Tradition is a lead. Evidence is the test.
At a glance
Chosen, not bought
Editors pick every remedy and founder, and no brand reads a story first.
Paid pages, named
Every sponsor, affiliate link and sample is disclosed.
History is not proof
We tell a remedy's story, then say what the studies show.
Errors put right
Corrected openly, with a note on what changed.
- Editorial independence
- Reporting with care
- Access, gifts and samples
- Partner and sponsored content
- Reviews and recommendations
- Corrections and updates
- Conflicts of interest
- Tools and transparency
Editorial independence
Root to Bottle chooses its remedies and founders on editorial grounds alone: a plant with a story worth telling, a founder with a reason, evidence worth reading. Neither a story nor a place in a remedy guide or The Sunday Steep can be bought, and no brand can pay to be left out. Founders do not see a draft, a question list or a headline ahead of publication.
Partnerships are handled apart from the editorial side. Brands can learn there what we offer, but no one there can promise coverage, and partnerships have no say in what our editors write.
- A story is never a term in an advertising contract.
- No founder or brand reads a story before you do.
- Advertising buys a page, never a kinder reading.
Reporting with care
We follow a remedy along its whole path, from the people who first used it to the bottle on the shelf, and we treat tradition as history and as a lead worth testing, never as proof. Traditions are named and credited, whether Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, European folk herbalism or Indigenous plant knowledge. We say which plant part and preparation a study used, how large the trial was, and when the evidence is thin.
Our stories are for information, not medical advice. Herbs and supplements can interact with medicines and are not right for everyone, especially in pregnancy. Supplement claims have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, and no product here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Check with a doctor or pharmacist before you start one.
- No story claims that a herb treats, cures or prevents a disease.
- Interactions and pregnancy cautions are noted where they matter.
- A remedy's age is never offered as evidence that it works.
Access, gifts and samples
Brands send samples, invitations to their farms and, sometimes, a jar of something made from a family recipe. Product samples are welcome; conditions are not. A sample is a courtesy, not a commission.
If a farm visit, a sample or an event helped shape a story, the story tells you, and tells you who paid for the journey. We do not trade warm coverage for access, an exclusive or an early taste of a launch.
- Samples arrive with no promise of coverage.
- Gifts beyond the product are declined with thanks or returned.
- Farm visits paid for by a brand are disclosed in the stories they inform.
Partner and sponsored content
Alongside our own stories, Root to Bottle carries sponsored features, sponsored remedy guides and paid placements in The Sunday Steep. The paying brand is named at the head of the page, under the label "Sponsored" or "In partnership with". They are kept apart from our own stories and never borrow their voice.
Sponsored pages follow the same rule as editorial: no claim that a herb treats or cures anything, and the same care with history, evidence and dose. A sponsor who wants a stronger claim than the evidence allows does not get it.
- Sponsored work is labelled at the top of the page, in plain words.
- Editorial remedy guides are not for sale to sponsors.
- Sponsored copy follows the claims rules of editorial.
Reviews and recommendations
What you find in Shop the remedies and on the remedy shelf was chosen for the story it belongs to: the tincture a founder grew up with, the blend an interview turns on. Prices and sizes are the brand's, as listed when the story was published, and they will not stay put. Where a shop link is an affiliate link, we may receive a small commission on a sale, and the price to you does not change. The commission has no part in what we choose or how we write about it.
We describe a remedy by its plant, its part, its preparation and its dose, and we attribute every claim to whoever made it. A founder's family recipe is told as their story. If one of us has used a product, you will read that in the story; if you do not, take the description as the maker's account.
- The remedy shelf is stocked by editors, not by sponsors.
- A remedy's history is told as history, not as a sales line.
- A product note is a description, not a trial, unless we say otherwise.
Corrections and updates
When we get something wrong, we set it right in the open. The story is corrected, and a note at the end tells you what was changed and when. Mistakes are never buried by a silent rewrite.
Prices, links and stock change, and we keep them current without comment. A wrong plant name, a misattributed tradition or a misread trial is a change of substance, and it is noted. Founders and brands who find something attributed to them that is wrong or out of date should tell us; we will correct it, update it or, where that is the fairer course, take the story down.
- A dated note explains every correction.
- Typos and stray links are put right without a note.
- Anyone we have written about hears back from an editor.
Conflicts of interest
An editor with a stake in a brand, farm or supplier, or a paid or personal tie to one, does not work on its story. Where a conflict cannot be avoided, we name it in the piece.
VOL Collective, our publisher, puts out other magazines as well, and a founder's story may be told in more than one of them, each with its own angle. If VOL Collective does business with a brand we cover, you will read that in the story.
- Every editor lists their ties to a brand before the work begins.
- Herbalists and practitioners who contribute disclose paid ties to brands.
- A family tie to a farm or a founder counts as a conflict.
Tools and transparency
We show where our stories come from. Each carries a byline and a date; facts and figures are attributed in the telling; an editors' note adds context when the evidence needs it; and remedy guides close with their sources. Photographs and old botanical illustrations are credited beneath them.
Anyone can follow a remedy the way we do, with public tools: its botanical name, checked against Kew's Plants of the World Online; the herbal monographs of the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency; the NIH's Herbs at a Glance fact sheets; and the trials themselves, read in full where we can.
- Remedy guides list their sources, old herbals and new trials alike.
- Traditions are credited by name, never made exotic.
- When our ways of working change, this page changes with them.
Tell us where we misread the record.
Spotted an error, a tradition we misnamed or a conflict we did not declare? The editors would like to hear from you, and if the story changes, you will hear back.
