MEDICAL MONDAY: Herbal Medicine for Preppers - Persimmon, Chinese Fir, and Swamp Titi

Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. We will continue our series on medicinal trees. I'm actually going to be able to do three today, because the first two are very brief. It's not a lot of use for them, and one of them is a little hard to find. The other one, the third, is going to be persimmon, which American persimmon grows pretty widespread range. You can probably find it in most places, maybe not the deserts, but it's a pretty common tree. Very important fruit to early America. And, you know, these days it's very underappreciated. It's actually quite delicious, and it has some really good medicinal uses. But we'll start with Cunninghamia lancelotta. Now, that's known as Chinese fir. It's naturalized in my region. It's not native. And all I know about this is Plants for the Future says that Chinese fir is antidote and carminative. A decoction of the wood is... is used in the treatment of varnish poisoning caused by a species of ruis. I guess that's like poison sumac, maybe. Couldn't find any more information on that. Search for it, but anyway. More commonly used for chronic ulcers and hernias. Essential oil from the plant has been used to treat bruises and pain, rheumatism, and wounds. So it's essentially used as a soak or diluted essential oil externally, good for inflammation and bruising. And the ash of the bark is used to treat burns, scalds, and wounds. And a decoction of the cone of the fir tree is used to treat coughs. So mostly external use, apparently some internal use. And I'm thinking that, well, they say used in the treatment of varnish use, poisoning from a species of Ruus. That's going to be used as a wash as well. I don't think that's going to be used internally. You know, it's a rash, basically. So, the other one is Cirilla racemiflora, commonly known as SwapTiti, that's T-I-T-I, in case you have any questions. It's an American plant only. There's only one one member of this genus. In stark contrast to the hawthorn we discussed last week, this is the only one, the only member of the genus Cyrella, C-Y-R-I-L-L-A. And its range is limited to the Americas. As I said, it grows in coastal swamps, extending about as far as the Piedmont or the center of any state on the coast. It's an attractive plant. Has white flowers and shiny evergreen leaves and the medicinal use is very limited, but it's important. The bark is both absorbent and astringent. So it's a, if you can get some, if you can find some, it's one of the most useful plants to help stop bleeding because it will both astringe that tissue, shrink the capillaries to stop the bleeding and absorb and help with clotting. Now, the main one we're going to get into is the common persimmon. Latin name for that is Diaspiros virginiana. Yeah, as close as I'm going to get to it, Diaspiros. But virginiana just means it was originally discovered in Virginia, and it would have been among the very first edible fruit trees that European settlers, you know, probably Jamestown colony, found. And they are quite delicious. Versamon, it's found in Various forms. Sometimes the trees can be bigger or smaller. Of course, you have your Asian persimmons, which are much larger. Our native variety is a small fruit, oh, about the size of a, I don't know, a marble, you know. Very different from the Asian persimmons in the grocery store, by the way. Our persimmons are an excellent fruit. They're mild and they're absolutely sugary sweet, but only when ripe. Now, if you've ever eaten... Hey, an unripe persimmon, you know it is like the most bitter thing on the face of the earth. It will pucker your mouth. Ripe persimmons are absolutely delicious eaten fresh out of hand, baked into a fruit bread or cake. One of my favorite ways to use them. When you do that, you want to take those perfectly ripe. I mean, these persimmons are turned purple now. They're not soft pink. They can be a little pinky purple. The purpler and mushier they are, the riper and sweeter they are. But they have these little seeds and specks, little brown specks inside. And if you cook them into a preserve or anything, cook them in a bread, that will make them just as bitter as they were when they were unripe. So you have to press them through a sieve, a tea strainer, any kind of screen to remove those specks and seeds. And then you have just like the sweetest, most delicious fruit there is. Really popular in early America. They would make them into breads, mostly. And when the breads got stale and dried, they'd break them up and blow them in water and make a persimmon beer out of them. It was just a real staple. People prized these scrubby little trees, and they kept people from starving. And, I mean, throughout the Revolution and Civil War, they kept our ancestors alive. But now people don't really value them. I mean, they look at them as, you know, a tree to get rid of, which is ridiculous. It's a small tree about the size of a dogwood, usually. Likes the edges of the woods and can usually be found around old fields and rose sides. It grows crooked and knobbly. I mean, really, modern ignorance is the only reason we don't value this tree as much as we used to. Oh, and the persimmon, the fruit ripens later than any other fruit that I'm aware of. Traditionally, it's said that you shouldn't eat persimmons until after the first frost. Problem with that is that many will be lost to deer and raccoons and possums by that time because they don't mind them being a little bit bitter. But still, I do rate to harvest them. But hey, those are, I mean, I scout those trees also for game. I mean, the deer that will stand on their hind legs and eat persimmons, the squirrels that get all over there, raccoons and possums are very, they're very best if they've been feeding on persimmons. as opposed to other times of year when they might be feeding on trash or something, right? They just kind of pull off easily from the stem. They'll drop on their own with any little bit of breeze. And, you know, I love them. Honestly, I really enjoy gathering. Go out on like a chilly October afternoon and bring them in. And, I mean, the smell of the dry hardwood leaves, it's nice, you know. um, and you can scout for game and such. And, um, the, um, like I said, definitely, uh, remove those seeds, definitely remove the seeds and, um, the, um, the specs. That's the only way I know to, to describe them. If you're going to cook them, if you're just eating them fresh out of hand, just don't eat the seeds, but, uh, they combine really well with pumpkin, uh, pumpkin and persimmon bread. Fantastic. Sweet potatoes and pumpkins, uh, raisins dried cranberries you know uh really um our ancestors at least where i live used to live off possums and raccoons and um a big they'd actually you know catch possums and raise them in cages or a pit out back like chickens to make sure that they had been eating clean and have a good flavor and they would feed them persimmons apples uh maybe some pecans and such and really the um I guess the most traditional way of cooking a raccoon or a possum. Well, raccoon often is grilled, like basically barbecued, but roast in the oven with, you know, sweet potatoes and persimmons and, you know, apples and such a set. And the fat, you know, kind of mixes in there and makes a really nice sauce. You get a little sweet and savory with some onions. And, you know, that was, that was a, a dish that would be on anybody's table with some cornbread from, I mean, George Washington loved his persimmons and wild game. And it would have been, you know, a more small game or it could have been a deer roast or maybe a turkey stuffed with the same ingredients or a bear roast or something. But yeah, I mean, he was real big into persimmon as a fruit and persimmon beer. In fact, in think, if I'm not mistaken, Martha Washington's cookbook, there's a persimmon beer recipe. So, I mean, you know, it was just, it was a ubiquitous fruit in early America. But let's get into the medicinal uses. And also, I gotta say, persimmon leaves are beautiful. They turn bright red. I mean, if you don't have one of these trees growing on your property, plant one, you're gonna be really glad you did. Really, really glad you did. King's American Dispensatory of 1898 tells us, medicinal uses are Tonic and astringent. The bark has been used in intermittence. That means it helps with malarial fevers. It would be a substitute for quinine. That's another one of those things we want to look at, you know, with COVID and different pandemics or whatever threatening. Both it and the unripe fruit have been beneficial in various forms of disease of the bowels, chronic dysentery, uterine hemorrhages, it says stringent. It, you know, tightens up the tissue, stops bleeding or diarrhea or, you know, whatever. Used in infusion, syrup, or a venous tincture. The proportion of one ounce of the bruised fruit to two fluid ounces. That's going to be basically take some vodka and steep some fruit in it, okay? That's all they're saying. I mean, it sounds fancy, but it's actually... A doctor would have done that. A pharmacist would have done that. It would be just that simple. So one ounce of bruised fruit to two fluid ounces of the vehicle, they say, which actually means like a high-proof vodka. I used to use regular 80 proof, 40%. But, you know, they would have had access to, well, you can use Everclear if you want. I don't think it's necessary. Just use a little more fruit, you know, if need be. The infusion may be used as a gargle for an ulcerated sore throat. One fluid... no, a half fluid ounce or more given to adults, a little bit less for infants essentially, when the ripe fruit is very palatable, palatable, that means it's tasty, as it matures at a time when the fruits are generally departing for the season, means all the other fruits are gone, that's when persimmons are coming in, the cultivation of this tree would be a valuable asset, Addition to our autumnal fruits. They even said this in a medical journal. They were encouraging people to grow persimmons. And they put it as an end note. A kind of brandy is obtained by distillation of the fermented infusion. In other words, you can make persimmon wine and then what they consider to be a brandy so nice, this was put in an actual official American dispensatory, which is what pharmacists and doctors would have used. So that's how valued the tree was by our ancestors. According to Plants for a Future, persimmon is an appetizer. It means the slight bitterness of the fruit, even when fully ripe, it does have a slight bitterness which balances out the sugary sweetness. It stimulates appetite. The stem bark is astringent and styptic. The fruit is said to have different properties depending on the stage of ripeness, though it is generally antitussive, which means it helps stop cough. astringent, laxative, nutritive, and stomatic. So nutritious and good for the stomach. It has plenty of fiber. The fresh fully ripe fruit is used raw in the treatment of constipation and hemorrhoids. And when cooked, it's used for diarrhea. The dried ripe fruit is used in the treatment of bronchial complaints. I totally forgot to even mention about drying the fruit. That was a staple for early America. They would take those perfectly ripe persimmons, get the seeds out, open them up and let them dry, usually over like a wood stove or near the fireplace. And that would have been just a staple in cooking throughout the winter. Keep vitamin C in the system, some fiber when they needed it, and they can make those fruitcakes. And, you know, fruitcakes get a really bad rap these days because we think of that like weird neon colored, disgusting stuff. They still in stores around Christmas. Real fruitcakes are dried fruits and nuts and honey. And, um, cooked into a good cake with a lot of butter and soaked down in brandy uh really truly well definitely with walnuts and pecans one of the very best things and uh honestly if you don't like fruitcake um get an old recipe from before they started using that nasty neon colored citron crap and cook one of those bake one of those get your wife to bake one of those if you don't bake going to be one of the best things you've ever eaten. And that was the ancient power bar. When my ancestors under King Richard Lionheart marched into the Crusades, they carried fruitcakes with them. They were totally preserved in the brandy. And they were full of calories. And a real nice treat. I mean, they were valued more than gold. They were full of the fruits and nuts and spices like clove and and cinnamon and various imported spices that they could get, and soaked down with brandy, and usually dipped in wine as they were eaten. And, I mean, yeah, that was a camp meal. I could get behind that, seriously. Honestly, that is one of my favorite things, is an honest-to-God real fruitcake. Not that crap in the grocery store. That is as far from being a real fruitcake as, I don't know, Taylor Swift is from being Donald Trump. I mean, yeah. Anyway, but the dried fruits were used to treat cough, and the juice from the unripe fruit was said to be a treatment for hypertension. I don't know how anybody could get that down, but I guess if you had really high blood pressure, it was worth a try. The fruits picked green and ripened and contained The fruits pick green and ripen in containers with the leaves, become very sweet, and are considered to be anti-febrile, anti-venous, and a demulcent. So I have not tried actually artificially ripening the fruits. I'll do that this year. Get some green fruits and put them in a jar with the leaves, and apparently they ripen just like they would on the tree. That's a great tip. Anti-febrile means it would help with the fevers, and anti... Well, demulcent, softening, I think we covered the other before. The fruits are also peeled and then exposed to sunlight by day and dew by night. Wow, never heard of that either. If you do that, they become encrusted with a white powder and are then considered to be antithelmetic, antihemorrhagic, and antivenous expectorant, febrifusion restorative. Well, that's interesting. That white powder would likely be yeast. You know, there's yeast in the air. That's kind of how you start a sourdough starter. You can either use the white powder off of grapes or you're getting yeast from the air. And, yeah, people did used to do that. Let the dew, evening dew, get on it. It's not done much anymore. But that's very interesting. Apparently that yeast has some additional properties as well. And the peduncle... is used to treat coughs and hiccups. I don't even know what a peduncle is. Part of a plant. The calyx is used to treat hiccups, and that's part of the flower. Peterson Field Guide of the Eastern and Central Medicinal Plants tells us the inner bark tea is highly astringent. In folk use, it's used as a gargle for sore throats and thrush, like that rash that you can get if you take too many antibiotics. Bark tea, once used as a folk remedy for stomach aches, heartburn, diarrhea, dysentery, and uterine hemorrhage. The bark tea was used as a wash or poultice for warts and cancers. By they mean ulcerated sores, they don't mean like actual cancer. Fruits, edible but astringent before ripening, best after frost. Seed oil is suggestive of peanut oil in flavor. Now, that's interesting as well. I never thought of using the seed to make an oil. It says warning contains tannins and could be potentially toxic in large amounts. And that would be really large amounts. I mean, there are tannins in everything from apple skins to grape juice, wine, you know. Tannins are just tannic acid. But, you know, if you used enough to where you could like tan leather, yeah, that would not be good for you. So, very, very useful tree. Had totally not thought about using the seeds. Press them for oil. It's a really good idea. Another traditional folk use of persimmon is to cut the seed in half and use that to predict the weather. It was said to tell you how bad the winter was going to be. So, lots of folk use. Beautiful tree. Really unique flavor. And, like I said, I mean. Fruit bread done with persimmons, persimmon and pumpkin, game meat roasted with those vegetables and fruit. It's all so good, and I mean, I am so going to dry some of these and use them in a fruitcake. I mean, I'm literally salivating right now. It's only, it's April, so I've got, well, six months to go before I can even harvest any, and last year I didn't get any. This year, I'm going to get a ton. And now that I, you know, I had not even thought about using them in half the ways that these books suggest. And, man, I mean, I can't wait to make some persimmon beer. And maybe somebody, you know, that I know might make me a little brandy off of it. I'm not saying I know somebody, but I might know somebody. Anyway, y'all, you have a good one. And I will talk to you next time. The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. 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