This not a fern, but is so often confused with ferns that I though I should mention it. Sweet Fern is also a very useful and interesting medicinal herb. Sweet fern is native to North America and its history of use begins with the Native Americans.
Tis Mal Crow tells us of the Muskogee tradition (formulas omitted – buy his book):
Sweet Fern Leaves are used as a refrigerant against fevers. They can be used to make a tea, or the fresh leaves can be crushed and placed against the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet or the forehead.
Sweet Fern root is used to make a hair rinse, more specifically for hair damaged by permanents, treated hair, for people that are losing their hair, and in a mixture for itching scalps.
Sweet Fern is especially good for babies with cradle cap, older people with really scaly scalps, or other people with reactions to a food allergy, or some other contaminate that causes scaling and itching of the scalp. Whenever there are sores, Sweet Fern is preferred. It will heal.
A leaf tea is used externally to treat poison ivy rash.
A strong leaf tea is used for relief from dysentery, diarrhea and intestinal cramping.
For boils, Sweet Fern is mashed and mixed with water to make a thin paste.
A very strong tea is used as a mouthwash for gum problems, periodontal disease and mouth sores.
The leaves are used to make a strong tea, and the tea is added to a lukewarm or cool bath for people who have convulsions. If possible, they can be immersed in the bath while the convulsion is occurring. A cool towel soaked in the tea can be used around the chest and abdomen of a person who is experiencing convulsions.
A tea or tincture of the leaves can be used for food poisoning or a nervous stomach.
Bradford Angier wrote:
The beverages, both potent and delicate, brewed from the fern-like leaves of this fragrant wild tea were used in a number of ways by Indians and settlers. They were taken internally and also used as a wash for poison ivy rashes, blisters and sores. In fact it was believed that, if the wash was used for these soon enough after exposure, it would dissolve and wash away the irritating substances and prevent the trouble which was transferred not only by direct contact with the irritant but indirectly as from the fur of dogs and cats which had passed through an ivy bed.
A strong enough leaf tea was believed to ease both stomach and intestinal cramps and diarrhea. The complete perennial, so brewed, provided a remedy for paroxysms of acute abdominal pain, perhaps localized and caused by spasms, obstruction, or twisting of the colon. Care had to be taken, of course, not to be mislead by appendicitis, characterized by extreme sensitivity in the right lower abdomen, and in the early days hopefully treated instead by cold compresses.
Such tea drunk in childbirth was believed to help physically in the delivery of the baby. Supplies of frost-wilted leaves were gathered in the fall, dried, and kept throughout the cold months for all such purposes.
It was also drunk for a stimulating effect especially by convalescents recovering from a fever, and its aromatic pleasantness was used to make such early remedies as cough syrups taste better. It was one of the many arthritis treatments, both as a beverage and for hot moist applications to ease pain in the afflicted part. In this regard, the leaves were simmered by Indians for providing a hot moist poultice to be held against the cheek to ease the agony of a toothache.
Also used as a closets and drawer scent and moth replant. The aromatic shrub was said to repel mosquitoes and other winged biters when spread damply over the dwindling coals of a campfire or smoked by someone on the go.
No less an authority than the US Dispensatory stated that a decoction of the medicinal be used to treat diarrhea, while other authorities recognized its value in difficulties arising from poison ivy and the like.
America’s first herbal, “Towards and American Materia Medica”, was written while our nation was still a British colony. It briefly mentions Sweet Fern, misidentifying it (as was common at the time) with a similar European herb:
The Liquidambar asplenifoliumf of Linnaeus is well known by the name of Sweet-Fern. It has often been found useful in diarrhoea. Other virtues have been ascribed to it… Liquidambar asplenifolium. Colden was informed, that the Indians chew the root of this vegetable, with a view to stop haemorrhages in recent wounds. This effect of the Sweet-Fern may, perhaps, meet with some credit from those who have witnessed the wonderful powers of small doses of the preparations of lead, in diminishing and stopping, almost immediately after their reception into the stomach, haemorrhages from the uterus, intestines, &c.
Sweet Fern was much used by America’s first true school of herbal medicine, the Ecclectics – from the American Ecclectic Materia Medica:
Sweet Fern is mildly astringent and somewhat tonic. It is used in New England in diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera infantum, and in cases of general relaxation, and in debilitated states of the bowels. In these diseases it forms a grateful astringent, tonic, and aromatic drink, prepared by adding sugar and cream to the decoction. It is acceptable to the stomach and agreeable to the taste.
Resources of The Southerns Fields and Forests states:
FERN BUSH; SWEET FERN, (Comptonia asplenifolia, Ait.) Mts. of North Carolina and northward. An aromatic astringent used by Barton and others as a pleasant drink in the summer complaints of children, Shoepf says on the authority of Colden, that chewing the root will check a spitting of blood, and that it is useful in rachitis and the debility following fevers. -Griffith
Resources of The Southern Fields and Forests, like many such books of the era, included advertisements in the final pages. The advertisements of Patent Medicine companies (etc.) helps offset the cost of printing. Interestingly, one such advertisement includes an offering of Sweet Fern:]
Comptonia
Asplenifolia [Sweet Fern). — Tonic, astringent and
alterative. It possesses all the properties of the tonic and
astringent balsams, and is useful in dysentery, diarrhea,
hemoptysis and lucorrhea. Barton recommends it for summer
com- plaints of children.
Fluid Extract — Dose: 1/2 to 1
dram.
King’s Medical Dispensatory of 1898 gives a comprehensive listing for this herb:
Botanical name: Comptonia peregrina
The plant and especially the leaves and tops of Comptonia asplenifolia, Aiton (Myrica asplenifolia, Linné; Myrica Comptonia, De Candolle).
Nat. Ord.—Myricaceae.
COMMON NAMES: Sweet fern, Meadow fern, Ferngale.
Botanical Source.—Sweet fern is a low, indigenous shrub, with a long, horizontal root, and growing from 2 to 4 feet high, the main stem being covered with a rusty, brown bark, which becomes reddish in the branches, and white-downy in the young shoots. The leaves are numerous, on short peduncles, from 3 to 4 inches in length, ½ inch broad, alternate, linear-lanceolate, sinuate-pinnatifid, resembling the leaves of the spleenwort fern, brown, rather downy on the under side, shining on the upper. The stipules in pairs and acuminate. The flowers are green, monoecious, amentaceous, appearing before the leaves; barren ones in long, erect, cylindrical, loosely imbricated catkins, terminal and lateral, with deciduous, 1-flowered bracts; the fertile ones in ovate, densely imbricated catkins, situated below the barren ones, with 1-flowered bracts. Stamens 6, adhering in pairs. Sepals 6, larger than the bracts; styles 2, capillary. The fruit is a small, ovate, brown, 1-celled nut (L-W.).
History.—This plant is found growing in thin, sandy soils, or dry, rocky woods, from Maine to Kentucky, flowering in May. The whole plant possesses a spicy, aromatic odor, especially when bruised, and an aromatic, astringent, faintly bitterish taste. The whole herb is used, and imparts its virtues to water or alcohol. The leaves have been used in the rural districts of New York state as a substitute for tea.
Chemical Composition.—H. K. Bowman (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1869, p. 194), found the leaves to contain 8.2 per cent of tannin, corroborated by Charles G. Manger, who, in 1894, made a complete analysis of both the rhizome and the leaves of Myrica asplenifolia. He found the amount of tannin to vary with the season; dried January leaves containing 7.06 per cent, July leaves 10.28 per cent. Tannin in the dried rhizome reached a maximum of 6 per cent in a sample collected in August. Starch was not found in the leaves, but the rhizome contained 8.24 per cent. By distilling the leaves with water, Mr. Manger isolated a small amount of an aromatic volatile oil, which was liable to resinify upon exposure to the air. R. T. Chiles, in 1873, found gallic acid in the leaves, the usual plant constituents, and a body resembling saponin. Peacock subsequently could detect traces only of gallic acid in a January specimen of the rhizome, and none at all in a specimen collected in June (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1892).
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Tonic, astringent, and alterative. Used in diarrhoea, dysentery, hemoptysis, leucorrhoea, rheumatism, debility succeeding fevers, and in rachitis. A decoction of it is very useful in the summer complaints of children, when given as an auxiliary. A pillow of the leaves is beneficial to rachitic children, and they may be used as a fomentation in contusions and rheumatism. Dose of the decoction, from 1 to 4 fluid ounces, 3 or 4 times a day.
Plants for A Future states:
Sweet fern was employed medicinally by several native North American Indian tribes who used it especially as a poultice to treat a variety of complaints. It is still used for most of the same purposes in modern herbalism. The leaves are astringent, blood purifier, expectorant and tonic. A tea made from the leaves and flowering tops is used as a remedy for diarrhoea, headache, fevers, catarrh, vomiting of blood, rheumatism etc. The infusion has also been used to treat ringworm. The leaves have also been used as a poultice for toothaches, sprains etc. A cold water infusion of the leaves has been used externally to counter the effect of poison ivy and to bathe stings, minor haemorrhages etc. The leaves are harvested in early summer and dried for later use.
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Disclaimer
The information on this site is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing on this site has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I am not a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and their is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm just a guy who studies herbs. I am not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write is accurate or true! I can tell you what herbs have "traditionally been used for." I can tell you my own experience and if I believe an herb helped me. I cannot, nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use any herb I, or anyone else, mentions 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. You may have an allergy, sensitivity or underlying condition that no one else shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to 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.
