Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Linden, Tilia, Basswood or Lime Tree

Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. Got a really interesting herb for you this week. It's actually a tree. And as you know, most herbalists don't really study the medicinal value of trees anymore, which is just weird. I mean, trees are plants just like any other plant. Native Americans use trees. German herbalists use trees. Greek herbalists use trees. But for some reason, modern day America and really throughout the herbal world, People just think of herbs as little green plants, and nothing could be farther from the truth because usually tree medicine is very potent, very strong, and they're easy to identify. It's a lot easier to identify, what, 10 or 20 trees that have medicinal use than it is hundreds of little green things. I mean, and I don't think I've ever been anywhere I couldn't find an oak tree. I mean, seriously. Just about anywhere I can find an oak tree. Just about anywhere I can find a pine. And you don't really have to worry so much about contamination and such with trees because the roots are deeper. We're not really worried about is that tree on the edge of a highway or a golf course or something. And, you know, pine will stop bleeding and disinfect a wound better than just about anything. Oak will do the same. Oaks more astringent. It's really good to powder the bark and put it in a bleeding wound. It's fantastic. In fact, both of them are. You can use the pine pitch, the dried sap essentially of the pine tree, but the oak use oak bark from the limbs. There's so many and I've discussed so many of them. I mean, tulip poplar and dogwood have quinine type properties, good for fevers and viruses and willows have fever reducing and pain reducing properties. So do poplars, real poplars, not tulip poplars, so two different species, populous as opposed to, what was that one, lindiflora or something? I can't remember right off the top of my head. Wintergreen herb is hard to find. Birch twigs are not, and you can substitute birch twigs for wintergreen any day. But today we're going to talk about a really interesting plant that goes by many different names. I guess the most proper name is tilia. Yeah, that's the Latin name, T-I-L-I-A. You may know it as basswood in America, or if you're from Europe, you may know it as lime. Now, it's not lime as in the fruit, the citrus. Another popular name for it is linden. So you can call this one tilia, basswood, lime, or linden. We're talking about the same tree. But interestingly, this tree has somewhat different properties depending on where it grows. There's several varieties. Let me see how many. 13? Yeah, 13. There's some that only grow in Asia, like Japanese lime. There's American basswood, Carolina basswood. They're very different plants. Here, we tend to think, well, in the Carolinas, basswood, all of these are great for carving, by the way. Basswood or lime or linden or tilia, whatever you want to call it. One of the very best woods to carve and work with. Very sought after for that. But here in the Appalachians, it would be known as the bee tree. And that's because it comes out of the blossoms, the linden or lime blossoms, whatever you want to call them. And the bees just go crazy over it. You can find like an entire swarm of bees, minus the queen, I guess, just covering a linden tree. And the way you find them in the mountains is, They do have a unique smell, so if you're downwind, you can sniff the blossoms. But you listen, especially in the spring, early summer. You're listening for the humming of bees, and you just follow it right to it. And nine times out of ten, it's going to be about basswood. Occasionally, it will be a large holly tree, because holly trees also produce a lot of flowers that the bees really love, and flies as well. You'll find a lot of flies on a holly tree. Also, a really good wood for carving. Nowhere near as soft. Nowhere near as easy. But I carve a lot of stuff out of holly. It's an ivory white wood. It's not the showiest wood, but it's strong and flexible. So for one instance, I've got a client who particularly likes spoons. and actually like barbecue forks and such, carved out of holly. It's smooth. It's as strong, almost as metal. It's flexible. It's really good. It can be very hard to find one that grows straight and isn't real knotty. But when I do, he's like, okay, can you, and I came up with a special design for him just by chance. He said, I want a long spoon to stir my iced tea about six to seven inches long. And I came up with this very narrow, thin handle with a measured teaspoon at the end. And on the other end, the handle gets a little wider. And it's perfectly balanced right by the bowl of the spoon. You can just put it on the edge of your finger. And it just sits right there. He went crazy over it. It's got this sort of like swooped shape to the handle. He loved it. And people were always asking him about it. And so he, I mean, he's ordered, I don't even know how many more from me since that time. That was just like a one off. And he's like, I love this. Can you make me three more? Can you make me five more? Can you make me forks to match? Can you make me carve me a butter knife to match? I did that. Yeah. So anyway, very both. I'm very useful. Very, very useful trees. Let's get into the medicinal use. OK, so as I said, this is not limes. This is not the fruit. This is the linden or whatever you want to call it. Basswood in America usually. But in Europe, it's usually called lime or linden, and St. Hiligard von Bingen, writing about 1080, 1100, said a person who ails in his heart should take the interior branches of linden root and reduce it to a powder. He should eat this powder often with bread, and his heart will be better. In summer, place fresh leaves of linden over your eyes when you go to sleep and cover your whole face with them. This will clarify your eyes and make them clean. It actually does have some astringency and maybe some certain, I don't know, phytonutrients, something, and antioxidant qualities that can help with cataracts. So that's worth a try anyway. Let's see. She says, if you're vergichtiget, I love that word, vergichtiget. That is Old German, which can mean anything from bad arthritis to paralysis. Stoved up, as we used to call it in the South. She says you should take the earth which lies around the root of the linden and put it on the fire. Pour water over it when it's hot and bathe with it in a sauna. Do this for nine days and you'll be cured. I have no idea if, how, or why that works, but hey, it's worth a shot. If you've got severe muscle cramping, rheumatoid arthritis, go down the list of things that would put you in that condition. Why not go get some dirt from around the base of a linen tree and try using it in a sauna. Got nothing to lose. Who knows? I don't. There could be, I mean, certain trees have fungal relationships with the soil. There'll be certain, you know, fungi, mushrooms, you know, mycelium, whatever, it grows specifically in that relationship. I don't know, but it's worth a shot. Now, Father Nape, a German in the late 1800s, mentioned lime tree blossoms. It was Tilia grandifolia and parvifolia in his neck of the woods. He said, it is almost solely the elderly people of the old school who still gather the once so well-liked lime tree blossoms. They are quite right, and need only remain conservative with regard to their old custom. Lime blossom tea, together with elder blossom tea, are the best-known teas for producing perspiration. Concerning perspiration, as it is usually carried on, I have my own particular opinion, which is not at all in its favor. On the other hand, I willingly use the blossoms for the vapors which produce and supply the place of perspiration. Lime blossom tea has excellent effects on such complaints as old cough, obstructions of the lungs of windpipe, trouble of the abdomen which had their origins, and obstructions of phlegm in the kidneys. Lime tree blossoms, instead of lime tree blossoms, I use the St. John's wort with or without the admixture of common yarrow for kidney issues if he doesn't have lime tree on hand. And his protege, Brother Aloysius, writing about, gosh, I don't know, 30 years later, said, the blossom of the lime tree is used medicinally for dizziness, migraines, indigestion, chills, nervous complaints, The tea is highly recommended for old people in particular. The infusion contains an eighth to a fourth cup per two cups boiling water. So use an eighth to a fourth cup of the blossoms dried for two cups boiling water. Hot lime blossom baths are highly recommended for convulsions in children. Charcoal powder from lime wood is best for internal use. Use as activated charcoal. A cup of lime blossom tea in the evening with A half to a spoonful of honey is very depurative, strengthens the heart, is good for the nerves, and promotes sleep. And yes, we'll get a lot more into that in a little bit. In addition, lime tree tea is recommended for nervous complaints in general, also for hysteria. hypochondria, migraines, epilepsy, indigestion, colic coughs, chills, shivering, and to avoid strokes. It lowers blood pressure. So that's what he's talking about there. All right, looking to the English tradition. Let me get a sip of water here. 1500s Gerard wrote, Linden tree, well, he gives it all the names. And this is why it has so many different names. Apparently, in Greek, it was phy, let's see, phylyra, phylyra. Latin is tilia. That's the word we use. But in Dutch, it was linden or linden balm. It's interesting. Italian was tilia. Spanish, tila. French, tilette or tilou. And in England, linden or lime, so. We'll actually go back to the French spelling a little bit later. You'll find that interesting. So the bark and leaves of the linden-lime tree are of temperate heat and are somewhat drying and astringent. The leaves of tilia boiled in water with a piece of alum and a little honey cure the sores in children's mouths. Smith's water, he actually says. I'm not sure what Smith's water is. Oh, you know what I bet that is? Well, and there is something to this. So you know how a blacksmith will quench hot metal in water? It was believed that that water had some medicinal quality to it. And what it is, it's iron. That was an iron-rich water. So Smith's water is more than likely water that has iron in it. So a little alum and honey to cure sores in the children's mouths. It would also be purified, you know, by that heat. And water in the 1500s in England was not very healthy at all. Most people drank beer because the water would make you sick. So the leaves boil until they be tender and pounded very small with hog's grease, and the powder of fenugreek and linseed take away hot smellings, no, not smellings, hot swellings, obviously hot swellings, and bring impostumes to maturation. In other words, bring a boil to a head, being applied thereto very hot. The flowers are committed by diverse, diverse means various people, lots of people, against pain of the head, proceeding of a cold cause against dizziness and apoplexy. That's spasms. It can even be seizures, actually. And the falling sickness, which actually is epilepsy, by the way. And not only the flowers, but the distilled water thereof. Now, something serious, epilepsy, can have many causes. And I'm not going to say it's a cure for epilepsy, but Girard thought it helped in the 1500s. So think of it what you will. The leaves of the linen saith Theophrastus, are very sweet and be a fodder for most kind of cattle, and the fruit be eaten of none. Well, I guess the leaves of the linen tree are enjoyed by cows, but the fruit is not. So there we have it. Not sure why that was worth mentioning. All right, so Miss Greve in the 1930s wrote, in England, the tree would grow 130 feet tall. Yeah, they grow pretty big. She describes the petals and the sepals of flowers and all that. And she says, a linen tea is much used on the continent, especially in France, where stocks of dried lime flowers are kept in households for making tilleul. Okay. That's also known as tisane. You may have heard of tisane. We'll get back to that in a bit. The honey from the flowers is regarded as the best flavored and most valuable in the world and is used exclusively in medicine liquors. Very true to this day. Basswood honey is probably second only. Well, I'll say third. I'm going to say there are two that are actually better than basswood honey. the first being sourwood honey, real sourwood honey, which is almost impossible to find. Most of what you've seen sold as sourwood honey is honey cut with corn syrup to give it that pale color. Not the real stuff. If you've ever had the real stuff, you could not confuse the two. And the other one is gum, sweet gum, or Tupelo as they call it down in Mississippi. Phenomenal honey. It is like dark as dark molasses. It burns your throat. It's just like In my opinion, that's the best honey in the world. I mean, I love a clover honey, wildflower honey, honey from thyme and various other aromatic herbs. Absolutely. But that Tupelo honey, that gumtree honey. Oh, my word. My great grandfather made that. And it was just there's a biscuit with butter and some of that honey on it. There's nothing in this world that can compare to that. Nothing, and milk fresh from a cow with the cream floating on top. Non-homogenized, non-pasteurized. That is, that's pure ambrosia right there. I mean, there's nothing in the world that could beat with that. A little bit of country ham and, oh man, or some bacon. All right. So anyway, I'm so drooling right now. The wood is useful for small articles that do not require strength or durability. That's, that's true. It's great to carve with. It's not really strong enough to use for furniture or boards. But she mentions that a lot of the figures in St. Paul's Cathedral and Windsor Castle and Chatsworth were carved from lime wood. That's in England. Very light. Yes, it is. Great for making charcoal. Yeah, we've talked about that. Inner bark. Very useful. Strong and elastic. Useful for making cordage and netting. Really good for that. It's a great survival plant. The sap can be cooked down for syrup. You can do it just like maple syrup, and it's really nice, very sweet. Foliage eaten by cattle, she mentions. All right, so let's get into medicinal actions and uses. Lime flowers are only used in infusions or made into a distilled water as a household remedy's for hysteria, indigestion, nervous vomiting, palpitations. Prolonged baths prepared with the infused flowers is also good for hysteria. Now, as we mentioned before, hysteria originally was an inflammation around the lungs, more like what we might call pleurisy. But it also would cause, you know, breathlessness, agitation, and fainting. So over time, especially when women wear corsets, well-boned corsets, that would restrict their breathing. They get a little worked up and excited and they faint. And that became associated with what we now call PMS or premenstrual syndrome. So people don't like to use the word hysteria anymore, but there is actually a valid condition known as hysteria and it does have multiple causes. So let's see, in the Pyrenees, the flowers, the blossoms are used to soothe the temporary excitement caused by the waters. By the waters. I don't know. It said it was also useful to get spasms. Some doctors use the charcoal for gastric and dyspeptic disturbances and to put on burns and sores. Yeah, you know, you can use activated charcoal for a lot of things. The flowers used for making tisane. Oh, now this is interesting. We'll get back to this in a minute, too. If the flowers used for making tisane are too old, They may produce symptoms of narcotic intoxication. Try that. Let me try that again. I got choked. If the flowers... Boy, I need a sip of water. I hate it when that happens. You get that little tickle in your throat? Oh, boy. All right. So, if the flowers used for making tisane, that's the tea that was popular in France, are too old They may produce symptoms of narcotic intoxication. Very important, actually. Very important to point that out. And we'll talk about it a little bit more in a little bit. But let's stick with medicinal uses right now. So, basswood in South Carolina was researched by, well, I cannot remember the name of the author, the one who wrote Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests. Was it Porcher? I think his last name was Porcher. Okay. Anyway, he said, I find them quite useful, and as useful as the imported tillul from France, for quieting antispasmodic teas, which I have repeatedly seen prescribed in France, is particularly grateful and soothing to lying-in women. That would be PMS again. Quieting, nervous excitement, and pleasant to the taste. I would particularly recommend a larger use of these flowers in the southern states. It can be used wherever tea is required. I agree. I don't think I've ever met anyone in the South that makes basswood blossom or wind and blossom tea. People used to all the time. And of course, when Resources of Southern Fields and Forests was written, there was a blockade. The North would not let tea into the South. And so they were looking for tea plants. And yeah, that would be a real good one. Not stimulating, but relaxing. So 1898, King's Medical Dispensatory. King's American Dispensatory. There we go. under Actions, Medicinal Uses, and Dosages, says, European species is common domestic remedy in Europe for the relief of many nervous and cataral or congested disorders. The leaves, flowers, and buds are employed, and their properties may be regarded as stimulant, linted, tonic, and nervine. To me, I think of it as more as relaxant, but they think stimulant and tonic and nervine, so a combination of the two, really. The infusion is generally preferred and may be given to allay irritation and restlessness and to promote rest and sleep. So I don't think of that as a stimulant myself. I think the proper, I'll get into Latin terms. Anyway, Promoting rest and sleep. We'll go with sedative. The hot infusion is employed to check diarrhea and from various forms of cold and cataract conditions, whether either hot or cold. It may be used for restlessness, nervous headaches, painful and difficult digestion, and mild hysteria. The effect upon the nervous system can also be obtained from a bath prepared from its flowers and a strong tincture may be prepared from the flowers. And I think that would be very effective. So, Mule Gibbons, in the 1960s, decided to explore basswood. He did not have a lot of success. He said, the use of dried flowers of linden or basswood for tea making is widespread. The French enjoy a number of herbal tea sans that are made from linden blossoms. It's one of their favorites. Medicinally, it's reported to be calmative and restorative, being given as a home remedy for nervousness, hysteria, insomnia, and cramps. And that is true. All that's true. But the thing is, he didn't get a sedative effect from it, and it's because he used fresh blossoms. You may remember that one of the authors said that it had to be aged. All right, so Plants for Future said medicinal use of American basswood, a tea made from the inner bark, is applied to burns. It soothes and softens the skin. It is taken internally in the treatment of lung complaints, dysentery, heartburn, and weak stomach. The bark is diuretic and infusion has been taken to promote urination. The decoction of the bark is mixed with cornmeal and has been used as a pole to draw out boils. A tea made from the fresh or dried flowers is antispasmodic, diaphoretic, and sedative. It is used in the treatment of hypertension, hardening of the arteries, digestive complaints associated with anxiety, feverish colds, respiratory cataract, migraine, etc. Lime flowers are said to develop narcotic properties as they age. and so they should only be harvested when freshly opened. An infusion of the leaves has been used as an eyewash. A poultice of the leaves has been used as the treatment of burns and scalds. Broken bones and swollen areas, a tear tincture made from the leaves, flowers, and buds has traditionally been used for nervous headaches. Restlessness and painful digestion, used with caution. See notes about toxicity. A decoction of the roots and barks has been used as the treatment of internal hemorrhage. Decoction of the roots has been used as a vermifuge to rid the body of worms. Carolina basswood, used the same way. White basswood, used the same way. Yeah, also used for heartburn during pregnancy. So that's a use they didn't say for anything else. Also good for weak stomach and bowels. Rodale Herb Book from the early 70s says, Linden flowers and leaves are an old household remedy for nervousness, colds, headaches, and indigestion. A hot infusion is used to check diarrhea. Also uses a hot bath to promote sleep. Linden flower wine uses stimulant for appetite and to aid digestion. It's the only mention I found of linden flower wine. So that's interesting. I need to explore that. Peterson Field Guide says American Indians use inner bark tea for lung ailments, heartburn, weak stomach, bark, poultice, straw, boils, leaves, flowers, tea, leaf, flower, or bud tea. Or tincture, traditionally used for nervous headaches, restlessness, painful digestion. Frequent consumption of flower tea may cause heart damage. Now, that's the only warning I've found on this. And, I mean, it's such a common tea in Europe, I would kind of doubt that. But, you know, who knows. So, like I said, a lot of the information on this herb is a bit puzzling. It seems, Michael Moore did a study of this, not the fat filmmaker, the deceased herbalist, did a study on it. And he found that it really depended on the variety and where it grows. He found that the European variety had more of a sedative effect, and so did the Mexican variety. In fact, the Mexican variety, he said, was almost as strong as, like, cannabis was. I don't know. Now, it could be, was he using old flowers? He said it basically knocked him out on a flight home from Mexico. And he was a heavy, heavy drug user, very, very heavy drug user, cocaine and all kinds of stuff. So, I mean, if he says that the flower tea from Mexico is that strong, maybe it is. I don't have any idea. As I said, Yule Givens found like no effect whatsoever. Was it a matter of the flowers were aged? Perhaps there's a fermentation process that goes on as the flowers, you know, kind of age and dry. I don't know. The herbalist Susan Weed said that linden blossoms have a stronger relaxing and anti-inflammatory effect on people of Anglo-Saxon heritage. Now, does that make a difference? I don't know. I can tell you my friend in Austria who co-wrote the Herbs and Weeds of Father Johann Kunzel with me. She uses it as a relaxing tea. She considers it merely a pleasant tea. Michael Moore, obviously of English heritage. Did that knock him down because he has a genetic predisposition to being somewhat intoxicated by linden blossoms? I have no idea. Was it the variety in the place? Was it the way they were aged and stored? Again, no idea. The tree is so beneficial for so many reasons. from practical uses to medicinal, uh, which is also practical. I mean, for like, you know, making cordage or carving stuff to medicinal or it is as for, uh, nectar for bees, definitely worth getting a couple of these grown in your yard. Any piece of property you have, you should have a basswood, a linden, whatever on it. And then I guess you're just going to have to experiment. Um, You know, I do have some Anglo-Saxon heritage. Most things don't affect me very much, though. I don't know if that's a genetic thing or it's just my constitution. But, you know, even when my back was injured and I was taking strong pain medication, a dose for a normal person was like nothing to me. I mean, the dose would have to be tripled just to dull the pain at all. And, of course, that was dangerous, and that's why I couldn't take pain meds. I have no idea. People are different. They react to things in very different ways. You know, again, I just have a strong constitution. For me, a couple of drinks has no effect whatsoever. Another person, it may knock them out. I don't know. It just seemed odd that it affected Michael Moore so strongly because he was such a heavy drug user. You would think if, I mean, we're talking cocaine and heroin and amphetamines like crazy. I mean, he loved, you know, hardcore, hard drugs, and had a lot of access to them. Destroyed his kidneys, burned them out, probably on methamphetamine. You know how that goes. It just seemed so strange to me that he was so affected by it, whereas Jule Gibbons, who probably fairly similar heritage, similar build, Didn't have any effect at all. And I don't know if it's because it was a different, you know, one was growing in America and the other one in Mexico. Was it a matter of the way the flowers were aged? Or was it just simply a matter of the genetics of the man? I have no idea. But definitely worth looking into and certainly a good tree to know. All right, y'all. Have a great week. And I'll try not to be so hoarse next week. I wasn't until that little coughing fit, and now I can't seem to shake it. Anyway, I will talk to you next time. The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not a doctor. The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine, and there is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs. I'm not offering any advice. 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 in herbs help 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 no two are identical. 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. 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.