Nyssa, Tupelo
Three varieties of Tupelo have been found useful in herbal medicine: Nyssa aquatica - Water Tupelo Synonym, Nyssa ogeche - Ogeechee Lime, Nyssa sylvatica - Black Tupelo
Three varieties of Tupelo grow in my region: Nyssa aquatica (Water Tupelo), Nyssa biflora (Swamp Tupelo, Swamp Blackgum), Nyssa sylvatica (Blackgum, Black Tupelo, Pepperidge)
Tupelos are new world trees, so little if any record of their use exists in the old British and European herbals. I will have to do more research for Native American use of these trees and update this book when/if I find something useful. Anyone who buys this version may request a free, updated eBook as they become available. For me, the Tupelos are a tree of childhood memory. My great grandfather was a remarkable farmer and bee keeper. He placed his hives near the Tupelos that grew in the swamps. The honey made from those trees was as dark as molasses, slightly biting to the throat and by far the very best I have ever tasted. Tupelo honey is famous in the American South, but I have never found any so dark and rich.
Herbal Remedies of the Lumbee Indians states:
Some Lumbee healers would scrape the bark from the roots of the black gum tree and boil it to make a tea to treat colic, cramps or worms. The inner bark was made into a tea to treat milky urine and diarrhea. Some local healers would also boil the branches of the black gum with Gall of the Earth to obtain a tonic used to treat high blood pressure.
Plants for A Future states:
Medicinal use of Black Tupelo: The bark is emetic, ophthalmic and vermifuge. An infusion has been used as a bath and also given to children with worms. A strong decoction is used to cause vomiting when unable to retain food. A strong ooze from the roots is used as eye drops.
Ostrya, Hophornbeam or Ironwood
There are two species of Ostrya: Ostrya carpinifolia - Hop Hornbeam and Ostrya virginiana – Ironwood. Both are found in my region.
King's American Dispensatory, 1898 tells us:
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Iron-wood is antiperiodic, tonic, and alterative. It has been used with efficacy in intermittent fevers, neuralgic affections, dyspepsia, scrofula, and all diseases where an antiperiodic tonic is indicated. Dose of the decoction, 1 or 2 fluid ounces, 3 or 4 times a day; of the fluid extract, 1 fluid drachm.
Plants for A Future states:
Medicinal use of Ironwood: The bark is astringent, blood tonic and haemostatic. A decoction of the bark is used to bathe sore muscles. An infusion of the bark can be held in the mouth to relieve the pain of toothache. An infusion of the heartwood has been used in the treatment of lung haemorrhages, coughs and colds, catarrh and kidney problems. It is also used as a herbal steam bath in the treatment of rheumatism.
Botany In a Day states:
A tea of the bark is taken for intermittent fevers and nervousness.
Oxydendrum arboretum, Sourwood
This is the tree that made Appalachian Mountain “Sourwood Honey” famous. It is the opposite of the Tupelo of the swamps. Sourwood honey is champaign colored and remarkably light. The genuine article is hard to find, as much wildflower honey is mixed with light corn syrup to make a counterfeit Sourwood Honey. As the old folks would say, “Sour Wood honey is so good that if you put it on a biscuit, and put that biscuit on your head, your tongue would beat your brains out trying to get to it!” This was the honey from which most of the old Appalachian cough syrups and cold remedies were made, and it was believed to have particularly strong medicinal properties.
King's American Dispensatory, 1898 tells us:
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Sorrel tree leaves are tonic, refrigerant, and strongly diuretic. Fever patients will find a decoction of the leaves a pleasant, cooling, and diuretic drink. A tincture of the leaves and twigs in whiskey is said to have been a popular remedy in Kentucky for the kidney and bladder ailments of aged men, being employed to increase the renal secretion, and to relieve the unpleasant symptoms attending prostatic enlargement, vesical calculi, and chronic irritation of the neck of the bladder. The remedy was specially recommended in the treatment of dropsies by Dr. J. W. Davis, of Lewisburg, Ky., in 1881 (Ec. Med. Jour., 1881, p. 497). Its strong diuretic powers were generally recognized, and several experimenters reported remarkable success from its employment in anasarca, hydrocele, pleuritic effusions, and hydropericardium. It was asserted to give marked relief in urinary troubles, with frequent desire to urinate, with burning pain at urethral outlet, and the urine passing in drops, mixed with blood. It was subsequently employed in bowel troubles from exposure to cold, as when a determination of blood to the viscera occurred, causing diarrhoea or dysentery. It undoubtedly acts by giving increased tone to relaxed capillaries. Pills of a solid extract, containing 3 to 6 grains may be given every 2 hours; specific oxydendron, 1 to 20 minims every 2 or 3 hours.
Specific Indications and Uses.—Anasarca, ascites, and other forms of dropsy; the urinary difficulties of old men; painful micturition, with scanty renal secretion.
Plans for A Future lists it as Sorrel Tree, indicating its sourness:
Medicinal use of Sorrel Tree: The leaves are cardiac, diuretic, refrigerant and tonic. A tea made from the leaves has been used in the treatment of asthma, diarrhoea, indigestion and to check excessive menstrual bleeding. It is diuretic and is a folk remedy for treating fevers, kidney and bladder ailments. The bark has been chewed in the treatment of mouth ulcers.
Peterson Field Guides Eastern and Central Medicinal Plants tells us:
American Indians chewed bark for mouth ulcers. Leaf tea used for “nerves”, asthma, diarrhea, indigestion, and to check excessive menstrual bleeding. Leave tea, a Kentucky folk remedy for kidney and bladder elements diarrhetic, fevers, diarrhea, and dysentery. Flowers yield the famous sourwood honey.
This article is an excerpt from The Medicinal Trees of the American South, An Herbalist's Guide: by Judson Carroll
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Southern Appalachian Herbs: Medicinal Ferns and Fern Allies, an Herbalist's Guide (Medicinal Plants of The American Southeast)
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The Herbs and Weeds of Fr. Johannes Künzle:
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Author: Judson Carroll. Judson Carroll is an Herbalist from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
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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.
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