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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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.
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