Show 242: Holly

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The name down to the clan, the clan to the.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Hey, y'all, welcome this week's show. Today we're talking about
a couple of interesting plants. Probably at least we're gonna
talk about one, and that's gonna be ilex or holly. Holly.
Holly has some interesting medicinal uses. It's it's often considered
to be somewhat toxic. Parents are often worn out and

(01:50):
let their kids eat the holly berries, and it's not
used much in herbal medicine anymore, but it does have
some good uses. So, uh, we'll at least get into that.
We have time, we'll do Juniper. If not, we'll just
hold that for next week. No problem. But of course
we got to talk about the elephant in the room,
which is that America. We bombed around's nuclear sites last night.

(02:15):
I'm perfectly fine with that, by the way, targeted strike.
None of our soldiers were hurt or anything, and I'm
fine with that, I really am. I absolutely do not
want to get involved in a war with a ran
with boots on the ground. I don't want our navy
to get entangled with their navy, you know, and have

(02:38):
to shoot it out. Hopefully it's a one and done thing.
But we never know what's going to happen. And just remember,
for twenty years minimum they've been warning us at their
Iranian sleeper sales in the United States has ballade and
different ones that are terrorist groups. Be real careful this

(03:02):
for the next few weeks, shall I mean, be real
careful for the next few months. Fortunately, we don't have
really big religious holidays coming up. Thanksgiving and Christmas are
a ways off what I guess Labor Day would be
in a couple months. I would really avoid large gatherings, parades, concerts, events.

(03:27):
I would avoid cities. I would avoid interstates, shopping malls,
you know, anywhere you go where there's going to be people.
Keep your head, no swivel, and be careful. You know,
who knows. Maybe nothing will happen. But I mean, we've

(03:48):
had several terrorist attacks just in the past couple of years,
and they were kind of downplayed why Biden was in office.
You know how that works. You get a Republican office
and everything is, oh, you know it happening, and it's
his fault because you've got to blame the Republican in office. Biden.
You know, some Muslim active duty soldier wasn't he or

(04:11):
was he? A reservist goes plowing into a crowd of
people in New Orleans and nothing to see here. No, No,
Another Muslim goes and shoots up an area in Illinois,
up in the Chicago area. Nope, nothing to see here.
You know, you know, it's a religion of peace. We
don't even notice when they're in our country doing something
killing people. Well, now we've really struck Iran, and we

(04:36):
struck him harder than we have since Reagan was in office.
And you know, we've lost literally thousands of people to
Iranian action since Reagan was in office. I mean there's
been the hijackings and the bombings of the embassies and
all that that was Iran blowing up airplanes. That was
all Ran. But also the numbers between one and six thousand,

(04:58):
I think six thousands is more of the accuratenumber of
troops and contractors that were killed and injured in Iraq
and Afghanistan by Iranian weapons and proxies. This is, by
no means something just to think it's over, God willing

(05:21):
it's over. I mean, they got hit pretty hard. Israel
hit them a lot harder than anybody thought. They would
and it looks like we wiped out their nuclear facilities.
And here's something that didn't really make the news day
before yesterday. I don't know if you happened to hear,
just very briefly, it was reported on the news that
there was a five point one or a five point

(05:43):
five earthquake in Iran, and then they stopped talking about it.
My kind of theory is that, all right, so we
know a lot of their nuclear facilities were underground, especially
the one at Florida. We know even the ones that
worn at Florida have hundreds even thousands of centrifuges now.

(06:06):
In order to shut a nuclear centerfuge down when you
cut the power to it, I mean, there's actually like
a stage process. If you just cut the power to it,
it starts slowing down, and basically, I mean, just in
Layman's terms, all those atomic particles start hitting the walls
as it slows down, and they tend to they can
blow up, and if one blows in there, it's like

(06:28):
a daisy chain reaction. They can sometimes they don't blow up,
often they do. I have a strong suspicion, and I
could be very wrong, but that on Friday, a lot
of those centrifuges failed and there may have been even
worse than that. I think more than likely that's what

(06:51):
caused that earthquake. And I think one of the main
reasons there was really no pushback to America going in
and bombing them those nuclear facilities is that's a real
were Really the most efficient way to seal an underground
nuclear facility is vombit. So, I mean, their Rainis won't
admit it, and I don't think anybody else would admit

(07:12):
it either. But more than likely there was a serious
nuclear incident in Aran on Friday, and we took out
their nuclear facilities sort of with their NOD. Now they're gonna,
you know, they're gonna scream and shout, and they're gonna
fire a bunch of missiles and try to save face
because they don't want to admit to their people that

(07:34):
that happened. Again, this is just speculation on my part,
but it seems awfully coincidental, awfully coincidental that there was
an earthquake a few days after Israel knocked out their
nuclear facilities and actually cut power to even Florida. And
when you cut power, those center fugures are going down,

(07:57):
you can have meltnowns, you can have everything. You know,
they supposed to have diesel backup generators. They've been using
some very high power, high energy weapons. Diesel is combustible
at a very low temperature. I think it's very very
likely that there was a serious nuclear incident. It probably
underground in Iran on Friday, and they didn't really mind

(08:20):
US sealing their nuclear sites before they had a real
disaster on their hands. And if that be the case,
and God willing it is, maybe they won't launch terror sales.
I mean, in that case, we kind of helped them out,
if you want to look at it that way. I
don't think it was a coincidence whatsoever. Something blew up
there on Friday. It just, you know, it's just too

(08:46):
coincidental for an earthquake just to happen to happen in
Iran right between the Israelis taking out their nuclear facilities
and US wiping them off the face of the earth,
ceiling them essentially one hundred miles underground, twenty miles whatever
it was. Yeah, so God willing, you know, maybe things

(09:08):
will be kind of calm. I hope they will be
kind of calm, But that does not mean in any way,
shape or form that you should be complacent. If you
have a concealed carry permit, I would carry. I do carry,
but I would also avoid cities, events, crowded shopping areas,

(09:31):
anything like that, at least for a few weeks until
we kind of see and can weigh and measure how
this is going to play out. So that's my opinion
for what it's worth. I don't have any special intelligence
on this. I do have people I talk with, you know,
I used to work in politics and everything. I have

(09:53):
some pretty good sources sometimes, but no one's come to
me and said, hey, this is what happened. I'm just saying,
pretty unlikely for that to be a coincidence. But any
way you look at it, yeah, be real careful. And
it's not only the Iranian threat. There are a bunch
of nuts in this country. I mean, all these people

(10:14):
have been out going out there that no King's rallies,
whatever the hell that is. I mean, you know, they
ships in democracy, democracy, democracy, and Donald Trump gets the
overwhelming majority of the popular vote. That's the definition of
a democratic election. And now there's like no kings, okay whatever.
A bunch of idiots is all they are, and America

(10:38):
is not a democracy in the first place, where a
constitutional public. Our founders specifically designed a country that was
not a democracy. But all you want to talk about
is democracy until somebody is democratically elected, and then they
want to have a riot. But also the pro Palestinian demonstrators,
they're getting really out of hand and dangerous. One of
them ran a congressman off the road. I guess it

(10:58):
was Thursday. You know, these are violent, unhinged, mentally ill people.
That's what a liberal is. Liberalism is a mental disorder. Sorry,
I know a lot of audience is liberal. We can
have respectful conversations, but at the end of the day, liberalism, progressivism, socialism, communism, fascism,
it's all of the same thing. Communism and fascism is

(11:21):
two sides of the same coin. It's like pro democracy
people call people that are actually use the democratic system fascists,
which is kind of ridiculous. We want to see fascism.
How about vaccine mandates? You know, the vaccine companies made
a lot of money off of that, put a lot
of money into politicians' hands, who then mandated people take

(11:42):
the vaccines. That's actually the definition of fascism, and that
was Joe Biden of the Democratic Party. But yes, liberalism
is in a mental disorder. The more liberal person is.
Actually they've done recent studies almost well over seventy percent
of women who so identify as liberal take or Democrat,

(12:04):
liberal democrat, whatever you want to call it, are taking
antidepressants and anti anxiety meds prescription on a regular basis.
The same number of women same age group that identify
as conservative Christian Republican, that number is more like twenty percent. So, yes,
liberalism is actually a mental disorder. I have never in

(12:27):
my life met a psychotic or a schizophrenic who was
not a liberal. Sometimes drug and duce, sometimes not. Well,
I take that back. There was one. I don't know
how political he was. He was sort of like the
you know, wacko conspiracy theorist type. I don't think he
had really cided with any one party or the other.

(12:47):
I doubt even was registered to vote. But anyway, I've
never met a liberal that wasn't either mentally ill or
really really dumb. And the problem with them is they
think they're the smartest people in the room and they're
actually the most ignorant of all. Yeah. Whatever, all right,
let's get onto the show. We're gonna talk about ilex holly,

(13:11):
and there are actually believe it or not now because
like I said, most people think holly is toxic. There
are twenty one varieties of Hollywood document a uston herbal medicine.
I'm not gonna read them all at all, because I mean,
you know, I heard a lot of Latin there, and
I'm just gonna be tripping over my words. But you're

(13:32):
twenty one and native to my region. Are several well native,
they're not several, I shouldn't say several. We got a
bunch of introduced as well. North Carolina's really known for
its pine trees. It's azaleas, it's camellias, and it's holly bushes,
and it's dogwoods, remember rhododendrons. But yeah, we got a

(13:54):
ton of landscaping hollies that are not native. But we
do have some natives. We have Elex collabra, which is
inkberry Lex le vegata that smooth winterberry, and Alex verdict
verta silic ver v e r t I c I
l l A t a Verda silata. There we Verta

(14:17):
salata and most widely naturalized is yopin I mean sorry,
it is Japanese holly. That's Alex Kranata. Well, I mean,
I'm just thinking like my family, my relative's house in Pinehurst. Pinehurst,
of course named after the pine trees, known for all

(14:38):
itszelias and camellias and dogwood's. Holly's are everywhere. They were
like probably holly's red tips and y g o maybe
uh those are like the main hedge plants. And I
mean there's the Holly Inn, which is one of the
oldest hotels and restaurants, and in North Carolina's there I'm

(14:58):
thinking just in her yard hard they're probably three to
five Asian holly bushes and two large holly trees. Some
of the small ones I actually cut and made spoons
out of, and spurtles very popular. Holly's a beautiful carving wood.
It's hard, it's flexible, and it's pure white. It's like ivory.

(15:19):
So what I would normally do is kind of toast
it up, put in the oven, let it get a
little brown, and then oil it and brings up beautiful,
just satiny grains. I love working with holly. Actually it's
not the easiest wood to work with, but It's make
some of the finest kitchen tools, spoons, spurtles forks, makes
real strong forks. It's flexible and hard once it's cured.

(15:44):
Really nice. Now there's also ilex vomittoria. What an odd name, right, yo,
pond Holly, we'll talk about this a little bit more.
It does. It will grow in certain areas in North Carolina.
It's more like the coast to the southeastern part of
the state. It's really more of a hot weather plant.

(16:05):
You start seeing a lot more in South Carolina, Georgia
well down to Florida and Texas. Vomitoria. Why vomitoria, Well,
it's the only native plant to North America that contains caffeine,
and Native Americans would drink a tea from it until
they threw up and then use it ceremonially that way.

(16:29):
Not really sure why you'd want to do that, but
apparently they drink a lot of caffeine, throw up a
few times, start having visions and dance around, and it
was like a religious thing. I would avoid throwing up
were at me, And if I wanted to throw up,
I'd probably make a tea of tobacco. It's going to
make you puke. A lot quicker. Even better than that

(16:49):
and a little less rough on the system would be
a tea of loubilia. Liubilia is a very good herb
for inducing vomiting. It's very much like tobacco about a
little a little easier on the system. But I like
you upon Holly as a ta I certainly don't drink

(17:09):
enough of it to throw up, but I kind of
avoid throwing up. It's like, you know, I really don't
enjoy it. I mean, I'm like, you remember that episode
of Seinfeld where they go to the bakery and they
get the black and white cookie and he throws up,
and he's like, that's the first time in ten years
he broke his streak that he threw up. I'm like Seinfeld,
I don't like throwing up. Some people apparently do. The

(17:31):
time Sonian entire system of verbal medicine was based on vomiting.
That's not my idea of a good time. I mean, really,
the worst thing is I mean, like you know, when
you're in college and you haven't really figured out how
to gauge your drink shit, and you have one too

(17:52):
many and suddenly your head's spinning, your puken. That's like
the worst experience. I mean, why anybody would want to
do that themselves. I do not understand now that said
I love riding roller coasters doesn't bother me at all,
doesn't make me nauseous in the least. The Tilder world,
Oh my gosh, again, I don't find it fun to

(18:14):
throw up. Put me on a roller coaster, Take me
up in a small airplane, you know, do some drops
and dives and dips and the whole bit loops and
everything bear l rolls. I love it, but put me
on that tilder world and I'm like, oh man, get
me off of here. Why am I on here? This
is not fun. But apparently some people enjoy getting dizzy

(18:37):
and throwing up, don't ask me. Yeah, anyway, some people
enjoy food at McDonald's. I don't, you know. To each
his own. So Gerard fifteen hundreds England wrote about Holly
that they are good against the colic for ten to twelve.
And this is the berries actually being taken inwardly away

(19:00):
the thick phlegmatic humors, as we have learned of them,
who oftentimes have made trial thereof and Elizabethan English. That
means somebody tried it and told about it, and people
thought it was a good idea. The birdlime made of
the bark here of, now that's very interesting. Birdlime is

(19:23):
a sticky substance they used to use to catch small birds.
You would take what's called birdlime and put it on
a branch, maybe a branch with a few berries on it,
and you're robins and sparrows and such and other maybe
larger birds. Robins could be pretty big. Magpies and crows

(19:43):
would land on there and their feet would get stuck,
and the person would just go out, you know, snap
their necks, pluck them and have them for dinner. That
was very very common before modern game laws. Of course,
that's now very very illegal. Way, he said, the bird lime,
which is made of the bark hereof, is no less

(20:04):
hurtful than that of mistletoe. For it is a marvelous
It is marvelous clammy clammy, meaning like sticky. He said.
It glueth up all the entrails, It shutteth and draweth
together the guts and passages of excrements. So he's using
it in distally, and by this means it bringeth destruction demand,
not by inequality, but by his gluing substance. In other words,

(20:29):
if you use it internally, it could stop you up
so much it would kill you. So yeah, if you
make bird lime, I'm not sure why you would. You're
either gonna be using it illegally or you're gonna be
killing yourself. So maybe you avoid that. Holly beaten into
a powder and drunk is an experimented medicine against all

(20:50):
the fluxes of the belly and the dysentery and such like. Now,
in that case, I believe he means the dried leaves.
Now let's see what Colpepper said a little more plain
English about a hundred years later. He said, the berries
expel wind, and therefore are held to be profitable in
the Colic. The berries have a strong faculty with them,
For if you eat a dozen of them in the

(21:11):
morning fasting, when they are ripe and not dried, they
purge the body of gross and clammy phim But if
you dry the berries and beat them into powder, they
bind the body and stop the fluxes, the bloody fluxes,
and the terms in women, So they could stop excessive
menstrual bleeding as well. The bark of the tree, and
also the leaves are excellently, excellently good being used in

(21:33):
fomentations for broken bones and such members as are out
of joint clean he saith the branches of the tree
defendeth the houses from lightning and men from witchcraft. Actually, yeah,
there's a lot of folklore with hollies. Not sure where

(21:53):
this originates. Apparently it was already a well known myth
or whatever in ancient Greece. But putting branches of holly
above your door and in your house, or even planning
holly around your house was supposed to protect it from
evil influences. In this case, Plenty apparently said witchcraft and lightning. Well,

(22:19):
that actually translates down after you know, thousands of years
of folklore into our Christmas decorations. Holly being used to
decorate for Christmas. It's a sign of, you know, good
spirits as opposed to bad spirits. But it's also ever
green in the winter that may be the source of
you know, the myths and legends. Whereas everything else dies

(22:43):
back in winter, holly stays, you know, nice and green
with bright red berries, and it has a lot of
misassociated with it. You kind of see where they're going
with that. Well, Miss Grieve in the nineteen thirties in
the English tradition tells us that holly was the most
important of the English evergreens, forming one of the most

(23:05):
striking objects in the wintery woodland, with its glossy leaves
and clusters of brilliant scarlet berries, and the general mind
closely connected with the festivities of Christmas, having been from
very early days in the history of these islands gathered
in great quantities for Yule Tide decorations, both of the
church and the home. The old Christmas carols are full

(23:26):
of illusions to holly, and she quotes an old one,
Christmas Tide comes in like a bride with holly and
ivy clad. And you may know that even the desserts,
the Christmas puddings, they put a little sprig of holly
on top of it. Very much associated with English traditions
of Christmas. But she gets into some of them the

(23:47):
laura that I find very interesting, you know, I do,
she said. Christmas decorations are said to be derived from
a custom observed by the Romans of sending bowls of holly,
accompanied by other gifts to their friends during the festivity
of Saturnalia, a custom early Christians adopted in confirmation of
this opinion. A subsequent of the Church of Brakara has

(24:09):
been quoted forbidding Christians to decorate their house at Christmas
with green boughs at the same times as the Pagans.
So in the early Church, Christians were actually told not
to use holly because the Pagans were using it to
celebrate Saturnalia, which commences about a week before Christmas. But
the origin has also been traced to the Druids, who
decorated their huts with evergreens during winter as an abode

(24:32):
for the Sylvan spirits. In old church calendars we find
Christmas Eve marked templa x x oh templa x or nod.
The churches are decked x or nodder means to decorate, essentially,
which where we get the word ornamentation or ornament and
the custom is as deeply rooted in modern times as

(24:55):
in either Pagan or early Christian days. So very very
early the Church, Christians began decorating with holly, a custom
that probably came from both ancient Roman and ancient Druid practice,
but also the evergreen boughs that were very popular in
German and Scandinavian cultures were in which we get our

(25:18):
Christmas tree. And again these are signs of you know,
essentially everlasting life, you know, evergreen, not dying in the
winter like Deciud to his trees, she says. An old
legend declares that the holly first sprang under the footsteps
of Christ when he trod the earth, and it's thoroughly
leaves and scarlet berries like drops of blood, have been

(25:40):
thought to be symbolical of the Saviour's suffering, for which
reason the tree is called Christ's thorn in the language
of the northern European countries. It is perhaps in connection
with these legends that the tree was called the holly tree,
as it is generally named by our older writers, or
the holy tree. That's okay, So I have a friend

(26:01):
named Holly. She loves to make that connection that the
name Holly comes from the word holy, and actually, well,
I can't say more because she actually uses it as
an identifier, and she wouldn't want me to look up,
she wouldn't want me to put her public information out there.

(26:22):
But she uses that connotation, that association very often. Okay.
So Turner, for instance, refers to it by this name
and his herbal published in fifteen sixty eight. That is
holy tree. The other popular names for it are Holver
and Holme, and it's still called Holver and Norfolk, and

(26:42):
home in Devon and anyway, Dartmoor and Chase and you know,
places that are important if you live in England, and
not important if you don't. Pleaenia describes the holly under
the name of Aquifolius or needle leaf, and as that
it was the same tree called by theo Frastmus cretagious,
interesting because we call, of course no critagious. As Hawthorne

(27:05):
play tells us that holly, if planted near a house
or farm, repelled poisons and definted it from lightning and witchcraft,
and that the flowers cause water to freeze, and that
the wood, if thrown at any animal, even without touching it,
had the property of compelling the animal to return and
lay down by it. Well, we'll have to get that
a try, won't we. I have only had one dog

(27:27):
and my entire life that would fetch a stick. So
should I ever have another dog? Which is quite questionable?
As you may remember, I lost my beloved Border Collie
buddy nearly a year ago, and even the thoughts of
having another dog not possible right now, Yeah, okay, so

(27:50):
description it sends I being, well, you know what Holly
looks like. The leaves are thick and glossy. And again,
you know what Holly looks like. My friend Holly. She's
the cutest little thing, but just a friend. Actually, if
you ever met her, you'd be kind of blown away.
She's a Barbie doll, but just a friend. Professor Henslow

(28:14):
says it has been gravely asserted that holly leaves are
only prickly on trees as a beast as high as
a beast could reach, but the top has no spines.
Well that's absolutely false. I cut holly trees and carbon
and spoons, so I can tell you the tops this
just thorny as the lower anyway. Anyway, he said, it's
wrongly been said. Well, let's get into more of the

(28:37):
medicinal uses. She talks about how it was used as
a hedge plant. She talked about how the deer and
shreek sheep would eat him in the winter and it
was important to use in hedge rows for that reason.
Rabbit breeders said. She says well known that rabbit two
rabbit breedersaid a holly stick placed in a hutch for

(28:59):
the rabbits to all whacked as a tonic and restore
their appetite. Very interesting, huh. And she mentions that the
what if holly is hard, compact, and remarkably even throughout.
Absolutely it's even at the center of old trees. I mean,
it's really a joy to carve. Even though it's hard,
it's really makes some of them. I've got a couple

(29:20):
of holly pieces for sale on the site right now
if you want to go Judson Carrol Woodcraft, and pictures
of other ones that I've made, so you can see
what I'm talking about. Just gorgeous stuff. I mean, really,
she said. A straight holly stick is much prized for
the stocks of light driving whips and also for walking sticks.
I can see that. Yeah, I make a nice walking stick.

(29:41):
I might have to make one. So let's get into
the medicinal use. She gets in a cultivation, and boy,
she must have really liked holly. But anyway, parts used leaves, berries,
and bark medicinal actions and uses. Holly leaves were formally used,
which is a diaphoretic that means it seeps to break

(30:02):
a fever. An infusion of them was given in catapleuricy
and smallpox, so congestion of the lungs, plurisy inflammation of
the pleroma or the tissue essentially around the lungs, and
in smallpox. They have also been used in intermittent fevers
and rheumatism for their febri fusional and tonic properties, and
powdered are taken in fusion or decoction. They have been

(30:25):
employed with success which inshona has failed. So in other words,
hollyberries can actually be more effective in breaking a fever
than quinine. So see this is when I started researching
during COVID when we were looking for alternatives to quinine
or hydroxychloroquin and seem to show some promise. Never tried.

(30:46):
It didn't have to had a tulip popular in our
property and dogwood so you know. But yeah, anyway, their
virtues said being said to depend on the bitter principle.
An alkaloid name illison. The juice of the fresh leaves
has been employed with advantage and jaundice. The berries possess

(31:07):
totally different qualities to the leaves. Okay, so way a minute,
let's make it clear, I said the berries. I meant
to say the leaves, and actually maybe the bark in
that one. Like I said, I never had to use it.
She did. She say, actually, yeah, it is the leads
she was talking about. The leaves were used in an
infusion as a quinine substitute. Definitely need to make that clear.

(31:30):
The berries make you throw up, okay. The berries possess
totally different qualities to the leaves, being violently a medic
and purgative, so throwing up in diarrhea and very few
occasioning excess occasioning excessive vomiting soon after they are swallowed.
So even if a few of them make you throw up, though,

(31:50):
thrushes and blackbirds eat them with impunity, that's true. Birds
eat them, we really can't. But they have been used
medicinally in dropsy that sedema essentially you know, excess her retention,
also in powders and stringent to check bleeding from the
bark stripped from the young shoots and fermented. Bird lime
is made. So we've already talked about bird lime. It

(32:16):
was used a lot in earlier times, mostly to trap
birds but also to stop diarrhea. But it has a vermuffuge.
It was taken internally to get rid of intestinal parasites
and such as. I think it was Gerard set that

(32:36):
it could be very quite dangerous, so not something you
really want to do. The leaves of holly have been
employed in the Black Forest as a substitute for tea. Interestingly,
now she even mentions that there's one in Brazil that
was the Ilex Paraguayses, and in South America that's very

(32:57):
much like our yopon holly. Yeah, there are two that
grow in South America. What is the net Urramte? I think, yeah,
But anyway, it's just like our alex Fomatoria. And you know,
if there became a time we couldn't get coffee or tea,
one hapned one of those bushes would be a very

(33:17):
good thing to have, because it makes a very nice tea,
very very good. Actually, she mentions a couple other ones
that have similar properties that are all grow in South America.
Turning to the German tradition, Brother Aloysius wrote, who does
not know holly? With its prickly leaves which one can

(33:39):
hardly touch without receiving scratches. The white flowers grow on
racemes along the stem. They are followed by red berries,
which have a strongly purgative effect. The leaves are used
medicinally for galt, colic, and fever. The fruit also has
medicinal use. If ten or twelve berries are taken, they
will have a very purgative effect and are a powerful

(34:00):
remedy for colic. Turned to Native American use, the Lumbies
used holly, and these would be the Lumbies of North
Carolina and South Carolina. A lot of them in Maryland too,
but mainly North Carolina. So they're using our native hollys.
And according to a Lumbia herbill, experts viewed holly leaves
as diaphoretic, and confusion of the leaves was prepared to

(34:22):
treat measles, pure pleurisy, and smallpox. Lumby healers also prepared
the leaves to treat intermittent fevers. Lumby healers considered the
berries to be violently emtic and purgative. So same properties
seem to be the same as the Asian versions and
the European versions, but not the caffeine containing ones of course.

(34:44):
I mean, I've never heard of ey boy eating the
leaves of Yopon holly, I mean the berries of Yopon Holly's.
The leaves are used for the tea, but King's Medical
Dispensatory of eighteen ninety eight says the holly's found growing
throughout the United States from Maine, Louisiana, et cetera, et cetera,
very common in New Jersey. The viscid substance of the

(35:07):
inner bark is much like the mistletoe berry, so they
talk about making bird lime again. The leaves are the
medicinal parts. They have a bitter, somewhat harsh taste but
no odor, and yield their virtues to water or alcohol.
They're believed to contain illocin. Doctor pancoast I Guess in
the Pharmaceutical Journal wrote that prepared from the leaves of

(35:30):
American holly and aqueous decoction coction that means water decoction
from which the bitterness was removed by charcoal, and subsequently
it's abstracted from the latter by our alcohol. What would
he use it for? Solvent crystallize? Very bitter principle. You know,

(35:51):
let's just get let me just get ahead to actions
and medicinal uses. We don't need to get into all
the weeds anyway, since holly leaves are tonic and febrifusion
said to be very efficient in the treatment of intermittent fevers.
The dose of sixty grains of their powders is administered
one or two hours previous to the chill, and infusion
has also proved beneficial in icarus pleuritis, catera arthritis. Very

(36:17):
old of the berries are said to be a meta
caathartic and colagogue. Eight point fifteen of them will act
as a hydrogogue. According to Rousseau, illison acts decidedly upon
the swen liver and pancreas, producing a sedative effect and
is a cheap substitute for quinine. So again, the leaves
substitute for quinine. Hmm, getting more into that bitter principle.

(36:42):
And yeah, it's getting a little too technical. I remember
this is a pharmaceutical publication. Essentially now getting to modern
use plants for future says, Holly is a little used
in modern herbalism the lezer diaphoretic expector a febrifusion time.
They can be used fresh at almost any time of

(37:03):
the year, or it can be harvested in late spring
and dried for later use. They are used to the
treatment of intermittent fevers, rheumatism, cataplorus et cetera. The juice
of the freshly use has been successfully used in the
treatment of jaundice. The berries are violently emetic and purgative.
They have been used to the treatment of dropsy and
as a powder. They have been used as in astringent
to check bleeding. The berries are toxic, especially to children,

(37:26):
and should not be used medicinally except under professional supervision.
The root has been used as a diuretic, though there
are more effective directs available. The plant is used in
bock flower remedies or botch flower remedies. They tell me
is how it's supposed to be pronounced, but I'm still
not quite sure about that. The keyword for prescribing are
hatred and the jealousy and suspicion. The botch or box

(37:50):
flower remedies affect the emotions, and that's why it's associated
to those emotions. But in more practical use, the Peterson
field for Eastern Central medicinal plant says leaf tea used
for measles, colds, flus, p ammonia drops for sore eyes,
externally for sores and itching thick syrup of berries, formally

(38:12):
used to treat children's diarrhea. Chewing only ten to twelve
berries acts as a strong laxative, a Medican diuretic. Bart
tea once used in a malarian epilepsy warning fruits considered poisonous,
inducing violent vomiting. Absolutely, But then they also mentioned the gopin.
It says American Indians used a very strong leaf tea
as a ceremonial cleansing beverage, drinking large amounts to induce

(38:35):
vomiting and act as a purgative. And they say this
may be the only caffeine containing plant named in North America,
and I believe it is. I haven't run across another
one anyway. There's Mormon tea, but that contains a fedra
made as a tea. You would not tell any difference
between that and caffeine unless you have a reaction to

(38:58):
a federal which some people do. It can cause anything
from rapid heart rate and high blood pressure to hallucination.
But oddly enough, Mormons are not allowed to drink tea,
but are allowed to drink ephedra, which is why it's
called Mormon tea. Even more strangely, they are allowed to

(39:19):
drink colas and other soft drinks that have caffeine in them,
but for some reason coffee and tea and tobaccos off limits. Yeah,
Mormonism really doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Of I mentioned before.
I was engaged to a very beautiful Mormon girl, the
love of my life, who was taken from me because

(39:41):
her family did not want her to marry a Catholic.
And she was actually descendant of Joseph Smith. And the
stories she could tell you about what actually goes on
inside the Olds Church are pretty darn shocking, really very
much a cult. Sorry if that offends you, but it's true.
Mormons are not Christian. They do not believe in the

(40:03):
divinity of Jesus Christ. They pretend to be Christian and
it really is a cult. Well anyway, I'm sure in
my opinions today I've offended much of my audience, so
I hope you'll keep coming back for herbal information. But
I can back up everything I've said with facts and
life experience. Liberalism is the middle disorder and Mormons are

(40:27):
a cult, all right, y'all, and they're not Christian at all.
Don't have a going and I'll talk to you next time,
and next time we will get into Juniper. It was
far too long to include in the show. Show would
have gone an hour and a half, so Juniper really
deserves its own show anyway, So again, I'll talk to

(40:47):
you next time.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
The information this podcast is non intended to diagnose or
treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or right
has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not
a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice
of verbal medicine, and there is no governing body regulating
herbless Therefore, I'm really just a guy who stays herbs.
I'm not offering any advice. I won't even claim that

(41:14):
anything I write or say is.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
Accurate or true.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
I can tell you what earths been traditionally used for,
I can tell you my own experience, and if I
believe in herb has helped me, I cannot, nor would
I tell you to do to say. If you use
an herb, anyone recommends 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 of sensitivity and

(41:40):
underlying condition that no one else even shares and you
don't even know about. Be careful with your health by
continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog
you read it. Be responsible for yourself, your own research,
make your own choices, and not to blame me for
anything ever.

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Show 242: Holly

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