Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Oak

[00:00:00] Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. I hope everyone is as pleased with the election results as I am. I guess you know, a huge Trump supporter. We did okay on the federal level in North Carolina. Not real good on the state level. We've now got an incredibly liberal, you know, openly gay, radical for a governor and lost most of the council state because the media did such an effective job.

[00:00:29] of smearing Mark Rotz. I was really hoping Mark Robinson would win and oh gosh Dan Bishop and Hal Weatherman and everybody that was running. But yeah, CNN absolutely stuck a knife in him and he is suing. So, you know, hopefully he'll win a few million dollars from CNN and come around and stop little Josh Stein next time. But we'll see. I mean that was that was a hit just

[00:00:59] a job and a half. I mean, he says what they said about him wasn't true. You'll have to make up your own mind. I like him. I frankly, he could have said what he said and had a conversion and change of heart. But he says it wasn't true. Either way, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. I think he's pretty awesome actually. But I am thrilled about Donald Trump. Absolutely thrilled about Donald Trump.

[00:01:23] And that we've taken the lead in the Senate and looks like we're going to hold the House. And why? Why does this matter? Why does federal politics even matter?

[00:01:30] Well, as you know, we're still recovering from a hurricane up here in Western North Carolina. And the government has not been given us much help regardless what some people say. You know, this is the most Republican part of the state of North Carolina and the Appalachians, I guess the five states that were affected are basically the most conservative spot in the country.

[00:01:56] I mean, yeah, they might say Mississippi has a few more registered Republicans per capita. But you know, this is these are Scott Cyrus, independent, tough people for the most part. Now I'm not talking about Ashland, Boone, the hippie towns, but you know, for the most part. And the government doesn't care about us. I told you last week we finally got a FEMA inspection. They finally came back, took another week, came back and said I'm approved for like $2,500 to fix my house.

[00:02:24] I was sitting here with like $20,000 to $40,000 worth of damage and they're gonna give me $2,500 bucks. Hey, I'm thrilled. That's great. That'll buy a lot of lumber, but I'm gonna have to do all the work myself.

[00:02:38] Yeah, they gave me a little more on what they call miscellaneous items. When they turned the power back on, I had a power surge that blew the refrigerator and you know, stuff like that. That's cool. You know, I'm gonna have to have a lot of plumbing work done. And I may actually have to hire some help for that.

[00:02:55] I can do plumbing. I just don't know that I have time to do everything. I don't know if you know what I mean. I got to do it all myself. I got no brothers, no, you know, uncles, no nothing, nobody gonna help me.

[00:03:08] Uh, and anybody that a neighbor or something that could call on is tied up with their own damage. So we'll see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. I'm, um, gonna give it, I got 60 days to appeal.

[00:03:21] Uh, so I'm gonna give it a couple of weeks and, um, then have an appraisal and, um, submit that appeal. And, um, God willing, the new administration will be in there.

[00:03:33] And Trump has said he's gonna help the people of Western North Carolina. I think he cares about us a whole lot more than Biden ever did. So yeah, it does matter who's in DC. It matters a lot.

[00:03:44] Um, you gotta remember the federal government can legally take your money or control your life at the point of a gun. That's what it always comes down to. You know, if, uh, Bob down the street comes and points a gun at you and says, give me all your money or do what I tell you to do.

[00:04:07] He's doing it. There's my threat of force, right? Um, the IRS, uh, any regulatory agency, they do the same thing. Cause at the end of the day, it's still threat of force. You will still, whether they do it legally through the court system or just come gun you down like they did at say old Ruby Ridge.

[00:04:26] Um, boy, was that a formative experience in my life? I'll never forget. I was a teenager when Ruby Ridge happened. Totally changed my outlook on life and politics in the United States without a doubt, without a doubt.

[00:04:42] Or, you know, don't forget what they did to my old friend, uh, popcorn Sutton, the famous moonshiner. I mean, the same, um, cops who were buying moonshine from him, um, just weeks earlier when he became a celebrity, um, may and made them look bad.

[00:05:00] The feds were like, why aren't you enforcing liquor laws in your County? They set him up with an illegal gun.

[00:05:07] Um, this is my belief. It's what I've been told. Now, can I prove they set him up with an illegal gun and he did not purchase an illegal firearm with, you know, without their knowledge.

[00:05:18] And then they caught him later. No, I cannot prove that, but I can tell you what everybody in the community thinks.

[00:05:23] And, um, you know, here's a guy up in years, uh, chronic alcoholic. I mean, he was drinking probably a gallon a day for years.

[00:05:33] The withdrawals alone would have killed him. Okay. He didn't weigh more than 90 pounds. He was a little crazy little guy, good friend of mine.

[00:05:41] And, uh, you know, he shot himself rather than go to prison and he, he would not survive prison. So, um, yeah, it does actually matter who's in office and what the culture of the government is.

[00:05:52] Are they serving you or are they serving themselves or their superiors? I think it's so ridiculous when, uh, people say that, um,

[00:06:02] say like the U S army will never turn on its own citizens. I'm sorry. Did you forget about the civil war?

[00:06:08] First of all, I mean, you know, it was a peaceful secession, uh, done in South Carolina and then federal troops invaded and started burning down homes and raping women and slaughtering everybody in sight.

[00:06:20] Black, black, white, it didn't matter. Okay. Um, but I mean, you know, think about, I mean, sure. Maybe your buddy down the street, who's enlisted, you know, I got a neighbor who's enlisted.

[00:06:33] I don't think he's going to turn on me, but you know, at the end of the day, one, they have families to feed.

[00:06:39] They cannot, uh, refuse orders without losing their salaries and being court-martialed, you know, having, being punished, being put in prison themselves, um, dishonorably discharged, losing their benefits.

[00:06:55] And two, they're really trained to follow orders. I mean, one, it's a, it's a huge psychological barrier for them to just refuse orders.

[00:07:05] And so doing, they're turning against their, their friends, their brothers and sisters, I guess, that are in the service, right?

[00:07:14] Um, and that's rarely happens. I mean, within a group, people rarely will turn on each other when they work together and serve together and have a loyalty to each other.

[00:07:26] Especially if it means like, uh, the guy who was your, you know, best buddy is now pointing a gun at you because you refused orders. Okay.

[00:07:33] Um, but three, they have to provide for their families just like everybody else.

[00:07:39] And a lot of their benefits are tied to their service.

[00:07:43] And, um, yeah, remember, always remember what happened at Ruby Ridge.

[00:07:48] Always remember what happened with the Branch Davidians and all that.

[00:07:52] Don't tell me that, I mean, we see it all the time with local cops.

[00:07:56] Your local cop may be your buddy.

[00:08:00] Um, he'll follow orders and put your butt in jail.

[00:08:03] And if you resist, he's going to beat the crap out of you at best.

[00:08:06] And he's not going to hesitate.

[00:08:07] That's his job.

[00:08:08] That's what he's trained to do.

[00:08:10] I mean, I've, I've seen, uh, some of the best cops do some of the worst stuff.

[00:08:14] And, um, and it's not to slam cops.

[00:08:17] I mean, again, some of my best friends are police officers and soldiers and all that.

[00:08:22] Um, you know, but it is the culture and it is the way things are.

[00:08:27] When, um, if they're looking at, you know, doing you a favor or putting food on their table

[00:08:35] and paying for their family's medical bills and the roof over their head,

[00:08:40] you know what human nature dictates.

[00:08:44] Yeah.

[00:08:45] I mean, in the civil war, it was brother against brother.

[00:08:48] I mean, people in the same family, cousins turned on each other.

[00:08:53] Yeah.

[00:08:53] Never forget that.

[00:08:55] Never forget that.

[00:08:55] But anyway, let's get on with the show.

[00:08:57] Um, and today we are talking about one of the most useful and widespread of trees.

[00:09:04] This is probably second only to pine in availability and use.

[00:09:09] And it's oak, Quercus.

[00:09:10] There are 69 varieties of oak with documentation, uh, documented use in herbal medicine.

[00:09:17] 69.

[00:09:19] Okay.

[00:09:19] In basically every part of the world.

[00:09:22] In basically every culture.

[00:09:25] Uh, native to my, uh,

[00:09:27] region.

[00:09:29] I'm not even going to try to, to, um, to list them all.

[00:09:33] I mean, there's a reason why my area is called the cradle of forestry in America.

[00:09:37] Uh, I mean, the symbol of the American South is the angel oak down in South Carolina,

[00:09:43] where the South seceded.

[00:09:45] I mean, uh, that's a big old live oak tree.

[00:09:47] It's actually only covered my book.

[00:09:49] It's a beautiful and old tree.

[00:09:51] Uh, but you know, plenty of white oak.

[00:09:53] I got a white oak down in my yard right now.

[00:09:55] I've been, uh, busting my back trying to cut it up.

[00:09:58] White oak is hard.

[00:09:59] Let me tell you, white oak is, if not the hardest, the, I think maybe almost second only

[00:10:04] to ironwood as far as hardness.

[00:10:07] Great for making tool handles.

[00:10:09] Now, sometimes you might want a little more spring in the handle.

[00:10:12] Uh, like certain axes, you know, you might want to have a little more flexibility.

[00:10:16] In that case, hickory is, uh, the perfect, um, alternative.

[00:10:21] But white oak is just phenomenal for, uh, furniture, for tool handles, for such as that.

[00:10:27] And, uh, I mean, um, I started on, on a, a section of the tree.

[00:10:32] You know, I had to go kind of, well, just the way it was leaning.

[00:10:34] I couldn't start at one end or the other.

[00:10:36] I had to go kind of toward the middle and, but where there wasn't too much pressure on

[00:10:39] it, you know, to cause the saw to bind.

[00:10:42] And so I'm looking at, I don't know, a diameter, maybe a foot.

[00:10:45] So not too big.

[00:10:46] That's where I started cutting.

[00:10:47] And I got my chainsaw and I, and it's good and sharp and it's good to go.

[00:10:51] And I'm just sawing and sawing and sawing.

[00:10:53] And like 10 minutes later, uh, you know, it's smoking.

[00:10:56] There's a smoke coming up front.

[00:10:58] White oak is hard.

[00:11:00] Seriously.

[00:11:01] But, um, yeah, we got burr oak, um, swamp white oak, Spanish oak, Southern red oak, Georgia

[00:11:07] oak, sand laurel oak.

[00:11:10] That's, that's a interesting one, actually.

[00:11:12] Um, blackjack oak.

[00:11:13] That's, that's what I see a lot around here.

[00:11:15] Chinquapin oak, water oak, um, willow oak.

[00:11:19] So many, so, so many, actually.

[00:11:23] But let's get into uses.

[00:11:25] Um, been documented in herbal medicine for thousands of years.

[00:11:29] Uh, D.S. Corides wrote in ancient Greece that each part of the oak is, is astringent.

[00:11:35] But the film that lies between the bark and the stalk, similar to that under the cup of

[00:11:39] an eighth corn, is most therapeutic for the bowels.

[00:11:42] And you may know that, uh, oak bark, and especially the galls, actually, where a wasp will make

[00:11:47] a little nest there, or a wound.

[00:11:49] Um, that's been used for tanning leather for centuries.

[00:11:53] It's one of the most tannic substances in nature.

[00:11:56] He says that a coction of this is given for colic or intense intestinal complaints.

[00:12:02] They don't mean like colic babies get.

[00:12:04] Basically, they're really talking about like cramping and diarrhea and such.

[00:12:08] Dysentery and a blood spitters.

[00:12:10] Pounded into small pieces, it is put in suppository for, for women troubled with excessive discharges

[00:12:15] of the womb.

[00:12:16] Acorns are also diuretic.

[00:12:18] He says eaten as a meat, they can cause headache and are wind-inducing.

[00:12:21] Well, think with acorns.

[00:12:23] The reason squirrels bury acorns in the ground is to leach out those tannins.

[00:12:28] We can take our acorns and shell them and put them in a cloth bag or a mesh bag and put them

[00:12:34] in a creek and that'll take the tannins out.

[00:12:36] You can also put them in the toilet tank, you know, of your toilet.

[00:12:39] And as the water back there is clean, believe it or not.

[00:12:42] And as you flush and flush, it will soak those tannins out.

[00:12:45] And then they can be eaten like nuts or ground into flour to make bread or whatever.

[00:12:49] Of course, there's no gluten to them, so you usually want to mix them with a little all-purpose

[00:12:53] flour.

[00:12:54] They're really quite tasty.

[00:12:55] And some acorns are what you call a noble acorn.

[00:13:01] They have fewer tannins and they're usually larger and you can just eat those raw, just

[00:13:07] right out of hand.

[00:13:08] And they're very nice.

[00:13:11] He talks about the oak galls and how those were really tannic.

[00:13:17] You know, they were being used to tan leather thousands of years ago.

[00:13:20] So he said with the acorns, he says a decoction of them and their bark taken as a drink with

[00:13:26] cow's milk helps with poisoning.

[00:13:28] I don't know how that is, but he said it.

[00:13:31] Unripe ones pounded small and placed as a poultice relieve inflammation.

[00:13:35] With salted swine's grease, they are good for malignant calluses and injurious ulcers.

[00:13:43] Gosh, so many, so many uses.

[00:13:47] But, you know, that really astringent gall they used a lot for hemorrhoids, prolapsed uterus,

[00:13:55] various discharges, anything where you really needed to tighten and pull the inflammation,

[00:13:59] swelling, and excessive fluids out of the tissue.

[00:14:03] Can't beat the oak gall, really.

[00:14:17] All that means is, again, astringent.

[00:14:20] The best of them, saith Galen, his thin skin which is under the bark of the tree.

[00:14:26] Acorns, if they be eaten, are hardly concocted.

[00:14:29] They yield no nourishments to a man's body.

[00:14:32] That's actually not true.

[00:14:33] They're actually quite nutritious.

[00:14:36] Good source of proteins and fats in a survival situation.

[00:14:39] But you do have to leach out those tannins, or you could be dealing with another issue

[00:14:44] like chronic constipation.

[00:14:47] So, swine fatted herewith by feeding hereon have their flesh hard and sound.

[00:14:52] Very true.

[00:14:53] If you've got pigs and you can raise them under acorns, you'll have really nice pork.

[00:14:58] That's one of the best.

[00:15:01] Acorns provoke urine and are good against all venom and poison.

[00:15:04] So, okay, we're talking a diuretic effect.

[00:15:06] That's what he meant.

[00:15:07] It would help carry, you know, the toxins out through the fluid.

[00:15:10] But they are not of such a stopping quality or as binding as the leaves embark.

[00:15:18] Oak apples, which are the galls, he said, were good against fluxes and bloody lasks,

[00:15:24] boiled in red wine.

[00:15:26] That would be very astringent.

[00:15:28] A decoction of oak stayeth the women's diseases.

[00:15:32] It means excessive menstruation or vaginal discharge, essentially.

[00:15:38] And, again, uterine prolapse.

[00:15:41] And he actually made a freckle tonic away.

[00:15:44] The English were just obsessed with getting rid of freckles.

[00:15:47] They didn't want anybody to think they actually worked in the sunlight, you know.

[00:15:50] So, they had a cure of oak with white vinegar and sulfur and all that.

[00:15:59] And it would bleach the skin.

[00:16:02] About 600, about 100 years later, in the 1600s,

[00:16:09] Colpepper, Nicholas Colpepper, wrote again about the inner bark of the tree again.

[00:16:14] And the skin that covers the acorn.

[00:16:17] Said it was very useful to stay the splitting of blood, like from tuberculosis.

[00:16:20] And the bloody flux, so that's bloody diarrhea or anything like that.

[00:16:24] Decoction of the bark and powder of the cups do stay vomiting,

[00:16:28] the spittings of blood, bleeding at the mouth,

[00:16:30] or other fluxes of blood in men or women.

[00:16:33] Lasks also.

[00:16:35] And nocturnal involuntary flux of men.

[00:16:40] That actually means, like, wet dreams.

[00:16:42] That was another thing they were kind of obsessed with at the time.

[00:16:47] But, well, we may not worry too much about that now.

[00:16:50] It's also important to know that astringent to also tone the bladder and urinary passages

[00:16:57] and can help with bed wetting as well.

[00:17:00] And incontinence, of course.

[00:17:01] You know, anything like that.

[00:17:03] But do remember, it is diuretic.

[00:17:06] And he says it provokes urine.

[00:17:07] So, you know, you want to make sure you don't drink a bunch of water before you go to bed

[00:17:11] if you're trying to use it for that purpose.

[00:17:14] Let's see.

[00:17:15] He said the acorn powder taken in wine provokes urine and resists the poisons of venomous creatures.

[00:17:21] Again, still.

[00:17:23] Decocture the acorn and bark in milk would help the bladder and avoids bloody urine.

[00:17:32] Interestingly, he said distilled water of the oak buds before they break out into leaves

[00:17:37] is good used either inwardly or outwardly to assuage inflammation and to stop all manner of fluxes.

[00:17:43] The same is good in pestilential and hot burning fevers and resists the force of infection,

[00:17:50] allays heat, cools the heat of the liver, breaking the stone of the kidneys.

[00:17:53] Good for bladder and kidney stones.

[00:17:56] Good for stays women's courses.

[00:17:59] Decoction of the leaves works to the same effect.

[00:18:01] Getting up to more modern use, we'll see what Miss Grieve was using it for in the 30s.

[00:18:07] She gives a lot of interesting history.

[00:18:08] There's tons of ancient British and, of course, Irish folklore having to do with oak trees.

[00:18:16] I mean, you know, the Druids were just like crazy over oak.

[00:18:18] So there's tons of history.

[00:18:20] The oak was very important to the ancient Romans.

[00:18:23] But we don't need to get into all that folklore right now, even though it really is fascinating.

[00:18:28] If you're a plant geek, it's always fun to see the ancient beliefs and cult customs and religious practices

[00:18:37] that used, you know, certain plants, even if we don't put a store by them now.

[00:18:44] But, you know, in the Romans, it was considered a sacred tree dedicated to Jupiter.

[00:18:49] And the Druids also had religious ideas about it.

[00:18:54] And it's just because it's such a big, strong tree.

[00:18:57] I mean, you know, these things can grow.

[00:18:59] Like I said, the angel oak down near Charleston, that's like a 400 or 500-year...

[00:19:04] It may even be like a 700-year-old tree.

[00:19:07] I mean, there are oaks that are just massive.

[00:19:09] I remember when I was at the University of Georgia, there's giant oaks on North Campus, the old campus.

[00:19:15] All the buildings with the beautiful white columns where, you know, all the Confederate generals went to school and debated each other.

[00:19:25] And, you know, back when people actually took academics and debate and such really seriously.

[00:19:30] And one, you know, one year of Storm actually knocked one down.

[00:19:34] And this thing, I mean, this is like, you know, a 300, 400-foot tall tree.

[00:19:38] I mean, as big around as a king-sized bed.

[00:19:42] I mean, it was just massive.

[00:19:43] And when it fell out of the ground, I mean, it ripped a hole out of there.

[00:19:46] I mean, everybody was just...

[00:19:47] Nobody could believe literally how huge this tree was once it was, you know, laying on the ground.

[00:19:54] You saw the roots pulled up.

[00:19:57] Honestly, just...

[00:19:57] I mean, you know...

[00:19:58] I mean, of course you see trees in the woods after a hurricane or something.

[00:20:01] But this was when, you know, just a grass lawn.

[00:20:04] So it just went pulled out of the ground.

[00:20:06] It just left this massive hole.

[00:20:09] And all kinds of things that have been buried there over the years.

[00:20:13] You know, like...

[00:20:14] People do that.

[00:20:15] You know, whether it's a time capsule or a memento or whatever.

[00:20:20] You know.

[00:20:21] UGA is the oldest land-grant university in the United States.

[00:20:24] It's been around since 1700s.

[00:20:27] I mean, there's just all kinds of cool stuff they found.

[00:20:30] It was pretty cool.

[00:20:33] But anyway...

[00:20:35] And...

[00:20:36] The...

[00:20:36] I guess it was the English believe that being buried by an oak tree was good.

[00:20:42] And they actually had these oak trees throughout England.

[00:20:44] This was true in early America, too.

[00:20:47] Before church buildings were established.

[00:20:49] They would call them holy trees or gospel trees.

[00:20:52] Hallow trees.

[00:20:53] These...

[00:20:54] It actually goes back to, like, a Druid pagan tradition.

[00:20:57] But they used it to spread Christianity in the British Isles by preaching the gospel.

[00:21:04] You know.

[00:21:04] Reading the Bible to the people under an oak tree.

[00:21:07] Because they already, you know, recognize that as a special place, essentially.

[00:21:12] But anyway...

[00:21:13] We'll get into...

[00:21:14] Back to the medicinal uses and actions, as she puts it.

[00:21:26] She said...

[00:21:49] It has a strong astringent bitter taste.

[00:21:51] And its qualities are extracted both by water and spirit or alcohol.

[00:21:56] And the odor is slightly aromatic.

[00:21:57] And it is.

[00:21:58] I like the smell of oak.

[00:21:59] Like other astringents, it has been recommended in agues.

[00:22:03] It's fevers and hemorrhages.

[00:22:05] And it's a good substitute for quinine in intermittent fever.

[00:22:08] Especially when given with chamomile flowers.

[00:22:11] Yes.

[00:22:11] This is what people used before they had quinine.

[00:22:13] So, you know...

[00:22:15] I mean, we've all talked about quinine and hydroxychloroquine and all that for the past, what, four years now?

[00:22:21] In Europe, before quinine was discovered in Peru, this is what they used.

[00:22:27] They used oak bark with chamomile flowers.

[00:22:30] And it's quite effective, actually.

[00:22:32] It's just not as strong.

[00:22:33] But it's also a little easier on the system.

[00:22:37] Quinine can actually cause trembles and trembling and such.

[00:22:41] It can kind of upset the stomach if you've taken too long in large doses.

[00:22:46] She said it is useful in chronic diarrhea and dysentery, either alone or in conjunction with aromatics.

[00:22:52] A decoction made from one ounce of the bark and a quart of water boiled down to a pint and taken in wine glass full doses.

[00:22:58] And back then they had very small wine glasses.

[00:23:01] Don't think of like your wife's favorite big wine glass.

[00:23:05] You know, think of more like those little cherry glasses.

[00:23:10] You know, those little aperitifs.

[00:23:13] There's actually a word for them.

[00:23:14] But, you know, those little fluted glasses that you take sherry or poured or something like that in.

[00:23:21] Externally, the decoction has been used advantageously employed as a gargle and chronic sore throat with a relaxed uvula.

[00:23:28] Swollen or relaxed uvula.

[00:23:30] And also as a fomentation.

[00:23:32] It is also serviceable as an injection for leucorrhea.

[00:23:35] And has been applied locally to bleeding gums and piles, piles being chemeroids.

[00:23:40] Irish herbal.

[00:23:41] You would think John Kehoe would go on and on about the history of oak.

[00:23:45] He was the only Irishman without the gift of gab.

[00:23:48] I guess he never found the Blarney stone.

[00:23:50] He says only.

[00:23:52] All parts of the oak have a binding nature.

[00:23:54] And therefore are useful against diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhages, and all kinds of flows.

[00:23:59] The bark can be used in gargles for dropped uvula.

[00:24:03] Turning to the German tradition, Father Nape said,

[00:24:09] Are we then to use even the bark of oak as medicine?

[00:24:13] Certainly.

[00:24:13] Be it fresh from the tree or dried.

[00:24:16] Young bark of oak boiled for about a half hour gives a sanative decoction or cleansing.

[00:24:20] A small towel is dipped into it and tied as a bandage around the neck.

[00:24:25] Such bandages give great health to people afflicted with thick throat, swollen glands, basically.

[00:24:31] And even with a wren on the throat if it has not yet grown too large and firm.

[00:24:36] That's like a hard swelling, essentially.

[00:24:40] The decoction operates as a most effective and harmless remedy.

[00:24:44] Complaints of the glands are removed just as thoroughly by these bandages.

[00:24:48] Whoever is troubled with prolapse of the rectum may often take sitting baths with a decoction of oak bark

[00:24:54] and also from time to time an enema or diluted decoction.

[00:24:58] The troublesome and often dangerous fistulas of the rectum are dissolved and healed by this decoction.

[00:25:04] Also, hard tumors, if they are not inflamed, may be treated and dissolved in the same way.

[00:25:10] Tea made of oak bark operates like resin in a strengthening way on the inner vessels.

[00:25:15] In other words, the astringent quality again.

[00:25:20] His protege, brother Aloysius, wrote,

[00:25:23] The acorns together with the bark and leaves are used medicinally.

[00:25:26] The acorns are gathered in our autumn and burned and ground to a powder.

[00:25:29] So they made essentially a charcoal out of them.

[00:25:31] And when steeped in boiling water, they are used to make an acorn coffee.

[00:25:36] So, okay, not a charcoal.

[00:25:38] He just roasted them.

[00:25:39] You know, he said burned and ground into a powder.

[00:25:41] So I saw it the wrong way.

[00:25:42] They are highly recommended for scrofula and many indispositions which stem from it,

[00:25:48] such as diarrhea and abdominal swelling, anemia and leucorrhea.

[00:25:52] Scrofula is an inflamed glands, infected glands in the neck.

[00:25:57] Use one sugar spoon, powdered acorn, and a cup of water.

[00:26:01] The bark can be removed from two or three year old branches.

[00:26:04] And that's true.

[00:26:05] Whenever you harvest oak bark, unless you're actually cutting down the whole tree for firewood,

[00:26:08] harvest the branches.

[00:26:09] Don't take the bark off the trunk.

[00:26:11] You can really, well, you can kill the tree.

[00:26:13] I mean, if you took too much or you can get diseased.

[00:26:17] It has no smell but an astringent taste and is used externally in the form of compresses,

[00:26:22] baths, wash, syringes, gargles, etc.

[00:26:27] We said two teaspoons of powdered bark should be taken in syrup or honey to control heavy menstrual

[00:26:32] bleeding, blood spitting, and blood in stools.

[00:26:35] Also used in the form of compress for lupus or soft rotten ulcers, sores, etc.

[00:26:40] So that's very good to know.

[00:26:43] Excellent remedy for leucorrhea is boil a handful of the oak bark for 15 minutes and 4 cups of water.

[00:26:49] Strain this and use it with a syringe every evening.

[00:26:54] One cup of oak bark daily for blood spitting, heavy bleeding, painful bleeding, urinary incontinence,

[00:27:01] chronic dysentery, and excessive mucus.

[00:27:04] Still used very much in the German tradition.

[00:27:06] Got a whole entry in it in the herbs and weeds of Father Johann Kunzel.

[00:27:12] Jelana Wittitt, the Austrian herbalist I wrote it with, mentions that oak bark is one of the strongest anti-inflammatory

[00:27:19] and antiseptic home medicines.

[00:27:22] And it is.

[00:27:23] It's really good.

[00:27:24] Also used it for sweaty feet.

[00:27:28] Yes, you can take a foot bath with oak bark decoction if your feet sweat too much.

[00:27:33] Actually, Father Kunzel was a big proponent of sweaty feet.

[00:27:38] He thought it was very good for your sweat out toxins for your feet.

[00:27:40] But if it gets too bad, you could do that.

[00:27:42] He would not approve though.

[00:27:45] Oak bark for severe diarrhea.

[00:27:47] I've actually done that before.

[00:27:49] It does work.

[00:27:50] Just a little oak bark tea can really get you back to normal pretty quickly.

[00:27:54] It's great actually.

[00:27:57] And she mentions that the tannins of the oak leaves are really good at making pickles.

[00:28:03] You know, if you ever home ferment cucumber pickles, they can get soft.

[00:28:08] And we all want a crunchy pickle.

[00:28:09] Well, the way to get around that, well, you can use a little plain kombucha, which is what I do.

[00:28:14] Or you can put an oak leaf in the jar or a tea leaf.

[00:28:18] Even a bay leaf.

[00:28:19] But that will give you more of the bay flavor.

[00:28:21] Oak is pretty neutral and it works really well.

[00:28:24] You can use a grape leaf.

[00:28:26] The tannins just help keep the cucumbers crisp.

[00:28:29] And it's really nice.

[00:28:31] Yeah.

[00:28:32] I do that a lot actually.

[00:28:34] Like I said, I usually use plain kombucha.

[00:28:37] But there's several.

[00:28:37] We talked about Japanese maple leaves.

[00:28:39] Different leaves you can put in with your pickles.

[00:28:41] And they give them a little bit of a flavor.

[00:28:44] They give them more crunch.

[00:28:45] And also they can look really pretty in the jar.

[00:28:49] If you have them on a shelf, they're going to look nice.

[00:28:52] Especially when the light hits them.

[00:28:53] You know what I mean.

[00:28:55] Herbal remedies of the Lumbee Indians tells us that they used red oak.

[00:29:00] It says a handful of red oak bark was boiled until the water became a deep red.

[00:29:05] This wash was used by Lumbee healers to rub on the skin.

[00:29:09] People affected by poison oak.

[00:29:10] Again, that's the astringent property.

[00:29:12] It's going to pull out some of the inflammation.

[00:29:15] Help with itching.

[00:29:15] It's also good for sunburn, by the way.

[00:29:17] Lumbee also used red oak externally to bathe.

[00:29:23] Oh, as a bath in the treatment of chills and fevers.

[00:29:26] So that time they mean a hot bath.

[00:29:29] Tea made from red oak was used by many Lumbee healers to aid the system.

[00:29:33] Especially after long fevers.

[00:29:34] The bark was also used as an astringent, a tonic, and as an antiseptic.

[00:29:39] A tea was also drank to serve as an emetic.

[00:29:44] A lot of them can make you throw up.

[00:29:45] So that's an emetic.

[00:29:47] And treat indigestion, chronic dysentery, asthma, and debility of the system.

[00:29:51] Bark used externally was applied to sore chap skin.

[00:29:54] And let's give a big shout out to the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina.

[00:29:58] 50,000 members strong who endorsed Donald Trump for president twice in a row now.

[00:30:05] I love my Lumbee brothers and sisters.

[00:30:07] All the Lockleers and Lowry's and Hunt's.

[00:30:09] You know, it's a theory I grew up in.

[00:30:12] I got friends and family all through the Lumbee tribe.

[00:30:15] They're wonderful people.

[00:30:16] Wonderful people.

[00:30:17] Very much like mountain people, like hillbillies.

[00:30:19] They can either be your best friend or your worst enemy.

[00:30:21] You know, it just depends on how you interact with people and who you cross or not.

[00:30:29] Resources of the Southern Fields and Forest states.

[00:30:32] Black oak.

[00:30:33] Powerful and valuable astringent.

[00:30:35] Possessed of purgative properties in which respect it has an advantage not met with in quinine.

[00:30:42] They both have been efficacious in leucorrhea, menorrhea, chronic hysteria, diarrhea, rheumatism, pulmonary consumption.

[00:30:51] Tonsillitis, asthma.

[00:30:53] Oak balls or galls produce powerful astringent center ploid in many cases requiring such remedies such as in diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhages of the skin.

[00:31:03] You know, this is written in 1860s.

[00:31:05] Botanists employed by the Confederacy.

[00:31:08] And dysentery killed more people than bullets.

[00:31:11] And so the oak saved many, many lives.

[00:31:15] Many, many lives.

[00:31:18] It says that, let's see, one doctor, who's this, Dr. Cullen?

[00:31:24] Oh, let's talk about it.

[00:31:25] It's tonic constringing effect is a gargle and inflammation and for prolapse of the uvula.

[00:31:32] And also used it with wonderful success in the cure of reducible hernias applied topically and to rotting sores or ulcers.

[00:31:43] Another thing that soldiers died of a lot.

[00:31:46] Gangrene was, you know, pretty horrible.

[00:31:49] And, yeah, pretty untreatable back then.

[00:31:53] Especially in the field.

[00:31:54] You know, if you were near a city and could get to a hospital, they'd just go ahead and cut your leg off or your arm off.

[00:32:00] But if you were in the field, again, oak teas used topically probably saved a lot of lives.

[00:32:10] He said of white oak, the bark is official.

[00:32:12] That means it was the one actually prescribed in medicine by doctors and pharmacists.

[00:32:16] Used in similar cases of the above.

[00:32:20] Preferred in some because it doesn't act on the bowels.

[00:32:24] White oak.

[00:32:25] You remember the black oak was listed as purgative.

[00:32:29] Apparently it could actually be used as a laxative in certain dosages, whereas the white oak would not.

[00:32:35] But he says the decoction used as an employed injection of leukorrhea and gonorrhea.

[00:32:42] It was also used a lot for gonorrhea, which was also very, very common among soldiers in the Civil War.

[00:32:47] The bark containing tannin, gallic acid, bitter extractive bark is official, but the young bark being preferable.

[00:32:56] The white bark and delicate and finely lobed leaves served to distinguish it from other varieties of oak.

[00:33:03] And yeah, I mean, you know, once you get to know a white oak, you can spot a white oak.

[00:33:07] My family actually lived in a community called white oak, so I'm very familiar with white oak trees.

[00:33:13] King's American Dispensatory of 1898 tells us,

[00:33:18] Oak bark is slightly tonic, powerfully astringent, and antiseptic.

[00:33:21] It is used internally in chronic diseases, chronic mucus discharge, passive hemorrhages,

[00:33:28] and wherever an internal astringent is required.

[00:33:31] It could be combined with lime water to induce sweating.

[00:33:39] However, it is generally used in a decoction as an external agent,

[00:33:42] and is an excellent gargle for relaxed uvulus or throat.

[00:33:47] Good stimulating astringent lotion for ulcers, especially with spongy granulation.

[00:33:52] And astringent injection for leukorrhea, prolapsus, hemorrhoids, etc.

[00:33:56] Ground bark made into a poultice is proved useful in gangrenous and mortified conditions.

[00:34:03] So it was actually official medicine in gangrene at the time.

[00:34:06] In sickly debilitated children and severe diarrhea is especially when the result of fevers.

[00:34:13] The decoction is given internally and used as a bath to the body and limbs two to three times a day,

[00:34:18] and has been found very efficient.

[00:34:19] When given for diarrhea or dysentery, it should be combined with aromatics and sometimes with castor oil.

[00:34:26] So obviously you would be using as a laxative at that point.

[00:34:31] Probably not good for diarrhea or dysentery, but as a laxative, yeah.

[00:34:35] A bath is often advantageous with some cutaneous diseases.

[00:34:39] The green bark of elder and white oak bruised together,

[00:34:42] or in strong decoction forms a very useful and valuable application to abrasions.

[00:34:48] Specific indications and uses, relaxation of mucous membranes with unhealthy discharge,

[00:34:55] ulcerations, and spongy granulations.

[00:34:58] It's a little difficult to say today.

[00:35:00] So modern use, plants for future.

[00:35:04] Yeah, they list, I don't even know how many.

[00:35:07] Probably all 60 or whatever I said, 100 different oaks.

[00:35:12] I'm just going to look at white oak because they said that was official medicine, you know, in the dispensatories.

[00:35:17] They said,

[00:35:17] White oak was often used medicinally by several North American Indian tribes who valued it especially for its antiseptic

[00:35:24] and astringent properties and used it in the treatment of many complaints.

[00:35:28] It is little if at all used in modern herbalism.

[00:35:31] I disagree.

[00:35:31] I actually use it.

[00:35:33] It's one of my go-tos, actually.

[00:35:35] Pine and oak, those are my two trees that I run out and use if I need them.

[00:35:42] Pine usually stop bleeding and oak to stop if there's actually severe diarrhea, which doesn't happen often.

[00:35:47] But when it does, if you've ever had it bad, the kind where, you know,

[00:35:51] the overly counter tablets don't work and the Pepto-Bismol doesn't work and you're looking at either, you know,

[00:35:58] you've had it for like six or seven days and you're so weak you're thinking,

[00:36:01] can I even make it to the doctor to get a prescription?

[00:36:05] Oak?

[00:36:05] Oak?

[00:36:05] Well, actually, well, I can't give official medical advice, but I can say in my experience, that happened to me one time and it was really awful, really awful.

[00:36:15] And still don't know what caused it.

[00:36:18] Probably something I ate.

[00:36:19] You know, I'm an adventurous eater.

[00:36:21] But when maybe twice since it started to feel like that again, ran and got some oak bark, just fine.

[00:36:28] Just fine.

[00:36:28] Just made a tea of oak bark, a decoction.

[00:36:30] You know, you just put it in water, boil it down, reduce it by half.

[00:36:33] And works as well as the prescription that I was given that one time 30 years ago or so.

[00:36:40] And hopefully you will never have to experience anything like that again.

[00:36:43] Not pleasant.

[00:36:46] It says the bark is, let's see, where was I?

[00:36:50] The inner bark contains six to 11% tannin.

[00:36:53] It has a powerful antiseptic and astringent properties and also an expectorant and tonic.

[00:36:58] The bark is boiled and the liquid drunk in the treatment of bleeding and diarrhea for piles, intermittent fevers, coughs and colds, consumption, asthma, loss of voice, etc.

[00:37:09] The bark has been chewed as a treatment for mouth sores.

[00:37:12] Externally, it is used as a wash for skin eruptions, burns, rashes, bruises, ulcers, and as a vaginal douche.

[00:37:18] It has also been used as a wash for muscular pains.

[00:37:22] The bark is best collected in the spring.

[00:37:24] Any galls produced in the tree are strongly astringent and can be used in the treatment of hemorrhages, chronic diarrhea, dysentery, etc.

[00:37:32] Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Central Medicinal Plants sells this of white oak.

[00:37:36] Astringent bark tea, inner bark tea, once used for chronic diarrhea, dysentery, chronic mucus discharge, bleeding, anal prolapse, piles,

[00:37:44] as a gargle for sore throats and a wash for skin eruptions, poison, IV rashes, burns, as a hemostatic,

[00:37:50] is a full cancer remedy, contains tannins.

[00:37:54] Experimentally, tannic acid is antiviral, antiseptic, antitumor, and carcinogenic.

[00:38:00] Warning, tannic acid is potentially toxic.

[00:38:02] If you had it in large amounts, it certainly could be.

[00:38:04] Botany in a day states that the oaks are astringent due to their tannin.

[00:38:09] Bark also contains quercin, a compound similar to salicin, like aspirin.

[00:38:13] So that explains why it was so good for muscle soreness.

[00:38:17] You've got an astringent bringing down swelling, and you've got the quercin, which is like aspirin, which is analgesic.

[00:38:24] The astringency is used internally for gum inflammation, sore throat, and diarrhea.

[00:38:28] Externally, it's used for first and second degree burns.

[00:38:30] Yes, it's very good for burns.

[00:38:33] Let's see, it's used for inflammation, sore throat, and diarrhea.

[00:38:36] We just said that.

[00:38:38] Tannin binds to proteins and amino acids.

[00:38:40] Sealing off burns from weeping wounds and also from bacterial infections.

[00:38:47] The leaves can be chewed into a mash and used as astringent poultice.

[00:38:51] Oak galls have a high tannin content as much as 60 to 70 percent in the galls.

[00:38:57] We'll end up, we'll just end here with physician's desk reference verbal medicine.

[00:39:02] This is what your doctor would be looking at.

[00:39:04] Indications and usages approved by Commission E.

[00:39:08] That's the commission in modern medicine that says what herbs do.

[00:39:13] Okay.

[00:39:15] Good for cough, bronchitis, diarrhea, inflammation of the mouth, and pharynx inflammation of the skin.

[00:39:20] Oak is used internally for nonspecific diarrhea.

[00:39:23] In smaller doses, it is used as a stomach tonic.

[00:39:25] The drug is used extensively for inflammatory skin diseases and inflammation of the mouth and throat.

[00:39:30] In folk medicine, oak is used for the inflammation of genital and anal areas, separating eczema, hyperhidrosis.

[00:39:40] They are finally cut it out.

[00:39:42] And as an adjuvant treatment in chillblains, oak is also used in folk medicine internally for hemorrhage,

[00:39:49] hemorrhatic stools, non-menstrual uterine bleeding, hematopsis, and chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract.

[00:39:57] External uses include hemorrhage, hemorrhage, hemorrhage, hemorrhage, hemorrhage, hemorrhage, and hemorrhage.

[00:40:02] Vaginal discharge, rashes, chronic itching, scaling, and separating eczema and eye inflammations.

[00:40:10] Oak galls.

[00:40:11] The astringent quality of the drug can be explained by the tannins it contains.

[00:40:15] The dry exhibits analgesic, hypoglycemic, and sedative hypnotic efficacy.

[00:40:22] I've never noticed that.

[00:40:24] It could be because of the hypoglycemic properties, lowering blood sugar.

[00:40:28] But I have not noticed any sedative hypnotic efficacy.

[00:40:33] That means put you to sleep.

[00:40:35] That never happened for me.

[00:40:37] Unproven uses include treatments of inflammation of the skin and frostbite as an adjuvant in treating infectious skin conditions.

[00:40:47] Oak gall is used externally for chillblains and gingivitis for which efficacy appears plausible, but has not yet been sufficiently documented.

[00:40:57] Alright, that's going to wrap it up for oak.

[00:40:59] Oak, certainly one of our most useful trees in terms of furniture and tools and all that.

[00:41:07] Great firewood.

[00:41:09] I usually burn about equal parts oak to hickory when I make barbecue.

[00:41:13] Oak doesn't have a lot of flavor, but it has nice coals.

[00:41:16] And really, the secret in North Carolina barbecue, which is very specific, is only pork, salted, and cooked over live wood coals.

[00:41:28] Okay?

[00:41:29] It's not cooked over gas.

[00:41:30] It's not cooked over electric.

[00:41:31] It doesn't have all kinds of weird rubs and sugar and all kinds of mess on it.

[00:41:35] Okay?

[00:41:36] The fat drips down on the live coals and burns.

[00:41:40] That is half of the flavor of the barbecue.

[00:41:42] You got the smoke from the wood and you got the smoke from the fat.

[00:41:46] And that's the reason you can only make real North Carolina barbecue in a barbecue pit over live coals.

[00:41:53] Any kind of offset smoke or anything like that does not give you the flavor of real North Carolina barbecue.

[00:41:58] There's also no such thing as North Carolina pulled pork.

[00:42:02] I'm sorry, and I hate to bust that myth for you.

[00:42:05] That is a modern marketing term.

[00:42:07] The only time we pull pork in North Carolina is at a pig picking.

[00:42:09] Where you go up to a whole cooked pig and grab a piece you want and tear it off in a chunk.

[00:42:15] There are no such thing as North Carolina style ribs.

[00:42:18] In North Carolina, the old joke is pigs don't have ribs.

[00:42:21] You either have meat pulled by hand off the bone and chopped with cleavers, which is fictitiously called pulled pork.

[00:42:31] It's not.

[00:42:32] You don't even have to pull it off by hand.

[00:42:34] You can just chop it off with a cleaver and then just start hacking on it, okay?

[00:42:37] Or you have sliced pork.

[00:42:39] And my grandfather loved the sliced pork sandwiches.

[00:42:43] I do usually pork shoulders over oak and hickory.

[00:42:46] Sometimes I use cherry or apple or another fruit wood.

[00:42:49] But always oak and.

[00:42:51] So anyway.

[00:42:53] Remember, if you find an oak tree that has good acorns that don't have to be, have the tannins leached out on them before eating.

[00:43:00] Save those acorns.

[00:43:03] Replant those acorns.

[00:43:04] That you may have a noble tree.

[00:43:06] And you definitely have a good source of survival food.

[00:43:10] But those trees can be incredibly valuable.

[00:43:13] People pay tens of thousands of dollars for like a bur oak.

[00:43:18] White oak is actually one that falls in that category.

[00:43:20] They usually have nice big acorns without a lot of tannin.

[00:43:23] But you have to try them from each tree.

[00:43:25] If you find a good one, you've got a very valuable tree, actually.

[00:43:29] Not just from a survival perspective.

[00:43:31] But people actually, you know, you need to stratify those acorns.

[00:43:35] And you can grow them into seedlings.

[00:43:36] You can sell those things for a lot of money.

[00:43:38] If you can prove to somebody that you have good edible acorns.

[00:43:42] Especially in England and Western Europe, they go nuts over them.

[00:43:45] It's really an underutilized resource here in the United States.

[00:43:48] So, yeah.

[00:43:49] Remember that.

[00:43:50] Anyway, y'all.

[00:43:53] I encourage you to go to YouTube.

[00:43:55] Look for a song called Trump Won and You Know It.

[00:43:58] You're going to get a real big kick out of that.

[00:43:59] I know I did.

[00:44:00] There are two versions.

[00:44:01] One from last time where they're saying he really did win the election.

[00:44:04] And then one this time where they say he won it again.

[00:44:07] And the first scene is him driving the garbage truck, you know.

[00:44:10] So, anyway.

[00:44:11] Have a great week.

[00:44:13] And I'll talk to you next time.

[00:44:18] The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition.

[00:44:23] Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA.

[00:44:27] I'm not a doctor.

[00:44:29] The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine.

[00:44:32] And there is no governing body regulating herbalists.

[00:44:35] Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs.

[00:44:37] I'm not offering any advice.

[00:44:39] I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true.

[00:44:43] I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for.

[00:44:45] I can tell you my own experience and if I believe an herb has helped me.

[00:44:49] I cannot nor would I tell you to do the same.

[00:44:51] If you use an herb anyone recommends, you are treating yourself.

[00:44:56] You take full responsibility for your health.

[00:44:58] Humans are individuals and no two are identical.

[00:45:00] What works for me may not work for you.

[00:45:03] You may have an allergy, a sensitivity, an underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about.

[00:45:10] Be careful with your health.

[00:45:12] 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.