The growth of the internet has seen a profusion of “breast enhancement pill” offers, typically from fly-by-night companies. Despite the sketchy nature of many of the offering companies, the idea is not a new one to herbalism. Tonics for “women's complaints” have been around for so long as history tracks, and their past seems as checkered as their present. Willing to give it a try? Let me pass along what I've heard…

“The Green Pharmacy” by James Duke (a former worker at the FDA and a respected authority on herbalism) offers a short section on herbs to promote swollen breasts. Chief amongst Duke's recommendations are Fenugreek and Wild Yam root.

In addition to pill form, Fenugreek can be ordered very cheaply as sproutable seeds from sources such as the Frontier Coop. To sprout your own fenugreek:

• In a clean (sterile) mason jar, place a 1/4 cup sproutable seeds.
• Cover the mason jar with a breathable material that allows water to flow through, such as a clean section of pantyhose, cheesecloth, or a fine screen.
• Rinse and drain the seeds once or twice daily.
• In 4 to 5 days, the sprouts should be ready to eat.

• Fenugreek sprouts are crisp, with a pleasantly bitter taste. Artificial maple syrup flavor is refined from fenugreek, so don't be surprised if you take on a slight aroma of maple syrup yourself.
• Starting a new batch every day or two will keep a constant supply ready.
• 1/4 cup seeds –> 4 cups sprouts
• Fenugreek sprouts are rich in iron, vitamin A, and protein. They also contain a large dose of mucilage. (The soothing form of dietary fiber found in metamucil.)

The breast growth pill “Erdic” is mostly hops. The makers recommend taking it with a large glass of water, in large doses, (5 very large pills) three times daily without exception. Shortly after its release, it was reviewed in a number of magazines, most of which agreed that it worked. (If memory serves, Elle magazine declared it the only pill they tested that did what it claimed.) Users are advised to take it for up to four months before expecting to see any change, after which a cup size of growth every two months is claimed to be typical. Missing even a single dose is said to set the process back by weeks. The makers claim it works for 5 out of 6 women who follow the directions.

The main advantage of herbal options is that the ingredients for an herbal Rx can be acquired cheaply from any of a number of sources: most of the pills you will find advertised on the 'net are vastly overpriced compared to the cost of the herbs purchased directly. At the time of this writing, a pound of organically grown hops ordered directly from a bulk herbal supplier cost ~$30. A month's supply of Erdic costs in the hundreds of dollars. Even after adding the one-time cost of buying a 1000 pack of empty gelatin caplets and a pill-filling tray to get the hops into the caplets, the cost savings is noteworthy. The savings are similar for women wishing to try a fenugreek based Rx.

One herbalism board I frequented where breast enhancement herbs were discussed developed the theory that many womens' bodies would simply process away the herbs with little or no effect, and that these women would need a “liver cleanse” before their bodies would accept the herbs properly. Traditional herbalism favors milk thistle as a liver tonic. On this particular board, a particular japanese tea made the fad for the purpose. If very fuzzy memory serves, the wonder tea was claimed to be a mushroom tea by the name “Kombucha”. This confused me at the time (and still does) as I have lived in japan briefly and was served a drink named Konbucha there: a salty tea made from seaweed flakes having nothing to do with mushrooms. Here is one mushroom tea going by the name kombucha - perhaps it's what they were talking about: http://www.herbalremedies.com/kommus4oz.html

Per Greedy of the BEA:

The product that you mentioned is clearly a “phyto-estrogen”. The 'phyto' part means that it is derived from plants. The 'estrogen' part means that it will react as the class of hormones called estrogens. They are NOT estrogens at all, and offer none of the ability to be modified by enzymatic action. However they do give some of the reactions. The action that they are basing their sales pitch on is the breast swelling that the estrogen class causes in women. The more estrogens that are added to the woman, without augmenting her progesterone levels, the more that her breasts will swell, as will the stomach and lining of her uterus. The imbalance will also cause her menstrual cycle to lengthen, and may even stop. Unfortunately for the user of the product, as soon as she does have her period or stop taking the pills, the water in the breasts that caused the “growth” will leave, and she will be right back where she started from.

On the other hand, there are glandular products that will increase breast size in most women, at least until they are a good deal past puberty. The product is “bovine ovary” which is a freeze dried glandular product. It does have real estrogens in it. Women with PCOS or Adrenal Hyperplasia will not benefit from this due to their high levels of free testosteone and total testosterone respectively in their system.

So, if you want young ladies' breasts to be huge, use the over-the-counter bovine ovary glandulars. You should use a progesterone creme on days 12-25 of their cycle as well to balance her estrogen progesterone ratio. The usual dose is 20 mg and the bottles will reflect this in their suggested dosage. This will normally yield significant growth in the age group from 16 to perhaps as high as 23. Everyone is a bit different, so some 21 year olds may not benefit from this protocol.

• The Green Pharmacy by James A. Duke
• The Complete Sprouting Cookbook by Karen Cross Whyte
• A study on (commissioned by?) Erdic

• The Frontier Coop
• Greenbush

See also: Lactation

It is. I've never tried any of these myself. If you do, why not post your results here?