A miracle of miracles, a magical herb, a Czech adaptogen… it all sounds tempting, but there is a catch. You won’t find any real adaptogen among Czech herbs. “Some herbs come close to them in strength, but none harmonizes like real adaptogens,” says herbalist Jiří Pantůček in the podcast.
You can find a podcast about adaptogens here:
Motherwort, dobromysl, comfrey or daisies. You may even know dozens of typically Czech herbs that have been used for centuries to treat various ailments. But now a completely new group appears in the dictionaries of modern herbalists. They sometimes have so-called adaptogens, and one would like to ask – which one is ours? “I don’t know of any such,” herbalist Jiří Pantůček says truthfully in the podcast.
He grew up at home
In short, adaptogens are plants, or rather organisms – as they include mushrooms – that can harmonize the body into its natural settings. “For example, high pressure will decrease and low pressure will increase,” explains Jiří Pantůček. While our common herbs tend to have one effect or the other.
You can, of course, come across an adaptogen, which, although it did not originally come from us, is commonly cultivated today. Like rhodiola or reishi. The claim about the Czech adaptogen is partly true.
Too mild conditions
However, if you were looking for an adaptogen that is truly original at least in Central Europe, you will not find anything. And it’s not just because European traditional medicine has been purposefully eradicated several times. In short, they are not for adaptogens.
“These plants or mushrooms are not adaptogens primarily to help people. They help themselves,” explains the expert. “They need a very specific environment, usually very different temperatures between day and night. And that doesn’t happen much in our climate zone.”
