By Anthony Latora
One of the first doorways we walk through when getting to know an herb medicinally, alongside sight, smell, and even touch, is taste. What if I told you that through taste alone we can gather much about how an herb may act within the body?
This is very much true. Not only do we find this in Western herbalism, but also within Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurveda, with many similarities woven between these systems. Though there are countless healing traditions throughout the world, we’ll stay with these three for simplicity’s sake.
In Western herbalism and TCM, there are five classic flavors: sweet, salty, sour, pungent, and bitter. Ayurveda adds another category, more akin to a sensation within the mouth, known as astringent. Astringent is not the only mouthfeel recognized, either; there are acrid, mucilaginous, earthy, and diffusive qualities, to name a few. But for now we’ll focus on the five flavors alongside astringency.
You may be thinking this all sounds a little far-fetched and wondering how taste could possibly reveal so much. Well, come take a walk with me and let’s see.
It’s safe to say that most everyone is familiar with sweetness. It’s the flavor we associate with honey, syrup, and carbohydrates. Yet the sweetness found within herbs is often more subtle, like the nourishing sweetness of grains, roots, or starches. Sweet herbs tend to nourish, moisten, and soften tissues while generally carrying a cooling nature. These herbs often display demulcent, emollient, and nutritive actions due to their sugars, starches, and mucilaginous polysaccharides.
Sweet herbs commonly have affinities with the mucosal membranes of the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and urinary systems. They are used to relieve excess dryness, weakness, and depletion within tissues. Though nourishing, in excess they may contribute to stagnation and dampness through overbuilding. Herbs such as licorice, marshmallow, and burdock all carry varying expressions of sweetness.
Salty herbs often feel closer to the mineral kingdom than the plant kingdom, especially within Ayurvedic tradition. Sometimes this taste is deeply mineral-rich, like celery, while other times it is unmistakably salty, like kelp. Interestingly, traditions differ in how they interpret this flavor. In TCM, salt is considered cooling, moistening, heavy, and downward-bearing, while Ayurveda often sees it as warming due to its burning sensation upon wounds and tissues.
In simpler terms, salty plants help replenish minerals within the body by providing potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium, iron, silica, and other trace minerals, depending on the species. This flavor has strong influence over the kidneys, circulation, nervous system, and structural tissues, lending a strengthening and nourishing quality overall. Nettles and horsetail are excellent examples of mineral-rich herbs within this category.
Next are sour plants and again, we find differing perspectives between traditions. Ayurveda often considers the sour flavor warming, much like vinegar stimulates warmth and digestion, while Western herbalism may interpret sour herbs as cooling to excess heat patterns. These seemingly opposing views can both hold truth when we consider the differing effects before and after digestion.
Sour flavors stimulate digestive secretions, awaken appetite, and enhance salivation, yet post-digestively may have cooling or settling effects within the body. This flavor is commonly associated with acidic constituents such as ascorbic acid, malic acid, citric acid, tartaric acid, and oxalic acid. Hawthorn berries, rose hips, hibiscus, and sumac are all classic examples of herbs and foods that carry this tart and awakening flavor.
Our fourth flavor is pungent and this shows up in herbs that are spicy and aromatic. Their primary role is to warm the constitution, stimulate appetite, digestion, and circulation. Many also possess antimicrobial or antiseptic qualities. Pungent herbs are especially useful where there is coldness, sluggishness, dampness, or depression of fluids and energy within the body.
Pungent herbs are known to promote sweating, stimulate circulation, eases gas and clears mucus from the lungs. These herbal actions are facilitated through the presence of volatile oils, sulfur, resins, and pungent alkaloidal compounds such as allicin, piperine, gingerols, and capsaicin. Fennel, black pepper, garlic, and ginger all express this warming and awakening flavor in their own unique way.
Now we arrive at bitter, a flavor many have grown disconnected from in the modern diet. Bitterness is thought to have evolved partly as a way for humans to detect potentially toxic substances, while simultaneously activating innate detoxification and digestive responses. Bitter herbs trigger a wide cascade of physiological actions, most notably stimulating gastric secretions, digestion, liver function, and gallbladder activity.
Interestingly enough, bitter receptors are found not only within the mouth but throughout the gastrointestinal tract, lungs, and other tissues, continuing to stimulate physiological responses as the flavor moves through the body. Over time, bitters tend to have an overall cooling and drying effect upon the system.
Bitters strongly influence the immune, hepatic, cardiovascular, and nervous systems. Many possess alterative and detoxifying actions that help reduce damp stagnation and support metabolic function. These actions are often linked to phytochemicals such as sesquiterpene lactones, iridoid glycosides, alkaloids, polyphenols, flavonoids, diterpenes, and triterpenes. Oregon grape, dandelion, yarrow, hops, and gentian are classic bitter herbs containing different combinations of these compounds.
Finally, astringency. As mentioned earlier, astringency is experienced more as a sensation than a flavor. It reveals itself through puckering, tightening, and drying of the mucous membranes and tissues. This effect largely comes from tannins, compounds that bind and tighten proteins within tissues, increasing tone and structure where there is excess laxity, inflammation, or seepage.
Other mildly astringent constituents include proanthocyanidins, flavonoids, phenolic acids, and certain resins. Astringent herbs primarily affect the mucous membranes, connective tissues, and venous side of circulation. Oak, horse chestnut, raspberry leaf, and yarrow all display varying degrees of astringency.
Taste can become a doorway into understanding the language of plants, how they express themselves through flavor and sensation, and how they move through the body. Taste is more than preference alone, and if there is a particular flavor you find yourself drawn to regularly, perhaps it is trying to tell you something about yourself. By slowing down and truly tasting an herb, we begin developing a relationship not only with its chemistry, but with its nature.
