Natures Armor vs The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies: Which Herbal Guide Wins?
Let me give you the short answer first before we dig into the full Natures Armor vs The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies comparison: these two guides are built around different philosophies, and the one that wins for you depends almost entirely on what you plan to do with it. If you want a scenario-based, preparedness-first resource that tells you which herbs to reach for when the grid is down and the clinic is closed, Natures Armor is oriented toward exactly that mission. If you want a photo-rich, encyclopedia-style reference that lets you identify plants in the field and understand their documented uses, The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies delivers on a different promise.
I’ve been homesteading and preparing for real-world disruptions for over a decade. Herbal medicine is not a hobby for me — it’s a practical layer of my household’s preparedness stack, sitting alongside our water filtration, food storage, and off-grid power systems. I’ve worked through both of these guides with an eye toward utility in genuine off-grid and grid-down scenarios, and I want to give you the most useful comparison I can.
This article will walk you through exactly what each guide contains, where each one excels, and which one makes more sense for your specific situation — including whether buying both is worth considering.
At-a-Glance Comparison
| Category | Natures Armor | The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Preparedness-scenario herbal protocols | Plant identification + medicinal reference |
| Format | Digital PDF guide | Digital PDF guide |
| Best for | Preppers, homesteaders, grid-down planning | Herbalists, foragers, plant enthusiasts |
| Approach | Scenario-driven, use-case organized | Encyclopedia-style, plant-organized |
| Authors | Preparedness-focused herbalism perspective | Nicole Apelian PhD + Claude Davis |
| Photo/visual content | Moderate — organized around use cases | Extensive — detailed plant photography |
| Plant ID depth | Supporting role | Core feature |
| Off-grid protocols | Strong — designed for grid-down use | Present but not the organizing principle |
| Herb breadth | Deep on high-utility survival herbs | Broad — hundreds of plants covered |
| Field foraging angle | Limited — focus is stored/grown herbs | Strong — field identification emphasized |
| Learning curve | Low to moderate | Moderate — encyclopedic structure |
| Guarantee | 60-day ClickBank money-back | 60-day ClickBank money-back |
TL;DR
Choose Natures Armor if: You are a prepper or homesteader who wants a practical, scenario-organized herbal reference for grid-down and off-grid situations — a guide that tells you what to do with herbs when conventional medicine is unavailable or unreachable.
Choose The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies if: You want to learn to identify plants in the field and build a broad herbal knowledge base, and you’re approaching herbalism as much from a foraging and naturalist perspective as from a preparedness angle.
Consider both if: You want comprehensive coverage — strong field identification capabilities from The Lost Book alongside the scenario-driven protocols that make Natures Armor immediately actionable in an emergency.
60-day money-back guarantee.
What These Guides Actually Are
Before the head-to-head breakdown, it’s worth being precise about what both guides are and are not.
Both are digital PDF guides — immediate download after purchase, readable on any device. Neither is a physical book (though The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies does have a physical edition available separately), and neither involves ongoing subscriptions or content updates. The value proposition for both rests entirely on the quality and utility of the information inside.
Both are sold through ClickBank and carry the standard 60-day money-back guarantee. That removes meaningful financial risk from the equation — you can evaluate either guide on its merits with the knowledge that you can get a full refund if it doesn’t serve your needs.
And critically: both of these are reference and educational guides, not medical prescriptions. I’ll say this plainly, as I would to anyone on my homestead: learning which herbs have historically been used for which purposes is genuinely valuable preparedness knowledge, but it’s not a replacement for professional medical judgment in serious situations. Use these guides to build knowledge and capability — not to make clinical diagnoses. I’ll have more on this at the end of the article.
Natures Armor — In-Depth Overview
Natures Armor is organized around a core premise that I find persuasive for preppers specifically: in a real grid-down or extended emergency situation, you don’t have time to flip through an encyclopedia. You need to know, quickly, which plants address which situations and how to use them in conditions that are far from ideal.
The guide’s structural choice — organizing information by scenario and symptom category rather than alphabetically by plant — is the right call for its target audience. Someone dealing with a wound infection at two in the morning during a power outage is not going to benefit from a reference that requires them to already know the plant name they’re looking for.
What Natures Armor covers
Immune support protocols. This section covers the herbs with the strongest historical track record for immune support — echinacea, elderberry, astragalus, oregano oil, and others — with guidance on when and how to use them, dosing frameworks based on traditional and historical practice, and how to combine them for compound effects. The coverage goes beyond “elderberry syrup is good for colds” into practical protocols organized by severity of need.
Antimicrobial and wound-care applications. For preppers, this is one of the most critical sections of any herbal medicine guide. Wound infection is a serious risk in grid-down scenarios when access to pharmaceutical antibiotics may be limited. Natures Armor covers the herbs with documented antimicrobial properties — garlic, honey (not strictly an herb, but included), oregano, thyme, calendula, plantain — with specific guidance on preparation methods for wound application versus internal use. My emergency preparedness complete guide discusses why medical preparedness is one of the most neglected layers of household readiness — this section of Natures Armor directly addresses that gap.
Pain and inflammation management. Willow bark, turmeric, ginger, devil’s claw, and related herbs are covered with historical context and practical preparation guidance. The framing is realistic — these herbs have genuine traditional use for pain and inflammation management, and the guide presents them accurately without overpromising pharmaceutical equivalence.
Digestive and gut support. Peppermint, fennel, ginger, slippery elm, chamomile, and others are covered for various digestive situations. In a grid-down scenario where diet changes significantly and stress levels are elevated, digestive disruptions are common — this section is more practically relevant than it might initially seem.
Respiratory support. Mullein, thyme, licorice root, and others are covered for respiratory conditions. The section is organized by condition type (congestion, irritated airways, productive vs. dry cough) rather than just listing plants, which makes it more immediately navigable in practice.
Sleep and stress support. Valerian, passionflower, lemon balm, ashwagandha, and others — covered with practical preparation guidance and notes on what situations they’re most appropriate for. Extended emergency scenarios create sleep disruption and chronic stress; having reference knowledge here is genuinely valuable.
Preparation and preservation methods. Natures Armor includes substantial coverage of how to make tinctures, infusions, decoctions, salves, poultices, and other preparation forms — including how to preserve them for extended storage. This practical, hands-on section is what separates a true preparedness resource from a general health guide. If you’re building a homestead medicine cabinet, you need to know not just which herbs to use but how to prepare and store them.
Growing and sourcing. The guide covers which high-priority herbs are practical to grow at home, which can be wildcrafted in common North American regions, and how to source and evaluate quality dried herbs. This practical supply-chain thinking is exactly right for a preparedness-oriented audience. Our foraging complete guide covers the wildcrafting angle in more depth for readers who want to develop field-identification skills alongside their herbal knowledge.
The preparedness framing
What makes Natures Armor distinctive is consistent throughout the guide: it never loses sight of the scenario in which you’d actually be using this information. The coverage is calibrated for real-world utility in conditions where conventional medicine is unavailable or limited — not for the scenario where you’re curious about herbal supplements alongside your regular healthcare.
That framing shapes everything from which herbs get the most coverage (high-utility, widely available, well-documented) to how preparation guidance is presented (practical, field-adaptable, with options for variable equipment availability). For a prepper building out a complete emergency preparedness kit, herbal medicine knowledge is a genuine force multiplier — and Natures Armor is designed with that readiness context in mind.
You can find my full breakdown of the guide’s content and structure in the Natures Armor review, and if you have questions about the guide’s credibility, the Natures Armor cost and pricing breakdown covers what you get for the price.
The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies — In-Depth Overview
The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies, by Nicole Apelian and Claude Davis, occupies a different position in the herbal guide landscape. Apelian holds a PhD in biology and has extensive real-world experience with herbal medicine during extended wilderness living; Davis is the founder of AskAChef and has built a large audience around traditional self-reliance skills. The combination produces a guide with strong academic grounding and practical wildcrafting experience behind it.
The guide is probably the most well-known herbal reference in the ClickBank preparedness category, and that reputation is largely earned. It’s a genuinely useful, well-organized resource — the question for this comparison is whether its strengths align with the priorities of the prepper and homesteader audience.
What The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies covers
Plant identification with photography. This is the guide’s signature feature and its clearest point of differentiation. The Lost Book includes detailed photographs — and in many cases, illustrations — for each plant covered, along with identification guidance that addresses look-alikes and safety considerations. For readers who want to forage for medicinal plants rather than purchase them, this visual identification support is essential and The Lost Book delivers it more thoroughly than almost any other digital resource in this category.
The depth of visual identification coverage connects naturally to foraging skills for survival — readers who are building foraging capabilities as part of their preparedness system will find The Lost Book’s plant-identification depth genuinely complementary to their overall skill development.
Breadth of plant coverage. Where Natures Armor goes deep on a curated set of high-utility herbs, The Lost Book goes broad — covering hundreds of plants found across North American regions, including many that won’t appear in narrower guides focused only on the most common herbs. For readers who want a comprehensive botanical reference, this breadth is a significant advantage.
Medicinal use documentation. For each plant, The Lost Book documents historical and traditional medicinal uses with reasonable depth. The coverage is thorough and generally well-sourced, drawing on both traditional folk medicine knowledge and where available, more recent ethnobotanical documentation.
Preparation methods. The guide covers preparation forms — teas, tinctures, salves, poultices, infusions — with enough detail to be practically useful. The coverage here is solid, though it’s less scenario-organized than Natures Armor’s preparation sections.
Habitat and seasonal availability. One of the genuinely valuable features of The Lost Book is its coverage of where plants grow, in what conditions, and when they’re available seasonally. This is critical for foraging applications and also useful for homesteaders planning a medicinal herb garden. If you’re serious about building a survival food and medicine supply from what you can grow and forage, seasonal availability matters enormously.
Native and regional plants. The Lost Book gives meaningful coverage to native North American medicinal plants that may not appear in European-focused herbal traditions — including plants used in various indigenous traditions, presented with appropriate context. For readers in specific geographic regions, this coverage may surface relevant plants that other guides overlook.
The encyclopedia model
The Lost Book is organized alphabetically by plant — a structure that reflects its identity as a reference work rather than a scenario guide. This is the right structure if you’re approaching the book as a field guide or if you’re building broad herbal literacy over time. It’s less immediately navigable in a high-stress situation where you know what the problem is but not necessarily which plant addresses it.
The encyclopedia approach also means the guide rewards study and familiarization. Readers who work through The Lost Book systematically, learning to identify plants and internalize their uses, will get much more from it than readers who pick it up in a crisis and flip through looking for quick answers.
Nicole Apelian’s background as a biologist with real-world field experience lends the guide a credibility that is worth noting. The plant identifications are accurate, the traditional use documentation is careful, and the safety guidance — including notes on toxic look-alikes and contraindications — is appropriately thorough.
Side-by-Side Comparison: Key Dimensions
Scope and focus
Natures Armor takes a deliberately curated approach. It covers a smaller number of herbs — those with the strongest evidence base and the highest practical utility in preparedness scenarios — but covers each one in more actionable depth for its target scenarios. The focus on survival and off-grid situations is maintained throughout.
The Lost Book is intentionally comprehensive. Its goal is to give you the broadest possible herbal reference for North American plants, which means it covers plants with varying levels of practical utility alongside the most commonly used medicinal herbs. The breadth is the point — this is a library resource.
Content depth for off-grid scenarios
Natures Armor wins clearly on this dimension. The entire guide is built around off-grid and preparedness scenarios, which means the depth and framing of every section is calibrated for grid-down utility. The preparation methods, dosing frameworks, and practical protocols are all oriented toward real-world application in conditions where you may not have access to conventional medical care.
The Lost Book covers off-grid applications, but this isn’t the organizing principle. You can extract useful preparedness information from it, but you need to do more work to map plant descriptions to specific emergency scenarios.
Format and usability
Natures Armor is more immediately navigable in a use-situation. The scenario-organized structure means someone dealing with a specific problem can find relevant herbs quickly without already knowing the plant names.
The Lost Book requires more prior knowledge to navigate efficiently in a crisis. The alphabetical structure rewards readers who have already familiarized themselves with the content — not someone coming to it cold in an emergency.
Photo and visual content
The Lost Book wins decisively on this dimension. The depth of plant photography and illustration is the guide’s defining feature and is genuinely superior to what most digital herbal guides offer. If visual identification is a priority — whether for foraging or simply for building confident plant recognition — The Lost Book is the better resource.
Natures Armor includes visual support but this is not its focus. The photos present are adequate but not the comprehensive identification resource that The Lost Book provides.
Plant identification coverage
The Lost Book is significantly stronger on plant identification. The coverage of look-alikes, habitat characteristics, seasonal variation, and regional distribution is thorough and safety-oriented. For anyone who wants to forage medicinal plants in the wild, The Lost Book’s identification guidance is substantially more useful.
Natures Armor covers identification at a level sufficient for recognizing plants you’re already growing or have purchased dried, but doesn’t prioritize field identification in the same way.
Practical protocols
Natures Armor wins on practical preparedness protocols. The scenario-based organization and the emphasis on actionable preparation methods — tinctures, decoctions, poultices, salves — with grid-down-adaptable instructions gives it a clear edge for readers who want to know what to do and how to do it under non-ideal conditions.
The Lost Book covers preparation methods but they’re organized around each plant rather than consolidated by method and scenario, which makes extracting actionable protocols more work.
Author credentials and trust
The Lost Book has a specific credibility advantage in Nicole Apelian’s documented background — a PhD in biology, years of real-world field experience, and a traceable professional identity. For readers who prioritize verifiable author credentials, this matters.
Natures Armor’s credibility rests more on the accuracy and utility of its content than on a well-known author identity. The practical framing and consistent accuracy of the herbal information covered in the guide holds up well to scrutiny.
Price and guarantee
Both are priced in a similar range for ClickBank digital guides. Both carry the 60-day money-back guarantee. The Natures Armor cost and pricing breakdown has details on current pricing for that guide specifically.
When to Choose Natures Armor
You’re the right buyer for Natures Armor if:
Preparedness is your primary lens. If you’re approaching herbal medicine from a grid-down, off-grid, or emergency readiness perspective — rather than as a lifestyle herbalist or forager — Natures Armor’s scenario-based framing is built for exactly your use case. It answers the questions you’re actually going to have when the power’s been out for three days.
You want protocols, not just plant descriptions. If what you need is practical guidance on what to use, how to prepare it, and how to apply it in real situations, Natures Armor’s scenario and protocol organization delivers this more directly than The Lost Book’s encyclopedia structure.
You’re building a homestead medicine cabinet. The preparation and preservation sections of Natures Armor — covering tincture-making, salve preparation, infusions, and long-term storage — are directly applicable to building a functional home herbal medicine supply. Paired with a good emergency preparedness kit, this kind of herbal reference fills a real gap in most household preparedness systems.
You want to get up to speed quickly. Natures Armor’s scenario-based organization means you don’t need to read it cover to cover before extracting practical value. You can read the section on immune support, implement what you learn, and come back for more — which suits preppers who are working through multiple knowledge domains simultaneously.
You’re more interested in cultivated or purchased herbs than in wildcrafting. If your herbal supply plan involves growing known herbs or sourcing quality dried herbs rather than foraging for wild plants, Natures Armor’s coverage is well-calibrated to that approach.
When to Choose The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies
You’re the right buyer for The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies if:
Plant identification is a priority. If you want to be able to walk into the woods, identify medicinal plants accurately, and know their uses — rather than working entirely with herbs you’ve grown or purchased — The Lost Book’s photography and identification depth is genuinely essential. This connects naturally to developing broader foraging skills for survival, where accurate plant identification is a foundational safety requirement.
You want comprehensive botanical breadth. If you want a reference that covers hundreds of North American plants — including regional and native species that narrower guides won’t cover — The Lost Book’s encyclopedia approach gives you a far broader reference base.
Author credentials matter to you. Nicole Apelian’s documented professional background provides a specific kind of credibility that some readers appropriately value. If the author’s verifiable expertise is a significant factor in your purchasing decision, The Lost Book has a clear advantage.
You’re approaching herbal medicine holistically. If you’re interested in herbalism as a broader practice — understanding plant relationships, building deep botanical knowledge over time, exploring the full range of traditional medicinal plant use — The Lost Book is a more complete foundation for that kind of learning.
You’re in a region with rich wild plant populations. If you live in an area where medicinal plants are abundant and accessible — and you have the patience to develop identification skills properly — The Lost Book’s field identification capabilities let you turn that regional resource into a practical herbal supply.
Our Pick: Which Wins for Most Preppers?
For the core prepper and homesteader audience — people who are building preparedness systems and want herbal medicine knowledge as a practical, actionable layer of that system — Natures Armor is the stronger first choice.
The reason is structural: most preppers approaching herbal medicine for the first time need protocols and guidance more than they need botanical breadth. When the grid goes down, you need to know what to reach for and how to use it — not browse an encyclopedia. Natures Armor’s scenario-based organization directly solves the problem of “I need help right now and I don’t know where to start.”
The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies is not a lesser guide — it’s a different guide, designed for different priorities. Its plant identification depth and encyclopedic breadth make it genuinely superior for readers whose primary goal is field identification and broad botanical knowledge. But for the prepper who wants to integrate herbal medicine into an existing preparedness system as efficiently as possible, Natures Armor’s practical orientation gets you to actionable capability faster.
60-day money-back guarantee.
Can You Use Both?
Yes — and for serious herbal preparedness, I think the case for keeping both is genuinely strong.
The two guides don’t compete; they complement each other at different layers of herbal knowledge. Natures Armor gives you the scenario-based preparedness protocols that are immediately actionable in a grid-down situation. The Lost Book gives you the plant identification depth and botanical breadth that lets you build and sustain an herbal supply through foraging and wildcrafting — and that deepens your understanding of each herb’s context and look-alikes.
Think of it this way: Natures Armor tells you that you need elderberry tincture for immune support and how to make it. The Lost Book tells you how to confidently identify and harvest the elderberry plant you’ve found growing on your property line — and how to distinguish it from pokeweed, which is toxic and looks somewhat similar to the untrained eye.
That combination of knowing what to use, how to prepare it, and how to safely identify and source it in the field is more complete than either guide provides alone. Preppers who are building serious herbal capabilities — rather than just casual curiosity — will get more from both guides together than from either one as a standalone resource.
If you’re evaluating your current preparedness gaps before deciding on a first purchase, our emergency preparedness complete guide and best emergency preparedness kit provide useful frameworks for thinking about where herbal knowledge fits in your overall readiness system.
A Note on Herbal Medicine and Preparedness Realism
I want to be direct about something before we close, because I think it matters for how you use either of these guides.
Herbal medicine has genuine value in a preparedness context. Many of the herbs documented in both guides have real, well-documented historical use for the conditions they’re described for. Willow bark has been used for pain relief across multiple traditional medical traditions for millennia — the mechanism (salicylates) is well understood. Garlic’s antimicrobial properties are documented. Elderberry’s immune-support effects have been the subject of controlled trials. This is real knowledge with real utility.
At the same time, I want to be honest: herbal medicine works best as a preparedness supplement — a meaningful layer of capability when conventional options are limited — not as a replacement for professional medical care when that care is accessible. In a true extended grid-down scenario where a clinic is genuinely 80 miles away and roads are impassable, herbal knowledge may be the most practical option available. In your day-to-day life, where professional medical care is accessible, it should complement that care rather than substitute for it.
Use these guides to build real knowledge and real capability. Take the preparation methods seriously — actually make the tinctures, actually grow the herbs, actually practice the preparations before you need them. Read both guides actively, not passively. That investment in actual skill-building is what separates preparedness from preparedness cosplay.
For context on how herbal medicine fits into the broader picture of off-grid medical preparedness, our article on foraging wild edibles and survival covers the field foraging dimension, and our best foraging book for survivalists covers the broader range of foraging resources available.
Final Verdict
The Natures Armor vs The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies comparison ultimately comes down to your primary use case.
Natures Armor wins for preppers and homesteaders who want scenario-based, immediately actionable herbal protocols for grid-down situations. Its practical organization, strong coverage of high-utility survival herbs, and emphasis on preparation and preservation methods make it the stronger first purchase for people who are integrating herbal medicine into a broader preparedness system.
The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies wins for readers who prioritize field identification, botanical breadth, and the encyclopedic reference depth that Nicole Apelian’s documented expertise provides. It’s the better choice if developing foraging-based herbal capabilities is a central priority.
Both carry 60-day guarantees. Both are solid resources in their respective lanes. And for serious herbal preparedness — where you want protocols you can act on immediately alongside the plant identification depth to source and verify your own herbal supply — both together give you more complete coverage than either alone.
60-day money-back guarantee. Check the official site for current pricing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Natures Armor better than The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies?
Both are digital herbal reference guides with different emphases. Natures Armor focuses on practical off-grid medicine scenarios and survival applications — its scenario-based organization makes it more immediately navigable in a grid-down situation. The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies (by Nicole Apelian) is photo-rich and encyclopedia-style, giving it a clear edge for plant identification and botanical breadth. The best choice depends on whether you want a scenario-focused or reference-style guide. For preppers who want practical protocols, Natures Armor has the edge. For foragers and botanical learners, The Lost Book wins.
What is The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies?
The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies is a digital herbal guide by Nicole Apelian and Claude Davis. Apelian holds a PhD in biology and has real-world field experience with herbal medicine in wilderness settings; Davis is known for traditional self-reliance content. The guide is known for detailed plant photography and identification alongside medicinal uses — making it popular with foragers, herbalists, and naturalists. It’s also sold via ClickBank with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Do Natures Armor and The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies cover the same herbs?
There’s significant overlap in the most commonly discussed medicinal herbs — echinacea, elderberry, garlic, ginger, turmeric, valerian, chamomile, and others. The differences lie in depth, presentation style, and emphasis. Natures Armor goes deeper on preparedness protocols for its curated set of herbs. The Lost Book covers a much broader range of plants, including many regional and native North American species, at a more reference-style depth. If you’ve worked through one guide, the other will surface both familiar ground and genuinely new content.
Which herbal guide is better for preppers?
For preppers specifically, Natures Armor’s preparedness-scenario framing gives it an edge for practical grid-down situations. The scenario-based organization means you can find relevant guidance quickly without already knowing the plant names — which matters when you’re dealing with an actual problem. The Lost Book is excellent if plant identification in the field is a priority — which is genuinely valuable for preppers who want to forage for medicinal plants rather than rely entirely on purchased or cultivated herbs. Many serious preppers with developed herbal knowledge choose to keep both.
What are the prices of Natures Armor vs The Lost Book?
Both are ClickBank digital products in a similar price range, typically reflecting standard ClickBank digital guide pricing. Both run periodic promotional pricing, so it’s worth checking each official site for the current offer. Both carry ClickBank’s 60-day money-back guarantee, which removes meaningful financial risk from trying either one. The Natures Armor pricing breakdown has more detail on what’s currently available for that guide.
Informational only. This article is for general informational purposes and is not professional, legal, medical, electrical, or financial advice. Survival, energy, and water-treatment decisions carry real risks — consult a licensed professional for your specific situation. Product claims are the manufacturer’s; verify current details on the official site.
By Megan Forsythe — off-grid homesteader & CERT-certified emergency preparedness instructor.