were made in crude, inconsistent ways and there was no real standard for quality. Lloyd wanted herbal remedies people could count on. His answer was a cold-percolation method that could draw out a plant's delicate constituents without any heat and invented a piece of equipment that protected the integrity of the plant, called the Lloyd Extractor.

It is of great pride to me that we use two Lloyd Extractors at Eclectic. They're rare, custom-built pieces of equipment that link our daily work to an earlier chapter of herbal pharmacy. There is a Lloyd Extractor at The Smithsonian, and also one at the Lloyd Library. Ed custom built ours from Lloyd's original blueprints, and they are still in use today.

Here's how we put them to work. We start with fresh, locally grown herbs and extract them in organic alcohol, which is the best solvent for drawing out a plant's full range of compounds. Then, using our Lloyd Cold Still, we gently remove the alcohol through cold distillation and finish the extract with glycerin. What's left is an alcohol-free glycerite that is both gentle and strong, made in small batches with a lot of care.

Why not just use glycerin from the start? Glycerin on its own is sweet and mild, but it can't pull out everything a plant has to offer, especially the heavier, more complex compounds. Starting with alcohol and taking it out afterwards is how we get the best of both.

Ed's devotion went far beyond the actual physical herbs themselves. He owned a collection of rare old herbal and medical books, and did something wonderful with them: he founded a publishing company and reprinted them, along with new books, so that the knowledge inside wouldn't be lost. He understood how much wisdom lives in those pages, and how easily it can disappear if no one takes the time to preserve and share it.

I inherited a collection of Ed's precious old books, and I've been adding to them ever since. Over the years, the Eclectic Institute Library has grown to include vintage remedies, old herbal kits, botanical books with hand-painted artwork, and rare, one-of-a-kind artifacts from the Eclectic era. I have a deep love for herbal history, especially American herbalism and the days when Eclectic physicians carefully documented their case histories. Looking after this library and continuing to add to it is one of the ways I keep Ed's work alive.

The library itself isn't open to the public, so I share it the best way I can. In The Herbs We Return To: A Look Through the Eclectic Library, You can keep exploring plant knowledge through our Herb Library and Herb Journal blog.

After Ed died, continuing Eclectic became one of the greatest responsibilities of my life. There were practical realities to face and an enormous amount to learn. And there were people whose livelihoods depended on the company, many of whom had been with Eclectic longer than I had, even though I'd already been there for a long time. I thought about them, about their families, and about everything they had helped build. I also thought about what it meant that Ed had left me something so precious to him.

I came from New Zealand, trained in naturopathy and herbal medicine, and somehow found myself entrusted with this remarkable herb company in Oregon. It was an extraordinary opportunity, even in the middle of grief and uncertainty. I've had to find my own way as its owner. Over time, I've come to understand that carrying Ed's work forward means bringing my own experience, care and sense of purpose to the company, while keeping his love of plants and his commitment to people close.

An anniversary belongs to everyone who helped make it possible. 

• To our staff, past and present: thank you for the knowledge, care and perseverance you bring to Eclectic. 
• To our growers and wildcrafters, our herbalist community, and the retailers and brokers who share our products: thank you for being part of this work. 
• And to our customers, thank you for welcoming Eclectic into your homes and trusting us all these years. Some of you have been with us for decades and remember us as Eclectic Institute. Others are just discovering Eclectic Herb. I'm grateful for every single one of you.

We also honor Ed through the Dr. Ed Alstat Scholarship at the National University of Natural Medicine. Supporting the next generation of naturopathic physicians is a meaningful way to continue his commitment to the profession he loved.