Herbal remedies or herbal medicine or medicinal herbs or....

[puglogic]

Hi all,
For those of you who are interested in that whole herbal alternative thing, could you help me brainstorm? I'm writing a paper on the topic of easy, simple remedies that come from plants -- you know, the kind on the shelf at the organic grocery store's pharmacy area.
But there are lots of terms for this, and I can't decide which is the one that most people will resonate with.

Which one do YOU hear most often, if you travel in these circles at all, even a little? :
Medicinal herbs
Medicinal plants
Herbal remedies
Herbal medicine
Natural remedies
Healing herbs
Something else?

Thanks. My mind's all muddled up about this.

[ApatheticNoMore]

do a google hit count? :)

(I think I personally would search for herbal medicine. Basically I think there is a different focus to the terms, if I was sick and wanted to try a herbal remedy I'd seek herbal medicine, which is the most likely reason I'd be searching that. If I was merely trying to enhance my ability to identify wild plants or something I'd seek medicinal plants - you'd be surprised at how many plants I've seen pictures of and then identified from nothing more than the picture - but this is very casual compared to actually wanting medicine)

[try2bfrugal]

puglogic - You can use the Google Adwords keyword search tool for related search terms. There is also a related terms feature in Google spreadsheets.

I tried to copy the Adwords list here for you but got a ran out of space error. :(

[herbgeek]

How about kitchen herbs or kitchen medicine cabinet or medicines from your kitchen/garden? Or herbs for <ailment>? I think people search by symptom more than looking for general herb info.

[Rosemary]

There are subtle differences in some of the names you've listed.
Herbal remedies, for instance, come from herbs, obviously. but "natural remedies" may include other things that aren't from plants - such as omega-3 fatty acids or glucosamine.

For "easy, simple remedies that come from plants," I would use "herbal remedies."

[JaneV2.0]

I might try to find a way to work "traditional" into the mix.

[rosarugosa]

I like "herbal remedies" the best.

[Tussiemussies]

I would call it medicinal herbs. They are medicinal, you have to be very careful with them because of that and then they are usually called an herb. Medicinal plants sounds like the whole plant is medicinal when only a certain part of it is.

When you go to the health food store you are buying a medicinal herb but casually they are usually called herbal remedies.

Just my opinion though... Good luck with your paper!:)

[try2bfrugal]

I think I have heard the term herbal remedies most often.

I did related terms in Google docs in a spreadsheet. I filled in the first 3 and let Google add in the terms it thinks are related -

medicinal herbs
medicinal remedies
herbal remedies
home remedies
herbal supplements
herbal medicine
natural remedies
diet
vitamins
health care
womens health
mens health
natural herbs
beauty tips
herbal health
acne
natural cures
cellulite
beauty
recipes
fitness
dog care

[Tiam]

I think it would depend on the herbs. Some are medicinal. Some have more research backing them up than others. Some are strictly anecdotal, or tradtional, whereas some actually have the ingredient that is used in treatment. So, would a combination be acceptable? At least in the title? Like Medicinal herbs/remedies?

[try2bfrugal]

This are the number of searches in Google each month shown by the Adwords tool -





Keyword
Competition

Global Monthly Searches


Local Monthly Searches




medicinal herbs

Medium


74,000

18,100




medicinal plants

Low


246,000

22,200




herbal remedies

Medium


1,000,000

450,000




herbal medicine

Medium


673,000

301,000




natural remedies

Medium


1,220,000

673,000




healing herbs

Medium


18,100

8,100




The Adwords tool will also give you hundreds of related terms and their search monthly search counts.

[Tussiemussies]

That is great try 2 b frugal. -- how were you able to get that info.? It might come in handy sometime...

[try2bfrugal]

That is great try 2 b frugal. -- how were you able to get that info.? It might come in handy sometime...

If you search for Adwords keyword tool in Google you will get to the screen to produce these results. The tool is there for advertisers so they know how much traffic different terms get and how much competition exists for those terms. If you are making a web site sometimes it helps to target the lower traffic terms as everybody and his brother will be trying to get to the number one spot for the highest traffic words or phrases.

[Tussiemussies]

Thanks try2befrugal -- I am going look into this and see if I can find that tool on google. It may help my husband with his art licensing. :)

[puglogic]

Thanks so much, everyone! I hadn't even given much thought to the subtle differences in functionality/usage between some of the terms. Wonderful help here.

[Amaranth]

Medicinal herbs
Medicinal plants
Herbal remedies
Herbal medicine
Natural remedies
Healing herbs
Something else?

Different terms would also appeal to different target audiences. People with a more traditional medical inclination might be more comfortable with medicinal herbs. People with a more alternative bent might like herbal remedies. If your paper is about both healing and preventative uses, you could use healing herbs in part of the paper and then a different term that emphasizes the proactive preventative uses. If the word herbal might be too alternative for your audience, but the word medical might seem too out of their reach, natural remedies might help them feel comfortable but empowered. If your paper is aimed at nursery owners and why they might want to grow certain plants, then medicinal plants would be a good focus. For an article on how culinary herbs can serve preventative or healing functions you might go with a term that includes the word culinary or kitchen. If you want to appeal to gardeners, a term like kitchen garden pharmacy would indicate that they can grow it plus the extensiveness of the remedies that can be grown by the home gardener.

If you want to expand the contexts that people are comfortable with, you can lead with the terms they are most comfortable with and then introduce other terms later in the article. If your audience is more familiar with traditional medicine and well educated, they might be more comfortable at the start with academic sounding terms such as plant-based medicine and later you could move them more toward herbal medicine or natural health depending on the focus of the article.