We’ve Got What You Need
01. Bulk Herbs
–Original
We source herbs from vendors guaranteeing authenticity of species and cleanliness of product to bring you more than 375 herbs in their whole plant, animal, and mineral form including some hard to find medicinals like Jī Nèi Jīn, Má Huáng, and Shuǐ Zhì
02. Granules
–Modern
Using the alchemy of herbs cooked together is often essential to lasting clinical results. We stock a broad array of whole formula granules that you can prescribe just like wide and ever-growing variety of single herb granules we keep in stock.
03. Classics
–Handmade
Why take Li Zhong Wan as a decoction for 3 months when it was intended to be a pill in the first place? We hand-make a growing collection of classical honey pills (wán) and powders (sǎn) to get patients the medicine they need in the way it was intended.
Medicine for the people, by the people
Root & Branch Pharmacy is dedicated to the pursuit, creation, and distribution of quality medicine. We rely on the knowledge of our expert progenitors to shape the remedies we make today while also employing contemporary cooking, storing, and preservation methods to keep the medicine true to its roots but accessible for regular people.
We want to help you help your patients
Our pharmacy services are designed to provide you and your patients with diverse Chinese medicine offerings in bulk, granule, and patent forms. We create classical preparations by hand, we source our herbs from vendors and growers committed to cleanliness and potency, and we do our homework to make sure that what we are offering you and your patients is second-to-none. We want to help you to be the best practitioner you want to be and to make it easier for you to get there. Want a special topical oil for your eczema patients? How about a honey pill for those Kidney Deficient folks? Maybe Xiao Yao San as an actual powder used as it was meant to be used?
Modern Medicine
Shaped by Classic Technique
Decoction Service
For Portland, Oregon locals, we cook bulk herbs into herbal tea that is ready to drink. Patients walk out of the door with herbs packed to-go and ready to be stored in the fridge for up to 10 days. Doing this detailed work liberates patients to just take their medicine and not worry about cooking.
Pao Zhi - Unlocking the Power of BUlk Herbs
Why only build formulas with basic herbs when you can unlock the powerful complexity of individual herbs with special preparations like honey frying, dry roasting, salt frying. earth baking, and vinegar steaming. We do that too.
Whole Formula Granules
Like the convenience of granules but don’t love losing the power of herbs interacting in the cooking pot? No worries! We stock a large collection of whole formula granules from Evergreen Herbs that cooks a classic formula and then makes it into granules so you can get the potency of the original with the added convenience of an instant powder. You can even design your custom formulas to include several whole formulas, thinking of their mechanism of action as if they were single herbs.
Handmade Medicine
We take the idea of making good medicine seriously. Our lead pharmacist Travis Kern researches classical recipes and modern preparation methods from Chinese texts and then experiments in the pharmacy until he can reproduce the specificity and potency of those herbs and of that form of administration: steaming schisandra berries to build the sour flavor, hand shaping honey pills and even pounding ginger in a mortar and pestle because sometimes a blender just doesn’t make the same product.
“These guys can
make anything I need
for my patients”
Sean Dugan, LAc | Chinese Medicine of Idaho
Our Story
Our founders, Travis Kern and Travis Cunningham, both graduated from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine with a deep love and appreciation for Chinese Herbal Medicine. They both traveled to Nanjing, China to do an externship program at the Nanjing University for Traditional Chinese Medicine where they learned more about how the medicine is practiced there.
Travis and Travis followed talented doctors treating everything from digestive disorders to pediatric respiratory conditions and observed how they used herbs that had been specially prepared to achieve the specific results they were looking for. In the US, the Travises had been exposed to a lot of herbs in the OCOM medicinary but what was being dispensed was limited by what was available on the American import market. They had never seen a place set up to do the special preparations (Pao Zhi) like they saw in the hospitals and pharmacies in China. The doctors they followed said that it would be difficult to get the same results without those special preparations and their patients’ recoveries confirmed that assertion.
When Travis and Travis got back stateside, they resolved to build a pharmacy that would offer the same level of customization and attention to detail that they saw abroad — and Root & Branch was born.