Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Ilex

[00:00:00] Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. As promised, we're going to continue our series on medicinal trees and shrubs with one of the more common and interesting plants, at least where I live.

[00:00:13] I think it's pretty much common just about anywhere in North America except for maybe the deserts but I do know there are some varieties to grow there. So Ilex, what is Ilex? Ilex is Holly. I-L-E-X is the Latin name for Holly.

[00:00:29] There are 21 varieties of Holly that have been used medicinally, at least in documented herbal medicine. Who knows how many have actually been used? Common, very common plant. Actually fairly potent herbal medicine little used now because it is a little strong. You know,

[00:00:52] they grow everywhere and I mean a lot of those that grow here in North Carolina are actually Asian. We have 11 Holly's in my region. One is obviously native. It's the Carolina Holly. Ilex, ambiguous. But so many actually are

[00:01:12] imports from Asia, Japanese and Chinese Holly's etc. We also have the Mountain Holly. But we have one that is, well it doesn't grow in my region of the mountains. It likes a hotter climate.

[00:01:25] This is when I said that, you know, if you live in a more desert area, you might see it a little more often. I know it's really common in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia. It likes hot weather.

[00:01:35] You know, that's been my experience with it but also in coastal North Carolina and really up until throughout the Piedmont, you can find this. It's one that Europeans didn't knew nothing about when they came to this continent.

[00:01:50] The Latin name is Ilex vomitoria. It sounds pretty awful, doesn't it? You might know it as Yopon, though. Yopon Holly generally considered a kind of a weedy little bush is our only native caffeine containing tea plant. The leaves of Yopon Holly

[00:02:12] are made or used to make an excellent substitute for what we used to call Chinese tea. That's where tea originates really, China and India. And that's actually from a camellia. That camellia can be grown in the United States.

[00:02:29] It's not native here and camellia is great in the Sand Heels of North Carolina, Eastern North Carolina, all that. But we do have a native caffeine bearing plant and that is Yopon Holly, Ilex vomitoria. So named because the Native Americans who lived here before the Europeans got here

[00:02:48] didn't really see it as a nice beverage to have for breakfast. They would actually make a very strong brew out of it and use it ceremoniously, consuming so much caffeine they would then throw up and then start having visions and who knows what. Okay?

[00:03:06] I don't like my tea to make me throw up. Don't worry though. Yopon is no more caffeinated than regular tea and you do actually have to drink a lot of it brewed very strongly to make yourself throw up and you can do the same thing with regular tea.

[00:03:21] I don't like to throw up and have visions. Apparently many Native American tribes really like to throw up and have visions. I mean peyote makes you throw up and have visions, right?

[00:03:33] What is it? Ayahuasca, the South American vine, very powerful psychedelic makes you throw up and have visions. For some reason our Native American ancestors in some cases, in my case I have a little bit of Indian blood apparently,

[00:03:51] but the ones that got here first, boy they really like to throw up and have visions. They use tobacco the same way. I mean sometimes they just had tobacco to relax, but that peace pipe that they were passing around

[00:04:04] actually pretty strong and it's a tobacco mixed with a couple of other herbs including red, osier, dogwood, that's known as keny-kenick and what's the other? Is it squalvine? It's a little creeping vine. I've done a whole chapter on that. We'll get into that when we get into

[00:04:26] my topic of woody vines. It really very useful plant but when those three herbs are combined and contrary to popular belief cannabis marijuana is not native to the Americas. It was brought in, it's actually native to India. They were not smoking pot, okay? Contrary to popular

[00:04:50] belief and for some reason in the 70s especially a lot of people petitioned the government and said that smoking cannabis was part of their Native American religion which actually couldn't be farther from the truth. They were using however other strongly stimulant and hallucinogenic plants,

[00:05:10] a lot of which make you very nauseous as you may remember from the first cigarette you had as a kid or the first time you dipped a bit of snuff or chewed some red man tobacco or something

[00:05:20] you're probably sick as a dog right? Well if you had kept at it, puked a couple of times and kept taking more you'd start to see things okay? Same thing with any caffeinated beverage.

[00:05:33] If you have enough of it it's going to make you very sick. I remember the what was that jolt, jolt cola if you're old enough you remember jolt cola. Now I've been a coffee

[00:05:44] drinker since I was about like three or four years old. My grandmother used to give me coffee with milk in it and everything and when I was younger you know I have asthma and caffeine

[00:05:53] can actually help open the lungs and I had coffee frequently to help against asthma attacks or strong hot tea and you know tobacco was just you know natural for me. I enjoyed chewing tobacco.

[00:06:07] I mean I was in my teens when I first started using chewing tobacco. I don't use it anymore not that I'm terribly opposed to it if it's natural homegrown tobacco it's just the commercial

[00:06:16] stuff has a lot of additives same with smoking tobaccos and such. I mean I've known many older men in my family and in the mountains who've lived in the late 90s and over 100 years old chewing

[00:06:28] tobacco and smoking tobacco but it was natural homegrown burly tobacco like yellow twist butt or another heirloom variety. It wasn't that stuff that has weird flavors and additives in it that is sold in our stores. You have to wonder why what we've been what we're sold is

[00:06:46] like the worst version of the product for your health. I mean you know who's behind that you know I don't know it's the same thing like if you go to get cold medicine you may notice that every

[00:06:57] single one of them has Tylenol in it as a fever reducer. Tylenol damages the liver they could easily put aspirin in it and it would actually be cheaper and better for you why are we stuck

[00:07:09] with cold medicine that damages our livers I don't know and is this conspiratorial? No that's the truth and oddly enough speaking of cold medicines and allergy medicines and such you may have noticed that like five or six years ago they were all reformulated instead of having

[00:07:31] I think I'm right on this chemical name Pseudoephedrine to reduce nasal inflammation and bronchial congestion nasal congestion they changed it to a different chemical that is close it's like one chemical bond different but it causes high blood pressure it can cause strokes

[00:07:53] and has actually been proven not to do a darn thing to clear out your sinuses but now that's what's in everybody's allergy medicine. Why? I don't know I could probably speculate there's some sinister motive behind the thing but anyway in a you know

[00:08:14] blank hits the fan situation in a grid down situation and if you can't get to your grocery store to buy coffee and of course you couldn't go to a coffee shop there's not going to be a

[00:08:24] Starbucks open you know and what a rip off they are burnt coffee for like a mortgage on a house when it comes to I mean think about what you spend on Starbucks if you drink it every day for a year

[00:08:38] right it's absolutely insane for the car the price of one cup of coffee you can get like a pound of regular coffee at the grocery store and decent coffee at that I'm not talking you know the

[00:08:48] bottom of the barrel stuff anyway you're going to want a caffeinated beverage you medically might need a caffeinated beverage if you have asthma if you have anaphylaxis you know if you react to like insect bites and such that caffeine can save your life so Yopun Holly our native

[00:09:10] elexvomitoria is an excellent plant to grow if you can if you can't there are several tea companies on in the market that can provide you with Yopun Holly one of which is owned by a friend

[00:09:23] of mine named CJ she's an herbalist from Texas and if you're into conservative talk radio you may know her as Frank Salvatos fiance I believe they're I don't believe they married yet now I

[00:09:35] could be wrong about that I haven't had an update in a little bit but she has an excellent tea company and I will put the information to her company in the show notes now let's talk about the other

[00:09:47] Holly's okay we're going to start with more what we call the European Holly's the the ones that discordies would have known in Greece the ones that Gerard and Cole pepper then we've known England in fact I think I'll start with England on this

[00:10:03] because it is really more of a the English Holly was more well known and used in herbal medicine than were the Holly's in the Middle East and Gerard the herbalist John Gerard said they are good

[00:10:18] against colic for 10 or 12 being taken inwardly bring away by the stool thick phlegmatic humors as we have learned from them who often made trial there up and he's talking the berries he's actually talking about the berries of of Holly and he said that Holly beaten into a powder

[00:10:38] and drunk is an experimental medicine against all flexes of the belly as dysentery and such like now Cole pepper said it was a tree so well known in England that it was needless to describe

[00:10:51] he said the berries expel wind and thereof are held to be profitable in the colic the berries have a strong faculty with them for if you eat a dozen of them in the morning while fasting when they

[00:11:02] are ripe and not dried they purge the body of gross and clammy flim but if you dry the berries and beat them into a powder they bind the body and stop fluxes bloody stuff fluxes

[00:11:14] and the terms in women it means excess menstrual bleeding the bark of the tree and also the leaves are accidentally good being used in fomentations for broken bones and such members that are out

[00:11:25] of joint you'd be using it more as a soak in that case plenty say at the branches of the tree defend the houses from lightning and men's from witchcraft so plenty the elder ancient

[00:11:36] Greek writer there was actually a lot of superstition connected to holly and they were used to holly branches because they're evergreen they stay green in winter had a lot of religious significance and such to ancient peoples miss grieve really gets into the traditional uses of holly in England

[00:11:54] she wrote the 1930s in England she said holly the most important of the english evergreens forming one of the most striking objects in the wintery woodland with its glossy leaves and clusters of brilliant scarlet berries is in the general mind closely connected with the

[00:12:10] festivities of christmas if you know anything about english christmas traditions they decorate a lot with holly that's a big thing in england that goes back long before christian christianity i mean it was just it was evergreen it was bright green and was thought to you know be that

[00:12:27] sign of life in winter you know and people like that they used juniper similarly various plants that would uh were evergreen and very important to the scandinavian traditions etc she says having been from the very early days in the histories of these islands gathering great quantity for

[00:12:45] yuletide decorations both of the church and the home the old christmas carols are fully are full of illusions to holly such as christmas tide come in like a bride with holly and ivy clad ivy of course also green in the winter christmas decorations are said to have been

[00:13:02] derived from a custom observed by the romans of sending bowels accompanied with other gifts to friends during the festival of saturnalia a custom adopted by early christians in the confirmation of this opinion a subsequent edict of the church of baraka barakara there we go

[00:13:21] not barakabama but no barakara has been quoted that actually forbade christians to decorate their house in christmas with the green bowels is the same as did pagans um it was also true

[00:13:33] traced to the druids that edict of course was lifted and now we put up christmas trees and we can decorate with holly and ivy and whatever we like she says in the old church calendars we find christmas

[00:13:44] eve marked as templa examanta the day that churches are decked out with decorations and the custom is as deeply rooted in modern times as in either pagan or early christian days very true a lot of people that you know are completely secular still like to decorate for christmas

[00:14:02] uh just you know reminds you of family it's a good thing to do she says an old legend declares that holly first sprang up under the footsteps of christ when he trod the earth and its thorny leaves

[00:14:12] and scarlet berries like drops of blood have been thought symbolical of the savior's suffering for which the tree is called christ thorn in languages of the northern countries of europe crown of thorns of course was probably more of a hawthorn also very significant in english

[00:14:27] plant symbology um she says it is perhaps in connection with these legends that the tree is called the holy tree and is generally named that by our older writers so in old english it

[00:14:38] was not called holly at all but holy um that comes from the net word hallow we could go back and back through you know different languages of different times but it always had somewhat but it always had somewhat of religious significance she said that um other popular

[00:14:54] names were hover and home and it's still called hover and norfolk and home and devon etc etc she talks about what pliny said we just discussed that uh theaphrastus called it cretages but that's actually the hawthorn so two different trees um holly leaves were

[00:15:14] used as a diaphragmatic that means of tea of the leaves would lower a fever or help break a fever and was given to them in catarip, pleurisy and smallpox so congested lungs essentially they have often been used in intermittent fevers and rheumatism for their febri-fusal and tonic

[00:15:30] properties febri-fusal also means helps lower or break a fever um and powdered or take it in infusion or decoction have been employed in success where chinchona has failed in other words she's found it to be more effective than chinchona or quinine which is something we always

[00:15:48] want to remember when these pandemics come around right their virtue said being said to depend on a bitter principle the juice of the fresh leaves has been employed with it vanished in jaundice the berries possess a totally different quality to the leaves being violently

[00:16:04] a medic and purgative means it'll make you throw up and have diarrhea um that's what i was always told uh you know when gerard and colpepper talking about taking the berries on an empty stomach in the

[00:16:14] morning um yeah it's probably going to give you the runs uh and it's probably not going to be very comfortable and i mean i was always told they were poisonous as a kid not necessarily poisonous but violently a medic means throw up and purgative means gives you diarrhea

[00:16:29] um a very few only eating a very few causes excessive vomiting soon after they are swallowed the birds eat them with impunity they have been employed in drops he also dried and powdered as

[00:16:44] a strange and is a stranger to check bleeding from the bark stripped from the young shoots and fermented bird lime is made now this is very interesting if you're in survival situation

[00:16:56] and you need to catch small birds to eat bird lime used made from the bark of holly it's stripped about mid-summer steeped in clean water okay until it ferments and separates into layers

[00:17:11] the inner grain portion is laid in small heaps and fermented further after about a fortnight or you know two weeks has elapsed it is converted into a sticky mucilage substance and pounded

[00:17:25] into a paste washed and laid there again and laid there again to firm it it is then mixed with some oily matter goose fat being preferred is ready for use uh it wasn't made much in her time

[00:17:38] it was actually used more for fly strips flypaper strips you know sticky substance can catch flies uh in ancient times and uh in early america people really valued bird lime

[00:17:52] and it's this is how it's made i just told you okay they would take it and spread it on twigs and branches on trees and when a small bird landed on it it got stuck and couldn't fly away

[00:18:03] so in a survival situation um problem i'm certainly completely illegal right now but if you had to survive that's one way you can catch some birds probably would also help to

[00:18:17] catch small squirrels or other you know rodents if you had to okay like the plants that we call fish poisons um like yucca root and such that will kind of stun fish illegal now but good to know

[00:18:33] just in case right the leaves of holly have been employed in the black forest as a substitute for tea so even in europe they're being used as a substitute for tea but the european hollies are

[00:18:43] not uh don't contain caffeine. Paraguay tea so extensively used in brazil is used from the is made from the dried leaves and young fruits of another species of ilex ilex paraguensis which is essentially a south american version of yopon. So an irish herbal states that the berries have

[00:19:04] a hot nature and it is believed that five of them when eaten will relieve colic and act as a purgative again they're going to clean you out now getting to the american tradition

[00:19:17] we find in resources of southern fields of forest that ilex opaca which is one of our natives the bark of the holly root chewed or tea made from it yields an excellent bitter demulsant i mean

[00:19:30] bitter and softening like the stools and such but also helps is useful in coughs and colds to break up that mucous it has sort of a moment of a an expectorant type quality the bitter principle

[00:19:44] is also tonic which means good for the stomach and the liver and the holly contains bird lime as we've just discussed. 1898 king's medical dispensatory says under official actions medical uses and dosages in american medicine circa 1900 holly leaves are tonic and febra fuge. Febra fuge again

[00:20:03] has to do with fevers said to be very efficient in the treatment of intermittent fevers there's like malaria type fevers or really the kind of fevers that came with covid. In doses of 60 grains

[00:20:13] of their powder administered one or two hours previous to the chill the infusion or tea has also proved beneficial in pleuritis ictorus catara variola arthritis etc the berries are said to be a metocathartic as we've discussed and coliogog and from 8 to 15 of them they can help get

[00:20:35] reworms as well. 8 to 15 of them will act as a hydrogog meaning increasing secretions according to dr. Rousseau the illicin which is the chemical present in holly ex decidedly upon the liver spleen impancreas producing a sedative effect and is a cheap substitute for quinine so again this is

[00:21:00] you know really essential information you probably got some of these growing in your yard right now if you don't i bet you have a neighbor who does right um and and i i'm very fond of holly we like

[00:21:10] i said we have many hollies in north carolina it's one of my favorite woods to carve very fine smooth grain ivory white makes some of the finest spoons and bowls and such you can imagine

[00:21:24] really nice wood to carve it feels good in the hands it feels good in the mouth if it's a spoon or something it's very hard and a fine grain it has a flexible the flexibility to it so you can use

[00:21:37] you know spoon or fork and it's not going to break it'll actually flex it's wonderful stuff turn to the german tradition brother alowicious wrote of holly the white flowers grow in receipts along the stems they are followed by red berries the berries have a strongly purgative effect the

[00:21:52] leaves are used medicinally the decoction of holly decoctions just of course just means tea consisting of one third to one half cup per two cups water is used for gout colic and fever decoctions different from infusion in that it's usually uses more woody parts of a

[00:22:08] plant holly being somewhat woody is you know the leaves are pretty darn tough actually you put it in water and you boil it down until half the water's gone as opposed to a tea which you

[00:22:18] make out of like flowers and more delicate leaves and such and you pour hot water over them and allow it to steep a decoction is actually boiled take one cup daily the fruit also has medicinal

[00:22:31] uses if 10 to 12 berries are taken they will have a very purgative effect and are also a powerful remedy for colic the leaves should be begin gathered at the beginning of the flowering period so basically right now the rhodel herb book states the leaves and berries are used from

[00:22:48] additional purposes the leaves are stringent and are used in fevers and rheumatism the berries help in dropsy or dima water retention more modern use plants for a future says of american

[00:23:00] holly the berries are laxative and medic and diuretic so makes you go makes you puke and takes off excess fluids they're used in the treatment of children's diarrhea colic and indigestion a tea

[00:23:14] made from the leaves has been used as a treatment for measles colds etc the leaves have also been used externally in the treatment of sore eyes soren itchy skin a teammate from the bark was

[00:23:26] once used in the treatment of malaria and epilepsy it has also been used as a wash for sore eyes and itchy skin of particular interest is the unfortunately named illx vomitoria which fortunately is more

[00:23:39] commonly called yopon holly yopon received its latin name due to the practice of some native american tribes who made a strong tea of the leaves and drank it ceremonially until they vomited the leaves of yopon contain caffeine in fact yopon holly is north america's

[00:23:56] only native caffeinated tree yopon tea is very similar to imported black tea chameleon sinensis and is considered to be of superior flavor by many of its inheritance adherence adherence people who like it to many americans yopon holly is merely a weedy shrub and often a nuisance

[00:24:15] where we know it's where we more to know we're more we're more people to know of its value as a tea it might be seen as a valuable crop especially in light of the costs and concerns

[00:24:27] over chemical use in the growing and production of imported tea um illx uh cornuda horn holly is probably one of the most popular in landscaping in my area i believe it's one of the the asian ones

[00:24:44] plants for a future says that one medicinal use of horn holly the whole plant is aborted so it can cause a miscarriage okay so pregnant women do not need to be using holly okay carminative contraceptive febri fusion tonic it particularly strengthens the back and the

[00:25:03] knees now that's an interesting thing is in fact um the Cherokee uh made use of certain hollies to strengthen the back and the knees don't know how it works but plants for a future is you

[00:25:15] know uh usually pretty solid the stem bark is tonic the whole plant is used in the treatment of arthritis recurring fever and pulmonary tuberculosis tuberculosis lymph nodes and joint pains and lumbego wow so uh peterson field field guide to eastern central medicinal plants says

[00:25:35] american indians chewed the berries and they just talking holly in general they don't even differentiate american indians choose the berries for colic and indigestion leaf tea from measles colds flu pneumonia uses drops for sore eyes externally used for sores and itching thick syrup of berries

[00:25:54] formerly used to treat children's diarrhea chewing only 10 to 12 berries acts as a strong laxative emetic and diuretic bark tea once used in malaria and epilepsy warning fruits considered poisonous and induce violent vomiting so as you can see holly is an incredibly useful uh tree

[00:26:15] or shrug depending on which variety you have not just a good ornamental even though it is very nice ornamental uh it's also a good uh thorny bush to plant as a hedge to keep people and deer

[00:26:29] out of your yard deer will not walk through a holly hedge they will go around it they will try to jump over it i've seen that before um but if they can't see the other side they're not going

[00:26:39] to jump over it by the way deer will only jump over if they can see the other side uh deer actually have uh you know slender legs that break easily i can't tell you how many times i've seen deer

[00:26:50] with broken legs and that's uh it's always awful because that deer is just going to starve to death i mean they they rarely heal at all um but that you know they're they're careful

[00:27:00] about their legs so good to um use as sort of a perimeter defense plant uh wonderful carving wood and um you know a good herbal medicine to know so hopefully um you found some good uses in

[00:27:18] the hollies for plants that you probably already have growing in your yard so remember check the show notes for my friend CJ's tea company and y'all i will talk to you next week the information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose retreat any disease or condition

[00:27:35] nothing i say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA i'm not a doctor the US government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and there is no governing body regulating herbless therefore i'm really just a guy who studies herbs i'm not offering any advice

[00:27:50] i won't even claim that anything i write or say is accurate or true i can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for i can tell you my own experience and if i believe an herb has

[00:27:59] helped me i cannot nor would i tell you to do the same if you use an herb anyone recommends you are treating yourself you take full responsibility for your health humans are individuals and

[00:28:11] no two are identical what works for me may not work for you you may have an allergy a sensitivity and underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about be careful

[00:28:22] with your health by continuing to list 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