Medicinal Trees: Frangula alnus or Rhamnus frangula and Firmiana simplex

Frangula alnus or Rhamnus frangula

This naturalized tree is known as Alder Buckthorn. We also have Rhamnus davurica (Dahurian Buckthorn)

Dioscorides wrote of the Buckthorns under the name Ramnos:

Rhamnus is a shrub (growing around hedges) with upright stems and sharp thorns like oxyacantha, and the leaves are small, somewhat long, thick and soft. There is another besides this that is paler, and a third having darker and broader leaves, a little inclined to red; with long stems of five feet and more, thorny, with its hairs less strong and stiff. The fruit of it is broad, white and thin, shaped like a little pouch or whorl. The leaves of all of them are effective rubbed on for erysipelas [inflammatory skin disease] and herpes [viral skin infection]. It is said that the branches laid in gates or windows drive away the enchantments of witches. [If anyone picks up rhamnus while the moon is decreasing and holds it, it is effective against poison and mischief; and it is good for beasts to carry it around them; and for it to be put around ships; and it is good against headaches; and against devils and their assaults.] It is also called persephonion, or leucacantha, the Romans call it spina alba, some, spina cerualis, and the Africans call it atadin.

Gerard was less concerned about “mischief”:

A. The same do purge and void by the stool thick phlegm, and also choleric humours: they are given being beaten into powder from one dram to a dram and a half: divers do number the berries, who give to strong bodies from fifteen to twenty or more; but it is better to break them and boil them in fat flesh broth without salt, and to give the broth to drink: for so they purge with lesser trouble and fewer gripings.

B. There is pressed forth of the ripe berries a juice, which being boiled with a little alum is used of painters for a deep green, which they do call sap green.

C. The berries which be as yet unripe, being dried and infused or steeped in water, do make a fair yellow colour; but if they be ripe they make a green.

Mrs. Grieves wrote of several varieties of Buckthorn. Of the Common Buckthorn she wrote:

-Laxative and cathartic.

Buckthorn was well known to the AngloSaxons and is mentioned as Hartsthorn or Waythorn in their medical writings and glossaries dating before the Norman Conquest. The Welsh physicians of the thirteenth century prescribed the juice of the fruit of Buckthorn boiled with honey as an aperient drink.

The medicinal use of the berries was familiar to all the writers on botany and materia medica of the sixteenth century, though Dodoens in his Herbal wrote: 'They be not meat to be administered but to the young and lusty people of the country which do set more store of their money than their lives.'

Until late in the nineteenth century, syrup of Buckthorn ranked, however, among favourite rustic remedies as a purgative for children, prepared by boiling the juice with pimento and ginger and adding sugar, but its action was so severe that, as time went on, the medicine was discarded. It first appeared in the London Pharmacopceia of 1650, where, to disguise the bitter taste of the raw juice, it was aromatized by means of aniseed, cinnamon, mastic and nutmeg. It was still official in the British Pharmacopoeia of 1867, but is no longer so, being regarded as a medicine more fit for animals than human beings, and it is now employed almost exclusively in veterinary practice, being commonly prescribed for dogs, with equal parts of castor oil as an occasional purgative.

The flesh of birds eating the berries is stated to be purgative.

There used to be a superstition that the Crown of Thorns was made of Buckthorn.

Of Alder-Buckthorn, she wrote:

Tonic, laxative, cathartic.

Dried seasoned bark from one to two years old alone should be used, as the freshly stripped bark acts as an irritant poison on the gastro-intestinal canal. The action of the bark becomes gradually less violent when kept for a length of time and more like that of rhubarb.

It is used as a gentle purgative in cases of chronic constipation and is principally given in the form of the fluid extract, in small doses, repeated three or four times daily, a decoction of 1 OZ. of the bark in 1 quart of water boiled down to a pint, may also be taken in tablespoonful doses.

Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests states:

RHAMNACEAE. (The Buckthorn Tribe.)

NEW JERSEY TEA TRKE; RED-HOOT, (Ceanothus Americanus, L.) Two varieties exist in the Southern States. Diffused in dry pine barrens; Richland; collected in St. John's; vicinity of Charleston ; Newbern. Fl. July. Lind. Nat. Syst. Bot. 108; Ferrein, Mat. Med. iii, 338; U. S. Disp. 1240; Ell. Bot. Med. Notes, 291; Mer. and de L. Diet, de M. Med. ii, 165; Boston Med. and Surg. Journal, 1835. See, also, the supplement to Mer. de L. Diet, de M. Med. 1846, 155. This plant possesses a considerable degree of astringency, and has been used in gonorrheal discharges. It is applied by the Cherokee doctors as a wash in cancer, and may be used wherever an astringent is likely to be useful. The Indians employed it in lues venerea, preferring it to lobelia; if the case was violent, the root of the blackberry (Rtibus villosiis) was mixed with it. Stearns' Am. Herbal, 97. Referring to its anti-syphilitie powers, Ferrein says : "Eue guerit aussi en moins de quinze jours, les veneriens los plus inveteres." It is not now supposed to be endowed with any very decided virtue in this respect. Dr.Hubbard prescribes it with advantage in the aphthous affections of infants, in malignant dysentery and in other maladies dependent upon debility; he usually combines with it a little borax. See Journal de Pharm. xxiii, 354. Mr. Tuomey, State Geologist, informs me that much use is made of it in domestic practice in Chesterfield District. An infusion of the leaves was employed during the war of independence as a substitute for tea. I have experimented with the leaves, and obtained a liquor somewhat resembling common tea, both in color and taste. It imparts to wool a fine, persistent, cinnamon, nankeen color. The above was included in my report on the Medical Botany of South Carolina, published in 1849. Since the beginning of the recent war I called the attention of our citizens to this plant as a substitute for foreign tea, in a brief communication, having again collected and used it, and induced others to do the same. I quote from this article: "Without any desire to exaggerate, I commend the substitute. It grows abundantly in our high pine ridges. The tea, prepared from this shrub, drawn as common tea, is certainly a good substitute for indifferent black tea. Properly dried and prepared, it is aromatic and not unpleasant. I am glad to report it as an article to be used in war times in place of a high-priced commodity, which, in every respect, it resembles, if it does not equal." Dr. John Bachman, also, at a later period (1802) directed attention to the plant, stating that he had used it for two months in his own family. The leaves should be carefully dried in the shade.

CAROLINA BUCJKTH0RN, (Frangola Caroliniana, Gray.) Mills, in his Statistics of South Carolina, states of Rhammus Carolinianus, that a purgative syrup is prepared from the berries; and of R. frangula, (Blackberry bearing alder,) that the bark dyes a yellow color, and that from a quarter to half an ounce of the inner bark boiled in small beer is a sharp purge; used as a certain purgative in constipation of the bowels of cattle.

King's American Dispensatory, 1898 tells us:

Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Nausea, colicky pain, and violent emeto-catharsis are the effects produced by fresh frangula bark. When dried, however, it loses some of its acridity, and then acts as a purgative only. Both the alvine and renal discharges are colored dark-yellow by it. Narcotic symptoms have been produced by eating the berries and seeds, the toxic effects having been probably produced by the prussic acid contained in the seeds. The decoction has been administered in dropsies, and the same preparation as well as an ointment of the recent bark, has been used for the cure of itch. Its chief value, however, is as a laxative and cathartic, being quite popular for these effects with the Germans. It resembles senna and rhubarb in action, according to some, being harsher, but is regarded by Squibb as milder than either. It is a remedy for chronic constipation, from 1 to 3 doses of 20 minims of the fluid extract being administered in water in the course of a day. If desirable to evacuate the bowels at once, a fluid drachm may be given at bedtime. An elixir (4 parts of fluid extract to 12 parts of elixir of orange) may be given in from 1 to 2 fluid drachm doses; of the decoction (½ ounce of bark to ½ pint of water) the dose is a tablespoonful.

Plants for A Future states:

Medicinal use of Alder Buckthorn: Alder buckthorn has been used medicinally as a gentle laxative since at least the Middle Ages. The bark contains 3 - 7% anthraquinones, these act on the wall of the colon stimulating a bowel movement approximately 8 - 12 hours after ingestion. It is so gentle and effective a treatment when prescribed in the correct dosages that it is completely safe to use for children and pregnant women. The bark also contains anthrones and anthranols, these induce vomiting but the severity of their effect is greatly reduced after the bark has been dried and stored for a long time. The bark is harvested in early summer from the young trunk and moderately sized branches, it must then be dried and stored for at least 12 months before being used The inner bark is cathartic, cholagogue, laxative (the fresh bark is violently purgative), tonic, vermifuge. It is taken internally as a laxative for chronic atonic constipation and is also used to treat abdominal bloating, hepatitis, cirrhosis, jaundice, and liver and gall bladder complaints. It should be used with caution since excess doses or using the bark before it is cured can cause violent purging. Externally, the bark is used to treat gum diseases and scalp infestations, or as a lotion for minor skin irritations. The fruit is occasionally used, it is aperient without being irritating.

Peterson Field Guides Eastern and Central Medicinal Plants tells us of Carolina buckthorn, Rhamnus caroliniana:

American Indians used bark tea to induce vomiting; Also a strong laxative. Still used for constipation with nervous or muscular atony of intestines.

The Physicians Desk Reference for Herbal Medicine tells us:

Buckthorn: Buckthorn is used internally for Constipation and for bowel movement relief in cases of an anal fissures and hemorrhoids. It is used after recto-anal surgery and in preparation for diagnostic intervention in the gastrointestinal tract and to achieve a softer stool. Unproven uses: in folk medicine it is used as a diuretic in “blood purifying” remedies. Contraindications: Contraindicated in a intestinal obstruction, acute inflammatory intestinal diseases, appendicitis, and abdominal pain of unknown origin. Use during pregnancy or while nursing only after consulting a physician. The drug is not to be administered to children under 12 years of age

Firmiana simplex

This naturalized tree is called, Chinese Parasol Tree. Plants for A Future states:

Medicinal use of Chinese Parasol Tree: Astringent, salve. The seed is antiphlogistic, expectorant and refrigerant. A decoction of the roots is used to reduce swellings. A lotion of the leaves is used in the treatment of carbuncles, haemorrhoids and sores.

This article is an excerpt from The Medicinal Trees of the American South, An Herbalist's Guide: by Judson Carroll

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Medicinal Trees: Ficus, Fig (my favorite fruit)

 

Only one variety of Fig has been naturalized in my region, Ficus carica.

Dioscorides wrote of Fig under the names, Suka, Suke Agria, Olunthoi and Konia Sukes

SUKA - Ficus sativa, Ficus communis, Ficus carica — Fig

Ripe new syca are bad for the stomach and loosen the intestines but the looseness that comes from them is easily stopped. They bring out pimples and sweat, quench thirst, and extinguish heat. The dried ones are nourishing and warming, cause thirst, and are good for the bowels. They are useless for discharges of the stomach and intestines, but good for the throat, arteries, bladder and kidneys, those who have a poor colour from a long illness, as well as asthma, epilepsy and dropsy. Boiled with hyssop and taken as a drink they clean away things in the chest. They are good for old coughs and long-lasting disorders of the lungs; and pounded together with saltpetre and cnicus and eaten, they soften the bowels. A decoction of them is good for inflammation around the arteries and tonsils, used in a gargle. They are mixed in poultices with barley meal, fenugreek or barley water for women’s warm packs. Boiled with rue they are a suppository for griping. Boiled and afterwards pounded into small pieces and applied, they dissolve hard lumps and soften parotid tumours, boils and inflammatory tumours. They ripen pannus [opaque thickening of cornea with veins] more effectively with iris, saltpetre [potassium nitrate] or quicklime [calcium oxide — lime which has been burned but not yet slaked with water]. Pounded raw with the things previously specified they do the same. With pomegranate rind they clean away pterygium [membrane on the eye], and with calcanthum [limestone] they cure difficult, curable and malignant discharges in the tibiae [hollow bones, marrow, not only the tibia]. Boiled in wine and mixed with wormwood and barley meal they are good for dropsy applied as a poultice. Burnt and put into a wax ointment they cure chilblains. The raw ones pounded into small pieces mixed with moist mustard and put into the ears, cure noises and ringing in them. The (milky) juice of both the wild and cultivated figs coagulates milk like rennet, and dissolves coagulated milk like vinegar. Taken as a drink with almonds that have been pounded into small pieces it is able to make bodies break out into boils, to open pores, loosen the bowels and relax the womb. It expels the menstrual flow applied with the yolk of an egg or Tyrrhenian [Etruscan] wax. It is good put into poultices made for gout together with fenugreek flowers and vinegar. With polenta it cleans leprosy, lichen [papular skin disease], spots made by the heat of the sun, vitiligines [form of leprosy], parasitical skin diseases, and running sores on the head. Dropped on the sores it helps those stung by scorpions, and strikes of poisonous beasts, and those bitten by dogs. Taken on wool and put into the cavities of teeth it helps toothache. It takes away formicosam [anthill-shaped] warts if it is rubbed on the flesh with animal fat.

SUKE AGRIA - Wild Fig Tree

The juice of the tender leaves of the wild syca tree does the same things. When they are great with child (not yet fruiting) and the eye (bud) has not put out, they are pounded and pressed out, and the juice is dried in the shade and stored. Both the liquid and juice are taken for the strength they have to raise [fill] ulcers. The sprigs of this tree boiled with beef makes it boil quicker. They make milk more loosening if they are used to stir it with during boiling instead of a spatha. Olyntha (some of which are called erinei) boiled and applied as a poultice soften all nodules, scrofulous tumours [glandular swelling] and goitres. Applied raw with saltpetre [potassium nitrate] and meal they take away formicosam [anthill-shaped] warts and warty abnormal growths. The leaves can do the same. Applied as a poultice with vinegar and salt they heal running ulcers on the head, dandruff and epinycti [pustules which appear only at night]. Fig-like scabrous cheeks are rubbed with these. Vitiliginous [form of leprosy] white areas are plastered with the leaves or branches of the black fig. They are good also with honey for the bites of dogs, and the ulcers called favi by the Latins but by the Greeks ceria [honeycombed ulcers]. Grossi [unripe figs] with the leaves of wild poppy draw out (broken) bones, and theydissolve boils [inflammatory tumours] with wax. Applied with ervum and wine they are good against the bites of rodents, spiders, centipedes and millipedes.

KONIA SUKES - Ficus carica var sylvestris, Ficus variegata, Ficus amboinensis, Ficus racemosa, Caprificus amboinensis, Ficus carica

Lye is made from ashes of the burnt branches of the wild and cultivated syca trees. You must steep the ashes long and often. It is good both for caustic medicines and gangrenous parts, for it cleans and removes things which are superfluous. It must be used by moistening a sponge in it often and immediately applying it. Give it to some as a suppository for dysentery, old discharges, and hollow, undermining, great ulcers. For it cleans, heals, covers in flesh and closes together, similar to plasters made for bloody wounds. It is given for clotting blood together and against dripping fluids, hernia and convulsions, newly strained-out with a wine cupful of water and a little oil mixed in. By itself it helps coeliac complaints and dysentery, the amount of a wine cupful given. It is a convenient ointment with oil for those troubled with sores of the tendons, and convulsions that cause sweats. It is taken as an antidote in a drink for those who have swallowed gypsum [hydrous calcium sulphate — plaster of Paris] and for the bites of harvest spiders. The other sorts of lye have the same effects (especially that of the oak) and they are all astringent.

Saint Hildegard von Bingen wrote of Fig:

The fig tree Is more hot than cold. It will always have heat, and its cold is not strong. It signifies fear. Take its leaves and bark, and pound them moderately. Cook this well in water, and then make an unguent with bear fat and a little less butter. If you have a pain in your head, anoint your head with it. If your eyes hurt, rub it on your temples and around your eyes, without letting it touch the inside of your eyes. If it is your chest that hurts, anoint it; if your kidneys, anoint them with it, and you will be better

However, if its wood is burned in a fire, and its smoke touches someone, it harms him a bit so that it weakens him. If someone carries in his hand a staff made from that wood, it diminishes his strength.

.. If a healthy person wishes to eat it (the fruit), he should first soak it in wine or vinegar, so that its inconsistency is tempered. He should then eat it, but in moderation. It is not necessary for a sick person to temper it in this way.

Gerard wrote of Fig:

The Virtues.

A. The dry figs do nourish better than the green or new figs; notwithstanding they engender not very good blood, for such people as do feed much thereon do become lousy.

B. Figs be good for the throat and lungs, they mitigate the cough, and are good for them that be short winded: they ripen phlegm, causing the same to be easily spat out, especially when they be sodden with Hyssop, and the decoction drunk.

C. Figs stamped with salt, Rue, and the kernels of nuts withstand all poison and corruption of the air. The King of Pontus, called Mithridates, used this preservative against all venom and poison.

D. Figs stamped and made into the form of a plaster with wheat meal, the powder of Fenugreek, and linseed, and the roots of Marsh Mallows, applied warm, do soften and ripen impostumes, phlegmons, all hot and angry swellings and tumors behind the ears: and if you add thereto the roots of Lilies, it ripeneth and breaketh venereous impostumes that come in the flank, which impostume is called Bubo, by reason of his lurking in such secret places: in plain English terms they are called botches.

E. Figs boiled in Wormwood wine with some barley meal are very good to be applied as an emplaster upon the bellies of such as have the dropsy.

F. Dry figs have power to soften, consume, and make thin, and may be used both outwardly and inwardly, whether it be to ripen or soften impostumes, or to scatter, dissolve, and consume them.

G. The leaves of the Fig tree do waste and consume the King's Evil, or swelling kernels in the throat, and do mollify, waste, and consume all other tumours, being finely pounded and laid thereon: but after my practise, being boiled with the roots of marsh Mallows until they be soft, and so incorporated together, and applied in form of a plaster.

H. The milky juice either of the figs or leaves is good against all roughness of the skin, lepries, spreading sores, tetters, smallpox, measles, pushes, wheals, freckles, lentils, and all other spots, scurviness, and deformity of the body and face, being mixed with barley meal and applied: it doth also take away warts and such like excrescences, if it be mingled with some fatty or greasy thing.

I. The milk doth also cure the toothache, if a little lint or cotton be wet therein, and put into the hollowness of the tooth.

K. It openeth the veins of the hemorrhoids, and looseneth the belly, being applied to the fundament.

L. Figs stamped with the powder of Fenugreek, and vinegar, and applied plasterwise, do ease the intolerable pain of the hot gout, especially the gout of the feet.

M. The milk thereof put into the wound proceeding of the biting of a mad dog, or any other venomous beast, preserveth the parts adjoining, taketh away the pain presently, and cureth the hurt.

N. The green and ripe figs are good for those that be troubled with the stone of the kidneys, for they make the conduits slippery, and open them, and do also somewhat cleanse: whereupon after the eating of the same, it happeneth that much gravel and sand is conveyed forth.

O. Dry or barrel figs, called in Latin Caricæ, are a remedy for the belly, the cough, and for old infirmities of the chest and lungs: they scour the kidneys, and cleanse forth the sand, they mitigate the pain of the bladder, and cause women with child to have the easier deliverance, if they feed thereof for certain days together before their time.

P. Dioscorides saith, that the white liquor of the Fig tree, and juice of the leaves, do curdle milk as rennet doth, and dissolve the milk that is cluttered in the stomach, as doth vinegar.

Q. It bringeth down the menses, if it be applied with the yolk of an egg, or with yellow wax.

Culpepper was somewhat less effusive:

The tree is under the dominion of Jupiter. The milk that issues out from the leaves or branches where they are broken off, being dropped upon warts, takes them away. The decoction of the leaves is excellent good to wash sore heads with: and there is scarcely a better remedy for the leprosy than it is. It clears the face also of morphew, and the body of white scurf, scabs, and running sores. If it be dropped into old fretting ulcers, it cleanses out the moisture, and brings up the flesh; because you cannot have the leaves green all the year, you may make an ointment of them while you can. A decoction of the leaves being drank inwardly, or rather a syrup made of them, dissolves congealed blood caused by bruises or falls, and helps the bloody flux. The ashes of the wood made into an ointment with hog's grease, helps kibes and chilblains. The juice being put into an hollow tooth, eases pain; as also deafness and pain and noise in the ears, being dropped into them. An ointment made of the juice and hog's grease, is as excellent a remedy for the biting of mad dogs, or other venomous beasts, as most are; a syrup made of the leaves, or green fruit, is excellent for coughs, hoarseness, or shortness of breath, and all diseases of the breast and lungs; it is very good for the dropsy and falling sickness.

Mrs. Grieves gives us a bit of history along with medical use:

The Common Fig-tree provides the succulent fruit that in its fresh and dried state has been valued from the earliest days. It is indigenous to Persia, Asia Minor and Syria, but now is wild in most of the Mediterranean countries. It is cultivated in most warm and temperate climates and has been celebrated from the earliest times for the beauty of its foliage and for its 'sweetness and good fruit' (Judges ix. 2), there being frequent allusions to it in the Scriptures. The Greeks are said to have received it from Caria in Asia Minor - hence the specific name. Under Hellenic culture it was improved and Attic figs became celebrated in the East. It was one of the principal articles of sustenance among the Greeks, being largely used by the Spartans at their public table; and athletes fed almost entirely on figs, considering that they increased their strength and swiftness. To such an extent, indeed, were figs a part of the staple food of the people in ancient Greece that there was a law forbidding the exportation of the best fruit from their trees.

Figs were early introduced into Italy. Pliny gives details of no less than twentynine kinds known in his day, and specially praises those of Tarant and Caria and also those of Herculaneum. Dried Figs have been found in Pompeii in our days and in the wall-paintings of the buried city Figs are represented together with other fruits. Pliny states that homegrown Figs formed a large portion of the food of slaves, especially in the fresh state for agricultural workers.

The Fig plays an important part in Latin mythology. It was dedicated to Bacchus and employed in religious ceremonies. The wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus rested under a Fig tree, which was therefore held sacred by the Romans, and Ovid states that among the celebrations of the first day of the year by Romans, Figs were offered as presents. The inhabitants of Cyrene crowned themselves with wreaths of Figs when sacrificing to Saturn, holding him to be the discoverer of the fruit. Pliny speaks also of the Wild Fig, which is mentioned also in Homer, and further classical references to the Fig are to be found in Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Varro and Columella.

Medicinal Action and Uses---Figs are used for their mild, laxative action, and are employed in the preparation of laxative confections and syrups, usually with senna and carminatives. It is considered that the laxative property resides in the saccharine juice of the fresh fruit and in the dried fruit is probably due to the indigestible seeds and skin. The three preparations of Fig of the British Pharmacopoeia are Syrup of Figs, a mild laxative, suitable for administration to children; Aromatie Syrup of Figs, Elixir of Figs, or Sweet Essence of Figs, an excellent laxative for children and delicate persons, is compounded of compound tincture of rhubarb, liquid extract of senna, compound spirit of orange, liquid extract of cascara and Syrup of Figs. The Compound Syrup of Figs is a stronger preparation, composed of liquid extract of senna, syrup of rhubarb and Syrup of Figs, and is more suitable for adults.

Figs are demulcent as well as nutritive. Demulcent decoctions are prepared from them and employed in the treatment of catarrhal affections of the nose and throat.

Roasted and split into two portions, the soft pulpy interior of Figs may be applied as emolient poultices to gumboils, dental abscesses and other circumscribed maturating tumours. They were used by Hezekiah as a remedy for boils 2,400 years ago (Isaiah xxxviii. 21).

The milky juice of the freshly-broken stalk of a Fig has been found to remove warts on the body. When applied, a slightly inflamed area appears round the wart, which then shrivels and falls off. The milky juice of the stems and leaves is very acrid and has been used in some countries for raising blisters.

The wood of the tree is porous and of little value, though a piece, saturated with oil and spread with emery, is in France a common substitute for a hone.

Green Fig Jam is excellent. Choose very juicy Figs. Take off the stalks, but do not peel them. Make a syrup of 1/2 lb. of sugar and a glass of water (1/2 pint) for each pound of fruit. Put the Figs into it and cook them till the syrup pearls. Boil a stick of cinnamon with them and remove it before pouring the jam into pots.

The Sycamore Fig (Ficus Sycamorus) is a tree of large size, with heart-shaped, somewhat mulberry-like leaves. It is a favourite tree in Egypt and Syria, being often planted along roads, deep shade being cast by its spreading branches. It bears a sweet, edible fruit, somewhat like that of the Common Fig, but produced in racemes, on the older branches. The Ancients, after soaking it in water, preserved it like the Common Fig. The porous wood is only fit for fuel.

Our northern Sycamore tree is in no way related to this Sycamore Fig, but has wrongly acquired its name, Prior says, through a mistake of the botanist Ruellius, who transferred the Greek name, Sycamoros, properly the name of the Wild Fig, to the great Maple.

'This mistake,' says Prior, 'arose perhaps from this tree, the great maple, being on account of the density of its foliage, used in the sacred dramas of the Middle Ages to represent the Fig tree into which Zaccheus climbed and that in which the Virgin Mary on her journey into Egypt had hidden herself and the infant Jesus to avoid the fury of Herod; a legend quoted by Stapel on Theophrastus and by Thevenot in his Voyage de Levant: "At Mathave is a large sycamore or Pharaoh's Fig, very old, but which bears fruit every year. They say that upon the Virgin passing that way with her son Jesus and being pursued by the people, this Fig tree opened to receive her and closed her in again, until the people had passed by and then opened again. The tree is still shown to travellers." ' (See Cowper's Apocryphal Gospels.)

King's American Dispensatory, 1898 tells us:

Action and Medical Uses.—Figs are nutritive, emollient, demulcent, and aperient, and are used in costive habits, and to flavor gruels, decoctions, etc. Roasted or boiled, they may be applied as a suppurative poultice to gum-boils, buboes, carbuncles, etc. A poultice of dried figs and milk will remove the stench of cancerous and fetid ulcers (Billroth).

Plants for A Future stares:

Medicinal use of Fig: A decoction of the leaves is stomachic. The leaves are also added to boiling water and used as a steam bath for painful or swollen piles. The latex from the stems is used to treat corns, warts and piles. It also has an analgesic effect against insect stings and bites. The fruit is mildly laxative, demulcent, digestive and pectoral. The unripe green fruits are cooked with other foods as a galactogogue and tonic. The roasted fruit is emollient and used as a poultice in the treatment of gumboils, dental abscesses etc. Syrup of figs, made from the fruit, is a well-known and effective gentle laxative that is also suitable for the young and very old. A decoction of the young branches is an excellent pectoral. The plant has anticancer properties.

The Physicians’ Desk Reference for Herbal Medicine tells us:

Fig preparations are used as a laxative. In China, figs are used for dysentery and enteritis. No health hazards or side effects are known in conjunction with proper administration of designated therapeutic dosages.

This article is an excerpt from The Medicinal Trees of the American South, An Herbalist's Guide: by Judson Carroll

His New book is:

Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast An Herbalist's Guide

Read About Growing Your Survival Herb Garden for Preppers, Homesteaders and Everyone Else: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/06/medicinal-shrubs-and-woody-vines-of.html

Available for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2T4Y5L6

His other works include:

Growing Your Survival Herb Garden for Preppers, Homesteaders and Everyone Else

Read About Growing Your Survival Herb Garden for Preppers, Homesteaders and Everyone Else: http://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/04/growing-your-survival-herb-garden-for.html

Available for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X4LYV9R

The Encyclopedia of Bitter Medicinal Herbs:

southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-encyclopedia-of-bitter-medicina.html

Available for purchase on Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5MYJ35R

Christian Medicine, History and Practice:

https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/01/christian-herbal-medicine-history-and.html

Available for purchase on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B09P7RNCTB

Herbal Medicine for Preppers, Homesteaders and Permaculture People

southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2021/10/herbal-medicine-for-preppers.html

Also available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HMWXL25

Look Up: The Medicinal Trees of the American South, An Herbalist's Guide

http:///www.amazon.com/dp/1005082936

The Herbs and Weeds of Fr. Johannes Künzle:

https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2021/05/announcing-new-book-herbs-and-weeds-of.html

Author: Judson Carroll. Judson Carroll is an Herbalist from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

His weekly articles may be read at judsoncarroll.com

His weekly podcast may be heard at: www.spreaker.com/show/southern-appalachian-herbs

He offers free, weekly herb classes: https://rumble.com/c/c-618325

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.

Show 95: Ecumenism, Education and Viburnum

Listen to "Show 95: Ecumenism, Education and Viburnum" on Spreaker.

In this episode, I discuss Viburnum or "Cramp Bark", which is an excellent herb to relieve and prevent muscle cramps, menstrual cramps, and is good for relaxation; it also helps relieve kidney stones and has been used historically to help prevent miscarriage -lots of info!  I announce that I am writing articles for Missio Dei, which is a great Christian publication.  I discuss ecumenism, explain why bigotry is incompatible with Christianity and how to get a good education and a solid income while exploring your passions without being brainwashed or saddled with huge amounts of debt.

https://www.spreaker.com/user/13414994/show-95

Read about my new book, Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast an Herbalist's Guide  

https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/06/medicinal-shrubs-and-woody-vines-of.html

Available for purchase on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2T4Y5L6 

Visit my Substack and sign up for my free newsletter: https://judsoncarroll.substack.com/

Read about my new other book, Growing Your Survival Herb Garden for Preppers, Homesteaders and Everyone Else

https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/04/growing-your-survival-herb-garden-for.html

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X4LYV9R

And 

The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Bitter Herbs: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-encyclopedia-of-bitter-medicina.html

Available for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5MYJ35R

and

Christian Medicine, History and Practice: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/01/christian-herbal-medicine-history-and.html

Available for purchase on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B09P7RNCTB

Herbal Medicine for Preppers, Homesteaders and Permaculture People: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2021/10/herbal-medicine-for-preppers.html

Also available on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B09HMWXL25

Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/southern-appalachian-herbs

Blog: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/

Free Video Lessons: https://rumble.com/c/c-618325

Medicinal Trees: Fagus, Beech

Eight varieties of Fagus are used in herbal medicine, but another nine members of the Beech family are also used, falling under the closely related Nothofagus. Fagus crenata - Japanese Beech, Fagus grandifolia - American Beech, Fagus japonica - Japanese Beech, Fagus longipetiolata, Fagus lucida, Fagus orientalis - Oriental Beech, Fagus sylvatica, NothoFagus betuloides, NothoFagus cunninghamii - Myrtle Beech, NothoFagus fusca - Red Beech, NothoFagus menziesii - Silver Beech, NothoFagus obliqua – Robl, NothoFagus procera – Rauli, Notho, NothoFagus solanderi - Black Beech, Nothofagus solanderi cliffortioides - Mountain Beech

Only two Beeches are native to my region, Fagus grandifolia var. caroliniana (American Beech), Fagus grandifolia var. grandifolia (American Beech)

That we have only two native Beeches certainly does not mean that we have few Beech trees. Quite the contrary! In fact, just two peaks over from where I live now is Beech Mountain, NC. Beech mountain, known for ski slopes and The Land Of Oz amusement park (that closed in the 1980s), was also home to the folks who taught me herbs and Appalachian folktales. That was the “back side of Beech Mountain”, away from the tourists and summer homes, down ten miles of dirt road. The Hicks family lived in a centuries old cabin, with no indoor plumbing, one electric light, a wood stove, a spring house, a view of Tennessee on clear, stary nights… far away from noise or most any trace of modernity. Peace and quiet, nature and the old ways.

Dioscorides included Beech in de Materia Medica:

… and the bark of the root of prinus boiled in water until it becomes tender and rotten and applied for a whole night dyes the hair black. It is first made clean with Cimolian earth. The leaves of all of them bruised and pounded into small pieces help oedema, and strengthen feeble parts.

Saint Hildegard von Bingen included a lengthy entry on Beech in her Physica, written around 1100:

The beech tree has correct balance, with equal heat and cold, both of which are good. It demotes discipline. When the leaves of the beech begin to come out, but do not yet fully show, go to this tree and take a branch of it in your left hand, say, “I cut your natural vigor from you, because you correct all a person’s humors which have been turned the wrong path by the yellow bule, by the living Word, which makes a person without contrition.” Hold the branch in your left hand while you say these words. Then cut the branch off with a steel knife. Save that branch for a year and repeat this each year. If anyone in that year has jaundice, cut a small piece from that branch. Place it in a metallic jar, and pour over it a moderate amount of wine. Whenever you pour the wine over these bits, say these words, “ By the holy spark of thy holy incarnation, by which God became human, draw from this person (Name) the sickness of jaundice. “ Then heat the wine, with the bits of wood which you had cut off, in a small crucible. For three day, give it as a warm drink to the one with jaundice. He will be cured unless God forbids it

If someone has ague, take some of the fruit of the beech tree when it forsts comes out and mix it with pure spring water. Say these words, “By the holy spark of the holy incarnation by which God became human, you ague, and you fevers, forsake this person, (Name) with your heat and cold. Then give him this water to drink. Offer it for five days, and he will be quickly healed from the quartan fevers, unless God does not wish to free him.

Also, when the root of the beech tree appears above the earth, take away its outer bark. Take as much as you can cut with one incision and say, By the first vision, when God saw a human being at the root of Mamre, break the waves of this person’s poison, without his death.” Again, cut as much as you can from the second incision and say the same words. In a similar way, cut a third incision in the root, so that you cut the root three times, lest it run short during the year. During the year, whenever anyone has freislich on his body, cut off a bit from one of these cuttings of wood, place it in a metallic jar, and pour over it pure spring water, saying these words each time, “ By the first vision, when God was baptized in the Jordan, through this poison, without the death of the person (Name), carry from him every snare of disease, so that he be with pure life, just as Jesus was given.” Give him this water to drink, while fasting, for three days. On each day offer it to him to drink in this way. He will be freed from the freislich, unless God prohibits it.

Anyone who prepares and eats a puree from the leaves of the beech, when they are new and fresh, will not be harmed by it. If someone eats its fruit, he will not be harmed, but will become fat.

To put it mildly, Saint Hildegard’s remedies may seem esoteric to modern readers. It must be mentioned though, that she is not only a canonized saint, but a Doctor of the Church. Saint Hildegard received her knowledge of herbs and healing from “The voice of the living Light” and angelic visions. She was a mystic who was blessed with something akin to the Wisdom of Solomon, having little formal education due to extreme illness in her youth. She reluctantly shared her visions through several books, art and the largest body recorded religious music from the Middle Ages. She was celebrated by the Pope and bishops of her day, and was encouraged to travel as much as possible, preaching and teaching in Catholic churches throughout central Europe. Popularly, she was known as the “Sybil of the Rhine” and all who were able, including the crowned heads of Europe, flocked to her Abbey, to gain insight from her wisdom, insight and God-given knowledge.

Gerard, writing in 1597 says:

The leaves of Beech do cool: the kernel of the nut is somewhat moist.

A. The leaves of Beech are very profitably applied unto hot swellings, blisters, and excoriations; and being chewed they are good for chapped lips, and pain of the gums.

B. The kernels or mast within are reported to ease the pain of the kidneys proceeding of the stone, if they be eaten, and to cause the gravel and sand the easier to come forth. With these, mice and squirrels are greatly delighted, who do mightily increase by feeding thereon: swine also be fattened herewith, and certain other beasts also. Deer do feed thereon very greedily: they be likewise pleasant to thrushes and pigeons.

C. Petrus Crescentius writeth, That the ashes of the wood is good to make glass with.

D. The water that is found in the hollowness of Beeches cureth the naughty scurf, tetters, and scabs of men, horses, kine, and sheep, if they be wasled therewith.

Culpepper wrote of Beech, “It is a plant of Saturn, and therefore performs his qualities and proportion in these operations. The leaves of the beech-tree are cooling and binding, and therefore good to be applied to hot swellings to discuss them; the nuts do much nourish such beasts as feed thereon. The water that is found in the hollow places of decaying beeches will cure both man and beast of any scurf, scab, or running tetters, if they be washed therewith; you may boil the leaves into a poultice, or make an ointment of them when time of year serves.”

Mrs. Grieves writes only of Beech, “The tar is stimulating and antiseptic, used internally as a stimulating expectorant in chronic bronchitis, or externally as an application in various skin diseases.”

Fr. Johannes Künzle wrote of Beech in his Spring Cure:

There are many people who, without being bedridden, are almost always unwell, they have no appetite and dislike the best St. Gallen sausages, are clogged up like the gates of hell, they feel pressure on their chests and in their stomachs and there is heat and pain in the head. They can not sleep well and when they do sleep then restlessly and they have bad dreams; they run after all doctors and are a nuisance to them, write to all quacks as far as to London and New York, swing like party leaders after an election victory, and are like complaining organs with 365 stops, often with an accompaniment of an orchestra.

If such people have the serious will to get well, they should take one of the so-called spring cures for 8-14 days.

Unripe Blackberries

You send Tony or Jacob into the nearest bushes with a basket and a knife. There he cuts many shoots from all types of thorny bushes: dog rose (Rosa cantina), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), hawthorn (Crataegus), raspberry (rubus idaeus), and blackberry (rubus fruticosus) and shoots from fir trees, beeches (fagus), hazel trees, cherry trees, oaks, larches, ash trees, poplars. Furthermore you can also take shoots from currants, from gooseberries, from fruit trees.

A handful of this mixture is then thrown into a pan, one to two liters of water are poured in, and the mixture is heated until it simmers. The sick person should drink one to two liters of this liquid daily with sugar. This tea cleanses the whole body. It has already turned very sick people into healthy and flourishing ones again. However, if the effect is to be lasting, this cure must be continued for eight days. The lost appetite returns, the headache and pressure in the abdomen are gone, the pale color vanishes, the grave digger can put his shovel back in his shed. And this poor creature, previously so pale and shaky, can again rule in the kitchen with power and dignity.

If she takes five or seven good fir tree twigs baths, she is fresh and sunny again like a bride! It is known that mustard has extracting qualities, that is why mustard plasters are often used for painful rheumatic areas. The well-known, expensive American plasters contain extracting substances.

Jolanta WIttib writes of Beech:

I admire these mighty trees. They are so majestic, and they have very cute offsprings. Have you ever seen the young shoots of a beech? No? Look out for these. You will definitely enjoy the look of them. And have you ever eaten the nuts of a beech? My grandson introduced me to these. We do not have beeches in the Alps, but he lives next to huge beech forests. In autumn the paths are strewn with burrs - those tiny boxes with beech nuts. My grandson showed me how to open them with scissors. Just cutting the pointed upper part and then peeling the seed.

Mmmmm delicious!

A beech gives not only nuts. I have read that one huge beech tree releases per hour enough oxygen for 50 people to breath during that hour. We do need such trees!

Herbal Remedies of the Lumbee Indians tells us:

The Lumbee made Beech tea from the bark taken from the trunk. This tea was drunk to treat weak back and back aches. The same liquid was mixed with hog lard to form a slave rubbed on the affected area to treat bone rheumatism. The salve was also used to nurse pain from a sprain or broken bone. … The Rappahannock soaked beech bark in salt water to produce a substance to be rubbed on the skin to treat poison ivy. The Iroquois League… used beech nut oil mixed with bear grease as a hair treatment and mosquito repellant.

Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests states:

The bark is astringent, and has been used, according to Dr. Farnham, in intermittent fever; but it is not possessed of any decided powers. The fruit pro-duces vertigo and headache in the human species. It is observed, in the Fl. Scotica, that "the fat of hogs, which feed on them, is soft, and will boil away." The seeds yield an oil little inferior to olive oil, and fit, also, for burning. The pulp remaining after expression may be converted into flour, similar in taste and color to wheat, but sweeter. A narcotic principle, called fagine, has been found in the husks. The young leaves are sometimes used by the common people as a potherb.

Peterson Field Guides Eastern and Central Medicinal Plants tells us:

American beach, Fagus grandifolia: American Indians chewed nuts as a worm experiment. Bark tea used for long elements. Leaf tea a wash for burns, frostbite, Poison Ivy rash (1 ounce to 1 pint salt water).

Botany In a Day states:

Beech leaves are edible raw or cooked as a pot or early in the spring. The seeds are rich in oil and high in protein, edible raw or cooked, but should not be eaten in large quantities due to an alkaloid in the outer covering. The seeds may be dried and ground into a flour. The roasted seed is used as a coffee substitute. The sprouted seeds are also edible and reportedly delicious. Oil from the seeds may be used in cooking and salad dressing or in lamps.

This article is an excerpt from The Medicinal Trees of the American South, An Herbalist's Guide: by Judson Carroll

His New book is:

Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast An Herbalist's Guide

Read About Growing Your Survival Herb Garden for Preppers, Homesteaders and Everyone Else: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/06/medicinal-shrubs-and-woody-vines-of.html

Available for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2T4Y5L6

His other works include:

Growing Your Survival Herb Garden for Preppers, Homesteaders and Everyone Else

Read About Growing Your Survival Herb Garden for Preppers, Homesteaders and Everyone Else: http://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/04/growing-your-survival-herb-garden-for.html

Available for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X4LYV9R

The Encyclopedia of Bitter Medicinal Herbs:

southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-encyclopedia-of-bitter-medicina.html

Available for purchase on Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5MYJ35R

Christian Medicine, History and Practice:

https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/01/christian-herbal-medicine-history-and.html

Available for purchase on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B09P7RNCTB

Herbal Medicine for Preppers, Homesteaders and Permaculture People

southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2021/10/herbal-medicine-for-preppers.html

Also available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HMWXL25

Look Up: The Medicinal Trees of the American South, An Herbalist's Guide

http:///www.amazon.com/dp/1005082936

The Herbs and Weeds of Fr. Johannes Künzle:

https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2021/05/announcing-new-book-herbs-and-weeds-of.html

Author: Judson Carroll. Judson Carroll is an Herbalist from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

His weekly articles may be read at judsoncarroll.com

His weekly podcast may be heard at: www.spreaker.com/show/southern-appalachian-herbs

He offers free, weekly herb classes: https://rumble.com/c/c-618325

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.