Generally an herbalist is a person who has dedicated his life for the economic and medicinal uses of various plants
. He is generally a person who is skilled in the arts of harvesting and collection of medicinal plants. Herbalist is a term that is generally associated with the trends of ancient culture such as a Chinese herbalist or an ayurvedic herbalist. They are the people who are trained or skilled in the dispensing of herbal prescriptions such as traditional Chinese herb doctor in first case, or prescriptions in the ayurvedic tradition. Simply considering all the facts an herbalist is a person who is skilled or trained in the therapeutic use of medicinal plants.
As said above herbalist depends on the trends that a person follows, hence the general education of herbalists varies considerably in different areas of the world. Different types of herbalists such as Lay herbalists and traditional indigenous medicine people generally rely upon the apprenticeship and recognition of the trainee from their communities against of formal schooling. Hence to be an herbalist one has to do an apprenticeship from one of the above and traditional herbalists. Also there are some countries in which countries formalized training and other minimum education standards do exist. But still this type of training is not necessarily uniform within or between countries.
There are many herbalists who engage themselves in wild crafting or in cultivation of herbs. They also engaged them in diagnosis and treatment of various conditions or general dispensing of herbal medication. The herbal traditions depend on various analyses of the clients that include treatment of the patient instead of the disease.