Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Witch Hazel

[00:00:00] Hey y'all, welcome to today's show. We'll continue with our series on the medicinal uses of trees. And this one you may know about, okay? You may remember the medicinal use of this small tree from childhood.

[00:00:16] It used to be that every single medicine cabinet in the United States, probably Canada and England, and who knows where else, would have included a bottle of witch hazel. Witch hazel is an incredibly useful plant.

[00:00:34] It's one that if it's not already growing on your property, you're going to want it going right away. I consider it one of the essential medicinal trees and it certainly was considered as an essential medicinal tree by our ancestors.

[00:00:49] Now I know in my grandparents' medicine cabinet they certainly had witch hazel. It was often used, well it was used for many things. It's very stringent, but it was often used for cuts and such,

[00:01:02] and scrapes and skin knees and dog bites and everything that I got into as a kid on the farm. We had one horse that was really, man, that was one mean horse. And she would bite you right in the stomach.

[00:01:19] I'll never forget that. And then going in and having witch hazel put, oh my gosh, that was not pleasant. Of course we had mean roosters and the pigs would kill you, I mean seriously. So I was always more careful around them. But that one horse, my gosh.

[00:01:40] And many other things kids get into. I was always hitting my thumb with a hammer or cutting myself on a knife or just skinning my knees or falling off a bike. Oh, and the cats. We had all kinds of cats around the barn.

[00:01:53] Wild, basically wild cats that just lived on the property. Of course I'd always go try to play with them and just get scratched up, just sliced to ribbons. So it seemed like I was always having alcohol, peroxide, witch hazel or pine extract.

[00:02:10] That was actually really popular in North Carolina because pine was once our main industry. It was used to make tar to seal ships. It was also used for turpentine and also an astringent antiseptic,

[00:02:24] very good pine-all turpentine oil if I remember the little bottle that used to sit there. But I got slathered down with every antiseptic you could imagine. Iodine, what was that, methylate? That was the one that would really stain your skin.

[00:02:42] It was mainly used for the animals on the farm but it was often used on me. But I remember witch hazel was also used in compresses, soaked into a cloth and put on the throat

[00:02:53] if you had a sore throat or swollen glands. So it was just ubiquitous at the farm, at my grandparents' house. I can still see that little metal medicine cabinet with a mirror on the front over the sink,

[00:03:10] just an old-fashioned cast iron sink. You'd open it up and there would be bare aspirin, turpentine, witch hazel, bottle of peroxide, little capsules of methylate and different things, band-aids and gauze, everything that was necessary for minor cuts and scratches and wounds and sore throats

[00:03:35] and even hemorrhoids. That's another use for witch hazel. Laxatives, my grandmother was a big old laxative, they were always in there. You name it. I guess maybe kids don't grow up like that anymore. In this era of whenever something happens, run to the emergency room.

[00:03:56] Maybe kids don't grow up like that anymore and maybe that's one of the reasons I got into herbal medicine because home remedies were just constant. There was always something my grandmother had on hand

[00:04:10] or my mother had on hand or my great-grandmother had on hand. She doctored her whole family, big family. She raised a bunch of kids, mostly boys. She was a spitfire. She encouraged them to fight.

[00:04:24] She loved watching a good fight and she raised a family of very tough boys, two daughters who were tough as nails as well. By the time they entered the military, each of them probably broken three or four bones,

[00:04:39] had home-done stitches from being sliced open by farm implements or by fighting, had teeth knocked out. She was something. I love my great-grandmother and my great-grandfather. But she was tough. Her father was like an old west style gunfighter.

[00:05:02] He was a guy that would, you know, he was an actual gunfighter. He was somewhat of a criminal and a gambler and bootlegger. Somebody crossed him. Meet out on the street, pull your guns and fight it out. That was just following the Civil War.

[00:05:22] She was almost 100 years old when she passed away. Her father was a real tough SOB. They called him Devil Jim in 1890 or so. 1880, 1890 after the Civil War when there was just chaos.

[00:05:38] There was no money and people were starving. He was a big strong man quick with a gun. There's one picture of him. One picture of him. He had the coldest eyes you've ever seen.

[00:05:54] You would not mess with that man. He was surrounded by his dogs. He had hunting dogs. You know, and picture of him in a black suit with a white shirt. Like a Henley style shirt. They didn't have collars back then. He was more than likely part Lumbee Indian.

[00:06:13] He had jet black hair and eyes. They were just cold dead eyes. Very scary man actually. So you can imagine my great-grandmother would have been aware of every kind of home remedy

[00:06:29] whatsoever because she grew up in a time when the South was dirt poor. Everybody was at starvation level poverty. Whatever remedy you had was what you did at home. Being probably part Indian as well which she would never admit to.

[00:06:45] So I can't say for sure. If you knew her, just imagine Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies. That's what she looked like when I knew her in her 80s and 90s. Great cook. My gosh that woman could cook. They had everything right there on the farm.

[00:07:06] Lard from the hogs, milk and butter, milk and butter from the cows. Full garden. Great grandfather kept bees and cured hams and made sausage. I mean he was a food lover's paradise. Honestly he was French and he brought that whole tradition of curing meats into the family.

[00:07:24] She made all, I mean every evening was sitting there shelling beans and peas or she'd be making preserves and jams and jellies or baking. Just that little farm was paradise for me. Paradise for me.

[00:07:38] But if you think she had mellowed in her 90s you would be quite mistaken. In fact my great grandfather probably faked deafness for the last 20 years of his life because he just got tired of arguing with her.

[00:07:52] Anyway, and I mean you wanted to have chicken for dinner. She just went outside, grabbed a chicken, wrung its neck, plucked it and that was your dinner. There was no illusions of how food got to the table let me tell you.

[00:08:15] Anyway, let's get into witch hazel. And there was a witch hazel bush right there on the property. That was the other way I got to know witch hazel.

[00:08:25] Witch hazel, it is native to America and was used widely by Native Americans and was one of the first medicinal plants recognized by the early settlers. Miss Grieve writing in 1930s in England really liked witch hazel. She wrote a lot about it.

[00:08:45] She said, the properties of the leaves and bark are similar. A stringent tonic sedative valuable in checking internal and external hemorrhage. They help stop bleeding which is one of the reasons it was used on me a lot.

[00:08:57] I used to get cut or break fingers and toes and such all the time. I was always walking around with band-aids on. I was just always getting into trouble and always doing things that I wasn't big enough to do and getting hurt and getting torn up.

[00:09:16] I was that kind of kid and I wish all kids could have that experience. As we said, the leaves and bark are similar. A stringent tonic sedative valuable in checking internal and external hemorrhage.

[00:09:29] And most efficacious in the treatment of piles. A good painkiller for the same. Piles being hemorrhoids as I mentioned. Useful for bruises and inflammatory swelling. It's not as good as arnica but real good for bruises and swellings. Also useful for diarrhea, dysentery and mucus discharges.

[00:09:47] It has long been used by the North American Indians as poultice for painful swellings and tumors. A decoction has been utilized for incipient... That's a word I cannot pronounce. It's P-H-T-H-I-S-I-S. You try saying that one.

[00:10:08] Ophthalmia, that's one of the swelling of the eyes. Gleat which is actually a vaginal discharge. Mineragia and debilitating states resulting from abortion. And actually what they mean is from miscarriage.

[00:10:20] The tea made from the leaves or bark may be taken freely with advantage being good for bleeding of the stomach and in complaints of the bowels. An injection of this tea is excellent for inward bleeding piles. In other words like enema made from a tea of witch hazel.

[00:10:40] The relief being marvelous and the cure speedy. That's actually one of the main reasons it was used in earlier times. An ointment made of a part fluid extract, one part fluid extract of the bark to nine parts simple ointment is also used as a local application.

[00:10:58] What does that mean? That means a bark extract basically mixed with any carrying fat or waxy substance or anything you could use as an ointment.

[00:11:11] Even honey. Honey was what people used to use a lot and that would not be a pleasant way to use honey I don't think.

[00:11:18] Also used as a local application the concentration of Hama Malen, that's the actual extract of witch hazel, being also employed mainly in the form of suppositories. Witch hazel has been supposed to owe its utility to an action on the muscular fiber of the veins.

[00:11:38] The distilled extract from fresh leaves and young twigs forms an excellent remedy for internal or external uses being beneficial for bleeding from the lungs and nose.

[00:11:48] As well as from other internal organs. In the treatment of varicose veins it should be applied with, that's yeah another very common use for witch hazel in earlier times was for varicose veins.

[00:12:00] And they said basically apply it with a cloth bandage which must be constantly kept moist. A pad of witch hazel applied to a burst varicose vein will stop the bleeding and often save life by its instant application.

[00:12:14] This is one of the reasons I consider witch hazel to be one of the essential trees. Okay.

[00:12:22] There was at this time a patented extract of witch hazel called Pond's extract and she says in 1931 I think, this was much used in our grandmother's days as a general household remedy for burns, scalds, inflammatory conditions of the skin, and is still in general use.

[00:12:40] It certainly was in my grandmother's house. In the case of insects and mosquitoes, absolutely all I remember that. In the case of insects and mosquitoes, a pad of cotton wool moistened with the extract and applied to the spot will soon cause the pain and swelling to subside.

[00:12:55] Now this was eastern North Carolina in the swamps y'all. If you have never, if you think you've experienced mosquitoes, go hang out in eastern North Carolina in the swamps.

[00:13:05] I would often have hundreds of mosquito bites just from being briefly outside and was just slathered down with witch hazel. And it does the trick. Absolutely does the trick. Diluted with warm water, the extract is used for inflammation of the eyelids.

[00:13:22] And she says, this was 1931, unfortunately in modern times witch hazel was seen as little more than a weedy shrub but that certainly should not be the case. I agree. Like I said to me this was one of the essentials.

[00:13:34] So looking at, you know really more my family's tradition, this is from Resources of Southern Fields and Forests which was written in the 1860s.

[00:13:47] And he speaks of Hamalashi-A, which is the witch hazel tribe. There actually are several, well a few, there are a few varieties of witch hazel. They're somewhat interchangeable.

[00:13:59] He says that this order is found, this is written by botanists by the way so it's going to be a little more formal, found in northern parts of America, Japan and China. So it wasn't native to Europe at all.

[00:14:11] In my examination of the various authorities on the subject, I have frequently been struck with the corresponding, correspondence prevailing between the species found in South Carolina and those of Japan.

[00:14:23] So our native witch hazel is very much like the Japanese. And he says that especially in the respects of medical botany of the two, of the medical botany of the two,

[00:14:35] and that the flowers were very similar. And it has a really neat flower. If you've never really experienced been around a witch hazel bush, I think you'll find it really unique, interesting, ornamental.

[00:14:50] It really does belong in landscape. It's certainly not a weedy shrub as Ms. Grieve said. He tells about where he had founded in Charleston and different places in North Carolina and such.

[00:15:04] And he says it is said to be sedative, astringent, tonic and the bark was a remedy derived from the Indians who applied it to painful tumors using it to coxswain as a wash in inflammatory swellings.

[00:15:16] Painful hemorrhoidal affections and ophthalmolias so very much like Ms. Grieve said. A cataplasm, it's basically a poultice and tea of the leaves is astringent. The, oh, it's also used as a steam for various things, but especially hemorrhoids. But also for pains attending childbirth.

[00:15:38] Again, it's astringent. It tightens up tissue and is anti-inflammatory. No analysis has been made, but it probably contains sedative and astringent properties. Let's see if he has anything else interesting here.

[00:15:53] This is really, yeah, witch hazel was believed to be one of the best woods for making divining rods and they thought it actually had an electromagnetic conductive property. They were actually really investigating this in the 1800s. Now it's considered superstition.

[00:16:13] It's still practiced in the Appalachian Mountains and having seen it myself, I can't explain it.

[00:16:19] Okay, certain people, and it's not everybody, seems to be a genetic quality, seem to be able to find underground water, okay, wells where there's no spring, there's no sign of a well by taking basically a wishbone shaped piece of wood

[00:16:36] holding the, you know, the white shaped ends in either hand with the long end pointing straight. And when they walk, when they come near where water's underground, the stick will suddenly dip down and point straight down at the water.

[00:16:50] As I said, I don't know how this works. I've seen people hold the stick so loosely they cannot be exerting any influence over it with their fingers, and I've seen it happen.

[00:17:03] There are things in this world I do not understand. They used to call them water witches. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with witchcraft whatsoever. It just seems that God gave certain people special abilities.

[00:17:15] Witch Hazel was considered to be one of the very best, if not the best, water witching wands or divining wands as they used to call them. Now you may think I'm crazy, but if I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't believe it either.

[00:17:32] So anyway, the quote say Dr. James Fountain from Peekskill, New York, who speaks highly of the efficaciousness of the bark and hemorrhage of the lung and stomach and also is one of the best applications for external piles, hemorrhoids again, an ointment being prepared from lard.

[00:17:51] So in this one he said a concoction of equal parts of the bark, white oak bark, and that the apple tree was mixed with lard.

[00:17:58] And that would be an excellent stringent ointment actually. White oak, very stringent, you know, used in tanning, the galls are used in tanning leather. And apple tree also very stringent so I can definitely see why this one would work.

[00:18:14] He goes on and on about different doctors who've come up with different concoctions using witch hazel. And Dr. Durham, no, see, Dr. Professor Davis said it was useful for preventing miscarriage. So I don't know, maybe worth looking into, but I'm not recommending it.

[00:18:36] He quotes a Dr. Durham that said it was so powerful to prevent miscarriage that the decoction of the leaves of witch hazel could even be used when someone had taken an herb that could cause a miscarriage, even very powerful herbs.

[00:18:54] Again, worth looking into, I cannot attest to that. He said that he began to use it when he ran out of viburnum. We've talked about viburnum before. It talks about the amount of tannin in the plant and that could be also used for curing tanning leather and such.

[00:19:15] And we get to the Thompsonians, which, you know, 34 years later. Dr. Thompson himself wrote, I found the use of this article as medicine when I was quite young and have made much use of it in all my practice.

[00:19:33] It is too well known in the country you need any description. It is a small tree or bush and grows very commonly, especially in new lands, newly tilled lands, newly cleared, I should say.

[00:19:44] A tea made from the leaves is an excellent medicine in many complaints and may be freely used to advantage.

[00:19:49] It is the best thing for bleeding at the stomach of any article I've ever found, either by giving it as a tea made from the dry leaves or chewing them in green. That's interesting. I have cured several with it.

[00:20:02] This complaint is caused by a canker eating off the small blood vessels and this medicine will remove the canker and stop the bleeding. Wow. I have made much use of the tea, made strong for injection and found in all the complaints of the bowels to be very serviceable.

[00:20:19] So again we're talking about enema. An injection made of this tea with a little, well, an injection made of this tea is very good for the piles and many complaints common to females. And in bearing down pains it will afford immediate relief if properly administered.

[00:20:37] These leaves may be used to good advantage as a substitute for other articles or alone for the same purpose. So again he would combine it with other herbs but also good by itself. He said the leaves and twigs are pleasant, reliable, mild, soothing, diffusive, stimulating, astringent and tonic.

[00:20:53] It chiefly induces the influences of the mucous membranes. Locally it is used in gonorrhea and Gleat. The distilled non-alcoholic extract is best for this purpose. In the treatment of gonorrhea it gives the best results and no urethral contractions follow its use.

[00:21:11] In lucorrhea it stimulates and tones the uterus and vagina. In dysentery and diarrhea it may be used alone or in conjunction with other remedies as per his further instructions. He says it is a very good remedy in hemorrhages, either rectal, cystic or uterine.

[00:21:29] It is valuable in the treatment of catarra that's congestion in any part of the system, whether vaginal or nasal. To the nose it can be applied with a nebulizer or atomizer and to the womb on cotton. It is of use in treatment of anal prolapse and rectal hemorrhage.

[00:21:45] It is of use in sore eyes as a wash and has no bad effect on the eyes. This remedy is indicated in all sores or bleeding surfaces, no matter what their nature may be.

[00:21:55] By bearing this in mind the physician can make no mistake it is also indicated in all irritations. But this comes under the property of healing of sores. The dose Tincture being, well we don't need to get into that.

[00:22:10] He says the use of this remedy leaves absolutely no ill effects. By 1900, 1898 it was still listed in the King's American Medical Dispenser Regulatory. I believe it could continue to be an official pharmacological product in America well into at least the 50s, probably 60s.

[00:22:33] They say witch hazel is tonic and astringent. Some have pronounced it sedative also. The decoction of the bark is very useful in hematopsis, hematomesis and other hemorrhages as well as in diarrhea dysentery. Excessive mucus discharges with full, pale and relaxed tissue.

[00:22:51] It has been employed with advantage in that thing I can't pronounce again. There's no way I'm ever going to be able to pronounce that. Thank goodness I don't have dentures or a lisp or something. I'd be spitting all over myself.

[00:23:06] It is useful in the form of a poultice and swellings and tumors of a painful character as well as in external inflammation. The American Indians used it for this purpose.

[00:23:20] The decoction may be advantageously used as a wash or injection for sore mouth, painful tumors, external inflammation, bowel complaints, anal prolapse, in uterine prolapse, lucorrhea, glee and ophthalmalia.

[00:23:34] Since the introduction of the distilled extract of witch hazel, the use of the decoction of the bark has been largely abandoned. By 1898 they were already using the official distilled extract of witch hazel as opposed to the tea.

[00:23:48] They say the fluid extract was less powerful and we don't need to get into that. But they said it was useful for varicose veins and soaks and washes and poultices and etc. Anything where you might need a good astringent. They get into a lot of medical studies.

[00:24:10] Witch hazel being found valuable for hemorrhages, congestion, etc. Chronic laryngitis even, uterine congestion. This goes on quite a ways. I'd be reading this for an hour before I cut through all the uses of witch hazel around 1900.

[00:24:33] Specific indication used for venous stability with relaxation and fullness against basically varicose veins. Pale mucus tissue, mucus profluvia with venous relaxation, passive hemorrhages, varicosis, capillary stasis, hemorrhoids, painful sore throat, dull aching pain in rectum, pelvis or female organs.

[00:24:56] Perineal relaxation with fullness, muscular relaxation, muscular soreness and aching and bruise sensation. Whether from cold exposure, bruises, strains or from physical exertion. So anywhere you've got a swelling, a pain, a cut, a bruise, anywhere you need an astringent. It's really pretty darn useful. We'll get into modern use.

[00:25:20] I'm going to try to wrap this up. I know I'm going along with this one. Witch hazel, Plants for Future States. Witch hazel is a traditional herb of the North American Indians who used it to heal wounds, treat tumors for eye problems, etc.

[00:25:32] It is a very common, it is a very astringent herb. It is commonly used in the West and is widely available from both herbalists and chemists. So still being, well yeah you can still find it at the drug store. That's all they mean.

[00:25:44] They don't mean specifically from the pharmacy. English call it any kind of drug store chemist by the way. It is an important ingredient of a proprietary eye drops, skin creams, ointments and skin tonics.

[00:25:56] It is widely used as an external application to bruises, sore muscles, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, sore nipples, inflammations, etc. The bark is astringent, haemostatic, sedative and tonic. Tanins in the bark are believed to be responsible for these astringent and haemostatic properties.

[00:26:13] Bottled witch hazel water is a steam distillate that does not contain the tannins from the shrub. This is less effective in action than a tincture, so better to make your own tincture.

[00:26:23] The bark is used internally in the treatment of diarrhea, colitis, dysentery, hemorrhoids, vaginal discharge, excessive menstruation, internal bleeding and prolapsed organs. Branches and twigs are harvested for the bark in the spring.

[00:26:36] An infusion of the leaves is used to reduce inflammations, treat hemorrhoids and internal hemorrhage and eye inflammation. The leaves are harvested in the summer and can be dried for later use.

[00:26:46] A homeopathic remedy is made from the fresh bark and is used in the treatment of nosebleeds, piles and varicose veins. Botany in a day says, hamamelis, which is witch hazel. Medicinally, the leaves and bark contain tannic acid.

[00:27:00] Witch hazel has long been used as an astringent in the typical ways internally for sore throats and diarrhea, externally for stings, minor burns, hemorrhoids. Native Americans use the T as a liniment for athletes. Very common, especially with the Cherokee.

[00:27:16] They had a very rough ball game and they got hurt a lot playing that thing. I'm sort of a rite of passage for boys. And finally we go to the physician's desk reference for herbal medicine.

[00:27:28] It tells us the tannins and tannin elements have an astringent anti-inflammatory and locally hemostatic effect. Indications and uses approved by the commission. Hemorrhoids, inflammation of the mouth and pharynx. Another word I have trouble with. P-H-A-R-Y-N-X. It's part of your throat and I have trouble pronouncing it.

[00:27:53] That's the leaf only being used for that. Inflammation of the skin, venous conditions, wounds and burns.

[00:28:00] Under unproven uses they say witch hazel, leaf and bark are used internally in folk medicine for nonspecific diarrhea such as inflammation of the mucous membrane of the large intestine and colon, hematases, hematopsis and also for menstrual complaints.

[00:28:16] Efficacy and treatment of diarrhea seems plausible because of the tannin content. Witch hazel is used externally for milder injuries of the skin, localized inflamed swellings of the skin and mucous membranes, hemorrhoids and varicose veins.

[00:28:29] It is also used in folk medicine for inflammation of the mucosa of the colon. Precautions and adverse reactions. Health risks following proper administration of designated therapeutic doses are not recorded if taken internally. The tannin content of the drug can lead to digestive complaints.

[00:28:46] Liver damage is conceivable following a long-term administration but rare or actually undocumented. Conceivable they said, not really documented. So y'all, that wraps up. Witch hazel, which as I said, very pretty ornamental bush. I consider it certainly in the top ten of all medicinal trees to have around.

[00:29:11] And you know maybe someday if you get some tincture of this going, make some tease of it, you know your grandkids will be remembering the witch hazel tincture or extract that was in the medicine cabinet in your home.

[00:29:26] I can only hope that will be the case as those are actually pretty good memories even though it was usually used to treat cuts and bruises and sprains and bug bites and sore throats and diarrhea and everything else, right?

[00:29:39] All right y'all have a good one and I'll talk to you next time. I'm not a doctor. The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and there is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs.

[00:30:04] 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 herbs have been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience and if I believe in herbs help me.

[00:30:16] 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.

[00:30:30] You may have an allergy, a sensitivity, an 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,

[00:30:43] do your own research, make your own choices and not to blame me for anything ever.