My Entry to Herbal Medicine: Thai Herbal Compresses

The Thai tradition calls these, “Luk Pra Kob,” which translates to “pressing herbal sphere”. I love that the Thai name for them incorporates their purpose and usage – you need to press them, or massage them, for them to work well. Yes, the aroma by itself is transportive, but they are at a magical level when massaged into the body’s tissues.

Sometimes you’ll see people call these “Thai Herbal Balls” or “Thai Herbal Poultices” along with “Thai Herbal Compresses”. Any of those words can be used interchangeably, but essentially, all these words are pointing to plant material that is either directly placed on the body or placed on a fabric that is then placed on the body to heal the body’s tissues.

I was first introduced to Thai Herbal Compresses when I was living in Thailand in 2004, studying Thai Yoga Massage, known in Thailand as Nuad Boran. Thai Herbal Compresses are used with Thai Massage sessions, often as an add-on for the treatment.

As hyperbolic as it may sound, being introduced to these herbal bundles of joy was one of the turning points of my life. I first experienced them in Bangkok via a massage I received at the guest house where I was staying. Throughout my Thai Massage, this woman was massaging and rubbing ball-like heat packs all over my body that smelled refreshing, soothing, and uplifting. I was in awe of the experience. She was grabbing these bundles from a large rice cooker that was steaming throughout our session. My body and spirit felt warmed and nourished by the addition of these compresses. I knew I had to always have these compresses in my life after that first experience.

Along with the Thai massage techniques I was learning, I found a specialty class to take in Chiang Mai that was just about making and practicing the Luk Pra Kob – the Thai herbal compresses. My instructor, named Dot (shortened from a much longer Thai name), showed me how to make dry and fresh Thai compresses and then how to massage with them. For the dried compresses, we went to a busy market in Chiang Mai to pick out all the dried/powdered ingredients, and for the fresh compresses, we went to the gardens around the school and to the local markets for those ingredients.

I loved how empowering it felt to gather the ingredients and make my own compresses. I love creative projects that have a useful (and healing) purpose. During the creation process, my hands turned yellow (from the ginger and turmeric), and I loved that my hands stayed that way for a day or so to remind me of this experience. It felt ritualistic and exactly what I needed.

This venture into making, learning about, and using Thai Herbal Compresses is what started my interest in herbal medicine. These were my gateway to herbalism. I had never been introduced to herbal medicine in my life prior to these compresses. I was 24 years old at the time.

Going to the market and seeing all the powdered herbs was exhilarating to me – each of those herbs holding such healing power and wonder. Equally so, I loved the people that sold these herbs – they were so kind and had so much passion about their products. My instructor, Dot, was a treasure-trove of wisdom and literally ignited a new passion for me in plants. I also loved using roots that I could both cook with and eat but then also put in these compresses, heat them, and press along my body. How resourceful! Nature’s wisdom was presenting itself to me, and I continued to follow the path of studying herbal medicine after that, and that led me to eventually start this school.

And that was all from these herbal bundles – we don’t always know what will be the starting point, do we? We follow what interests us and keep following that and the path often unfolds as we go.

After returning from my Thailand studies, I had these compresses steaming in my treatment room every day. When I was in Thailand, I found a company that had the best dried compresses, and I imported them to my home so I could always have them with me. I also found many of the fresh ingredients at the local Asian markets near my house, and I would make my own fresh compresses to have for my massage treatments.

Since then, I’ve introduced these compresses to everyone I massage and to everyone I’ve taught. In 2010 I started a massage school, the Denver Integrative Massage School, and since the beginning to literally now (this month at the school), I’ve been teaching students how to make these compresses. This has evolved past Thai herbal compresses over the years. Because we have an aesthetics school, the School of Botanical and Medical Aesthetics, we had to formulate Facial Compresses (that are like the Thai compresses in looks but have different ingredients that are more appropriate for the delicate nature of facial tissue). And then, with our Herbalism program, these evolved to incorporate plants that locally grow in our gardens that we call “Colorado Garden Compresses” because those students wanted to grow their own herbs and use those for their compresses.

For our Thai Herbal Compress Making classes, our students make a Traditional Thai Herbal Compress – they make a fresh compress from scratch and design it how they see fit. Then we heat them all up, partner up, and massage them along our bodies.

As an Herbalist, we love these compresses for a few reasons. First, the aromatherapy that is released is healing, soothing, and refreshing. It is stimulating but in a calm way – like it’s increasing the vibrations and flow in our bodies but keeping us grounded and attuned at the same time.

Second, it’s a way to topically and physically use the plants to help the musculoskeletal system because they improve blood flow to the areas where they are massaged, which improves local circulation and range of motion. They are also anti-inflammatory, a muscle relaxant, and a local analgesic (pain reliever). As herbalists, we mainly using plant therapies internally (teas, tinctures, and flower essences) – it feels very special to have opportunities to use the plants on the body and to nourish and release tight muscles at the same time. So much of illness can be traced back to stress, and these compresses are an amazing de-stressor that are easy to incorporate into our lives.

You could make these compresses for your clients and show them how to do self-massage with them. You could also offer the Plant Spirit Healing session that we teach to your clients, which incorporates these compresses – so you could make them for your treatments.

Below is one of the recipes we teach our students. I hope you make these at home and find as much enjoyment and enrichment in that process as I always have.

Traditional Thai Herbal Compress Recipe

Ingredients:
*Yields 2 compresses

Ginger, 1.5 cup

Turmeric, 1.5 cup

Lemongrass, ¾ cup

Kaffir Lime Leaves – ¾ cup

White Camphor Crystals –1 tbsn

Menthol – 1 tbsn

Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt – 2 tbsn

Instructions:

1. Chop & cut the ingredients and mix in a bowl.
2. Place mixture on a 12in x 14in piece of cotton cloth or muslin cloth.
3. Gather the 4 corners of the cloth & pull together into a bundle.
4. As you’re pulling the fabric together, squeeze the compress so you can push the herbs tighter together.
5. To make a handle, put a rubber band around the pulled fabric and then use jute twine to tie around the rubber band.
6. Place compresses in the vegetable tray of a 10-14 cup electric rice-cooker (filled with water). Turn on Cook. Cover with 2 hand towels.
7. Keep it covered for 20 min for the water to boil, to steam the compresses prior to a session.