Many of the tonic herbs also fall into a category of herbs called 'adaptogens' as they aid the body to modulate one or many of its functions.
For a herb to be classified as an adaptogen it must embody these characteristics:
-It’s consumption must not cause harm or place additional stress on the body
-it must promote healing within the body via a non-specific action, providing support for all of the body’s vital systems, including the nervous system, endocrine system and immune system.
-It must be adaptive in nature, assisting the body to overcome any physical, psychological or environmental stressors.
Number one is that they are non toxic. You need to be able to take that herb
continuously for days, weeks, months, years, which is the idea, and not to harm the body. Number two, it needs to be dual-directional or multidirectional in the body, so it’s not just going to drive the body, like say the immune system, up, or just drive the immune system down, but depending on the state of stress that the body is in and you need to be able to adapt to that and be able to go in any direction that it’s going to take you back into harmony.
Which takes us to number three. They need to balance the body continuously in an accumulative manner, so as you take these herbs over time, it’s going to accumulate in the benefits and basically, we’re talking about with these tonics as you take them over time, it’s going to, for example help your immune system, build your immune system so in
itself, it can come back into balance and then potentiate itself.