With its fleshy, fingerlike leaves, this Aloe vera herb, African-based member of the lily family is arguably one of the best known of all herbal remedies, with a reputation spanning at least the past 2,000 years. The succulent perennial grows in sandy soil in any dry, sunny place, including on windowsills.

A common, flowering tree throughout temperate parts of Asia, Europe, and the United States, Birch herb has small, shiny, serrated, oval leaves. Birch contains salicylate, the compound that the pharmaceutical industry borrowed from nature to make aspirin.

This is one tough shrub, able to survive without water for quite some time in its native southwestern desert areas of the United States. Certain phytochemicals in chaparral oppose free radical oxidation, quell spasms, and kill bacteria. The lignans destroy amoebas and fungi.