Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Myrrh

Hey, y'all, welcome to this week's show. Today we're going to talk about a really interesting herb, and it is actually an herb. It's a tree resin. And it's kind of strange to think that muhr and its close relative frankincense were herbs once more valuable than gold. When the Magi I brought those gifts to the Christ Child, they are presenting the most precious commodities in the ancient world. Murr was both a suitable for let me try that again. Mur was both a suitable offering rich and religious and cultural tradition. But it was also the same powerfully medicinal herb that we can purchase relatively inexpensively today by cleaning the elder time. It was the trade of mur that had made the spice trade. Obviously not space, man, I'm just stumbling over everything today. The Arab spice trade the source of tremendous wealth. Long before that, however, muhr was used in everything from Egyptian perfumes and fumigants to the Hebrew anointing of levitical priests. Now it's most often used and the incense burned in many Catholic churches at mass. However, MRR is still a potent and important medicinal herb in the apothecary. But why was this incense as we think of it now so esteemed in the middle of East Well, first, well, the answer is kind of obvious. It was a hot place to live, with scarce water, poor hygiene and sanitation, and people and their surroundings often smelled very foul, I mean, open sewers the whole bit and no bathing. Heavy scent of murr was surely a relief to anybody who could afford it. But beyond that, though, consider the common maladies of the day. Lips cracked from sun and wind, cuts and scratches that could easily become infected, boils, toothaches, infections of the gums, mouth and throat, various digestive complaints and issues, and insect bites, you know, insect bites that could easily become infected. And murr was a veritable panacea for those really most common maladies of the time. According to the Physician's Desk Reference Verbal Medicine, mur is stated to possess antimicrobial, a stringent carminative that means settles in upset stomach expectorate anti catarrhal that means clear as congestion, and I'm going to try to define anything that I see that you may not be familiar with antiseptic and vulnary or vulnerary or wound healing properties. Traditionally has been used for apthus ulcers, pharyngitis or laryngitis, respiratory catter or congestion, common cold wounds and abrasions, and especially from mouth ulcers, gingivitis and yeah, other issues like that, or throats and such. Murr's local astringent, disinfectant and granulation promoting effects are a result of its essential oil consisting mainly of sessa terpenes and amorrhoids. In folk medicine, MIRR is occasionally used internally as a carminitive for non specific intestinal infections and also as an expectant for coughs. Folk medicine uses have also included stimulating the appetite and the flow of digestive juices. In Chinese medicine, uses include carbuncles for runkles, wounds as a stiptic, a minerrhea, and abdominal tunor tumors. So mainly skin issues, but also some menstrul issues. In Indian medicine. Along among its uses in Indian medicine are menstrual disorders, stomach complaints, wounds, ultars, and inflammations of the skin and mouth. This is the physicians desk reference. So it's going to give you contrain addictions. Not to be used during pregnancy. Absolutely not to be used during pregnancy. It could cause miscarriage, cause a lot of damage to mother and child. Not to be used while breastfeeding. No health hazards or side effects are known in conjunction with the proper administration of designated therapeutic doses. And I am getting a foot cramp. Gotta get straightened up in this chair. Here there we go. So what is murr? Well, okay, Murr comes from the Arabic word m u r r, meaning bitter, and murr, of course is m y r r h, so very closely related words. Bitter, tasting, agreeably aromatic, yellow to reddish brown oleoresinous gum obtained from various small, thorny flowering trees of the genus Comiphora of the incense tree family, that's burseratiate. The two main varieties of murr are aeroball and bicyble aeroball murr is obtained from the sea murrh tree, which grows in the Ethiopia, Arabia and Somalia, while the bis bisub ball bicyble murrhr is obtained from se Rathraria, which is an Arabian species similar appearance. Mr trees are found on parchs rocky hills and grow up to nine feet tall according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Yes, we had to go back to the old encyclopedia for that. So this is not one you can probably grow unless you're in the desert, in which case you might want to look into Mesquite as a you know, a local alternative chaparral that would be a really good one. But you could probably grow a species of mrr in such places. For most of it, it's something you know, you just want to kind of buy and put in the medicine cabinet. A little bit goes a very long way. It is very strong stuff, and of course if you want to have it as incense or something like that, I'm going to need more and if you do. There's several companies online, mainly for the Catholic and Anglican churches. On the Orthodox churches, they still use muhr incense, and you'll get a better price that way that if you try to buy it through an herbal medicine store and make your own. Hippocrates recommended muhr in formulas for violent pains of the eyes and fever. The Ephrastus described tapping certain trees such as pine to collect the resin, and the use of gums such as frankinsense and Murr. Discorites wrote of murr, let's get through the description here. Decoction taken as a drink with wine helps those bitten by harvest spiders and purges out the menstrual flow in after birth. Boiled in liquid to be sipped, it is given for pulmonary consumption tuberculosis. In other way, some say that it is a prophylactic against infection. Taken as a drink with wine twice or three times daily in pestilential seasons, you know, during plagues and such, it may have helped. Again, I don't know. It is also called canilla or murrh. And of course his pest lentil season wouldn't necessarily be a plague. I mean it could be hot weather when the water was particularly bad. It could have been a time when they were having well, that would be more plague related issues with rats and such. But anyway, Saint Hildegard vom Bingen recommended that the scent of mr be used for bad dreams, melancholy and even emotional issues caused by evil spirits. Internally, she recommended it and fused in warm wine. For fevers, we get a simple water here there we go. In the German folk medicine tradition, Brother Aloisious recommended er to Murr to be used for the stomach and intestines for a muca's stomach indigestion, irregularminstruation, lukoreea, chronic chess complaints, fevers, inflammation, gasp piles, swollen liver, poor circulation, mucous lungs, thick bad puss, mucous in the womb and bladder, as a mouthwashed for rotten teeth and gums, aulterrations of the throat and throat complaints. So I mean you could see this was, like I said, pretty much a cure all in two thousand years ago, and obviously very very very valuable. Getting up to about the nineteen thirties, Miss Grieves said, as a stringent healing, tonic and stimulant. In this case we're talking tonic for the digestive system, and stimulant would probably be for digestion as well. A direct amenagogue, a tonic and dyspepsia that's upset stomach again, especially with gas and bloating, an expectant in the absence of feverish symptoms. Stimulant to the mucous tissue and stematic carminative, exciting appetite and the fluid gas juices, and as a stringent wash. It is used in chronic cattera. The word I can never pronounce fifth. I'm not em gonna try p h t h I S I S. That's impossible for me. I'll end up sounding like Sylvester the putty tat I mean really Colerosis in the Minorea, often combined with aloe and iron. As a wash, it is good for spongy gums, alterated throat, and aphthastomatis stomatitis I should say app stomatitis, and as a tincture. It is also applied to foul and indolent ulcers. It has been found very helpful in broncho area and Lucorea and is also used as a vermuffuge. Yeah, I can probably get into some instructions of the tincture. It's a little difficult to turn a resin into a tincture, but it can be done, so hopefully I'll have time to cover that. MRR is a common ingredient in toothpowders and is used with borax and tincture with other ingredients. Is a mouthwash. A lot of people don't like to use bor internally. Eating more was once far more commonly done. You have to do your own research on that. The compound tincture or horse tincture is used in veterinary practice for healing wounds. The later orblist. Michael Moore, the herbalist, not the filmmaker, said that MURR was useful in conjunctivitis. Is an eyewash on at the onset of sties, acute periodontist a cute aphthos stomatitis again with painful inflammation, acute early stages of herpes, topically acute sinus sitis with ulterrations as a nasal spray, intrensic cumid asthma with moist cough, acute hot dry bronchitis in the aged in the age, in older people with secretions, chronic bronchitis with profuse secretions and ability, bronchorea, chronic cough with debility, chronic cysterio without active inflammation in exhausted feeble states, cistitis, eurythritis without active inflammation, chronic nephritis without active inflammation. Yeah, basically all resins can irritate the kidneys, so you don't use them when the kitties are inflamed. Ditto and cistitis, gastroineritis with mucous hypersecretions, ulcers subacute or chronic not inflame but congested. Anything else, Oh, for herpes simplex to speed regeneration used externally, skin alters, moist surfaces used externally, endometritis, merititis with fever and since it oh gosh, I can't pronounce that one. For immunosuppression, and that may be one of the reasons it was recommended in pestilential times by diascorides, and in that case it's best combined with baptisia and echinasia too fairly common herbs acute vaginitis used internally, blood serum levels, white cell depression of any cause, and that also combined with acinaesia endogenous infections of depress white blood count, cancer immunisuppression from therapy or immuni suppression with marked white blood count depression. Also with echinacia to stimulate innate immunity, immuni suppression recent from stress with acination and leukapina again with echinacea. So good, really good to combine those two. Now. I take Murr daily as part of the Great Swedish Bitters, and I mean, you know, I swear by that attribute great improvements to my health using it. It is strong, there's mirror, and there's camphor in the Great Swedish Bitters. In encounter that they actually put in a little rock sugar and I mean it. When you get that first batch and take the first teaspoonful, I mean need about knock you down, very bitter, very aromatic. Most often I use Murr's ingredient in Comfrey south to heal wounds really good. The Murr and you know, disinfectant and everything the cold comfrey that heals. Comfrey so effective and proliferating cells that can close a wing wounds so quickly that sometimes it concealed germs inside and cause an infection. With the addition of MR as a disinfectant, it makes such risk of far less likely. Mountain rose herbs cells MR. For let's see, I wrote this book two years ago, so this you would have to compector and inflation a little bit. But mountain rose at that point had it twelve seventy five or four ounces, so compared to how valuable it was two thousand years ago. Definitely not more valuable than gold, but still a very precious herb. Now I talked about making a mer tincture, you really you didn't want to use a stronger alcohol than you would use for most tinctures. And if you're using it externally, only only externally, I would just use seventy percent io prople alcohol or if they even have a strong goo on the shelf, I mean the rubbing alcohol label. It clearly not for internal use because isoprople alcohol will destroy your kidneys. It's really bad for you. It's gonna make you incredibly sick. If you're using an internally, well, the best thing to do would be to try to get some pharmaceutical grade alcohol. That stuff's like almost one hundred proof. That's not as easy these days as it used to be when you could just go to your pharmacy and order some that believe it or not. Really into the nineties you could still do that ever clear, you know, you just go get the strongest proof ever clear you can possibly get. Put your burr in there. You want to crush it into as fine a powder as you can. The alcohol least be warm temperature. If you can warm it up without any danger of catching fire, that's going to help dissolve it into the alcohol. And every day shake it up because that the resins are going to tend to want to collect at the bottom of the jar, separate themselves out from the tincture. So before you shake it up, if you can shake it up once a day, maybe keep it in a cabinet over your refrigerator or something like that where it's gonna, say, somewhat warm. But again you don't want to you know, hyproof alcohol can catch fire very quickly, so you don't want to be very careful with that. What I would probably do would be to make a tincture like that, and if I was using it again externally, try to combine it with some coconut oil something like that. Use it as a salve honey. It would you might as well with honey if you wanted to use it on wounds and such. And yes, that's sticky and nasty, but it works really really well. I have never tried doing an oil and infused oil with a resin. I'm not sure how that would go. I'm not thinking that it's gonna work very well, but I could be wrong. But yeah, high proof alcohol in that is gonna work best. And just you know, keep it, don't let it get cold and shake it up. And if it does get cold, it's probably gonna get sink to the bottom and you're gonna have to kind of warm it a little bit and shake it up real well. But anyway, so it's not impossible. And yeah, I mean it's extremely useful herb. Like I said, combining it with comfrey, it is just great for healing wounds. I mean, that's like my almost herbal neosporain or something. I mean, it's just really really good. All right, y'all, So have a great week. I will talk to you next time. Should have it actually a very relevant show for next time. The plant we're gonna be talking about is coming into season in the next week. Where I live I'm looking at the berries there about half ripe, and by next week they should be fantastic. And we'll talk about that, but I'm not going to give you an idea what it is. You're gonna have to join us next time. That's the same same bat channel, right, you all have a go. You remember Rocky and Bullwinkle show. I love Rocky and Bullwinkle. They're all on on YouTube, so you can pull them up. Watch the old Rocky and Bullwinkles. If you've got kids, introduce some brilliant, intelligent, funny kids can be cartoon and they always do those cliffhanger endings as well. And man, what a funny cartoon that was. I you know, I loved it as a kid, rediscovered it a few years ago, like during COVID when I was just sitting there wasting time and had nothing to do, and oh man, I laughed and laughed. I could not believe how clever those jokes were, and a lot of them went over my head as a kid, you know, as an adult, really very very clever show, very funny. I highly recommend, and I mean, given the garbage on television and most of the internet these days, getting a little library together of some Rocky and Bull Eekle cartoons would be a very good idea if you've got some kids. I also rediscovered my absolute favorite from childhood, and that was Hong Kong Foy. Now, if you remember Hong Kong Foy, you probably about fifty years old right now. It was Scatman Cruthers, the actor and musician dancer Scapman Brothers. He played Hong Kong fully number one super guy, and he was hilarious. It was really, really, really good. I think that was a Hannah Barbara cartoon. Anyway. You know, they did Grape Ape and Huckleberry Hound and Captain cave Man. I love Captain cave Man, and of course the Flintstones, What wonderful memories. All time favorite, though, I did say my all time favorite was Hong Kong Fuy. No Bugs Bunny. You cannot beat Looney Toons. I was never a big Disney guy. I never really got into Mickey Mouse and all that, but Bugs Bunny, Oh wow, love. I absolutely love those old cartoons. I joke sometimes that like my only I think Jerry Seinfeld said this, my only exposure to higher culture like opera and such is Elmer Fudd. Singing cute, Do wibbit cute? Do wibbit. Anyway, y'all have a great week, and I'll talk to you next time. The information 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 US government does not recognize the practice of verbal medicine, and there is no governing body regulating IRBLEUS. Therefore, I'm really just a guy who stays IRBs. 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 Earth has been traditionally used for I can tell you my own experience, and if I believe in ERB has helped me, I cannot nor what I tell you 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 agree to be responsible for yourself, to your own research, make your own choices, and not to blame me for anything ever