Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Chinese Parasol Tree and Buckthorn

[00:00:00] Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. Today we're going to do two trees. The first one's a very short entry.

[00:00:06] Continuing our series of the medicinal uses of trees, of course. And this all comes from my book, The Medicinal Trees of the American South.

[00:00:16] Full title I guess is Look Up! The Medicinal Trees of the American Southeast Mid-Atlantic Region.

[00:00:24] Yes, it's a very long title. I am trying to do shorter titles. But we will start with Fermiana Simplex.

[00:00:32] Now this is called the Chinese Parasalt tree. And the reason I included it is it is widely planted as an ornamental.

[00:00:40] You may have one of these in your yard already. You probably have one in your neighborhood.

[00:00:44] It has traditionally been used, of course mostly in Chinese medicine, but as an astringent and a salve.

[00:00:52] Now astringent means it tightens tissue. It can reduce inflammation. And a salve means it's soothing.

[00:00:58] It's good for wounds and sores and rashes and potentially, you know.

[00:01:03] That makes those two properties together pretty effective.

[00:01:09] The seed is expectorant and refrigerant. Refrigerant means it cools the body.

[00:01:16] Decoction of the roots is used to reduce swelling.

[00:01:20] A lotion of the leaves is used in the treatment of carbuncles, hemorrhoids and sores.

[00:01:25] So basically that would be the salve they were talking about. And yeah, it's good to know.

[00:01:33] So now we'll move on to a native tree.

[00:01:37] Well actually, no I'm sorry. This is actually naturalized. It was introduced in early America as an ornamental.

[00:01:46] And it's really pretty widespread now. It's Alderbuckthorn.

[00:01:52] It's either known as Frangula or Franjulia, Alnus or Romnus Frangula.

[00:01:59] Goes by two Latin names apparently.

[00:02:03] There's also Romnus Deverica or also called Dehurian Buckthorn.

[00:02:11] Buckthorns are what they're commonly called.

[00:02:15] The Romnus comes from the Latin. In fact, Dioscorides wrote of it as Romnos.

[00:02:22] But in this country they're mostly known as Buckthorn.

[00:02:27] And it's more of a shrub. It's not a very large tree.

[00:02:31] He said it could get up to five feet tall, maybe seven or eight.

[00:02:37] Thorny. It's very thorny.

[00:02:40] See buckthorn is often grown for fruit.

[00:02:46] So that one, if you're into permaculture, you may know that one.

[00:02:50] And he describes the plant, he describes the fruit.

[00:02:52] He says the leaves were what was mostly used in ancient Greek medicine.

[00:02:56] And they were rubbed on for iris syphilis or other inflammatory skin conditions.

[00:03:02] And herpes and other viral skin infections.

[00:03:06] And he said that in ancient Greece it was believed that the branches laid in gates or windows would drive away the enchantments of witches.

[00:03:16] So he even said if anyone picks up Romnos when the moon is decreasing and holds it,

[00:03:23] it is effective against poison and mischief and is good for beasts to carry around on them.

[00:03:30] And it was in his time put in ships for good luck and was good against headaches and devils or demons.

[00:03:38] So, hey, I don't know. But in ancient Greek, they thought it had some kind of magical properties, you know, probably doesn't.

[00:03:46] But, you know, very well, it was used in several cultures.

[00:03:53] I would say the English by the 1500s were less concerned about mischief from devils and such in relation to buckthorn.

[00:04:03] They had many other beliefs and superstitions that were related to other plants.

[00:04:09] So you don't get very far from it, even in Protestant England.

[00:04:13] So Gerard writing the 1500s set of buckthorn.

[00:04:17] The same, and he's referring to the berries as best I can tell, do purge and void by the stool thick phlegm and also choleric humors.

[00:04:27] Now that just basically means congestion and such. This would be of the stomach and intestines.

[00:04:32] They are given being beaten into a powder.

[00:04:36] And he said for strong bodies, strong people could eat 15, 20 or more.

[00:04:42] He said, but it is better to break them and boil them in broth without salt.

[00:04:48] And to give as a drink. They so purge with lesser trouble and fewer griping.

[00:04:54] So basically he said in his broth, he said, needed to be fat flesh.

[00:05:00] So, you know, if you've got a fatty piece of beef or pork, boil that up with some buckthorn berries.

[00:05:08] He would say it would work as a laxative with less stomach cramping, as intestinal cramping, so to speak.

[00:05:14] And apparently the berries were also used in his time as a coloring for paints and dyes.

[00:05:19] So that's interesting.

[00:05:21] Miss Grieve gets more into the medicinal value of buckthorn.

[00:05:26] Of the common buckthorn she said it was laxative and cathartic.

[00:05:29] I mean, it's going to clean you out.

[00:05:31] She said buckthorn was well known to the Anglo-Saxons, written about in many of the ancient Anglo-Saxon herbal books and the Welsh herbal books.

[00:05:42] One of the oldest herbals, probably the oldest, I guess, in the British Isles or that area does come from Wales.

[00:05:52] And I can't pronounce it because I cannot pronounce Welsh, but it's something like the physicians of Mid-Fy.

[00:05:57] And if you're interested in a lot of the lore and a lot of the pre-Christian superstitions and ceremonies, you'll find them in there.

[00:06:09] A lot of stuff we would not use now.

[00:06:11] You know, like some of their herbal remedies they would mix with urine and sheep dung.

[00:06:16] And then you take that internally.

[00:06:18] I'm not doing that.

[00:06:20] But hey, you know, I guess if you're desperate to be healed and that's all you had.

[00:06:25] But yeah, definitely a different system of medicine than we find in ancient Greece.

[00:06:32] Ancient Greece was quite, I'll say a bit more sophisticated quite a bit earlier, like a thousand years before, if not longer than that, before the Welsh book came out.

[00:06:44] She said the medicinal, let's see.

[00:06:46] She said the Welsh physicians of the 13th century prescribed a juice from the fruit of buckthorn boiled with honey as an apparent drink.

[00:06:54] And all apparent means is it was just a gentle laxative basically.

[00:06:59] She said the medicinal use of the berries was familiar to all the writers of botany and materiomedica of the 16th century.

[00:07:07] Dodwins, I guess in his herbal wrote,

[00:07:22] In other words, he did not think buckthorn berries were fit for city people or cultured people.

[00:07:30] But for young, lusty people of the country who were cheap.

[00:07:36] They were a good food.

[00:07:38] I don't know the English in their classes and case systems, caste systems, whatever.

[00:07:45] Until the late 19th century, syrup of buckthorn ranked, however, among favorite rustic remedies as a purgative for children prepared by boiling the juice with she says pimento and ginger.

[00:07:58] I don't know.

[00:08:01] I mean, pimento.

[00:08:04] Well, let's see.

[00:08:06] What were we saying in the 19th century?

[00:08:09] So in England, pimento actually could have been two different things.

[00:08:12] It could have been the pepper from which we get paprika, the pimentos that go in olives, just a mild chili pepper.

[00:08:22] Or it could have actually been the pimento bush, which is a tropical spice.

[00:08:28] I don't know.

[00:08:29] So she also mentions ginger.

[00:08:31] So I'm actually thinking probably the more the spice anyway and adding sugar to it.

[00:08:37] But its action was so severe that his time went on.

[00:08:40] The medicine was discarded.

[00:08:41] So it would really purge, really clean you out big time for children.

[00:08:46] And so, you know, of course, casserole is a lot more gentle.

[00:08:50] And she actually says by 1867, it was no longer used and they had switched.

[00:08:55] It was in favor now of castor oil as an occasional purgative.

[00:09:01] She said even the flesh of birds that have eaten the berries is said to be purgative.

[00:09:07] She mentions that a supers one of superstitions across associated with buckthorn is that the crown of thorns of Jesus was made of buckthorn.

[00:09:15] Other legends say it was Hawthorn.

[00:09:19] The Alder buckthorn specifically, she said, was tonic, laxative and cathartic.

[00:09:23] So it would help the appetite as well as help with constipation or anything you needed that for.

[00:09:30] It was given in cases of chronic constipation in the form of fluid extract in small doses three to four times daily.

[00:09:37] A decoction being made of one ounce of the bark and one quart of water boiled down to a pint taken in tablespoon full doses.

[00:09:46] Let's get to America in the mid eighteen hundreds.

[00:09:50] The buckthorn tribe, they put together also with the three, I guess, buckthorns we've been discussing New Jersey tea, which is Cianothus, which I have in a different category.

[00:10:03] But they said the plant possesses a considerable degree of astringency and has been used in gonorrheal discharge.

[00:10:11] It is applied by Cherokee doctors as washing cancer and may be used wherever an astringent like quality is useful.

[00:10:19] Stern's American herbal referred to its anti syphilitic powers.

[00:10:24] And there's something written in French and I'm sorry, I don't read French.

[00:10:30] They say it is not now supposed to be endowed with any decided virtue in this respect, however.

[00:10:36] So not now by the eighteen hundreds believed to be that good for syphilis.

[00:10:41] Hubbard prescribed it with advantage in infections of infants, malignant dysentery and other maladies dependent on vulnerability.

[00:10:51] He usually combined it with a little borax, which is very interesting.

[00:10:55] I don't think I would want to take borax internally if I could avoid it.

[00:11:02] Let's see. In the Chesterfield district, an infusion of the leaves was used during the War of Independence as a substitute for tea.

[00:11:10] And I do think he's talking to New Jersey tea on that, by the way, which is Cianothus because the buckthorn would probably just give you diarrhea.

[00:11:18] So I don't think we ought to think about that.

[00:11:22] The NC he's got a.

[00:11:26] We'll see Carolina buckthorn, frangola carolina, Anna against his.

[00:11:32] Not quite what we're looking for, but then he also has Romney's Carolina honest and says they're probably the same plant.

[00:11:39] I don't know. I'm not sure on that, but this one he does says purgative syrup prepared for the berries.

[00:11:46] So yeah, that's going to be the one we're talking about.

[00:11:48] And then it made the yellow dye that Gerard mentioned.

[00:11:52] The this is an interesting use of he said a quarter to half an ounce of the inner bark boiled in beer would be a sharp purgative uses a certain purgative in constipation of the bowels of cattle.

[00:12:05] So it was being used in veterinary medicine by 1898.

[00:12:10] King's American dispensers story said it was good for nausea, colicky pain.

[00:12:15] Violent a meadow catharsis are the effects produced by fresh frangula bark.

[00:12:20] In other words, it's going to clean you out violently and not be very pleasant when dried.

[00:12:26] However, it loses some of its acuity and then acts as a purgative only so less violent when when dried.

[00:12:35] Both the alvein and renal disc cartridges are colored dark yellow by it.

[00:12:40] Narcotic symptoms have been produced by eating the berries and seeds, the toxic effects having probably been produced by the prussic acid contained in the seeds.

[00:12:49] The decoction has been administered in dropses and the same preparation as well in ointments in recent bark recently harvested bark has been used as a cure for the itch.

[00:12:59] So apparently very soothing and astringent to the skin.

[00:13:03] Its chief value, however, is laxative and cathartic being quite popular for these effects with Germans.

[00:13:09] It resembles Senna and rhubarb in action but according to some being harsher.

[00:13:15] It is a remedy for chronic constipation and they get into a lot of the pharmacist's measurements.

[00:13:22] In a modern use Plants for a Future says medicinal use of alder buckthorn.

[00:13:27] Alder buckthorn has been used medicinally as a gentle laxative since the Middle Ages.

[00:13:32] So I'm assuming this would be the dried bark.

[00:13:35] The bark contains 3-7% anthraquinones.

[00:13:39] These act on the wall of the colon stimulating a bowel movement approximately 8-12 hours after ingestion.

[00:13:46] So it's not going to happen that quickly.

[00:13:49] Like the old XX commercial, it works while you sleep.

[00:13:52] And that reminds me, James Gregory, my favorite comedian passed away.

[00:13:56] That was one of his bits.

[00:13:59] He'd say, the commercial says it works while you sleep.

[00:14:03] I don't want that.

[00:14:04] I want to be up and ready to go.

[00:14:07] But he was hilarious and he will be greatly, greatly missed.

[00:14:12] Anyway, they said that specifically the alder buckthorn, and I do believe we're using the dried bark here,

[00:14:19] It is so gentle and effective a treatment when prescribing correct dosages that it is completely safe for use by children and pregnant women.

[00:14:29] I always get the caveat, I don't make any recommendations for pregnant women.

[00:14:33] The bark also contains anthrones and anthranols.

[00:14:36] These induce vomiting, but the severity of their effect is greatly reduced after the bark has been dried and stored for a long time.

[00:14:43] The bark is harvested in early summer from the young trunk and from moderately sized branches.

[00:14:49] It must then be dried and stored for at least 12 months before being used.

[00:14:53] The inner bark is cathartic, colagog, laxative.

[00:14:57] The fresh bark is violently purgative.

[00:14:59] So there we have it.

[00:15:00] The fresh bark is violently purgative.

[00:15:02] It is also tonic.

[00:15:04] This is a dried bark again.

[00:15:05] Tonic and vermic fusing helps get rid of intestinal parasites.

[00:15:09] It is taken internally as a laxative for chronic atonic constipation and also used in treating abdominal bloating, hepatitis, cirrhosis, jaundice, and liver and gallbladder complaints.

[00:15:20] It should be used with caution since excess doses or using the bark before it is cured can cause violent purging.

[00:15:28] Externally, the bark is used to treat gum diseases and scalp infestations or as a lotion for minor skin irritations.

[00:15:35] The fruit is occasionally used.

[00:15:37] It is apparent without being irritating.

[00:15:39] And finally, I guess we'll...

[00:15:42] Well, no, I've got two more entries.

[00:15:43] We've got Peterson Field Guide that says American Indians use the bark tea to induce vomiting.

[00:15:49] So that would be the fresh bark.

[00:15:50] Also, it's a strong laxative still used for constipation with muscular atony of the intestines.

[00:15:56] And the Physicians Desk Reference for Herbal Medicine, which is what a doctor uses, states,

[00:16:03] Buckthorn is used internally for constipation and for bowel movement release in cases of anal fissure and hemorrhoids.

[00:16:10] It is also used after a rectoanal surgery in preparation for diagnostic intervention in the gastrointestinal tract to achieve a softer stool.

[00:16:20] Under unproven use, it says, in folk medicine, it is used as a diuretic and blood purifying remedy.

[00:16:27] Contraindications. It is contraindicated in intestinal instruction, acute inflammatory intestinal diseases, appendicitis and abdominal pain of unknown origin.

[00:16:37] Used during pregnancy or while nursing only after consulting a physician.

[00:16:42] The drug is not to be administered to children under 12 years of age.

[00:16:46] So modern physicians disagree with the Physicians of 1898.

[00:16:53] And when we're talking about pregnant women and kids, I would tend to follow the Physicians Desk Reference advice.

[00:17:00] But any way you look at it, very valuable remedy. Good tree to have.

[00:17:05] And as the buckthorn seem to be fairly interchangeable, I would look for the more edible varieties like the sea buckthorn.

[00:17:12] So you can have your food and medicine on one plant.

[00:17:18] But if you've already got some of these growing wild on your property, or feral actually, make good use of them.

[00:17:23] And remember, store that bark. I would dry it for at least a year.

[00:17:29] I mean, at least a year. I would store and dry it for, and probably if I could put up about a three years backlog supply, I'd use the oldest as opposed to the freshest.

[00:17:39] You know, but you can have to kind of experiment around with it and see what works best for you.

[00:17:44] So that's it for today's show, y'all. Have a good one.

[00:17:48] The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition.

[00:17:53] Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not a doctor.

[00:17:59] The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine, and there is no governing body regulating herbalists.

[00:18:05] Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs. I'm not offering any advice.

[00:18:09] I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true.

[00:18:13] I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience and if I believe in herbs, help me.

[00:18:19] I cannot nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use an herb anyone recommends, you are treating yourself.

[00:18:26] You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical.

[00:18:31] What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, a sensitivity, an underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about.

[00:18:40] Be careful with your health. By continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog, you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices and not to blame me for anything ever.