Forty-one varieties of Malus have been found to be useful in herbal
medicine: Malus angustifolia - Southern Crab, Malus baccata - Chinese
Crab, Malus baccata mandschurica - Manchurian Apple, Malus bracteate,
Malus brevipes, Malus coronaria - Garland Crab, Malus domestica –
Apple, Malus Florentina, Malus floribunda - Japanese Crab, Malus
fusca - Oregon Crab, Malus glabrata, Malus glaucescens, Malus
halliana, Malus halliana spontaneae, Malus hupehensis - Chinese Crab,
Malus ioensis - Prairie Crab, Malus ioensis palmeri - Prairie Crab,
Malus kansuensis, Malus lancifolia, Malus praecox, Malus prattii,
Malus prunifolia - Chinese Apple, Malus prunifolia rinkii - Chinese
Apple, Malus pumila - Paradise Apple, Malus pumila nervosa - Crab
Apple, Malus pumila paradisiaca - Paradise Apple, Malus sargentii,
Malus sieversii, Malus sikkimensis, Malus spectabilis - Chinese
Flowering Apple, Malus sylvestris - Crab Apple, Malus toringo, Malus
toringoides, Malus transitoria, Malus trilobata, Malus tschonoskii,
Malus x adstringens, Malus x astracanica, Malus x microMalus - Kaido
Crab Apple, Malus x robusta, Malus x soulardii, Malus yunnanensis
Only
two Crabapples are native to my region, though the number of
“heirloom” apples that have become feral over the centuries is
vast. Our natives are: Malus angustifolia (Southern Crabapple) and
Malus coronaria (Sweet Crabapple). Innumerable heirloom varieties of
sweet Apple have been grown in my region. Many homesteaders and
longtime residents – descendants of those who won America’s
independence, were forced off of their family lands to create the
Blue Ridge Parkway, the Tennessee Valley Authority, etc. Like the
Cherokee before them, also forced from their homes, they left their
food plants behind. Old apple trees can be found throughout my
region, often near old stack stone chimneys and abandoned family
cemeteries that are the only reminders that the “Land of the Free”
ceased to be so early on in our history… as early as the Whisky
Rebellion, and was surely lost but the 1940s.
Dioscorides
wrote of Apples:
Melimela
— Honey Apples, Must Apples, Cider Apples
Melimela
soften the intestines and drive living creatures from there [worms].
They are bad for the stomach and cause a burning heat. They are
called glycymela by some — as we should say, sweet apples.
Pyrus
malus var sylvestris — Crab Apples, Wild Apples
Wild
apples are similar to spring apples and are astringent, but for those
things which need an astringent you must use those which are least
ripe.
Saint
Hildegard wrote:
A
person, whether young or old, who suffers from fogginess in his eyes
for any reason should take the leaves of this tree in the springtime,
before it produces its fruit for the year. When these first come out
at the beginning of spring, they are tender and healthy, as young
girls before they produce children. He should pound these leaves and
express their sap, and to this add an equal measure of the drops that
flow from the grapevine. He should place this in a metallic jar and,
at night when he goes to bed, he should moisten his eyelids and eyes
with a feather dipped in a bit of it. It should be like dew falling
on grass, and care should be taken that it not enter the eyes. Then
he should sprinkle the crushed leaves with a bit of the drops that
flow from the grapevine, and place them over his eyes. He should
hold this on with a cloth and sleep with it on. If he does this
often, the fogginess will be driven from his eyes and he will see
clearly.
When
in springtime he first shoots of the apple tree burst forth, tear off
one little branch, without cutting it with iron, and draw a strap of
deer-hide back and forth over the break in the tree and the branch,
so that it becomes damp with sap. When you sense that there is no
more moisture, then hack, with very tiny blows, this broken spot with
a small knife, so that more of the moisture flows out. By drawing
the deer hide strap over the same place and on the same branch,
drench it with as much sap as you can. Then, put it in a damp place
so that it may absorb even more sap. Anyone who has pain in his
kidneys or trouble urinating should gird himself with this strap,
over his naked flesh, so that the sap which it drew from the apple
tree might pass into his flesh, and he will become better.
Anyone
who has pain from an illness of the liver or spleen, from bad humors
of the belly or stomach, or from a migraine in his head should take
the first shoots of the apple tree and place them in olive oil. He
should warm them in a little jar in the sun. If he drinks this often
when he goes to bed, his head will be better.
Also
in the springtime, when the blossoms come out, take earth, which has
been around the root of this tree, and heat it on the fire. Anyone
who has pain in his shoulders, loins or stomach should place it, thus
warmed, over the painful place, and he will be better. After the
fruits of this tree have increased, so that they begin to enlarge,
the earth is no longer powerful against these infirmities. The humor
of this earth and the sap of the tree will have ascended to the
fruits, leaving that in the earth and branches much weaker.
The
fruit fo this tree is gentle and easily digested and, eaten raw, does
not harm healthy people. Apples grow from dew when it is strong,
namely from the first sleep of the night untilt he day is nearly
breaking. They are good for healthy people to eat raw, since they
are ripened by the strong dew. Raw apples are a bit harmful for sick
people to eat, because of their weakness. But cooked or dried apples
are good for both sick and healthy people. After apples have gotten
old, and the skin has contracted as happens in winter, then they are
good for both sick and healthy people to eat raw.
Gerard
wrote of Apples:
A.
Roasted apples are always better than the raw, the harm whereof is
both mended by the fire, and may also be corrected by adding unto
them seeds or spices.
B.
Apples be good for an hot stomach: those that are austere or somewhat
harsh do strengthen a weak and feeble stomach proceeding of heat.
C.
Apples are also good for all inflammations or hot swellings, but
especially for such as are in their beginning, if the same be
outwardly applied.
D.
The juice of apples which be sweet and of a middle taste, is mixed in
compositions of divers medicines, and also for the tempering of
melancholy humours, and likewise to mend the qualities of medicines
that are dry: as are Serapium ex pomis Regis Saporis, Confectio
Alkermes, and such like compositions
E.
There is likewise made an ointment with the pulp of apples and
swines' grease and Rose-water, which is used to beautify the face,
and to take away the roughness of the skin, which is called in shops
Pomatum: of the apples whereof it is made.
F.
The pulp of the roasted apples, in number four or five, according to
the greatness of the apples, especially of the Pome Water, mixed in a
wine quart of fair water, laboured together until it come to be as
apples and ale, which we call lambs' wool, and the whole quart drunk
last at night within the space of an hour, doth in one night cure
those that piss by drops with great anguish and dolour; the
strangury, and all other diseases proceeding of the difficulty of
making water; but in twice taking it, it never faileth in any:
oftentimes there happeneth with the foresaid diseases the gonorrhæa,
or running of the reins, which it likewise healeth in those persons,
but not generally in all; which myself have often proved, and gained
thereby both crowns and credit.
G.
The leaves of the tree do cool and bind, and be also counted good for
inflammations, in the beginning.
H.
Apples cut in pieces, and distilled with a quantity of camphor and
buttermilk, take away the marks and scars gotten by the smallpox,
being washed therewith when they grow unto their state and ripeness:
provided that you give unto the patient a little milk and saffron, or
milk and mithridate to drink, to expel to the extreme parts that
venom which may lie hid, and as yet not seen.
And,
of Crabapples:
A.
The juice of wild Apples or crabs taketh away the heat of burnings,
scaldings, and all inflammations: and being laid on in short time
after it is scalded, it keepeth it from blistering.
B.
The juice of crabs or verjuice is astringent or binding, and hath
withal an abstersive or cleansing quality, being mixed with hard
yeast of ale or beer, and applied in manner of a cold ointment, that
is, spread upon a cloth first wet in the verjuice and wrung out, and
then laid to, taketh away the heat of Saint Anthony's fire, all
inflammations whatsoever, healeth scabbed legs, burnings and
scaldings wheresoever it be.
Culpepper
states:
Apple-trees
are all under the dominion of Venus. In general they are cold and
windy, and the best are to be avoided, before they are thoroughly
ripe; then to be roasted or scalded, and a little spice or warm seeds
thrown on them, and then should only be eaten after or between meals,
or for supper. They are very proper for hot and bilious stomachs, but
not to the cold, moist, and flatulent. The more ripe ones eaten raw,
move the belly a little; and unripe ones have the contrary effect. A
poultice of roasted sweet apples, with powder of frankincense,
removes pains of the side: and a poultice of the same apples boiled
in plantain water to a pulp, then mixed with milk, and applied, take
away fresh marks of gunpowder out of the skin. Boiled or roasted
apples eaten with rose water and sugar, or with a little butter, is a
pleasant cooling diet for feverish complaints. An infusion of sliced
apples with their skins in boiling water, a crust of bread, some
barley, and a little mace or all-spice, is a very proper cooling diet
drink in fevers. Roasted apples are good for the asthmatic; either
raw, roasted or boiled, are good for the consumptive, in
inflammations of the breasts or lungs. Their syrup is a good cordial
in faintings, palpitations, and melancholy: The pulp of boiled or
rotten apples in a poultice, is good for inflamed eyes, either
applied alone or with milk,or rose or fennel-waters. The pulp of five
or six roasted apples, beaten up with a quart of water to lamb's
wool, and the whole drank at night in an hour's space, speedily cures
such as slip their water by drops, attended with heat and pain.
Gerard observes, if it does not effectually remove the complaint the
first night, it never yet failed the second. The sour provokes urine
most; but the rough strengthens most the stomach and bowels.
Of
Apples, Mrs. Grieves wrote:
The
chief dietetic value of apples lies in the malic and tartaric acids.
These acids are of signal benefit to persons of sedentary habits, who
are liable to liver derangements, and they neutralize the acid
products of gout and indigestion. 'An apple a day keeps the doctor
away' is a respectable old rhyme that has some reason in it.
The
acids of the Apple not only make the fruit itself digestible, but
even make it helpful in digesting other foods. Popular instinct long
ago led to the association of apple sauce with such rich foods as
pork and goose, and the old English fancy for eating apple pie with
cheese, an obsolete taste, nowadays, is another example of
instinctive inclination, which science has approved.
The
sugar of a sweet apple, like most fruit sugars, is practically a
predigested food, and is soon ready to pass into the blood to provide
energy and warmth for the body.
A
ripe raw apple is one of the easiest vegetable substances for the
stomach to deal with, the whole process of its digestion being
completed in eighty-five minutes.
The
juice of apples, without sugar, will often reduce acidity of the
stomach; it becomes changed into alkaline carbonates, and thus
corrects sour fermentation.
It
is stated on medical authority that in countries where unsweetened
cider is used as a common beverage, stone or calculus is unknown, and
a series of inquiries made of doctors in Normandy, where cider is the
principal drink, brought to light the fact that not a single case of
stone had been met with during forty years.
Ripe,
juicy apples eaten at bedtime every night will cure some of the worst
forms of constipation. Sour apples are the best for this purpose.
Some cases of sleeplessness have been cured in this manner. People
much inclined to biliousness will find this practice very valuable.
In some cases stewed apples will agree perfectly well, while raw ones
prove disagreeable. There is a very old saying:
'To
eat an apple going to bed
Will
make the doctor beg his bread.'
The
Apple will also act as an excellent dentifrice, being a food that is
not only cleansing to the teeth on account of its juices, but just
hard enough to mechanically push back the gums so that the borders
are cleared of deposits.
Rotten
apples used as a poultice is an old Lincolnshire remedy for sore
eyes, that is still in use in some villages.
It
is no exaggeration to say that the habitual use of apples will do
much to prolong life and to ameliorate its conditions. In the Edda,
the old Scandinavian saga, Iduna kept in a box, apples that she gave
to the gods to eat, thereby to renew their youth.
A
French physician has found that the bacillus of typhoid fever cannot
live long in apple juice, and therefore recommends doubtful drinking
water to be mixed with cider.
A
glucoside in small crystals is obtainable from the bark and root of
the apple, peach and plum, which is said to induce artificial
diabetes in animals, and thus can be used in curing it in human
beings.
The
original pomatum seems to date from Gerard's days, when an ointment
for roughness of the skin was made from apple pulp, swine's grease,
and rosewater.
The
astringent verjuice, rich in tannin, of the Crab, is helpful in
chronic diarrhoea.
The
bark may be used in decoction for intermittent and bilious fevers.
Cider
in which horse-radish has been steeped has been found helpful in
dropsy.
Cooked
apples make a good local application for sore throat in fevers,
inflammation of the eyes, erysipelas, etc.
Stewed
apples are laxative; raw ones not invariably so.
An
Irish Herbal states of Apple:
Apples
comfort and cool the heat of the stomach, especially those that are
somewhat sour. The leaves should be laid upon hot swellings, and
they can also be applied to fresh wounds to prevent them from turning
bad.
Of
Crab Apple:
The
juice of crabs is a useful astringent in gargles for ulcers of the
mouth, throat and also for dropped uvulas. It is also good for
burns, scalds and inflammations.
Of
Quince (also in the Malus family):
Quince
stops diarrhea, dysentery and hemorrhages of all kinds. They also
strengthen the stomach, aid digestion and stop vomiting.
King's
American Dispensatory, 1898 tells us of Apple:
Action,
Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Apple tree bark is tonic and febrifuge,
and a decoction of it has been used with advantage in intermittent,
remittent, and bilious fevers, and in convalescence from exhausting
diseases. It may be given in. doses of 1 to 4 fluid ounces, 3 times a
day. A strong decoction or syrup of the sweet apple tree bark has
been employed with success in some cases of gravel. The fruit, or
apple, contains both malic and acetic acids, has a pleasant and
refreshing flavor, and is a useful and healthy article of diet.
However, it should not generally be eaten by dyspeptics or patients
afflicted with gout, rheumatism, renal, and cutaneous diseases. If
indications for an acid are present, however, it is not especially
contraindicated by rheumatism and dyspepsia. When baked, stewed, or
roasted, it becomes valuable as an agreeable and healthy diet in
febrile diseases, exanthemata, etc., and is more easily digested than
when raw; it is also slightly laxative, and is beneficial in cases of
habitual constipation. Raw apples should always be well masticated
before being swallowed, as otherwise, they may become a source of
serious difficulties, especially with children. An apple tea may be
made for fever patients, by boiling a tart apple in ½ pint of water,
and sweetening with sugar.
Cider
forms not only a refreshing and agreeable drink for patients with
fever, but actually exerts a salutary medicinal influence, especially
where the tongue is coated deep-red, brown, or black. I have used
cider, in which horseradish has been steeped, as an efficient remedy
in dropsy, for many years; and it is now used in the preparation of a
valuable agent for this disease, the Compound Infusion of Parsley.
Cooked apples form an excellent local application in ophthalmic
inflammation, erysipelatous inflammations, sore and swelled throat in
scarlatina, ulcers, etc. (J. King).
Phloridzin
is tonic and antiperiodic, and has cured cases of intermittent fever,
even where quinine has proved ineffectual; its dose is from 5 to 20
grains. Unlike quinine, it does not cause gastralgia.
This article is an excerpt from The Medicinal Trees of the American South, An Herbalist's Guide: by Judson Carroll
His New book is:
Read About The Omnivore’s Guide to Home Cooking for Preppers, Homesteaders, Permaculture People and Everyone Else"
https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-omnivores-guide-to-home-cooking-for.html
Available for purchase on Amazon:
His other works include:
Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast An Herbalist's Guide
Read about 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
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
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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.
