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Medicine plant of the Day

Boneset

Boneset

Well-known member
Stopped and checked my favorite creek yesterday. Not it’s real name but I call it medicine creek. It’s loaded with medicines, more than 100 species grow beside it. A friend owns 300 acres down the valley and lets me hunt medicines as I need them.

One of the most versatile medicinal plants in N. America is common there, Yellowroot. Several plants have that common name but in this instance I refer to Xanthorhiza simplicissima. There are very few conditions yellowroot doesn’t help. For instance it’s antiviral and antibiotic.

For me it helped with acid reflux, did away with it in fact. For years I had a high pressure job, worked crazy hours and ate poorly. I lived on rolaids, tums, zantac and maalox. Even after I left the job I had the same issues.

I learned about yellowroot from a friend and where to find it. Then I made some tea, very bitter. Even teaspoons of honey won’t help. I tell folks the tea is so bitter it’ll curl your nose hairs! :ROFLMAO:

It’s been 18yrs since I started using it and I have no reflux issues. These days I make tincture from yellowroot, easy to carry and take. Don’t have to deal with the bitter tea either.

This is yellowroot I saw yesterday, has jagged leaf edges. Some of it was beat up, had a 4 inch rain last week and the creek flooded. I always find yellowroot by creeks with good water flow. I’ve never seen it grow more than 40ft from water but it doesn’t like bogs or swampy areas. Doesn’t like rivers very much either. It's at home beside creeks and streams.

Also yesterday, I saw Virginia Sweetspire, old medicine. A shrub I find on creek banks, has white blooms in May. Some people have it as an ornamental in their yards. It’s not used in herbal medicine anymore but I’d use it in a pinch. It helps with high fevers.

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Thought I’d add a picture of the first time I found yellowroot and made tea. It was November, the leaves were turning brown, past being useful. But the medicinal chemicals are also in the stems…

Now I harvest in June when the plant is fully leafed out. I don’t have to harvest as much of it when I can use the leaves and stems. In June they at their peak medicinally speaking. The roots can also be used as medicine but pulling it up would kill the plant. I cut the stem above the ground leaving about an inch. This doesn’t kill the plant, the next year it will put back up and continue to grow. In a few years I can go back and harvest the same plant again.

Also, a couple shots of Medicine Creek, summer and winter. It’s a very dangerous place in summer. It’s loaded with snakes, Cottonmouths. I keep snake gaiters in my truck and always wear them at this place.

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I made some Solomon’s Seal tincture this week. A wonderful medicine with many uses. I have an illness that makes me sedentary but I live on a farm. Sometimes I sit for days and weeks but suddenly have periods of heavy physical activity, like loading beef calves to haul to market.

I end up with a lot of pulled tendons and ligaments. Solomon’s Seal (ss) soothes and heals damaged tendons/ligaments. Although its not an anti inflammatory it functions like one. By soothing tendons it reduces pain but it’s not a pain reliever either. It doesn’t fight the symptoms, it actually speeds the healing process. It could be said, controlling inflammation and pain are a side effect.

Anyway, I could kick myself. I grow SS in containers on my porch. Since my stock of tincture was running low I intended to harvest some roots and make tincture this past winter. But I forgot… until this spring when I needed it!

Since I’ll need more this summer I had to purchase a pound of dried root from an internet retailer. I made a standard 1:2 volume tincture. When pressed out I’ll have enough tincture for 6 or 7 years. It’ll be ready for use in about 6 weeks.

I harvest plants (usually wild) and make the medicines I need. On a rare occasion like this I’ll purchase quality herbs from friends or trusted retailers.

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Does Viagra grow around that creek of yours? :unsure:

......... I just started an experiment with Extra Virgin Olive Oil in combatting cortisol and reducing visceral fat. It also is supposed to help with the Acid Reflux. (I get that from time to time).

I've never been much of a tea drinker..... but if I get any reactions/results from the olive oil, I'll post them here. (Been supplimenting magnesium, as well).
 
Ginseng tends to be over priced because it's so rare in the wild. Its in a group of plants referred to as 'adaptogens'. World wide more than 50 species, some well known, others not so much.

They do wonders for those that are over stressed, emotionally or physically. Burned out from a high stress job, over coming major surgery or injury... especially those who have suffered great loss.

There's one here in the south that I use often for an chronic illness that is very common... Cross Vine (Bergonia capreolata). It was commonly used as landscaping in the 1940's and 50's. It grows wild as far north as the ohio valley. It's a transplant on the west coast, pacific NW.

Anyway, here are a few other adaptogens that are cheaper, easier to find and certainly easier to grow... Ashwagandha, Rhodiola rosea, holy basil (Tulsi), lion's mane and medicinal mushrooms like reishi and cordyceps. (I use Lion's Mane also but for a different reason) :)

2 summers ago I harvested a lot of crossvine... a big pile in my floor... also crossvine growing up a tree.

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Don Coyote said:
Does Viagra grow around that creek of yours? :unsure:
Click to expand...

Yes! There are 2 species of plants in the south that are known as Boar Hog Root. The first is Angelica venenosa. The other one Levisticum officinale, aka “Lovage”.

Both act as aphrodisiacs. They will increase the libido of older men. They have the same effect on older women. Got an anniversary coming up? Buy enough Bo’Hog root to make a pitcher of tea and book a weekend get away.

In truth they are both whole body tonics, good for what ails you, period.

Both plants are common in the south and are strikingly similar in appearance. Except for the blooms, Angelica has white blooms, Lovage has yellow blooms.

Warning!!!! Angelica is almost identical to Water Hemlock. Angelica is so similar to Hemlock it was several years before I trusted myself to harvest Bo’ Hog. After seeing a few thousand examples of each I was finally confidant enough to harvest it.

Cicuta maculata, Cicuta sp. aka water hemlock. One of the most deadly plants in N. America. It can kill in as little as 15min. Experts say it causes the most painful death of any north american plant. (I always wondered how they know that?)

A botany novice should never try to find and harvest Angelica. Instead find someone who is and expert on both Angelica and Hemlock.

Side note…. another dangerous situation - I harvest elderberry blooms instead of the berries. Easier to deal with, the medicine is just as good. When blooming Hemlock and Elderberry are very similar in appearance and they bloom at the same time… and sometimes grow side by side. So... if you try to harvest elderberry blooms, take someone along who can tell the difference between hemlock and elderberry.

Here is Bo’ Hog Root aka Angelica venenosa aka Hairy Angelica. It blooms in June, comes back every year at the same locations. The root is harvested just before it blooms then dried for making tea.

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Was up at the shop this afternoon and this caught my eye... just a weed by the trailer, right? It's actually Virginia pepperweed aka Lepidium virginicum. Not really a medicine but is rich in nutrients including vitamin C.

I've read that back in colonial days black pepper was extremely expensive. Peppercorns had to come all the way from India via the East India trading company.

Someone in Virginia noticed they had a ready substitute growing wild. A nuisance really, a weed that springs up anywhere there is disturbed soil. In gardens and fields, beside roads, even in the roads! It grows in my driveway, beside it, around my shop and barns. A tough little plant, can't kill the stuff! :ROFLMAO: But it's small, doesn't really get in the way or cause harm.

It has a decidedly pepper flavor, a bit strong raw but when cooked it is far more subtle. Adds a wonderful flavor to soups and stews.

I found this blog by a chef in Minnesota who gives great detail in how to cook with it...

foragerchef.com

Virginia Pepperweed / Peppergrass

Jump to Video A cousin of mustard greens with a spicy hot flavor, Virginia pepperweed (Lepidium virginicum) and it's cousins are multi-use plants. Also
foragerchef.com foragerchef.com

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My Bro-in-Law (now deceased) was sometimes employed in various offices of Squibb, Pfizer, Centrix, etc., etc. and one day I was marveling at the uses of plants that were used by the N.A. nations (Indians) and he responded, "Well? Where do you think all those medicines at the drug store come from?"

When I was a kid (circa 1950 - 1960) there was a factory building that we used to go past in Tipton, Indiana, named "Inland Alkaloid Company" on our way to go grocery shopping. I'd sometimes look at the cars in their parking lot and wonder what they did there. What's an 'alkaloid'?

Years later, one of my co-workers, Ron Thatcher, (now deceased) told me that he'd bought part interest in the company. "Yeah, we get plant material in from all over the world. It usually comes in bulk from the train cars that unload it right behind the building. Some of that stuff is really bad to work with, depending on what we're processing at the time. The workers will sometimes get all red in the face and short of breath breathing fumes off of the vats where we're boiling things down."

"What do you do with it, once it's processed?"

"Most of it we sell to Eli Lilly in Indianapolis and they make medicine out of it ... you know ... pills for blood pressure and pills for head congestion and stuff."

Eventually, the big pharmas began buying direct from international markets and Inland Alkaloid shut down as a result but I thought it was interesting that most people (including myself) had no idea what or how medicines were manufactured here in the U.S. of A.

The Inland Alkaloid Company was a pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing business located in Tipton, Indiana. Founded and owned by chemical engineer C.H. Meader, the facility was a notable regional industry that produced and supplied medicinal chemicals and compounds during the mid-20th century.

Key Historical Details
  • Products: The company manufactured and supplied pharmaceutical compounds, including cantharidin (often used in dermatological treatments) and colchicine (used in plant breeding).
  • Operations: The firm operated for decades out of Tipton, Indiana, providing chemicals to universities, government agricultural stations, and pharmaceutical researchers.
  • Environmental History: In November 1946, the company was issued a cease and desist order by the Indiana Stream Pollution Control Board due to untreated chemical wastes draining into the nearby Cicero Creek.
  • Closure: Following the passing of its owner, C.H. Meader, in 1967, the company and its operations concluded.
 
I actually LOVE dandelions. I have made a tincture out of them before, although I don't think I ever used it. Dandelions are also supposed to be anti-cancerous. I often walk by dandelions if it's in a clean area and eat the flowers. They don't taste all that bad, but I make sure there's no bugs in them first. Hubby sees me eat the flowers and he thinks I'm nuts for eating them. LOL! They are slightly bitter, but they are good for a body.

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Had to go do town today but was in no hurry coming home sooooo… I took a detour on one of my favorite gravel roads. Lots of medicinal plants growing beside it.

I found some Self Heal aka Prunela vulgaris. An ancient ‘wound wart’. Commonly used by all the nations around the ancient Mediterranean sea, the Assyrians, the Greeks, Egyptians and later by the Romans. Early settlers brought it to n. america, It's now naturalized across the continent.

It’s marvelous for healing battle wounds of various types. I’m currently using it for a bad scrape on my shin. Recently I used it to heal up the 12 stitches on my arm, an incision by the dermatologist. It even speeds the healing of broken bones.

Self Heal is in the mint family, has a square stem. It has tiny purple/white blooms on a cone shaped seed pod.

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Lastly… I found some Wild Quinine aka Parthenium integrifolium. It was commonly used in the southern states to treat malaria well into the 1900’s. The US Army was still using it in WW1.

This little plant bloomed a couple weeks ago so it looks past it’s prime. Thinking I’ll go back and collect the seeds in a couple months.

The second pic is from a few years ago but shows the blooms much better.

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For clarification... Quinine is a medicine derived from the 'Cinchona tree' is a genus of flowering plants native to the tropical Andean forests of western South America, known for its bark, which contains quinine, an effective treatment for malaria. It has significant historical importance as the source of the world's first anti-malarial drug, introduced to Europe in the 17th century.

The Wild Quinine plant I posted above is not the same plant... Medicinally speaking it works in a similar manner but is not as effective as actual Quinine. I think of it as a poor cousin... But, if I had malaria and couldn't get actual Quinine.... I'd definitely use wild quinine that grows in the SE.
 
TexasGem said:
I can't help but wonder HOW people figured out WHAT plants did?? Must have been a heck of a trial and error situation!!🤔
Click to expand...

A lot of plants give clues about the issues or part of the body they help. More than you would think... It's pretty straight forward, just look at the plant and think 'What does it remind you of?' What part of the human body or function comes to mind?

Like goldenrod, blooms everywhere in late summer, always seems to be leaning over.... Sort of looks like a bunch of guys taking a leak, yellow streams pointing. :ROFLMAO:

As it happens, goldenrod is great kidney and bladder medicine, excellent for infections. It tones the whole urinary tract, makes it work to perfection.

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