Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Sorbus and Bladder Nut

[00:00:00] Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. I hope everybody had a wonderful New Year and a great Christmas. I actually had to miss last week's show because some little virus was going around and my voice went, you know, basically so hoarse. And then I was talking so deep and raspy it was just ridiculous. But getting back to the swing of things this week, we're going to talk about Sorbus Americana.

[00:00:27] That's American Mountain Ash or American Roan. Like, you know, we've talked about certain plants before that used to be very popular as food and medicine plants in early America. Sorbus was one. It used to be planted commonly, it used to be propagated. Now people pretty much forgotten about it. There are 23 varieties of Sorbus that have been found useful in herbal medicine. I'm not going to try to name them all. The only one that's native is the first one.

[00:00:57] It's native to my region. It's American Mountain Ash or American Roan. Now it's rarely seen where I live. It's basically a large member of the Rose family. And it does grow in many parts of the Appalachian Mountains. And like I said, it was once a really important food source and now it's forgotten. So it's a pretty, very pretty tree.

[00:01:23] I would definitely recommend trying to find some and propagate it out of the, what I say, 23 varieties. There are probably some that are going to grow about wherever you live because there's some that are specific to the mountains like Sitka Mountain Ash.

[00:01:40] Or, oh, I guess Western Mountain Ash, I think is maybe a more mountain tree. But then there are also a lot of European varieties. There's a French Mountain Ash. There's a Swedish Ash. There's also Wild Service Berry, which I think would grow most anywhere.

[00:01:58] And there's a Korean variety. So, you know, check it out. You may find one that will work for you.

[00:02:04] It's been described in herbal medicine going back a long time.

[00:02:08] Dioscorides about 2,000 years ago in Greece called the tree Uva, UVA, and said the fruit, when yellowish in color and not quite ripe, cut apart and dry in the sun, is astringent for the bowels.

[00:02:22] So, in other words, it would help stop diarrhea or bleeding or anything like that. And could also be ground up and eaten as a meal.

[00:02:30] I mean, like a corn meal. He said polenta. Of course, back then, they didn't have corn in Greece. They had wheat. So think cream of wheat.

[00:02:41] So it can kind of get that consistency. And taken as a decoction, as a drink, does the same.

[00:02:49] So, Gerard, 1500s England, said service berries are cold and binding and much more when they be hard or not ripe.

[00:03:00] When they are mild and soft, or much more when hard than when they are mild and soft.

[00:03:07] And they do quickly soften. And see, that's why we don't really see them in the store very much.

[00:03:11] Our fruit that we see in grocery stores is made to keep as long as possible.

[00:03:16] You know, it's not grown to be the most flavorful or the most nutritious.

[00:03:19] It's just grown to keep for a long time on the shelves without getting soft and rotten.

[00:03:23] So that's why we don't have pawpaws and a lot of stuff that, you know, our ancestors really would have taken for granted.

[00:03:29] He said they could be aged by hanging in a place which is not altogether cold or laid in hay or chaff.

[00:03:38] And that they would stay hard a little more. They wouldn't ripen as quickly.

[00:03:44] And they could be used for, again, diarrhea and such as that.

[00:03:48] But he thought they were a little fibrous.

[00:03:54] And he thought they could upset the stomach when eaten ripe and said to use them medicinally.

[00:04:01] He said they do stay all manner fluxes of the belly and likewise the bloody flux and also vomiting.

[00:04:07] They staunch bleeding if they be cut and dried in the sun before they be ripe.

[00:04:12] And so reserved for use, they may be used in diverse ways according to the manner of the grief and the grieved part.

[00:04:19] About 100 years later, Culpeper says of the service tree, which in England grows into a pretty large tree.

[00:04:26] And so there's the Mount Nash.

[00:04:27] I've seen great stands of them going up toward Virginia and such.

[00:04:32] He describes it and we don't need to get into that.

[00:04:35] You can just Google it.

[00:04:36] He said that, let's see, when they're not quite ripe, they had an austere, rough taste.

[00:04:42] But when ripe, they're mellow, sweet and pleasant.

[00:04:45] So he did think they were good for food.

[00:04:47] He said, very stringent, good for all kinds of fluxes.

[00:04:52] When unripe, but when ripe, they are not binding.

[00:04:55] He said, even in his time, 1600 Englands, he said the fruit is seldom to be met in our markets.

[00:05:03] For it spoils quickly.

[00:05:05] He recommended growing the service tree or ash, roan, whatever, in the garden and heavily fertilizing it.

[00:05:14] He thought it was a really good plant to grow.

[00:05:17] So, and it is, it's an attractive tree.

[00:05:20] He talks about the color of it and we don't need to get into all that.

[00:05:25] But, under government and virtues, he says, the fruit, as I said, is used for the former.

[00:05:31] Again, astringent, he's talking for diarrhea and such.

[00:05:34] Being of the same nature and rather astringent binding, being good for all kinds of fluxes,

[00:05:40] either blood or humors.

[00:05:41] When ripe, it is pleasant and grateful to the stomach, promoting digestion and preventing a too hasty passage of the food,

[00:05:50] and is commended in fevers, attended with diarrhea.

[00:05:53] If they be dried before they be mellow and kept all the year,

[00:05:57] they may be used in decoctions for the same purpose,

[00:06:01] either to drink or to bathe the parts requiring it,

[00:06:04] and are profitably used in that manner to stay the bleeding of wounds of the mouth or nose,

[00:06:10] or to be applied to the forehead or the nape of the neck.

[00:06:14] So, we'll get into more, what, about 1900 or so.

[00:06:21] Brother Rowan, Swiss herbalist, I believe you're Swiss, yeah.

[00:06:25] He said, Rowan berries are astringent,

[00:06:27] and the sap was formally recommended for vomiting and heavy bleeding.

[00:06:32] About the same time in early America,

[00:06:35] well, not early America, this is 1898,

[00:06:38] so, you know, just about 100 years ago,

[00:06:41] America's not been around that very long, has it?

[00:06:45] The King's Medical Dispensatory was still recommending Rowan or Ash or whatever you want to call it,

[00:06:53] Sorbus, Sorbus is what we really ought to call it,

[00:06:55] that's the Latin name, so there's no confusion,

[00:06:57] but they were still recommended in official medicine.

[00:07:00] It said,

[00:07:01] The ripe fruit of Sorbus, when infused in water,

[00:07:04] furnishes an assiduous and astringent gargle

[00:07:11] for acute diseases of the pharynginal vault and tonsils.

[00:07:15] In other words, it's good for swollen throats,

[00:07:19] especially with excessive secretion, a lot of mucus,

[00:07:23] or it can be excess saliva in some cases.

[00:07:27] The bark and unripe fruit are employed in infusion or decoction and scurvy and diarrhea,

[00:07:32] very high in vitamin C, another reason they were a favored food of our ancestors,

[00:07:37] and topically, to relaxations of anal and vaginal walls and throat,

[00:07:42] in other words, to tighten tissue,

[00:07:43] all with profuse secretion.

[00:07:46] The various stringent qualities of the Sorbus render it a good agent for poultices when one of such characters is desired.

[00:07:55] We've got related species, Pyrus americana, Sorbus americana,

[00:08:03] those are two, they said, that are indigenous to America, resembling the European tree,

[00:08:08] but bearing smaller fruits.

[00:08:09] Both are known as American mountain ash.

[00:08:11] I do think those I saw up to where Blacksburg,

[00:08:14] they had been crossbred with European because the fruit was much larger than I ever see around home.

[00:08:21] Anyway, it could be used somewhat interchangeably with cretageous and crabapple,

[00:08:27] which is interesting, and also chokecherry,

[00:08:32] as both of these species have the properties of Sorbus.

[00:08:36] The Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Central Medicinal Plants tells us,

[00:08:40] American Indians use tea from the ripe fruits for scurvy and worms,

[00:08:45] tea made from the inner bark or buds for colds, debility, boils, diarrhea, tonsillitis,

[00:08:51] also as a blood purifier, appetite stimulant, astringent, and tonic.

[00:08:57] So, that is Sorbus.

[00:08:59] As I said, a mostly forgotten tree.

[00:09:02] Almost entirely forgotten is both food and medicinal.

[00:09:06] One, if you can find it in the woods, spot it,

[00:09:08] you're not going to really have to compete with any people for it,

[00:09:11] just the animals, because most people aren't going to know what it is,

[00:09:14] and the animals do like it, so it's good to scout for game and such.

[00:09:17] But yeah, it'd be really nice, as Culpepper said,

[00:09:20] to incorporate it into your landscape.

[00:09:23] You know what?

[00:09:23] I've got a very short entry for the next tree.

[00:09:26] Let's just go ahead and do this one.

[00:09:28] And it's a bladder nut.

[00:09:30] Five varieties.

[00:09:31] The Latin name is Staphilia.

[00:09:36] There we go.

[00:09:37] Staphilia.

[00:09:38] Staphilia.

[00:09:39] S-T-A-P-H-Y-L-E-A.

[00:09:41] More commonly known as bladder nut.

[00:09:43] That's how I know it.

[00:09:45] And there's only one native to my region,

[00:09:47] although five have been, have documented use in herbal medicine.

[00:09:52] And the one that grows here is Staphilia trifolia,

[00:09:57] or American bladder nut.

[00:09:58] And the only information I could get from it in modern use is from Plants for Future.

[00:10:03] It says an infusion of the powdered bark has been used as a wash for sore faces.

[00:10:09] It doesn't say why your face would be sore.

[00:10:11] Is it a sunburn?

[00:10:12] Is it what?

[00:10:13] I don't know.

[00:10:14] So the seed is edible and said to be quite good.

[00:10:17] And yes, it is a rather good seed.

[00:10:19] But it's another one of those forgotten trees that people don't grow anymore.

[00:10:22] And most people wouldn't even know what a bladder nut is.

[00:10:25] I did find some older use from Resources of the Southern Fields and Forest,

[00:10:34] written in the 1860s.

[00:10:37] At that point, it was found in abundance around Charleston and Newburn.

[00:10:41] So more of a coastal plant.

[00:10:44] Probably a slightly different variety than the one that grows in the mountains around me.

[00:10:49] So I have no idea.

[00:10:50] But he also mentions that in the deep woods of North Carolina and Tennessee,

[00:10:54] it was growing.

[00:10:55] So yeah, probably a couple varieties growing in different places.

[00:10:59] I don't know.

[00:11:01] But he says the outer bark of the oldest shrubs near the root is extremely light and friable

[00:11:08] and absorbs moisture.

[00:11:09] It has been used with advantage as a substitute for a Garrick and other styptics.

[00:11:14] In other words, it could be used to stop bleeding.

[00:11:18] He said that,

[00:11:18] I learned that it is much confided in this purpose by those living in the Darlington District of South Carolina.

[00:11:25] Darlington is over near Florence, if you know where that is.

[00:11:28] When rubbed on the hand, it produces a sensation similar to that produced by the application of an astringent fluid.

[00:11:35] It has also been applied to ulcers when the indication is to cauterize them.

[00:11:42] This plant merits further attention.

[00:11:46] And let's see.

[00:11:48] Also was found in the pine barrens and swamps going into Florida and Georgia.

[00:11:52] That's cool.

[00:11:54] The stems, when dried, are found to suit admirably for pipe stems.

[00:11:59] So you could make a pipe out of it with a heated wire being passed through the pith.

[00:12:03] So they must have a very soft pith.

[00:12:06] Much used by our soldiers in camps.

[00:12:09] And now 1868 becoming, to some extent, an article of trade.

[00:12:15] So, the Confederate soldiers were harvesting probably the root to use as a styptic for wounds.

[00:12:21] And were making pipe stems in the evenings.

[00:12:24] And trading with people for food and whatever else they needed.

[00:12:28] So, interesting history.

[00:12:29] Interesting plant.

[00:12:30] And, yeah, it's another one of those that we probably ought to bring back.

[00:12:35] I mean, we probably ought to kind of reintroduce this into modern use.

[00:12:38] Because it is tasty, actually.

[00:12:40] All right, y'all.

[00:12:41] I am going to wrap it up there.

[00:12:43] Have a great week.

[00:12:45] And I'll talk to you next time.

[00:12:48] The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition.

[00:12:54] Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA.

[00:12:58] I'm not a doctor.

[00:12:59] The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine.

[00:13:03] And there is no governing body regulating herbalists.

[00:13:06] Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs.

[00:13:08] I'm not offering any advice.

[00:13:09] I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true.

[00:13:13] I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for.

[00:13:16] I can tell you my own experience and if I believe in herbs help me.

[00:13:19] I cannot nor would I tell you to do the same.

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