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.
