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HerbZoo Study Tools

By Mark and Sharon Travis

Review by Larry Miller

For anyone who's struggled to remember the seemingly infinite details about Chinese herbs and formulas in preparation for State and National board exams, the HerbZoo study guides are a welcome tool. Designed by Mark and Sharon Travis to help them study herbs at school, the HerbZoo cards quickly came into high demand by other students, and the Travis duo responded by duplicating and selling them. The original set of cards has evolved into a product line including cards and single-sheets for both individual herbs and formulas.

In Mark's own words, the cards were designed

"to show all the Actions indicated for the single herb, have fast category recall with the different animals pictured, make channels easier to learn and have color coding for the tastes and temperatures."

Whew! The cards seek to accomplish this by providing illustrations of animals in various scenes used to describe the category, actions and indications of each of the single herbs. For example, the Yin tonic Sha Shen has an illustration depicting a Turtle out of its shell drinking droplets of water falling from the sky, with a toilet in the background, a glass of icewater on top of the Turtle's shell, and a little mouth on the torso of the turtle eating a forkful of food. In addition, it looks like a "voice bubble" with a horse in it is escaping the Turtle's mouth. What the hell does it all mean, you might be wondering to yourself. Well, in the system the Travises have developed, the Turtle is the animal which represents Yin, so if the Turtle appears on an herb's card, it has as one of its primary actions Tonifying Yin. The Turtle has Lost its Shell, and these two words appear at the top of the card to indicate the primary channels which Sha Shen enters-the Lung and Stomach. The Turtle is drinking rain drops, which indicates the Lung-moistening action of the herb, the mouth on the torso eating the forkful of food shows its Nourish the Stomach action, the horse exiting the Turtle's mouth illustrates Sha Shen's indication in the case of Hoarsenessäyou get the picture (no pun intended).

The formulas are provided as complete sheets, with illustrations on the front and photos of each individual herb on the back-very handy. Explanations for the meaning of the illustrations are given on "Key" sheets which are provided with the set, and on the back of each card the particular herb"s illustration is described as to its meaning.

Some people learn visually, and for these people the HerbZoo product line is great; for people who don't, the HerbZoo may have you scratching your head like a gorilla-they can be a little confusing and visually overwhelming in their detail. The illustrations are very creative, though-who ever thought of an Elephant in blue chaps on a Harley with an inflamed ear and a dragon tattoo, dragging an anchor behind it, to signify Long Gu? It's these bizarre images which stick in the mind, and that's the point of the HerbZoo products-they try anything to get you to remember the information!

HerbZoo's Website: www.herbzoo.com

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