Medicine plant of the Day

[Peanut]

After lunch I did a little plant hunting. Checked on a patch of native wild roses I found last year, still growing strong. They rarely get a foot tall, little things beside gravel roads. Easy to miss unless you’re looking for them. They usually have pinkish blooms with 5 petals. I have seen them with 6 petals but not often. The hips are loaded with vitamin C.

 

[Peanut]

I checked on several patches of yellow root, Xanthorhiza simplicissima. 90% of the green in this photo is medicine. I need to make a couple quarts of tincture this summer. I gave most of my stock to a friend last fall. Her cow had a staff infection on it’s udder.

 

[Peanut]

I had to check my favorite creek too. Saw Virginia Sweetspire in bloom, Itea virginica. You won’t find it in herb books but it is medicinal, has astringent inner bark. Always nice to see, a beauty in the woods. I’ve only seen it next to water. It may grow other places but I haven’t seen it do so.

Just to the left of the sweetspire in the second photo is yellowroot on the creek bank.

 

[Pearl]

So I'm curious Peanut, when you go plant hunting, WHAT items for collection do you bring? Cutters? Some type of sack? Do you dig entire plants for their roots?

 

[GeorgiaPeachie]

I had to check my favorite creek too. Saw Virginia Sweetspire in bloom, Itea virginica. You won’t find it in herb books but it is medicinal, has astringent inner bark. Always nice to see, a beauty in the woods. I’ve only seen it next to water. It may grow other places but I haven’t seen it do so.

Just to the left of the sweetspire in the second photo is yellowroot on the creek bank.

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We have these around here too! Very cool looking!

 

[DrHenley]

Ancient Chinese Secret: Fig Branch Tea

Anti-inflammatory, especially joint cartilage. Passed down in my wife's family from Taiwan (I wasn't kidding about the ancient Chinese secret part). We were getting the branches from her uncle in New York, but I got some from my sister in Mississippi last time I visited her. You can occasionally find it in Asian markets, but I'm skeptical about how clean it is (chemical wise). Most Chinese don't know about it.

I have a trick knee and when it starts acting up I get my wife to make a batch. Within 1-3 days it's back to normal. It got so bad a number of years ago I was walking on a cane. That was before she started making the fig branch tea. Haven't used the cane since.

Here is the trick: it has to be dried for several months. How many months I'm not sure, but it needs to be good and dry through and through. Slice the branches into disks before drying to speed it up. Then when ready to make tea, smash them with the back of a hatchet so that the water can get into the wood. Fill up a stock pot with the smashed wood disks then fill with water and boil slowly for at least 4 hours.

Depending on how long the branches have dried, the tea may be slightly sweet or slightly astringent. If it's not sweet chop up some dried figs and boil with the wood otherwise it may upset your stomach.

Strain and keep in the fridge for up to two weeks. I have pressure canned it before for long term storage.

If you get it just right, it is a delicious cold tea. The tea I pressure canned was like canned soft drinks.

I have a friend that was a schoolmate in grad school who worked as a chemical engineer for a pharmaceutical company. He is Chinese from Taiwan and he never heard of it before but was fascinated when I told him about it. He told me that the drying is necessary because some oxidation reactions occur while drying that convert some chemicals.

 

[DrHenley]

Here is the batch of fig branches from my sister's fig tree

 

[Peanut]

So I'm curious Peanut, when you go plant hunting, WHAT items for collection do you bring? Cutters? Some type of sack? Do you dig entire plants for their roots?

I usually plan my harvests. I bring the tools for my target plants. Usually bring a 5 gallon bucket, and the tools I need that day. I always have blades and a few plastic bags in the truck just in case i find something unplanned.

But, 90% of the time i'm simply searching, seeing what is growing at any given location. I file that info for a rainy day when i need a medicine or medicines. Or, just as often I'm checking patches of certain herbs that i already know about. Keeping track of them year to year, logging happens, properties change hands so the landscape changes continually. I've been doing this for 20yrs now and search over a 400sq mile area. It's a lot to keep track of...

Ancient Chinese Secret: Fig Branch Tea

Anti-inflammatory, especially joint cartilage.

Here is the trick: it has to be dried for several months. How many months I'm not sure, but it needs to be good and dry through and through.

Depending on how long the branches have dried, the tea may be slightly sweet or slightly astringent. If it's not sweet chop up some dried figs and boil with the wood otherwise it may upset your stomach.

He told me that the drying is necessary because some oxidation reactions occur while drying that convert some chemicals.

Curious about the latex in fig sap. You don't have a reaction to it? I suspect the long drying time changes the latex. Latex in plants (not just figs) oxidizes quickly when exposed to the air, starts turning brown within a couple minutes.

I'd like to know more... do you have the latin name of the species of fig you use for this. There's dozens of fig species and about 800 species of ficus in that genus.

 

[Pearl]

Very interesting DrHenly!! I know a gal who makes fig leaf tea to help control her blood sugar. Someone in her family makes fig branch tea and says it has to dry all the sap out of it or it causes bleeding in the digestive tract!!

 

[DrHenley]

There is no latex in the dried branches that I can tell. And not when I'm cutting the fresh branches either. I did cut them in winter though. I'm pretty sensitive to plant saps and the fig branches have never bothered me.

I have no idea about the varieties. Every type we've tried worked equally well. She also got some from her niece in Austin.

 

[Peanut]

The latex in fig sap is commonly used to remove warts in appalachian folk medicine. Also, long ago the leaves were dried and smoked in a pipe for asthma or a 'bad chest', what ever that meant in the 1800's.

I enjoy reading old medical literature but it can be challenging at times to translate the terminology into modern english.

 

[DrHenley]

Although my wife thinks the medicinal value is in the wood, I suspect that only the flavor comes from the wood and the medicinal value is in the bark.

 

[DrHenley]

The latex in fig sap is common used to remove warts in appalachian folk medicine. Also, long ago the leaves were dried and smoked in a pipe for asthma or a 'bad chest', what ever that meant in the 1800's.

I enjoy reading old medical literature but it can be challenging at times to translate the terminology into modern english.

Are you familiar with this:
Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and Agricultural: Being Also a Medical Botany of the Confederate States
Francis Peyre Porcher
docsouth.unc.edu/imls/porcher/porcher.html

 

[Peanut]

There is no latex in the dried branches that I can tell. And not when I'm cutting the fresh branches either. I did cut them in winter though. I'm pretty sensitive to plant saps and the fig branches have never bothered me.

I have no idea about the varieties. Every type we've tried worked equally well. She also got some from her niece in Austin.

Just went out to my fig trees for a couple photos. The white latex sap appears instantly when you break a stem or leaf... I haven't seen sap when I pruned the limbs in winter.

 

[Peanut]

Are you familiar with this:
Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and Agricultural: Being Also a Medical Botany of the Confederate States
Francis Peyre Porcher
docsouth.unc.edu/imls/porcher/porcher.html

Yep, I have a hard copy of the 1868 version. There are two versions, one during the civil war and the second one in 1868.

The second version has about 100 more pages of info. Both are available in pdf.

https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/herbal-medicine-books-peanut-recommends.6745/#post-226478

https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/herbal-medicine-books-peanut-recommends.6745/#post-225478

 

[Pearl]

There is no latex in the dried branches that I can tell. And not when I'm cutting the fresh branches either. I did cut them in winter though. I'm pretty sensitive to plant saps and the fig branches have never bothered me.

I have no idea about the varieties. Every type we've tried worked equally well. She also got some from her niece in Austin.

Latex is a tree fluid (not sap), so once dried there would be no latex! The gal I know, her family member said the sap caused digestive bleeding. I will contact her and see what she knows. I'm also going to do some homework on this, it's very interesting!!

 

[DrHenley]

Dried figs and even fresh figs are known to have similar anti-inflammatory properties. I don't know if they work on joint cartilage as well as the branches though, and I don't know how many dried figs you would have to eat. Lot less sugar in the branches.

 

[Peanut]

Latex is a tree fluid (not sap), so once dried there would be no latex! The gal I know, her family member said the sap caused digestive bleeding. I will contact her and see what she knows. I'm also going to do some homework on this, it's very interesting!!

Some folks are allergic to latex... It's why i brought up the latex component of figs. It's also why I keep latex and non-latex gloves in my medical kits. I think the non latex gloves I have are nitrile.

 

[DrHenley]

https://chatelaine.com/health/diet/health_benefits_figs/

 

[DrHenley]

Some folks are allergic to latex... It's why i brought up the latex component of figs. It's also why I keep latex and non-latex gloves in my medical kits. I think the non latex gloves I have are nitrile.

Since dried figs do not produce latex, that would be safer than fresh figs.

 

[Bacpacker]

Thanks for posting about the fig tea Dr.H. We have some Brown Turkey Figs. I'll have to give that a shot this winter.

Thanks for the links to the PDF's Peanut. I'll have to print those out and make a folder for them

 

[goshengirl]

@Peanut, I wish I could see what you see when you look at all that green.

 

[Pearl]

Since dried figs do not produce latex, that would be safer than fresh figs.

The WOOD produces latex,!

 

[joel]

On the fig front, do deer eat tender fig leaves?
I have planted three of my sixteen figs plants & something bite off the new growth.
It is to high for rabbits & only two tips where cut, so maybe it did not like the taste.
They are three young deer walking on my garden.

 

[Pearl]

On the fig front, do deer eat tender fig leaves?
I have planted three of my sixteen figs plants & something bite off the new growth.
It is to high for rabbits & only two tips where cut, so maybe it did not like the taste.
They are three young deer walking on my garden.

Mine would, they'll eat whatever they are not supposed to eat!!

 

[Peanut]

@Peanut, I wish I could see what you see when you look at all that green.

It just takes years, lots of time watching plants through their life cycle. Just like someone who studies rose bushes. Drive them through town and they can name all the varieties in yards.

Enough time and all the plants beside a field/road or out in the woods became as familiar as my face in the mirror. I start in January, half hour, hour each week. Remote, where few people ever go. In the early years most of my nights were spent digging thru botany data bases at various universities. A royal pain that was... lots of info with public access though. Just need a computer.

 

[DrHenley]

On the fig front, do deer eat tender fig leaves?
I have planted three of my sixteen figs plants & something bite off the new growth.
It is to high for rabbits & only two tips where cut, so maybe it did not like the taste.
They are three young deer walking on my garden.

My understanding is that animals will take a bite and then decide it's not for them and move on. I could be wrong.

 

[joel]

My understanding is that animals will take a bite and then decide it's not for them and move on. I could be wrong.

I hoe you are right, it will be a pain to have to fence in all my fig trees.

 

[DrHenley]

I'll be putting out over a dozen of them at the new place later this month when I get up there. I think I am going to put some hardware cloth around them for now. Once they get established I don't know what I'll do yet.

 

[Peanut]

I've never had a problem with deer nibbling fig bushes. Here are my trees, lots of dead branches from the late freeze last year. The tops are dead, I'll mark all the dead ones with spray paint. Then, come winter, I'll cut those down. (i do have a problem with raccoons eating figs when they get ripe. kill one every summer)

But right now I have dozens of sprout growing underneath. Deer haven't touched them. below.... and the photo bomber!