Herbal Joint and Muscle, Topical and Internal

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Which Herbs Are Traditionally Used for Joints and Muscles?

Herbalists divide the plants used for the musculoskeletal system into a few working groups: the warming spices taken internally, the resins, the topical tissue herbs, and the plants that support the body's own clearing processes. Most of these have been used the same way for a very long time.

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) has been taken in India as a daily culinary and medicinal spice for several thousand years, traditionally cooked with fat and black pepper. Its potent benefits can be found in our Turmeric Complex, Joint & Muscle Complex and Joint & Muscle Tea.

Boswellia (Boswellia serrata) is Indian frankincense, and in Ayurveda it is one of the principal resins used for the joints, prepared as a gum rather than a leaf. The resin is collected by cutting the bark and returning weeks later for the hardened tears.

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) was known across Britain as knitbone, and that country name describes how it was used: applied to the skin over the affected area, as a poultice or an infused oil, rather than taken internally. It is infused into Joint & Muscle Balm for that reason. It carries duration limits and is for intact skin only.

Devil's claw (Harpagophytum procumbens) has been used in the Kalahari for generations, where the tuber is dug, dried and taken as a bitter decoction. It reached European herbal practice in the twentieth century and has been a fixture of it since.

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) is where salicin was first isolated, and the word aspirin derives from Spiraea, its old botanical name. In European herbal practice it is used where warmth and discomfort occur together, and it is one of the few plants that is both an aromatic and a natural source of salicylates.

Solomon's seal (Polygonatum multiflorum) is genuinely uncommon on a British shelf. In both Chinese and Western practice the rhizome is used for the connective tissue, the tendons and ligaments rather than the joint itself, which is why it sits in the tea alongside the warming spices.

Ginger and nettle round out the internal formulas. Ginger is the classic warming herb of both Ayurvedic and Chinese practice, taken to move and warm; nettle is the mineral-rich leaf herbalists reach for where the body's clearing processes need support.

Topical or Internal? How Herbalists Choose

Herbal practice has always used both routes, and for different reasons. Topical preparations go where the discomfort is and can be applied as often as needed. Internal ones work more slowly and across the whole body. Most people end up with one of each, a balm by the bed, a tea or capsule in the morning.

Worked into the skin. Nerve Oil is St John's Wort, calendula and comfrey steeped into sweet almond and olive oils, with cayenne and wintergreen. Cayenne and wintergreen are the warming pair, traditionally used where heat is wanted on the surface; the infusion turns deep ruby, which only a genuine one does. Also contains sweet almond and wintergreen.

Mahanarayan Oil is among the most established preparations in Ayurveda, made specifically for massage and used in that tradition for centuries. It is the one to reach for if you want the practice as much as the preparation, massaged in slowly, with warm hands.

Joint & Muscle Balm begins the same way, with comfrey root, marshmallow and St John's Wort infused into olive oil over weeks, then set in candelilla wax and finished with pine needle and cajeput. Herbalists generally use balms for a specific area rather than broad application.

Taken internally. Joint & Muscle Complex brings together turmeric, devil's claw, rosehip, celery seed, frankincense, ginger and black pepper, the warming spices, the resin and the bitters in one formula, with pepper included because it is what allows the turmeric to be absorbed and start to release its beneficial properties.

Turmeric Complex is the simpler route: organic turmeric with a standardised extract, frankincense, ginger and pepper. Two a day, which is the easiest thing to keep up over the weeks these plants are traditionally taken for.

For the evening. Joint & Muscle Tea is ginger, turmeric, meadowsweet, nettle, cinnamon and Solomon's seal, drunk warm. Joint & Muscle Bath Salts bring nettle, meadowsweet, ginger and frankincense to Epsom salts, bathing with warming plants being among the oldest applications of them there is, and the one that asks least of you at the end of a long day.

The comfrey products are for intact skin and short-term use only. Nerve Oil contains sweet almond and wintergreen. The capsules contain celery, a declarable allergen. Meadowsweet is a natural source of salicylates, so avoid it if you are sensitive to aspirin. Read the guidance on each product page. Pain that persists or worsens should be seen by your GP rather than managed at home.

Where to start. Five of the seven here sit in our bestsellers, Nerve Oil, Mahanarayan Oil, Joint & Muscle Balm, Joint & Muscle Tea and Joint & Muscle Complex. To discuss how we can help you please book a consultation with one of our Medical Herbalists.

FAQs

Devil's claw is Harpagophytum procumbens, a low-growing plant native to the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. The secondary tuber is the part used in herbal practice. The name comes from the fruit — a woody case covered in hooked spines that catches in the feet of passing animals, which is how the plant distributes its seeds.

Boswellia is frankincense: hardened resin from trees of the Boswellia genus, which grow in Oman, Somalia, Ethiopia and parts of India. The bark is cut and the sap bleeds out, setting into pale tears that are collected weeks later by hand. It has been traded for thousands of years, and Boswellia serrata is the Indian species most often used in herbal preparations.

Piperine, the compound that makes black pepper pungent, is well documented to increase the bioavailability of curcumin, the principal compound in turmeric. Without it, a large proportion of curcumin passes through unabsorbed. It's why the two appear together in most turmeric formulations, and why they've been cooked together in Indian food for centuries.

Comfrey is Symphytum officinale, a tall bristly plant of British riverbanks, known historically as knitbone. Its root and leaf have a long topical tradition. It contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which is why comfrey preparations are used on intact skin only, for short periods, and not internally. Each product states its own limit.

Salicylates are a group of plant compounds chemically related to aspirin. Meadowsweet and willow bark are the best-known natural sources. Anyone sensitive to aspirin should avoid them. If you're unsure, this is a question for your GP or pharmacist rather than a product page.

Solomon's seal is Polygonatum multiflorum, a woodland plant with arching stems and hanging white bells. The rhizome is the part used, and it's genuinely uncommon on British shelves. The name comes from the round scars left on the rhizome where each year's stem dies back, said to resemble a seal.

It depends on the formula — the capsules contain celery and Nerve Oil contains sweet almond. The full ingredients are on each product page, and our Medical Herbalists are happy to talk it through.