Medicinal Herbs and Food

[Okamikurainya]

I was thinking it might be a nice idea to be able to add the medicinal herbs to your food as is or even dry them and then use your mortar and pestle to grind them into spices.

 

Adding them directly to your food could maybe weaken the already small healing factor while drying them could strengthen the effects when mixed with food or dissolved to make potions.

 

Another idea is the ability to make more powerful drugs with the ground up herbs, mixing them with normal meds that have been ground up, mixing and matching them to your whims.

 

Though of course not all meds mix, painkillers and alcohol should probably instantly set you at the red moodle of tiredness, etc.

 

What do you think?

[Moose65]

Unless they add a pharmacist profession, I could see this ending disastrously for the average joe......

[ValueOfGravity]

Unless they add a pharmacist profession, I could see this ending disastrously for the average joe......

''These berries can either cure my asthma, or blow up my lungs. Hmm..''

 

I don't agree with the suggestion 100%, but it has potential. +1.

[bobchaos]

You're basically looking for more variety in recipes involving stuff found while foraging. I bet we'll have plenty of those coming once the game is feature complete. Recipes, flavor items, clothings, all that good stuff

 

So far most of the recipes are confined to one skill-set tho. I'd certainly like more "cross-skill" recipes like suggested in OP to encourage diversifying character skills and professions. It would also create some more late game incentives to keep going out there and looting, so you can lvl all your skills and do all the fancy recipes that require many skills.

 

 

Unless they add a pharmacist profession, I could see this ending disastrously for the average joe......

 

if you're not a herbalist already you can't get the natural meds anyhow (I guess you could in MP tho). Or did you mean another skill/profession altogether?

[Moose65]

 

 

Unless they add a pharmacist profession, I could see this ending disastrously for the average joe......

 

if you're not a herbalist already you can't get the natural meds anyhow (I guess you could in MP tho). Or did you mean another skill/profession altogether?

 

More referring to the part of mixing ground up herbs with powerful drugs. Just because you can identify herbs and their medicinal values doesn't mean you know necessarily how they will interact when mixed together with other drugs.

[Gaffa Tape Warrior]

[...]

I didn't fully understand what you wrote. Were you saying:

 

Adding fresh medicinal herbs to food.

 

Dry a medicinal herb and then grind it so that it becomes a spice.

 

Fresh herbs added to food in general slow down healing, while the same herbs dried out and either added to food or rehydrated help healing.

or

Fresh herbs added to food in general slow down healing, and the same herbs dried out and either added to food or rehydrated slow down healing more strongly.

 

Taking both natural and artificial medicine at once, mixed together such that they match.

 

Painkillers and alcohol mixed together make a potion that when drunk instantly makes the drinker incredibly sleepy.

 

?

 

 

I am not a herbalist, but I've got a copy of a book written by a herbalist, which allows me to do everything in the book as long as I have it, and I have the possibility of learning from the book and not needing to refer to it. I don't know if there are books in suburban Kentucky about herbal medicine, but there may be.

[Okamikurainya]

Adding fresh medicinal herbs to food.

 

Yes.

 

Dry a medicinal herb and then grind it so that it becomes a spice.

 

Yes.

 

Fresh herbs added to food in general slow down healing, while the same herbs dried out and either added to food or rehydrated help healing.

 

No, if added as in then their effect is reduced or non-existant.

When dried out and ground into spice their effect is added to the food or even increased, mixing with water can create herbal teas which add their effect as well.

 

Fresh herbs added to food in general slow down healing, and the same herbs dried out and either added to food or rehydrated slow down healing more strongly.

 

Nope. See above.^

 

Taking both natural and artificial medicine at once, mixed together such that they match.

 

 

Using the Mortar and Pestle to grind out things like Painkillers or just opening the capsules for things like Betablockers. Then combining them with the spices you've ground up, adding them to water to create potions. Normally they'd have a happiness penalty but you could add sugar to negate that, or maybe even honey, is there honey in the game already?

 

Painkillers and alcohol mixed together make a potion that when drunk instantly makes the drinker incredibly sleepy.

 

Or something like that, while also getting you intoxicated and killing your pain. Might be an interesting "poison" if you're out in the field and want to take out an "ally".

I'm honestly not sure about the real effects so this is just throwing out ideas.

 

I don't know if there are books in suburban Kentucky about herbal medicine, but there may be.

 

IRL or in game?

[Gaffa Tape Warrior]

Oh, I think I understand what you said better now. But...

 

Fresh herbs added to food in general slow down healing, while the same herbs dried out and either added to food or rehydrated help healing.

No, if added as in then their effect is reduced or non-existant.
When dried out and ground into spice their effect is added to the food or even increased, mixing with water can create herbal teas which add their effect as well.

 

Are you saying that when eaten with a meal, fresh medicinal herbs have little or no medicinal effect? And that if they are dried and ground and eaten with a meal they have a stronger effect than if they were taken on their own? And that taking the decoction of the dried and powdered herb inwardly is more effective than the same fresh?

 

 

I don't know if there are books in suburban Kentucky about herbal medicine, but there may be.

IRL or in game?

 

I'm saying I don't know if there are books on herbalism in actual Kentucky. If there are, then they would make a good addition to the game. I was saying that although I am not a herbalist, I've got a book written by one, so if I need medicine for something, I can look up my problem in the book. I can also read through it to make myself familiar with the medicinal properties of different plants. I was basically suggesting having books on herbal medicine in Project Zomboid, if there aren't already, because someone said something above about needing the herbalist trait for something.

[Okamikurainya]

Are you saying that when eaten with a meal, fresh medicinal herbs have little or no medicinal effect? And that if they are dried and ground and eaten with a meal they have a stronger effect than if they were taken on their own? And that taking the decoction of the dried and powdered herb inwardly is more effective than the same fresh?

 

 

When adding to food fresh, much of the helpful chemicals in the herbs are cooked out, lost in the steam. Don't quote me on that, but AFAIK that's generally true. When added as spice, everything is concentrated.

 

 

I'm saying I don't know if there are books on herbalism in actual Kentucky. If there are, then they would make a good addition to the game. I was saying that although I am not a herbalist, I've got a book written by one, so if I need medicine for something, I can look up my problem in the book. I can also read through it to make myself familiar with the medicinal properties of different plants. I was basically suggesting having books on herbal medicine in Project Zomboid, if there aren't already, because someone said something above about needing the herbalist trait for something.

 

 

Yes there are, and even numerous herbalist stores as well. A quick Google search will bring up a number of sites for them.