Yes, most herbs and supplements are not ideally taken alone (the fact that food is also medicine notwithstanding). I'm already using way too many supplements to do even be able to do something like that. For those of you confused about formulae: any decent (tonic) formula is designed to promote a balance and harmony within itself (yin and yang, five element, ++). Any off-centered formula is designed to RE-balance the [out-of-balance] person taking it. Many decent tonics will lean toward certain elements, towards yin or yang; but they don't exclude the spectrum. For example, Fo-Ti with wolfberry is going to be very yin and nourishing, but while correctional WRT yin deficiency, is not very well balanced as a tonic (unless you balance with a separate yang elixir, for example). It is possible to make a tincture of individual herbs and keep them separate, mixing at the time of ingestion. Just walk through the aisle of your local health food store if you don't think this is common practice. You can also decoct many herbs together. However, an herb which is ill-suited to decoction because of fat soluability issues (for example) will not be bioavailable in this state.
"Polygonum [here they mean multiflorum, i.e. fo-ti, aka he-shou-wu, mr. He's black hair] is one of the rare herbs that is often consumed by itself." (source: Dragonherbs website)
BTW anyone know other TCM herbal forums?
Yoda:
Powdered medica/herbs are okay if you trust the source... But why buy powdered reishi mushrooms?!? Just buy the whole damn thing, they're so beautiful. Great for cooking. You also know what you're getting. Nothing like a whopping specimen to inspire some respect. As a test I kept one I bought in 2003, it still looks like the day it was shipped to me.
Also, since I haven't seen mention here yet, mountainroseherbs.com has a lot of high quality products (including whole reishi).
Cheers!