Show 245: Kalmia, Laurel

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The name.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Down to the clan, the.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Clan to the.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Hey, y'all, welcome this week's show.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Today we're gonna talk about one of the really the
most iconic.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Shrubs.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
I guess you would say that grows in the mountains
of North Carolina and Old Tennessee and Virginia and all around.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
In the area.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
And really it has a broader range than that. But
the one I'm thinking of I can picture in my
mind and it's really common, and it's Kalmia or laurel. Now,
this laurel, as they call it, is very closely related
to rhododendron and azalea. So you put those three plants
together and you.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Pretty much have.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
A lot of what North Carolina is known for. I mean,
from the azale festival down on the coast I think
in Wilmington area, to the Rhododendian festival up on Rhone
Mountain Tennessee and everything in between. But the thing about Calmia,
and there's also Calmia Gardens down South Carolina, a very
very pretty place to go if you ever want to

(02:30):
go to a nice botanical garden where you can walk around.
They have an event center Heartsville, South Carolina, wonderful little town,
one of my favorite places in the Southeast. Great people,
oddly high crime rate though so unfortunately, a wonderful place,
good good restaurants, really a nice little college there, a

(02:55):
lot of great things to do, but for some reason,
a really bad crime rate. Yeah, and really just like
one town over from there is Society Hill, I think
it is the name of it. And anyway, years ago
I was really hoping, well really strongly considering moving to

(03:16):
that area. There's a priest down there at I really
like at Saint Mary, Mother of God Catholic Church. His
name's Father Dan, father Dan Popino, if I'm not mistaken.
He used to be the priest at the Shrine of
Divine Mercy up in Massachusetts, Stockbridge. And you know I

(03:37):
have well if you listen to show much, you know
I have a history of Stockbridge, Massachusetts as well, back
when I was playing music. And you know, one day
I wandered in. I was just wandering through that town.
I was on my way to somewhere else and stopped
into the church and had a great conversation with followed
Dan and found out he was just this amazing man.
I'll tell you a little bit about him. His He

(04:00):
was married before he became a priest, and he and
his daughter were killed I think in a car accident,
and he went into the priesthood and had really some
very interesting experiences. He's had visions, apparitions of Jesus and
Blessed Virgin Mary. He's been to heaven. He's spoken with

(04:24):
his wife and daughter in heaven. He has insights like
you wouldn't believe. I mean like you would not believe,
very very very holy, spiritual, humble, quiet man, not the
time seeking attention.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
He's legit.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
He's the real deal. And anyway, if you ever want
to check him out. They actually live stream the masses
from that church in Hartsville, South Carolina. It's a Saint Mary,
Mother of God, I believe, and his homilies are amazing
and they have a nice little community there.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
You know, it's kind of hard to.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
Find a Catholic community in the South, and I was thinking,
you know, I really would like to check it out.
I'd like to go there. And it's here the Pdee
River and wonderful fishing wilderness opportunities, maybe two hours from
the beach, so easy to go get seafood and take
advantage of the shad Run, I mean all that kind
of stuff I love, you know. And there's kwmea botanical gardens,

(05:21):
which is fantastic, really fantastic. Actually, I'd love to go
down there at least through some plant walk sometime. Maybe
we can at least set that up. I've never really
given up on the idea. But Society Hill is a
real old town Heartsville, sort of a mill town. It's

(05:42):
nice now, but it used to just be a big
paper mill. Paper mill is still there, but so it
has more of a diverse population. It's about half black,
half white. There are some folks from up north that
have moved in there, you know. Society Hill was one
of those little town with a tiny little.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Well.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
I guess Coker College was actually there at one point
before it moved down to Hartsfold. It's now Coker University.
But it was a girls school and it was where
the really upscale cotton farmers sent their girls to go
to college. And there was another one like that in Maxton.
It was what later became Presbyterian I mean Saint Andrew's

(06:24):
Presbyterian College, but then it was Floral College. These were
set up really before the Civil War, and they were
very protected, kind of cloistered environments essentially where the.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Girls could go to school.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
And it was really all about networking and introducing each
other and finding the right boy from the right family,
and you know, money marries money, that kind of thing.
To the extent that in the Civil War when Sherman's
troops were burning the South, because Sherman was a Freemason
and the people who ran these colleges were Freemasons, they
had a deal that the troops would march around the

(06:59):
town's with these women's colleges. They'd go burn Catholic churches,
but they would not touch a Presbyterian girls' school. You know,
That's just the way it was. And so I'm going
through this little town and I see a great old house,
historic home, nice piece of property for sale sign and
I thought, man, you know, this would be ideal. This

(07:20):
would really be ideal. And you know, sleepy little southern
town looks real nice. As you're going through it got
hold of the owner, I guess it was for sale
by owner, and she said, well, why are you interested
in moving here? And I said, well, there's this great
priest and heartsore. She said, wait a minute, are you Catholic,
and I'm like, yeah, she said, okay, let me tell you.
She said, I'm Catholic. I married my husband. He was

(07:42):
from here. This place is run by the Klan. They
will kill you.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
You do not wish to.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
She said, you don't want to get stopped for speeding
in this town. You don't want to do you don't
want to spend five So if you can drive around
this town, drive around this town. And she was adamant.
I mean, and apparently it is still one of the
strongholds of the Democrat Party, just like Max in North Carolina,
just like Laurenberg, North Carolina, where when I was a kid,

(08:12):
i'd drive in they had a billboard with a clansman
on it said the Ku Klux Klan of North Carolina
and the Democratic Party of Scotland County welcome you. It
was not a welcoming sign, okay. And so yeah, that's
probably the main reason I stopped looking in that area,
but still haven't totally given up on it. There's I mean,

(08:33):
Hearts was great. I'm sure there's some great people in
Society Hill as well. But she starts talking about all
the political corruption and the corrupt cops and apparently there
was a cult in the area for a while that
was led by sort of a a fringe wackadoo Baptist
minister where they were actually trafficking drugs and human trafficking

(08:56):
basically like saying, they'd take in trouble girls and care
for and they were really pimping them out. Pretty bad stuff.
And from what she said, a lot of the you know,
people in charge were on the take. So that's not
the first time I've heard stories like that in areas
like that. So yeah, unfortunately, but hey, if you ever

(09:20):
get down to Heartsville, South Carolina, cal Mea Gardens is beautiful.
I found the people of all races in Heartsville to
be very very friendly, very very friendly, helpful, black and white,
just really nice. And Father Dan is a national treasure.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
He really is.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
Check him out if you can see some of his
homilies on YouTube. I don't care if you're Catholic or not.
This guy has been to Heaven. You know, he's talked
with angels and his family in heaven. He can tell
you what to expect, you know, when you get there
and you're reunited with your loved ones.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
And I mean amazing. Father Dan papinev.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
I mean, I don't care if you're not even Christian,
you are gonna want to check him out and really fantastic.
But anyway, Calmia lati four. This is often confused with rhododendron,
and while both plants are toxic, both have use in
herbal medicine. Now Calmia, the one that is probably most

(10:25):
known is Camea Ladifolia that sheep kill or lamb kill
or sheep laurel. It kind of tells you it's poisonous
in the name absolutely beautiful plant. It looks like a
small rhododendron with kind of star shaped flowers. I have
one in my yard.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Love it.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
I have several mountain laurels. I have mountain laurels, I
have flame azalias, and I have like forty thousand rhododendrons
with the big purple flowers that we get in the
Appalachian Mountains that we're known for. Would not do without them.
They do have some medicinal okay, but very limited. As

(11:03):
the name applies. Native to my region are sheep laurel,
Carolina sheep kill, and wiki wiki and also called white wiki.
I don't know where that name comes from. Probably a
Cherokee name. But you know, yeah, anyway, And as I said,
they have been used in urban folk medicine, but they

(11:25):
are very dangerous and toxic plants. Miss Greeve, writing in
the nineteen forties, describes this evergreen shrub that grows from
four to twenty feet tall. And I said, it was
named Kalmia by Linnaeus, the botanist Linaeus and our honor
of Peter Kahlm, a Swedish professor. We don't need to

(11:45):
get into all that. You can just google what laurel
looks like. Let's see calmia. It's k l K A
l M.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
I A google that.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
It's often called mountain wol laurel or sheep laurel, or
lamb kill or sheep kill. It's a gorgeous plant, absolutely,
But anyway, she says, leaves possess narcotic poisoning properties, an
tannic acid, gum fatty man or chlorophyll at, a substance
resembling mannite, wax ex extractive albumin and aquid principle, and

(12:23):
a yellow calcium iron. Okay, like its sort of cousin
the rhododendron. These plants do have a somewhat narcotic property. Now,
every year we have kids up here in the mountains
that get hold of an old herbal book or something
written by some hippie in the sixties or seventies and

(12:46):
think they can go out and smoke rhododendron buds. This
is another one that falls into that category. Or they
go in for gymson weed or something and a bunch
of them end up in the hospital and some of
them end up dead. Very important you understand that just
because it says it has an narcotic property doesn't mean
it's an enjoyable narcotic. As she explains, Indians are said

(13:07):
to have used the expressed juice of the leaves or
a strong decoction of them to commit suicide. The leaves
are the official part used in medicine. Powdered leaves are
are used as a local remedy in some forms of
skin disease. Yes, it does have some topical applications, and
she said it's a most efficient agent in syphilis, fevers, jaundice, neualgia,

(13:27):
and inflammations, but great care should be exercised in their use.
Whiskey is the best antidote to poisoning for this plant,
so best not to ever need it in first place.
An ointment for skin disease is made by stewing the
leaves in pure lard and an earthen ware vessel in
a hot oven. Taken internally, it is a sedative and

(13:48):
a stringent in active hemorrhages, diary, and flux. It has
a splendid effect and will be found useful in overcoming
obstinate chronic irritation of the mucous surface. In lower animals,
injection produces great salvation, lachrymation, ams, emesis, convulsions and later
paralysis and the extremities labored respiration and death. That's actually

(14:11):
what it does in humans too. If you take the plant,
you breatheing becomes more labored, more labored, you're gasping for breath,
your heart starts beating faster and faster, and you die.
So preparation and dosage saturated tincture of the leaves of
the plant, taken when in flour is the best form
of administration. Doses of ten to twenty drops every two
three hours.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
So very tiny.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
And I'm going to say, don't use this internally at all.
Like she goes on to say, a salve, a salve
made from the juice of the plant is efficient local
application for rheumatism. Now, that is a very good use
for certain skin disorders, inflammations and joints. The Cherokee used

(14:54):
Mountain laurel, the one that grows all around my house,
and it is absolutely beautiful for muscle soreness. Again, we're
talking topically for shifting pains. I don't know exactly what
that means, but just In quotes a leaf to coction,
including the leaves of mountain laurel, rhoded Entron, and Lucatho
are all toxic plants, by the way, is applied to

(15:14):
rheumatic areas for relief. So a strong tea essentially made
from the leaves of these three toxic plants, applied externally
for rheumatism. Take all possible laurels and some other plants
and steep. Okay, rub this tea on for rheumatism. You
can scratch the skin. They said that would help a

(15:35):
little bit. That's probably more of a counter irritant. I
probably wouldn't recommend that. And let's see. In old times,
a leaf ooze was rubbed into scratches scratch skins of
ballplayers to prevent cramps. The Cherokee used to have a game.
It's not baseball. It was more of a combat sport.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
Very rough.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
People would get really beaten up, the broken bones, sprains, bruises.
I don't think it's much played anymore, though every now
and then I think maybe ceremonially they do have it.
But they would They had verious herbal treatments to prevent
cramps to help with bruising, but in this case they
would actually scratch the skin and rub the delete the

(16:25):
well and on and exitate an extract of the leaf
into the scratch to help prevent cramping during the game,
you know, prophylactically essentially. Now, the Lumbee used lamb kill
and the Lumbia are more of an eastern North Carolina tribe.
They go all up into Maryland and down well into

(16:46):
South Carolina as well. But then you know, you start
running into the Chiquora and such as Sap. But there
are related tribes. They say a decoction of the top
part of the plant and rhizomes was made from three
or four pieces and that are no more than two
inches long, so a very small amount. And this was
the one that was called wiki. Wiki was boiled in

(17:07):
two pints of water for a few hours. That coxshu
was poured into a bathtub to treat the mad itch
or scabies. So likely good for scabies and mange. It
makes a lot of sense. It's a parasitic skin infections,
and so it probably killed the little mites that are
causing it. Towards an American materia medica, this is, to

(17:31):
my knowledge, the oldest English language written herbal we have
in America. It was when the European, well mostly British
settlers came in and they began learning about the native
herbs from the Native Americans, and they came up with
what was called the eclectic school of herbal medicine because

(17:52):
it was mixing the knowledge of Europe and the British
Isles with the native knowledge and mixing the plants. Very
interesting book, very good book. The lists camea latifolia, he says.
The author says, I have now employed the powder of
the leaves of this plant exhibited internally in some cases

(18:13):
of Tenea capitis. This is a very troublesome disease. The
calmea is certainly a medicine entitled to attention. I have
employed this the powder of the leaves made into an
ointment with lard externally and applied to disagreeable herpetic herpes
affections of the skin. In this case, also, I have
found it extremely useful even in confirmed syphilis. It has

(18:36):
seemed to do good in South Carolina. The species of
Calmeos called the Calico tree.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
I was unaware of that.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
I did not know that the powdered leaves of this
plant have been used with much success in some cases
of intermittence and intermittence or malarial fevers. Of course, saturated
tincture prepared for the leaves with a proof of spirits
as an active medicine, perhaps worthy of a place in
the shop. For some information concerning the powers of this
species of Calmia, and also that of Calmia augustafora or

(19:06):
narrowly of Calmea commonly called lambkill, I beg to have
the reader refer to doctor George G. Thomas's inaugural dissertation
concerning these plants in Philadelphia in eighteen oh two. Again,
I'm going to say, don't use these plants internally. Okay,
don't use these plants internally externally use now, if you're

(19:26):
a real expert, and next we'll get into let's see
this is King's medical to spense story no resources Southern
field and forest. Well, this is also a botanist and chemist.
So when they talk about using internally, they're not making
folk tinctures at home. Okay, these are percolations the resources

(19:47):
of Southern Fields. Of Force says the leaves are poisonous
and narcotic. Animals have been poisoned by eating them. It
is said that death has been occasioned by the eating
of oh of these bipartridges pheasants that have fed on them.
Doctor Schumaker publishes two cases in the North American Medical
and Surgical Journal, which resulted from eating a pheasant. Oh okay,

(20:09):
so they're saying you could actually be poisoned by eating
a pheasant that it fed on calmea in the crawl
of which by resulting from eating a pheasant in the
crawl of which the leaves were found. The symptoms are nausea,
temporary blindness, pain in the head, cold extremities, very feeble
pulse which in one case was for some time absent

(20:33):
at the wrist. In others it beat only forty strokes
in a minute, So it really slows the heart rate. Yeah,
but then this also increases blood pressure, so I'm not
sectually sure how that's working. I guess it's constricting, not
necessarily increasing the heart rate, but slowing the heart rate.
I don't ever want to have any of this stuff.

(20:55):
In both cases, relief was afforded by vomiting produced by
a tablespool flash of mustard. There is an interesting site,
you know.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
You can buy.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
Mustard powder powder on the spiceile of the Growthery Store.
And I use mustard powder all the time. It's a
great in everything from macaroni and cheese to a little
bit in some sausages that amy putting together. I mean,
you know, it's very very useful. You can make up
your own mustard as a condiment out of it as well.
Of course, if you take a tablespoon of mustard in

(21:24):
warm or hot water as a tea to'll make you
throw up. It's one of the most effective epicex there
is emetics. You would call them epicex actually a plant.
Even though it's not used for vomiting anymore. It used
to be very very common. But in a pinch, mustard
powder works really really well. Let's see a similar pointies.

(21:47):
Sitting is related in Edinburgh in eighteen fifty six, in
which epicastric tensions and uneasiness, glowing heat of the bed,
loss of sight, coldness of the extremities, general prostration and
twitchings of the muscles were the prominent symptoms, followed by
nausea and full vomiting, which afforded some relief, but feelings

(22:10):
of weakness and limbs with great prostration and the circulation
remained for several hours, requiring the use of stimulants. So
in this case, instead of using whiskey, they use stimulants.
So yeah, basically you just really don't want to mess
with this stuff internally. I mean, that's what I'm going
to recommend, but as always, you have to make your

(22:32):
own decisions. Let's see you does talk about external use.
It says, by the way, it says an arterial sedative,
So yeah, it actually slows the heart rate down while
apparently increasing blood pressure, which is not a good idea,
not a good idea at all. It says two ounces

(22:55):
of the leaves mass rate a pint of alcohol for
a week and then strained. Yeah, I guess that was
used as a liniment. I'm not sure it's not giving
me a lot of details there. It mentions that again
this eighteen sixties says the leaves are used by negroes

(23:15):
and poor white people as a cure for the itch
or mange in dogs. Probably it's still a very good
IDEA strong decoction applied warm to the eruptions which occasions
much smarting. So apparently it stinks, but it does apparently
kill those mites that calls the mange in the scabies
sheep kill used in the upper districts of North Carolina

(23:36):
South Carolina. The leaves of Calmia augusta flora exude a sweet,
honey like juice which is said, when swallowed, to bring
about mental intoxication. Both formidable in its symptoms and long
and duration. It appears to closely resemble those of the
Armenian azelia. Now that that's also true, and it's said

(23:57):
that honey from these plants can also have a narcotic effect.
I do not believe that the honey is actually poisonous.
I think, you know, once the bees actually process the
nectar and turn it into honey, it's probably not going
to kill you. But there are some honeys made from

(24:20):
calmea certain varieties of rhododendron and certain members of the
heath family, which can be poisonous or highly intoxicating. Just
plain old honey that you might have on your toes
with butter or put in your teeth can actually be
have that. It just depends on what the bees have
been feeding on. Now, King's Medical Dispensatory eighteen ninety eight,

(24:46):
because let's see talks about how it can kill animals.
Partridges have eaten it, people have died from eating the
partridges that have eaten it. Mustard can induce vomiting. We've
been through all all of that. Indians use the juice
of the leaves for committing suicide. But they also made

(25:06):
the spoons of the wood, and that's where we get
the name spoon wood. Sometimes these bushes are no spoon wood,
and as a spoon carver myself, I can tell you
they make great spoons. It's a beautiful wood. They're often
bent in interesting angles. It can be very ornate. Absolutely
spoon wood. Rhododendrons often called spoon wood as well. Let's

(25:29):
see under actions, medicinal uses and dosages in immoderate dosages.
Sheep laurel is a poisonous narcotic producing symptoms as described above,
diminished circulation in medicinal doses. It is anti syphilitic, sedative to.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
The heart, and somewhat as stringent.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
I'm thinking you don't want to play around with this one,
but anyway, internally, either a powder or decoction or tinctures
used is efficient primary and secondary remedy for syphilis and
will likewise be found invaluable in federal and inflammatory diseases
as fever and inflammatory diseases, hypertrophy of the heart, alloying
all federal inflammatory action and lessening the action of the

(26:16):
heart in active hemorrhages, diarrhye and flux that has been
employed with excellent effect that will be found useful in
overcoming obstinate chronic irritation of the mucous surfaces. I have
extensively used this agent and regard it one of our
most effective agents in syphilis, and have likewise found it
to be very valuable in inflammatory fevers, jaundice, ophthalmatic neurolgia,

(26:38):
and inflammations. The remedy must always be used with prudence,
and should any of the above symptoms appear, the dose
must be diminished or it must be suspended for a
few days. In cases of poisoning stimulants, brandy and whiskey
must be given. Well yeah, okay, so actually very much

(27:00):
like a drug overdose is what it turns out to be.
So he goes on quoting different doctors, medical studies, how
effective it.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Was for syphilis and such as that.

Speaker 3 (27:10):
So hopefully you never need it, but if you do,
now you know, still I'd be very very careful with it.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Now.

Speaker 3 (27:18):
Modern use botany and Day says. Swamp laurel contains a
substance called androma and rama de toxin, used in small
doses as a seative for neuuralgia Native American strength, the
tea to commit suicide. In other words, don't mess with it, okay.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
Thomas J.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Elpel said that in his book don't mess with it.
I'm going to agree with that, unless you know for
external use. Plants for a future, says mistroduced.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
A sheep laurel.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
Sheep laurel is a very poisonous narcotic plant, the leaves
of which were at one time used by some Native
North American Indian tribes in order to commit suicide. It
is little, if at all, used in modern herbalism. The
leaves are used externally as a poultice and a wash
in herbal medicine and are a good remedy for me
skin diseases, sprains.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
And inflammations. They can also be.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
Applied as a poultice to the head to treat headache.
The singe crushed leaves can be used as a snuff
in the treatment of cults. I don't think I would
do that. If the leaves can be used to make
a tea to commit suicide, I'm not gonna be sniffing
any of them up my nose either. Used internally, the
leaves are analgesic as stringent and sedative, and have a
splendid effect in the treatment of active hemorrhages, headaches, diarrhy

(28:31):
and flux. The species is said to be the best
for medicinal use in this genus, and the plant should
be used with great caution. However, and so that was
Sheep Laurel. They also listen Mountain laurel. They say Mounta
Laurel is very poisonous, narcotic plant, et cetera, et cetera,
the same suicide et cetera. Leaves are stringent, disinfectant, narcotic,

(28:53):
and narcotic, solve and sedative and infusion of the leaves
used as a disinfectant wash linement to treat pain, scratches, rheumatism, inflammations,
and to get rid of body parasites usally splendid effect
and the hemorrhages diaryne flux. You also use treat syphilis,
inflammatory fevers, and aralgia, paralytic conditions, tenitis, an engine or tendinus,

(29:17):
however you want to pronounce it, and angina or angina
however you want to pronounce that.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
People say in both ways.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
ALA's like diabetes and diabetes or whatever. Yankees say, I
don't know diabetus.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
I don't want to. They say weird things up north.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
The leaves should be used with great caution, however, and
only under the guidance of qualified practitioner. Excess dose is
called vertico headache, loss of sites, salivation, thirst and nausea, palpitation,
slow pults, and difficulty breathing. Swamp laurel very narcotic used
for suicide. Leads are good external treatment for many skin

(29:53):
disease and inflammation. Leads are stringent sedative used externally as
a poltice or washed for treatment of many skin diseases,
open sores, wounds that would not heal, and inflammation used
with great caution only on the supervision of a qualified practitioner.
And if I was going to use another supervision of
qualified practitioner, I'd want some references. I don't want to

(30:15):
make sure that practitioner's patients were still alive.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
I'm just saying, you.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Know, it's like this guy got in touch with me
a few years ago and he'd been reading all that
doctor Sebby nonsense.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
Now I'm going to let you look up doctor seb.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
He was once a very famous herbalist. He treated Michael Jackson,
all kinds of other you know, questionable characters. I think
Oprah may even had him on the show one time.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
He was charged with fraud. He was I think finally
arrested in South America on the run with millions of
dollars and after saying he could cure any form of cancer.
If I'm not mistaken, he died in a hospital with
liver camp sir.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
So you know.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
The kind of guy that gives our herbalism a bad
reputation in my opinion, But some people still follow his nonsense,
even though it was later found out that he really
had no training and no knowledge and was not a
doctor and was making up a lot of stuff as
he went. As best as I can tell, you know,
I don't want to slander the dead, but it doesn't
seem to me that he was anything more than what

(31:26):
the government thought him to be. But anyway, he recommended
you as an anti cancer agent. You the most toxic plant,
one of the most toxic plants on the face of
the earth. That's right up there with Aconnight and poison
him luck And yeah, there you as being has been
and is I guess still being scientifically studied as a

(31:49):
potential cancer treatment. But it's not a folk remedy. It's
not taking a tea or tincture of you that will
kill you. That will kill you. And anyway, this guy
got in touch, went and know where he could buy you.
And I'm just like, why do you want And well,
doctor Sebby said, I'm like, okay, first of all, you
might want to look into who doctor Sebbe was.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
Secondly, this is a very very poisonous plant. How are
you planning on using it? He's like you, he tells
me he's gonna make a tea or something, and I'm like, dude,
you're going to die. This is gonna you know, this
is going to kill you a lot faster than the
cancer would. So yeah, you know, there's a lot of
bad information. This is why I try to give you

(32:29):
all the warnings and so many different sources, because you know,
especially when someone says this is lost knowledge, this is
hidden knowledge. This is something they don't want you to know. Well,
it's hiding in plain sight. You can go to your
local library and get an old herbal book and learn

(32:49):
all about it.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
You know.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Anyway, So Petersonfield Guy persential medicinal plants sheep are. American
Indians used minute amounts of the flour and leaf and
twig tea for bowel elments.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Okay, I can see that.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
I'll buy that one minute amounts for bowel ailments. The
flower of the flower. Tiny amounts of leaf tea were
used for colds, back aches, and stomach elements. Externally for swellings,
pains and sprains warning highly toxic, do not ingest, and

(33:28):
for mounta laurel. It says, American Indians used the leaf
tea as an external wash for pain rheumatism in liniments
for vermin. Historically, herbalists used minute doses to treat syphilis, fever, jaundice,
heard conditions, neuroalgia, and inflammation. Warning plant is highly toxic.
Even honey from the flowers is reportedly toxic.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
Avoid use.

Speaker 3 (33:52):
And that's the mountainlaurel that grows in my yard. Not
a plant to be afraid of, not a plant to
go snacking on either by any means. So y'all is
gonna wrap this one up. You know what, I got this.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
Real short entry.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
I'll throw this one in at the very end. Korea
Japonica Japanese rose not native to my area. It is
a naturalized, pretty little plant shrub, I should say. It's
often called bachelor's buttons. Now there's another flower called bachelor's buttons,
but this is actually the shrub version. Two different plants.

(34:25):
Plants for a Future says a decoction of the flowering
shoots is used in the treatment of coughs and women's complaints.
Don't know anything more about it than that. Couldn't find
any more information, so I'll just leave that as a footnote.
If you have Korea Japonica or Japanese rose or Bachelor's button,
you know in your property. You might want to do
a little research on it, and I guess I would

(34:46):
look more into Asian medicine on that, since it's apparently
a Japanese plant. And you know, I've often said it's
amazing how many plants in North Carolina, which we almost
consider to be native now they've been here for so
long and naturalized, come from Japan. I don't understand how
we got like hundreds of Japanese plants. Somewhere in the

(35:08):
late eighteen hundreds early nineteen hundreds. There must have been
quite a plant trade between Japan and North Carolina, because
we got a ton of Japanese plants tons. Really amazing. Actually,
all right, y'all have a great wig and I will
talk with you next time. The information this podcast is

(35:29):
non intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition.
Nothing I say or write 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 herblas. Therefore, I'm really just
a guy who says herbs. I'm not offering any advice.
I won't even claim that anything I write or say

(35:51):
is accurate or true. I can tell you what Earth
has been traditionally used for. I can tell you my
own experience, and if I believe in herbs helped me,
I cannot nor what I tell you to do the same.
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

(36:11):
not work for you. You may have an allergy of
sensitivity and 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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