Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Monarda or Bee Balm

Hey, y'all, welcome to this week's show. As promised, this time we're going to talk about manarta. This is one of my absolute favorite herbs. It is probably my favorite wildflower. Really grows abundantly in the mountains where I live, where it's called bee bomb. It's also known as bergamot, but that gets pretty confusing because bergamont, like you might have seen in you know, Celestial Seasons tea or something you get from the grocery store, that is not the same plant at all. That's actually a citrus. So it's best to call it manarta, even though most people don't. But it's one of those things that you know, you can make sure you're talking about the right plant. It's a particularly large member of the mint family, these flowers, at least where I live in the Appalachian Mountains. I got a little hatch right outside my door where everything just kind of self seeds all over. You know. It's I mean, turk's cap lily, solomon seal, wild carrots, wild hadrangia, periwinkles, ferns, hostas, all kinds of stuff. But the bee bomb is just really pretty in there, and in my area it grows red. It grows about a foot foot and a half tall, with a nice big flower, almost like a big acanasia flower, but with a medusa hairstyle. I mean, it's just really bizarre looking flower, and the hummingbirds absolutely love it. That is like the hummingbird's favorite flower. So in spring summertime, you know, I'll sit on the porch and write or do whatever, carved wood, play guitar, whatever I'm doing, and just sit and watch the humming bees come buzzing in and out of the flowers, and it's really pretty nice. Actually, there are several varieties of manarta. It's also called Oswego tea. No, there's another name for it, Oswego tea. But there's seven varieties with specifically documented use in herbal medicine. That's Manarta citriodor. Citriodora means it smells like citrus, and that's called lemon Bergamot manarda. I'm not even gonna get into all these Latin names. We'll just go with white basil balm. Menarda denima is actually Burgamot family, so that was kind of hard. Minerta ficillosa is wild burgham mutt. Manarda meant the folia that's mint leafed burgament. Also uh ficios menfolia, menarda motors go with plains lemon, manarta and horsemant, and uh horsemant to me looks a little different. It also grows pretty commonly where I live. The main differences in the color of the flowers of these, Like I said, the one that usually grows near me is red. There's another one that grows in the area that's purple, a very light lavender purple, very pretty as well. And then there's one that's actually kind of spotted, which was thought to have some really interesting medicinal properties that we'll get into. So interestingly, although this herb was known to Europeans, there's very scamp mention of it in historic European herbalism. I find no mention of it's used some of the Greeks or Romans, or even in monastic medicine. In fact, the only way I know that Manarda was used in simple Europe is mentioned by Sophia Hederick's nam that in times of scarcity, beebaum was a popular tea substitute in Poland. So it was growing wild in Poland, and it was considered to be a substitute for tea, and she describes as growing wild on the edges of meadows and roadsides. Now as the first reference I find a manarda in British herbal medicine is from maud Greeve in nineteen thirty one, and she did consider it an American herb. And that's where I find most information about this plant or this well, yeah, this variety of mint. She said that so far, Manarta punk tata is considered the only plant indigenous to North America which can be looked upon as a fruitful source of time all, although another American swamp plant closely allied to it, Manarta didima. The scarlet Manarta is selled to yield an oil of similar composition, though not to the same degree. Now, time all is a volatile oil in the mint family, most prevalent in time of course, where it gets its name from. And it's very and it has any septic qualities. It's also very strong, very harsh when it's in its essential oil form. She describes the plant, and she says it's become by nineteen thirties become a favorite garden flower in England and growing to about two feet tall with the big pretty flowers and all that, And she said, the whole plant is strongly impregnated with a delightful fragrance. Even after the darkly covered leaves have died away, the surface rootlets give up the pleasant smell by which the plant has earned its name, Bergamot, being reminiscent of the aroma of the bergamot orange. So that's how I got that name. In America, it is known as Oswego tea because infusion of its young leaves used to form a common beverage in many parts of the United States. It is also sometimes called bee bombs, as bees are fond of its blossoms, which secret much nectar. She said, delights in moist light soil. Well, I have moist heavy soil, so it does just find here as well, and does find in partial shades, so long as it gets morning sun and roots in the same manner as other mints can be propagated from cuttings. It's one nice thing about it. Definitely, if you see one that's particularly pretty, and get a paper towel or a cloth and just soaking in water and do a well cut the stem cut it Usually it's best to cut an angle like kind of you know, in an angle into a point almost on one side, and then wrap it up in that the stem I mean in the wet cloth, keep it in the shade when you get home, put it in damp soil, and oftentimes it will root. I've successfully transplanted several mint family members that way. Minarta had wide medicial use, was considered a tea substitute among several Native American tribes in early America. By far among the native herbal traditions, I've sayed, the Muscogee seemed to have placed the most emphasis on Minarta. Tismel Crow tells us and he's a self described medicine man of the Muscogee tribe. Sweet leaf or burnament minarta is one of the seven Muscogee seven, is one of them Muscogee than sacred medicines, as with all other sacred plants that we would discussed, it seems to be almost a panacea or cule because it will fix so many problems. Sweet leaf is an excellent example of the doctrine's signatures. The Latin name of wild bergament is Minarda fistulosa. Fisculosa refers to the little tubes or fistulas in the flower. The doctor to signatures tells us that this plant has to do with diseases of the tubes, but here it is more specific to the ear. Another signature of the plant is the color purple. Things that are colored purple have to do with nerves, passions, and the heart or human spirit. In this case, it tells us that it's a nerve tonic. Now, doctrine's signatures is very controversial in herbal medicine. For centuries millennia, it was believed in European and Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, etc. Herbal medicine that when God made the plants, he gave us a clue as to what they would be used for. If it's yellow, it's going to be good for the liver. You know. That's a very classic doctrine of signatures. By certainly by the fifteen hundreds, so now maybe sixteen hundred somewhere in that era that range, but definitely by the eighteen hundreds, people had decided, no, they were too educated for that. That was ridiculous superstition, and they stopped teaching it in medical schools. And you've got to remember, before nineteen twenty, almost all medicines were made from plants, So learning about herbs was very much a part of what you would learn in pharmacy or medical school, and they said that was just old fashioned superstition that had no validity whatsoever. In recent years, herbalists have become more comfortable with it again because in many ways it's just undeniable. I mean, there are certain characteristics you can look at a plant and tell what it's going to be good for. In some Native American tribes they had a very similar idea about the doctor's signatures, even though there was no interaction whatsoever between North America and Central Europe. So I mean when I run into something like that, I tend to think that, yeah, there's probably some validity to it. If peoples on the other side of the world from each other came up with the same concept, it's just me, you know, take it with a grain of salt. If you want to believe it, believe it. I do think there is some definitely some validity in the doctor's signatures. But anywaytismal crowlis minorta as useful for burns, lung infections, tuberculosis, bird sickness. It's a viral infection you can get from birds by the way. I mean, some people, you know, they get that virus from the chickens, that's what he's talking about. For rashes, dermatitis, stings, bites, nerve suppression, anxiety, insomnia, hyperactivity to calm, anger or violence. And this is an interesting Native American concept, corpse sickness. That's depression caused by being around death. You know, we would just probably call that grief. But anyway, it was good useful for that severed or damaged nerves, burns, sunburns, fevers, hypothermia, frostbite, digestion for both the upper and lower digestive tract, the urinary tract, blood infections, syphilis, ganrhea, relaxing and soothing sore muscles. Appendicitis used in love potions, in teas, for sipping and smoking mixtures, smudges for sore throat, upper represpiratory infections, and as an expectorant. Also used in soaps, et cetera. So yes basically a panacea. Interestingly, that essential oil from the minarta. It does have a hot quality to it, and with like the burns and sunburns, they actually had this idea of like putting on something hot draws out the heat. Probably not the way I'd want to go. But hey, I mean, you know, if it works for them. Plants for the Cherokee. Oh, and that for severed and damaged nerves is a very interesting concept. I'm not that's something that needs to be studied and looked into. Saint John's work can have some similar properties. I think birch, I think it's the tree that has some properties. These are really needs to be a lot more investigated. Usually it's used internally as well as topically in the oils. But anyway, Plants for a Cherokee. Plants of the Cherokee lists the traditional use of Manarda as under horsemant a poultice of the plant is used for headaches, and one of the people interviewed said, when I was a boy, it was gathered in large bundles to hang up and it was used for colts. Manarda did him to stop a nosebleed. Sniff and infusion made of crushed leaves, or to stop a nosebleed, damp in the head with a drink and I'll dampen the head with and drink a cold root infusion of Manarda. Hot leaf tea brought out the measles when everything else failed. Like all the mints, it has at a father fuge ability to break a fever. This one's also strong enough it'll actually bring out the measles rash, bring it to a head. For manarda fisgilosa a warm poultice, will we leave a headache? Now? Herbal remedies of the Lumbey Indians is a really interesting Native American herbal And I don't say that just because I grew up around the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina and have several relatives in the tribe, but because the Lumbie people were a mixture of the remnants of several tribes that called the area of the Lumber River Walk, the mall P River, et cetera, and surrounding swamps home from basically like where the Chikora are centered in Georgetown, South Carolina, well up into the Chesapeake area of Virginia and pretty much you know, everything in between. And they even have some relationship further north with like the Mohawks and such. But they were a mix of Katawban tribes. Katawba tribes were always at work with the Cherokee, so their influences like from the coast to about the center of North Carolina. The Cherokee had their territory from that point west. So it's you know, a big collection, the walk, the malls, the haillea sapony, the well, the Chequor's. There was a tribe called the Redbone, but they're two called the Red Bones. That get a little confusing, various Catawbin tribes. They're a mixture of I'm trying to say. It seems that, you know, the first colony in North America, the first English colony. Of course, the Spanish have been here before. The first English colony was the lost colony of it Roanoke, Virginia, and the descendants, you know, they disappeared. They came back, They found the letter Crow carved into a board, and everybody nobody knew what happened to them. They didn't find their bones or anything right, didn't know if they had starved death, didn't know if they had been taken captured by a tribe or what. It seems that the Lumbee tribe is includes the descendants of the Lost colony. You have names like Jacobs and Hunt and Lowry as the most popular Lumbee names. So they're all English last names for people with you know, reddish brown skin and black hair. Interestingly, very often they'll have red hair and green ice. So there's definitely you know, some English or Irish at least blood in there. And the Lumbee often took in escaped slaves. Uh No, there were Lumbies who were slave owners as well, so don't you know, don't get that wrong. The wealthier Lumbies had grand homes and plantations just like the white folks in the area. But a lot of times there was a lot of mixing with African as well. So in the Lumbie tradition you can find the herbal traditions of several Native American tribes and some European and some African. So I really recommend if you can get a copy of Verbal Remedies of the Lumbey Indians. I think you have to order it from University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Really good, good book, really good book actually, and I actually knew some of the people that are quoted in there, the you know, the healers and medicine men and women and all that. So anyway, the where did I leave off? So Narda punk Tata is the one they used dunder the name of horsemant, and they said the principal use of horsemant was external and in its pure state, was thought to be a vesicant that means rends the skin and brings up the veins. And you remember when I said, it's got a real hot quality to it. For some reason, as I said, the muscogee actually used that for burns. And it seems to me you'd want to do the opposite, But I don't know, I've never tried it. It's actually a blistering agent. I mean, the oil of this menarta can be so strong or blister the skin. Said Lumbe healers were careful to dilute horsemant with water, soap, liniment, or olive oil. In later times, however, some Lumbee also viewed horse mint as an expectant, a minagogue, and diuretic to treat urinary orders disorders. Horsemant or oswego tea was applied as a solve to treat backache and chronic rheumatism. Or leaf phole was manufactured for the treatment of headache and cold. A leaf top tea was used by the Lumbees treat wheat bowels and stomach. Lumbee also used is oswego to treat female obstructions, some minstrel issues delayed min ses were talking about that kind of thing. Some Lumbee healers suggested a tea of the leaves and roots to be wiped on the head in case of nosebleed. Occasionally a healer would use a hot leaf tea to bring out measles, to treat heart trouble, to treat fever, and to encourage a RESTful sleep, to relieve flatulent colic, and to sweat off colds and flus. Horsemen was also used long ago and as it's a treatment for smallpox. Now turning to early American use. King's American Dispensatory from eighteen ninety eight. She said it was used in official medicine in America at the time under actions medicinal uses. In dosages, it says horsemant is stimulant carminative Pseudorific carminative helps settle it ups its stomach. Pseudorific can help you sleep. Diuretic and antiemetic means can help nausea. The infusion or essence is used in flatulence, nausea, vomiting, and also is a diuretic in suppression of the urine and in other urinary disorders. The warm infusion is stimulating diuretic and has acquired some celebrity, as in a minagogue bringing on a menstruation. It may be drank freely. The oil is extremely sharp and pungent, and applied to the skin excites heat and redness, and if too long or too closely applied, will produce a painful blister. It is used like peppermint oil internally and is employed locally in imbrocations to leave pain. That's basically like the counter irritant idea, like if you have arthritis, the heat, the heat like when you put on a hot lineament, tiger balm or something on a bruise or a swelling. It's that kind of thing. The full strength oil may be used upon neualgic parts. The Menara didima and Menarda ficilosa have been used as substitutes for the above. Okay, let's see if we got anything else here. Yeah, well, they give some pharmaceutical formulas, not the kind of thing we're going to use. Plants for a future lists the use of minera, as we'll see under lemon burgament les raw or cooked. These are used as of flavoring and salads and cooked foods, and also as a tea. They have a pleasant lemon flavor. For white basil balm, that's another one that grows in my area, really interesting looking plant. The fresh or dried leaves and flower heads are blooded into a tea said be excellent when mixed with other teas. Minicial use of Minera didimo burgament is often used as domestic medicine, being particularly useful in the treatment of digestive disorders. The leaves and flowering stems are anthomentic, carminative, diuretic, expectorate, febrifuse, rubefacient, and stimulant, and infusion is used to the treatment of flagelent colic and sickness. Is also used as a diuretic to treat urinary disorders. The leaves can be harvested before the plant flowers, or they can be harvested with the flowering stems. They can be dried for later use, and essential oil from the herb is mainly used externally as a rubificacent rubefacient. There we go. Rubefacient in the treatment of rheumatism, et cetera, but it's use of monartifysilosa. While burgament often reply employed medicinally by several Native North American Indian tribes who use it to treat a variety of complaints, but especially those connected with the digestive system, it is still sometimes used in modern herbalism. The leaves and flowering stems are carmentative, diaphoratic, diuretic, and stimulant, and infusion is used internally in the treatment of colds, cattera, headache, gastric disorders, ache, and kidneys to reduce low fevers and sore throats. Externally, is applied as a poultice to the skin for skin eruption cuts, et cetera, and as a wash for sore eyes. The leaves can be harvested before the plant flowers, or they can be harvested with the flowering stems. They are used fresh or dry. The plant contains the essential oil bergamut oil, which can be inhaled to treat bronchial complaints. Leaves also contain time al, an essential oil that can be used to expel gas from the digestive track. Medicinal use of mint leaf burgament, the leaves and flowering stems are anesthetic, antiseptic and diaphoretic infusion uses the treatment of fevers and sore throats. The pularized plant has been rubbed on the head to bring relief from a headache, and infusion of the plant is used as a wash on wounds, and the plant is a source of the medicinal sentral oil time all which is antiseptic. Medicinal use of plains limon minarta plant is analgesic aniseptic stomatic infusion uses the treatment of costs, cold fever, stomach complaints. Plant has been rubbed on the head to bring releiaf from a headache, and infusion of flowers has been used as a wash for insects, stings and wow, how many more do they old? Just one more? Okay? The additional use of horsemen. Horsemen was traditionally taken by several Native North American Indian tribes to treat nausea and vomiting and to encourage perspiration during colts. It was also applied externally as a poultice to treat swellings and rheumatic pains. Nowadays, it is primarily used to treat digestive and upper respiratory tract problems. The leaves are carminative, diaphoretic, diuretic of menagogue, rubefacient, stimulate, stematic investigant, and infusion of the leaves is used in the treatment of flagulence, nausea, diarrhea, in ingestion cattera the upper cattera in the upper respiratory tract that's congestioned, and to induce sweating and promote urination. The herb is principally used externally as a rubefacient. Applied as a poultice, it helps lessen the pain of arthritic joints by increasing the full blood to the area and thereby hastening the flushing out of toxins. Leaves can be harvest before the plant flowers that have been harvested with the flowering stems used fresh or dried source of time All, which we've been through, but interesting this one also says time All is also an effective hookworm revenue, but must be ingested in such large quantities that it can prove fatal to the patient, so that's obviously not good. But no like as we said discussed quite extensively last week with the mint family, all essential oils of pretty much any herb should absolutely be avoided during pregnancy. Any of the mint family can be particularly dangerous, and really pears should be used whether pregnant or not, because essential oils in the mint family can it can kill you. I mean really, we're talking the essential oil is not a natural form. It's very very very very concentrated. But during pregnancy, even like medicinal dosages, tinctures and teas and such and fairly strong amounts would absolutely be contraindicated. So anyway, while not exclusively a native herb, I think we can attribute our knowledge of Menarda largely to Native American herbalism. It's worth noting that while the history of conquest and colonialism is universally bloody and horrible, remember that. I mean, people say, well, you're on stolen land. Yeah, all land stolen Okay, I mean there's no such thing. It's actually conquered land. And if you think the Indians had it bad, you should see what the English did to the Irish. And we could talk about, you know, Japan and China. We could talk about a lot of African countries that have been invading and slaughtering each other and taking each other's slaves and taking their land for thousands of years, or Central Europe I mean the Balkans, the Aztecs, and the Mayans. I mean, you know, it's a dark history for every single people on earth. Every single person, every single tribe and ethnicity and peoples and nation on Earth has practiced genocide, slavery, taking territory by force at some point in its history. And so you know, people are like, you know, you should feel bad because you're white. They're full of crap. You should feel good because you're white, Black, Indian, Chinese. I don't care what you are. If you're a good person, and if you're not, you're not to blame for your parents or their grandparents or your two hundred three hundred three thousand year ago history of your tribe. You're responsible for yourself and your actions. And you know, if it's it's not your fault. If your ancestors were bad, and it's not their fault if you're bad. That's about it. That's the bottom line. So universally horrible, but that's also how knowledge was shared among people that would otherwise would have little or no contact. That's how we learned from each other. Those interactions very often if it wasn't war, it was through trade, especially in preliterate times. And you have to remember, universal so called literacy is only a product of about the last two hundred years and hit its peak sometime around nineteen fifteen. It has been on the decline. We have a higher literacy rate in America right now than our grandparents did, and it's not often recorded as such. Basically, over half of high school students graduate high school functionally illiterate. They now may not be technically illiterate, but they're functionally illiterate. How is that measured? Well, I mean, you know, you remember the old episode of Andy Griffiths Show where Ernest Ty Bass was illiterate, right, but he could read certain signs like no trespassing and he knew what it meant. A lot of our high school students that graduate and then somehow go on to college on the taxpayer's dime usually and then go into tons of debt and you know, end up dropping out before they even good degree because they can't cut it, or they get passed along because perhaps their skin color or gender or whatever. They can read certain things. You know, they could certainly read the signs at a gas station or grocery store. They are technically literate, but they're functionally illiterate, meaning they couldn't take pick up a book, whether it's the Bible or pamphlet about your state parks, I mean, anything, and read it and understand what it's saying. You know, they couldn't take the book I wrote my Encyclopedia Bitter Medicinal Herbs and read it and understand what I've been telling you. That's functional illiteracy. So anyway, it's pretty bad and getting worse anyway. And as far as functional ability to do math, forget it. Forget it. I mean, I had an issue at the bank yesterday that gave me back the wrong change and had trouble understanding why it was the wrong change, And it was a little scary to think, well, these people are handling my money, you know. But anyway, so you know, I guess I could try to wrap it up right there a little bit of a tangent. But we've talked a lot about menarda bbam, which is a really really interesting member of the mint family. Certainly, if you live in like an hoa poa some kind of thing like that, where they want to tell you you can't grow vegetables, or you have to have ornamental this, and you can't do that, and such as said, this would be a wonderful addition to your flower garden, your ornamental flower garden. That is going to be a very useful herb also makes a nice tea. And I think you said one variety the leaves were edible. I think it was a lemon minarta. And maybe you could grow some other members of the mint family along with that. You know, there's so many men members, as I said. There's there's chocolate mint, there's a mint that actually has sort of a cocoa scent. There's lemon mint, there's thie holy basil, there's all this nice and purple, and I mean, the mint families are so many of them, so very pretty that I don't think anybody's gonna say anything about it, but they certainly are probably going to be stopping to tell you how pretty your bee bomber manara flowers are, because they just really are striking, and they're great for the bee population and palmingbirds and all that, but they're really good for the pollinators, a good good way to support the environment. So anyway, y'all have a great week, and I'll talk to you next time. The information this podcast is non intended to diagnose or treating any disease or can 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 verbal medicine, and there is no governing body regulating HERBLEUS. Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studys RBS. 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 earths been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience, and if I believe in herb has 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 no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy of sensitivity and 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 read it, be responsible for yourself, can your own research, make your own choices, and not to blame me for anything ever. M