Introduction
The pieces of advice you find in these pages are the result of my decade career as a herbalist and also of the knowledge my family passed on to me, enriched by some research and observations of my
own.
In 1947 my grandfather opened the first herbalist’s shop in Bologna (Italy). Then in 1957 my father, growing away from the head office, opened a second shop on which I permanently collaborated for 10
years. After that I decided to follow a different road.
In Italy herbalists are not allowed to give any written advice, not even to write down “sedative” on a chamomile box, because this would assume the chemist’s role of giving medical prescriptions. The
only thing they can do is give verbal advice; my grandfather – the pioneer – had to face a trial on this matter and in the end, the judge decided that it is not an abuse of medical practice to give
simple verbal advice. This was on the condition that it is clear they’re not prescriptions.
Otherwise any private citizen, who doesn’t sell anything, can say and write whatever he wants. The important thing is that he doesn’t trade. Don’t ask why, this is what law says! So, readers are free
to trust the advice they’re given. Or not.
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