Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Medicinal Trees, Chestnut

[00:00:00] Hey y'all, welcome this week's show. Oh, I'm back. Yeah, I missed one last week. Dang

[00:00:08] pear trees. We have Bradford pears in this region like crazy. Just useless. Well, they're

[00:00:17] not useless. I mean, they're ornamental pear trees mainly for their beautiful white

[00:00:20] flowers in the spring. Those beautiful white flowers give me horrible allergies. And last

[00:00:27] week I sounded about like Fred Sanford. So I have to not do a show. They're actually

[00:00:33] useful. The fruits are edible, although, well, it's hard to get them ripe, you know,

[00:00:39] basically there by the time you would get a ripe one, those tiny little pears, they're

[00:00:44] about half rotten so they're not that great but also even though the tiny little pears

[00:00:50] they had the same amount of arsenic in them as the seeds of a big pear. So if you were

[00:00:56] eat a handful of them, you could actually get pretty sick. So people don't really use

[00:01:00] them and the wood is nice for carving. It's hard. It's very hard. Some of the first wood

[00:01:06] I tried to carve was pear wood. And it's green form, it's usable and when it's good

[00:01:12] and cured and dry, man that stuff is like almost as hard as dogwood so but yeah, it's

[00:01:18] not a useless tree but it's not the most useful tree. In fact, staying in North Carolina

[00:01:23] wants to basically eradicate them. They've asked people not to plant them anymore and

[00:01:30] to cut down any that they can but it's too late. There are millions of millions of

[00:01:36] them and they stink as well. They really smell bad in the spring. So anyway, let's get

[00:01:43] into a more useful tree and this is actually one that, wow the mountains where I live.

[00:01:53] The entire timber industry was founded on this tree and it was the chestnut. The American

[00:02:00] chestnuts were once, I mean almost as big around as redwoods. I mean they're just huge

[00:02:05] they were and then a blight nearly wiped them out in the last century or so. And according

[00:02:15] to legend here in the Appalachian Mountains, the blight was not a mere coincidence. Chestnuts

[00:02:21] had been enjoyed as survival food in the mountains. The chestnut is really unique. It's

[00:02:29] really more like a potato than a nut. Full of starch, you roast them and I mean people

[00:02:37] literally survived off of chestnuts and yes, the country was free and open and by the early

[00:02:46] 1900s people were starting to fence things off and put up no trespassing signs. And according

[00:02:52] to the local legend, the old timer said that because God had blessed the people with the chestnut

[00:02:59] tree and the people had decided to prevent not share it with others. Be greedy about it. He wiped

[00:03:07] out the trees. Yeah, I don't know maybe. You know what? I actually wouldn't doubt it but the

[00:03:15] blight was really devastating. Whether it's a punishment from God for misusing his abundant and

[00:03:22] free gifts or it was just a blight, that was probably introduced from another country when they

[00:03:28] started shipping plants across the seas and such. Who knows? But it really wiped out the American

[00:03:35] chestnut. Every now and then you'll see a chestnut grow up just you know maybe 10 feet tall

[00:03:40] and then it just dies. The blight is still here. Fortunately they have chestnuts in Europe and Asia

[00:03:48] and they have hybridized specifically the Asian chestnut with the American chestnut and it is

[00:03:57] blight resistant. So for the past 20 years or so people have been reintroducing this hybridized

[00:04:05] American chestnut. The hope is that the native chestnut will further breed with this hybridized chestnut

[00:04:14] or that this hybridized chestnut will become naturalized and that we will once again have abundant chestnut

[00:04:20] trees. We're probably a century away from that if it's even possible. Chestnut wood is gorgeous. I

[00:04:28] mean most of so much of our furniture and such in early America came from chestnut. As I said

[00:04:35] absolute essential food. I mean everybody knows Nat King Coles and Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

[00:04:41] you know it was like synonymous with the Americas. It was just a beautiful tree and the wormy chestnut

[00:04:52] even after the trees were dead was a huge industry here in the mountains. I'd say probably

[00:04:58] until about 1960. Just going on and finding these dead, wormy and festive chestnut trees which as I

[00:05:04] said were huge and cutting them into planks and making you know beautiful furniture or paneling

[00:05:11] as much use for paneling and yeah I mean I really hope it comes back but we'll get into the medicinal

[00:05:18] use of this tree here in just a second. I mean that is sort of the purpose of this show but you know

[00:05:23] I'd really like to encourage you if you have a little land to get one of those hybrid chestnut trees

[00:05:28] and plant it. The more of us who do that the faster things will turn around if they're going to turn

[00:05:35] around and really interesting the American chestnut really that didn't die out is what we call the

[00:05:43] chinkapin. Now the chinkapins are much smaller trees really more like a shrub and it has a small

[00:05:51] chestnut that is edible and I'm going to tell you a story and you all going to think I'm crazy.

[00:05:55] Okay but it's just that the God's honest truth. A couple of years ago I spotted an old homestead on

[00:06:05] over 100 acres in South Carolina. Old cotton country you know economically depressed the land was

[00:06:13] like a thousand dollars an acre you know so I mean it's like big old land a building house and land

[00:06:19] that cheap I had to go check it out. Well it was a bit of a drive. I was helping out my mother at

[00:06:30] the time and I said you want to come along with me and she said sure she got the car put my dog

[00:06:35] buddy in the backseat and we drove down to an area in the old cotton country of South Carolina and

[00:06:43] the farmhouse was actually in the center of about 200 acres of cotton fields now. I actually have a

[00:06:49] strong toxic reaction to cotton poison so that really ruled out the property for me. What happened

[00:06:56] while I was there did not surprisingly enough I'm a little odd in that regard but you know cotton

[00:07:03] poison gives me like flu-like symptoms so I got out of start walking around and I thought I smell

[00:07:08] cotton poison. It smells musky it kind of smells musky but immediately I was like yeah I hate

[00:07:17] it because this is going to work because this would be paradise. It's like exactly where I'm going

[00:07:22] to live all my life. I started walking around this beautiful white house you know and there were

[00:07:28] all the old landscaping that was still in place from the 1800s or roses sharing bushes big magnolio

[00:07:35] trees, pecan trees, chameleon bushes you know love that. Daffodils and irises were coming up. It

[00:07:42] was spring there were roses and duckas and crab apples and pears and several of those beautiful

[00:07:48] chinkupin trees and I mean they were really nice and really in good shape and I mean I was getting

[00:07:53] sighted and you know my mom and I had stayed in the car with the dog and such as she she

[00:08:00] she has yells out we have to go. I mean Adam right and I'm just enjoying the flowers in the spring

[00:08:07] sunshine and I mean really felt peaceful and welcoming. I mean I would just sat down and stayed

[00:08:12] for hours and you know I knew the cultural chemicals weren't going to let me do it but I was really

[00:08:20] trying to make it work and so I went over and I asked her why and she just like yells at me this

[00:08:24] place is haunted. I'm not kidding okay let me tell you my mom has a master's degree in psychology

[00:08:31] she's a very serious intelligent professional person not given a superstition at all

[00:08:36] but she says to me this place is haunted. She says I can hear two elderly sisters at the upstairs

[00:08:42] window talking and they're talking about how they're excited to have guests for dinner. Now this

[00:08:46] place had been sitting empty for like 50 years I'm serious. Whoever owned the family kept it up

[00:08:54] nothing structurally wrong with it but I mean you could look at the old electrical wiring going

[00:08:59] into this house and then no you know they had never had internet in there they had never had cable

[00:09:04] television. I mean this place had been sitting empty for decades and she could literally hear

[00:09:11] ghosts and you know I got in the car and said because buddy was freaking out my dog I mean he

[00:09:19] was like freaked out so something was definitely freaking the two of them out and you know I'm

[00:09:26] pretty practical guy I do believe in the supernatural I have no doubt that there was something going

[00:09:32] on there but whenever I think about sheenka pins I absolutely remember that beautiful plantation house

[00:09:43] it was near Florence, South Carolina somewhere between Florence and Dylan and like

[00:09:49] Lauren Berg North Carolina the old cotton country and you know I mean I always say I'm like the only

[00:09:56] herbalist who doesn't see fairies or have two-way conversations with plants but honestly I did feel

[00:10:03] like yeah a welcome there. I felt like I was a guest at somebody's home it was really odd and

[00:10:11] I said I mean I told her it was a drove away I said I don't doubt you at all but it's a shame

[00:10:16] because those two old ladies must have been great gardeners you know to have such a beautiful

[00:10:22] ground especially in a house and nobody's lived in for like 70 years all I could feel they were

[00:10:28] still taking care of it so we probably would have gotten along just fine and I know you all think

[00:10:33] I'm crazy but I mean the dog was freaked out I mean hair standing on end like barking and snapping at

[00:10:41] everything my mom was freaked out and I'm just like you know now I'd like sit down have a

[00:10:48] have a glass of tea with these ladies you know it just felt perfectly comfortable for me but

[00:10:52] anyway we'll talk about the medicinal properties of the tree like I said aside from being very

[00:11:02] nutritious starching nut that really is more like a potato and flavor like a little sweetness

[00:11:09] beautiful wood for carving paneling cabinets furniture it does have medicinal value the American

[00:11:16] chestnut was used to the lungs and as both in a expectorate and a stringent this was taken

[00:11:23] as a tea made from the leaves the Chinese chestnut has been used to settle the stomach and a treat

[00:11:28] diarrhea call pepper and 1600 England mentioned the astringency of the chestnut and its use

[00:11:36] against bleeding misgrieve wrote of its folk use in treating fevers and spasmodics cough

[00:11:42] but you know centuries before that ancient Greece de-escorities praise the astringency of the chestnut

[00:11:51] so that's its main function and Irish herbal says they are good for chest problems and for

[00:11:59] arresting the bowels that means for congestion coughs and for diarrhea a pace made for them is

[00:12:04] good against coughing and spitting of blood father Johann Kunzul this is in the German tradition

[00:12:10] wrote of chestnut higher up there was a tall actually Kunzul Swiss this is in the Swiss tradition

[00:12:17] so let me correct that but it's actually German folk medicine so that's the overarching term

[00:12:23] higher up there was a tall old chestnut tree with fruits covered in prickly pods so he's talking

[00:12:28] about the fruit fruits the lap lander that was his guest I guess what is that Norwegian

[00:12:35] was besigned himself a surprise when the dain opened up the shell and showed him the fruit that's

[00:12:41] the nut he said this tree provides food for millions of people because these fruits are extremely

[00:12:47] nutritious but why are there spikes all around he asks well without this protection the birds

[00:12:52] and squirrels and insects would eat everything up the almighty creator added this protective skin

[00:12:58] when the fruit is ripe it falls to the ground the protective cover pops so we can collect it

[00:13:03] in the south that is in the south of Switzerland I guess they have even much taller trees

[00:13:10] near the fire spitting mountain of Etna there is a chestnut tree under which 200 riders and

[00:13:15] their horses have enough space that's how massive chestnuts can actually become I mean imagine

[00:13:21] a tree being out that 200 people on horseback could crowd under it I guess for shelter I mean

[00:13:29] these were I mean this talk is Switzerland but in eastern North Carolina every now and then you see

[00:13:36] in like Pizcan National Forest or something a stump of an ancient chestnut and it's like

[00:13:42] holy cow I mean these things were huge one I mean one tree was playing a timber to build a whole house

[00:13:51] I mean without the chestnut I don't know that much of America would have ever even been settled

[00:13:59] it provided food firewood lumber you name it and even medicine and you know let's see what we can

[00:14:11] do to bring it back I mean like I said if you have a little garden space if you have a little space

[00:14:15] in the corner of your yard or whatever one of those hybrid chestnut trees let's see if we can get

[00:14:21] these things going they will for survival but for future generations probably one of the best

[00:14:28] things you can ever do my friend Herbless from Austria Jalantowitub said with a southern part of

[00:14:36] Trioly no it's Tyrol sorry Tyrol is proud of the sweet chestnut Castanayas Sativa they have

[00:14:44] beautiful delicious seeds which ones can use in so many ways every autumn there's a kind of

[00:14:49] gourmet festival called well I don't speak Austrian so I'm not even gonna try it since see

[00:14:55] no I'm not gonna try it it's tea and that O with the dots over it R G G E L E N you drink wine

[00:15:06] and eat roasted sweet chestnuts together with other specialties of the region like ham and cheese

[00:15:11] and bacon many converges that it is very popular and roasted chestnuts are so delicious and

[00:15:18] pigs fed on chestnuts are said to produce the best ham and bacon in the world

[00:15:24] so another reason to plant at least some cheeky pins or something if you raise hogs because you

[00:15:30] can demand a much higher price for your pork resources of the southern fields and forests written

[00:15:38] in the 1860s says the fruit of the tree and the chinkapin so the chestnut that was Castanayas Vesaka

[00:15:47] that's our native and the chinkapin which is a smaller like shrubbier version I was telling you

[00:15:52] about are well-known either eaten raw or boiled the roots contain an astringent principle that

[00:15:58] of the chinkapin boiled in milk is much used in the diarrhea of teething children

[00:16:06] I would advise a tea made of this to be used extremely in diarrhea by soldiers in camp

[00:16:12] this was written for the confederate army you know so they had dysentery killed more soldiers than

[00:16:18] bullets the late doctor Nelson Burgess of Sumpter South Carolina informed me at the recommendation

[00:16:27] of dr. Jones that he is used to the collection of the root and bark of chinkapin frequently as a

[00:16:32] substitute for quinine and intermediate intermittent and remittant fever so this would be good for

[00:16:38] certain viruses like covid and such potentially perhaps and malaria was actually what he was

[00:16:45] talking about right there with decidedly satisfactory results I mentioned this hoping that it

[00:16:50] would be examined by others I can have no clue to the reasons of its utility regarding it here

[00:16:56] to force simply as an astringent but hot water poured over the root and bark in a large quantity taken

[00:17:03] for 24 hours reports doctor unzikr since an adi who uses a coxue of the leaves is useful in

[00:17:14] the whipping cough he says he's given it in about 30 cases in all of which it gave decided relief

[00:17:21] in two weeks he uses the decoction made with three or four dracams as an old pharmacist's

[00:17:27] measurement I don't know what the equivalent is honestly but I don't think it's when you

[00:17:35] got to be so specific with really I mean you're talking to coxue you just take the dry plant material

[00:17:41] and boil it in water until it's reduced by half but he said it was much used in this disease

[00:17:47] and in asthma so whipping cough and asthma and also used found very useful in the Boston medical

[00:17:56] school at the time King's Medical Facilitary 1898 says Chestnut leaves appear to have been

[00:18:04] brought into notice as a therapeutic agent by mr. GC close in a statement before the American

[00:18:11] Pharmaceutical Association 1862 subsequently they were employed by the late dr. J.S. Unzikr since an

[00:18:18] adi I think we just mentioned him didn't he who valued them highly in the treatment of whipping

[00:18:23] since which most favorable or favorable reports have been made by other physicians as to their

[00:18:29] value these leaves have thus far been employed mainly in the treatment of pertussis in which

[00:18:36] malady in which malady they have proved remarkably efficient but their manner of action has not yet

[00:18:43] been determined it is very probable that they may be found useful in other irritable or excitable

[00:18:51] conditions of the respiratory nerves so they thought it had an anti-spasmotic effect on the

[00:18:57] respiratory system dr. Unzikr employed an infusion of the leaves and out to a pint of boiling water

[00:19:06] and it administered this in a tablespoonful sit there do we go I don't know exactly what a

[00:19:11] dracom is but here's just a teammate of the leaves and out to a point an out to a pint

[00:19:18] of boiling water and it administered it in a tablespoon or small wine glassful doses so like

[00:19:25] a little cordial glass is what they're talking like a sherry glass essentially.

[00:19:31] Repeatedly several times a day so they were using it often the fluid extract when properly made

[00:19:37] will be found reliable chestnut bark appears to possess stringent and tonic properties

[00:19:44] and is used in some sections of our country as a popular remedy for fever and argue that's a

[00:19:49] malarrow fever. Other forms of perroxamol means essentially spasmotic it can be

[00:20:05] it was often used to describe epileptic seizures but it's any spasming of a muscle or especially

[00:20:12] in this case we're talking the lungs so anti spasmotic for the lungs or convulsive cough so you know

[00:20:19] same thing resembling pertussis have been cured with it. Professor Scutter in a medical journal

[00:20:26] at the time suggested trial remedy in cases exhibiting unstainess of gait and a disposition

[00:20:32] to turn to one side that's interesting so someone was wobbly when they walked essentially and

[00:20:40] were kind of leaning to one side so maybe there was a little I don't know vertigo or something.

[00:20:46] You know I don't know um that's you know you can see that chestnut much used in European

[00:20:55] folk medicine much used in early American official medicine you know a doctor would have been

[00:21:02] making these prescriptions we don't know a lot about it anymore because the tree has gone

[00:21:08] essentially extinct. Anything we can do to bring this tree back is going to be an absolute gift

[00:21:16] to our grandchildren um I think it uh we should absolutely prioritize planting chestnuts but

[00:21:25] uh they're also gonna bear fruit in our life I mean you know if you've got 20 years left on your time

[00:21:33] clock you'll be able to eat some chestnuts and they're really really good they're really really good

[00:21:41] mainly I've had the chinkapins um occasionally you know you get some imported chestnuts from

[00:21:48] Europe or Asia and uh they used to be such a part of our American tradition it's just you know you

[00:21:55] cannot imagine how essential this tree was to our ancestors there would literally probably not be

[00:22:03] people um uh well living in the Appalachia mountains until much later but

[00:22:09] in America may not have even made it as a nation without the chestnut I mean those chestnuts were

[00:22:16] so essential for food to our ancestor our ancestors I mean before they really started growing potatoes

[00:22:24] and such that was the starch and um I mean you can tell by the legends how important it was to

[00:22:31] the Appalachian people and um you know whether you believe me or not about the uh potential ghost

[00:22:39] sighting in South Carolina I can tell you it is just a really pleasant whether it's a small

[00:22:46] chinkapin or a giant chestnut tree it's just a really pleasant part of the landscape and of

[00:22:53] course this medicinal as well and I mean if you ever if you'd ever been um in in the alligator

[00:23:03] the pizgair or one of those old forests and stumbled across an old chestnut stump

[00:23:11] you could then understand what our ancestors saw in those trees I mean one tree

[00:23:19] provided enough timber at least for one house probably from multiple houses plus wagons and

[00:23:26] you know everything they needed they were just huge and they have a nice fragrance as well

[00:23:33] anyway y'all have a good one and uh now that the pear pollen is starting to die down uh god

[00:23:39] wake i'll talk to you next time the information this podcast is non intended to diagnose your

[00:23:46] treatine disease or condition nothing I say or right has been evaluated or approved by the FDA

[00:23:52] I'm not a doctor the US government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and there

[00:23:58] is no governing body regularly herbalist therefore I'm really just a guy who says herb or so I'm

[00:24:03] not offering any advice I don't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true

[00:24:08] I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for I can tell you my own experience and

[00:24:12] if I believe an herb is help me I cannot nor would I tell you to say if you use an herb anyone

[00:24:18] recommends you are treating yourself you take full responsibility for your health humans are

[00:24:24] individuals and no two are identical what works for me may not work for you you may have

[00:24:29] an allergy a sensitivity an underlying condition then no one else human shares and you don't even know

[00:24:35] be careful with your health by continuing to list my podcast or read my blog you'd

[00:24:40] agree to be responsible for yourself do your own research make her own choices and not to blame me

[00:24:45] for anything ever