Do I need to know herbal medicine?

Do you need to already know herbal medicine?

No — and this is one of the most common worries people carry into a first inquiry, so let's clear it up plainly: nobody arrives at a TCM graduate program already knowing herbal medicine. It's taught from the ground up, not assumed.

At Five Branches, the herbal curriculum is built into the MAcHM / DAcHM dual-degree track: six trimesters of coursework take you from zero to a working knowledge of over 500 individual herbs and more than 350 classical and modern formulas, starting with basic theory (identification, categorization, clinical use) before moving into advanced formula modification. Herbs are taught using their Pinyin names, so no prior Chinese-language background is assumed either. (School-published curriculum page, last checked 08/2026.)

One structural choice you do get to make, though:

So the real question isn't "do I already need to know it" — it's "do I want it as part of my scope of practice." If patient care through herbal formulas interests you, MAcHM/DAcHM builds it from scratch; if you'd rather focus purely on acupuncture, DAc/MAc leaves it out entirely.

Other accredited schools structure this similarly — for instance the University of East-West Medicine's Herbology I course also lists no prerequisites, confirming this "start from zero" approach isn't unique to one school.

Curious which of the two tracks — with herbs or acupuncture-only — sounds closer to the kind of practice you picture yourself running?