Show 249; Lyonia, Manfreda virginica and Myrica

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 to this week's show.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Get again to three interesting medicinal plants this week from
my book The Medicinal Shrubs, and the first two are
very short entries. The third is really very interesting. It
has a really fascinating history. So let's just jump right
in here. The first is Lionia that's l y o

(01:54):
n i a. And there are two varieties of Lionia
that have documented use in herbal medice. Lionia of voli
that's hard to say, oval Efolia that means basically oval
shaped leaves, and Lionia mariana. Now four varieties though grow
in my area. There's ionianligastrina or folio's flora. You know,

(02:20):
I'm just gonna give you the common names. These are
tongue twisters, Southern mailberry, Northern mailberry, shining fetterbush, and staggerbush.
That's Lionia marianna, the marianna. Let's well, let's let's start
with the oval Efolia the corn to plants for future.

(02:41):
The young leaves and buds are toxic, but they are
used externally as an infusion to treat skin disease. And
external parasites. Now for the Mariana. Petersonfield guide the Eastern
and Central medicinal plants says staggerbush the Cherokee. You use
the leaf tea externally for itching altcers. Benjamin Smith Barton,

(03:05):
in his classic essay towards the Material of Medica of
the United States in eighteen oh one, wrote that a
leaf tea was used as a wash for disagreeable alterations
of the feet. Very interesting. Now it is poisonous, and
the reason it's called staggerbush is because it produces staggers
and livestock, So we don't want to use either of

(03:26):
these internally, but apparently very useful externally. You know another
one that has a great name but doesn't have a
lot of documented medicinal use is rattlesnake master.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
You've got to love the name of that plant.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
It's Manfreda virginica Manfreda or Manfreda virginica. Only one variety
of Manfreda is known to herbal medicine, and it is
a uniquely New World herb. It's one of the many
that were introduced to the colonists by Native Americans as
useful to treat snake bites. Several herbs have similar common names.

(04:01):
You'll see all kinds of rattlesnake this and that. All
of those were used by Native Americans for a snake bite,
and that's where the common name comes from when they're
introduced to the colonists. Peterson Fieldgide for Eastern Central Medicinal
Plants tells us that this one American Indians use the

(04:23):
diuretic root tea for dropsy. That's a edema that's fluid
in the limbs. Wash was used for snake bites. Roots
were nibbled for severe diarrhea worms and used as a laxative.
Like certain species of a gabby, this plant may be
used as a source of the for steroid synthesis. Yes,

(04:45):
there are some plants, of course, the most famous being
wild yam that have certain soapy like compounds in them,
and they can be used to make synthetic hormones with
We don't do that as herbalis now. This plant does
have a latex like sap and that can be irritating,
and don't confuse it with rattlesnake master. Another plant by

(05:08):
the same name, which is Eringium yucifolium. So there are
at least two plants called rattlesnake master, and then you
have rattlesnake plantain, and you have probably five or seven
different ones just called snake root, so be careful in
your identification there. Now, then a little last and this
is by far the most interesting Mierica. Now, there are

(05:29):
ten varieties of Mierica that have documented use in herbal medicine.
And let's see, bayberry is probably the most common, and
there's several varieties of bayberry. Here in America, we normally
use the California bayberry. But you know, in early America,
the ones that grew growing in the debates essentially of

(05:51):
Virginia and North Carolina, we're very much used. Well up
into the New England States. There's Mierica Pennsylvania. It's northern
bayberry that growing in Pennsylvania. There's a Chinese one that's
been introduced.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
There are a lot of them.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Another one that's really famous is Mierica gale. It was
much used in ancient herbal medicine in Europe and England.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
And yeah, we'll get into that one.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
The only one, the only variety that's native to my
region is the legendary America gale. In fact, it's sweet
Gale and I say legendary because this was one of
the herbs used to brew the highly intoxicating and somewhat
hallucinogenic beer of ancient Europe before Saint Hilgard and Farm

(06:41):
Bingen introduced hops.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
These beers were used.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
To enhance battle fervor, They were used for rivalry. They
were said to cause severe hangovers, and both religious and
civil authorities sought it will really encourage the use of
hops in place of.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Those are and beer. That beer was called groot.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
Because it was known to cause violent riots and rampages.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
So yeah, they had a real.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Good reason to get people to stop drinking the beer
that made them hallucinate and fight each other and start
drinking the beer that made them sedate. But what can
we say then, not too much longer the Europeans invented
I don't know, World Wars. Soccer matches was soccer hooligans

(07:30):
beating the crap out of each other drinking regular beer.
And my favorite heavy metal band Motorhead. Okay, so for
my younger readers, Motorhead was a band that their first
album debuted in nineteen seventy seven. The greatest heavy metal
or rock band heavy metal rock band I should say

(07:50):
hard heavy metal rock band of all time and generally
engender into a person listening to them the same states
of mind as Grouped. I mean, it's it's really intense,
adrenaline fueled serious heavy metal. I mean, if you're thinking
heavy metal is like, I don't know ac DC or
Black Sabbath, you have not heard Motor Hit. They were

(08:13):
the greatest of all time. But anyway, some sources say
that miracle Pennsylvanica, which is also called Mierica carol Carolina
nincis so it grows both in probably the mountains of
North Carolina and in Pennsylvania, because we have the Appalachians
going through there. They say it grows in both places,
but honestly, I can I have not found it in

(08:35):
North Carolina yet. So a lot of books say that
the Pennsylvanica also grows in Carolina, and it goes under
the name of Carolinensis, but I have not found one,
and y'all know I'm out looking for plants all the time.
But now going back to the America, Gale Dsquardes wrote
Mierica as mirrors in ancient Greece, what twenty five hundred

(08:59):
years ago.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
He said.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
It is a well known tree growing marshy ground and
standing waters with the fruit and flower of a mossy consistency.
Some say it's planted in gardens in Egypt. We're gone
to the medicinal doses.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
He said. The fruit, it bears a fruit like.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
A gall, which is you know, like the little wasp
nests on oak tree. It says, is an equally a
stringent to the taste and used instead of galls for
the mouth, eyes and spitting of blood. It is given
a drink to given in drink to women troubled with
colic and.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Those who have.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
Vaginal discharge, sickness of the head, and those bitten by
harvest spiders. Very important this was actually harvest spiders have
a necrotizing venom like a black widow or brown recluse,
and this is really one of the best treatments for
those bites because it is very astringent and it pulls

(10:00):
down that swelling and it can help stop the tissue
destroying properties. But on its own it's really not good
enough because that necrotizing venom it really just starts breaking
down the hyaluronic acid in the cells. The best thing
is echination in any form you can get it, really,

(10:24):
but that's what they used to call snake oil because
it was also used against the necrotizing venom of certain
snakes like rattle snakes and copperheads and such as. That
good to keep a good, really strong astringent like miurica
on hand or like oak bark galls, you know, really
pull down that swelling very quickly, tighten up that tissue.

(10:48):
But you're also going to internally take whatever form of
echination you can get. Really, the stronger the better, and
you can use it externally as well, and it will
help a lot. It really just protects hyaluronic acid. That's
the secret of how it is used for snake bite
and such. And then a drawing poultice, you know, it

(11:09):
can be anything from a split prickly pair cactus pad
to charcole or clay, anything that can help just draw
that well, the pus, the venom, all everything that's sitting
there is really nasty that needs to come out of there.
It's amazing how it works. She doesn't seem like it
should work, but you know, the body kind of puts

(11:32):
the swelling in that area to kind of keep the
venom localized, and if you can pull it out with
a drawing poltice, it can really make all the difference.
He says that as a poultice it stops a dima.
The bark does the same thing as well as fruit.
A decoction of the leaves taken as a drink with
wine would reduce inflammation spleen and garbing in the mouth

(11:55):
helps toothache for hip ass good again for discharges, and
heated rub is good for those with lice and nits.
Ash from the wood applied stops flows from the uterus.
There are some who make cups from the wood which
they use for those troubled with the spleen. Now this
is very interesting. A wooden cup made with the wood

(12:16):
of America Gale had that same reducing quality to spleen wentflammation,
and he said the drink given them from such cups
do them good.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Now.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
This srub was also known, of course, the dative American medicine.
It's not just a European plant, as I said, It's
native to my area. The one bea used both the
America gale and the red myrtle. Well, I believe they
used the Miraca gale and know the use of red
America myrtle, This America, Sarah Farah the that's also knows candleberry.

(12:56):
The yeah, that would have been more in their region.
But anyway, red myrtle leaves were used for improving the
flavor of other herbs, and it does have an aromatic
spicy quality to it. It was combined with a form
of tansy, which we don't much use anymore. Tansey has
a toxicity to it with so canmerica actually, but it

(13:16):
was used to treat problems of the digestive system the mouth,
the esophagus, and the stomach. To treat itching, the lumbie
would use a leaf infusion in a bath or as
a wash. Stomach ultars were treated by chewing a piece
of the root recently taken from the ground. And an
herbalist name Lucy may Locklear, a Lumby elder, boiled the
leaves of this tree, which she called the Murcer tree

(13:39):
into a tea to treat whooping cough. And that's actually
what I remember it being called when I was a child,
the Mercer tree. You know, I grew up in that
area about half of my childhood. The Chocta would use
red myrtle leaves and stems and infusion and nurse fevers
and sore throat Towards an American Materia Medica is a
really fascinating book. You know we mentioned the well, we've

(14:04):
already mentioned this one, haven't we yes towards It was
written in about eighteen hundred. It was one of the
first herbal books written in America that was combining both
the native plants along with the European herbal medicine. And
that's why it's called the Eclectic School of Medicine. And
it states that the America cesera ferra or candleberry myrtle

(14:27):
deserves to me mentioned. This is a common shrub in
many of the maritime parts of the United States New Jersey,
of Delaware, et cetera, and also all the way down
to North Carolina. This is unquestionably a very powerful a
stringent and as such has been employed by the country
practitioners of the United States. A decoction of the bark
of the route is employed, sometimes alone and sometimes in

(14:50):
combination with the bark of the root per Simon. Now
per Simon is also very stringent. We'll cover that on
another day. And it's again one of my favorite verbs
to use or with the bark of the black alder,
and they said, either on itself or combined. The Decoctionia
America has been used with much advantage in dropsical affections

(15:10):
that's again endema succeeding to intermittence that means basically malarial
conditions intermittent fevers, and it was particularly used for that
in the peninsula of Delaware, where dropsies in various shapes
are more common than any other part of North America.
That's odd, but what it was was they had a

(15:33):
major outbreak of a malarial type infection and it left
the body weakened and more likely to retain fluids, and
that this was one of the treatments they use it
and said is likewise, the root has likewise been found
useful in the treatment of hemorrhages from the uterus, especially.

(15:54):
It was remarked by an old physician that had much
experience in the use of this plant that it often
acted as a gentle purgative. So it also apparently has
some laxative properties while being a stringent, so that's pretty interesting.
They mentioned that several varieties of America are listed by
botanists and yeah, he gets into some of the ones

(16:16):
he had seen in America, and then it gets to
the America gale, also called Dutch myrtle or American bog gale.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
It is likewise used the United States.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
But this well, he actually says it's so famous that
he didn't have to write about lenas and other writers
had already handled it. Continue to be very popular, especially
the bayberry, and really in coastal Virginia and North Carolina
sprung up whole factories making bayberry candles. It was actually
a very important export. At one important point in the country,

(16:50):
Colonial America, every household would have had bayberry scented candles.
It's the Thompsonians writing, I'm going to say, probably around
eighteen tween eighteen fifty, said this is a species of
myrtle from which wax is obtained from the berries and
grows common in many parts of this country. There's a
shrub growing from two to four feet high, easily known

(17:11):
by the berries. Well, if you've ever been around boggy
areas and bays, you can pretty much spot this one.
You get used to it. It's really common. Let's see
what he says about it. Medicinally talks about how you
should cry the berries and ground him into a fine
powder and keep it as a medicine on hand. Says

(17:32):
in diarrhea or chronic cholera and goiter, it is one
of the best agents. Its influence on the uterus is
very positive and collapses. It is splendid and impartuation. It
cannot be well excelled. It induces better contractions when given
near the end of confinement, and should should there be

(17:53):
excessive lokia, it will stop the excess. Its influence is
also good in excessive menstruation hemorrhages, so good herb to
have on hand for that reason, and hot infusion. It
gradually arouses circulation and favors an howard full of blood.
A good free perspiration will follow, which will be more
abundant if zingiber that's ginger is added. The Actually the

(18:17):
Latin name of ginger is much more fun to say
than the English name. It's zingabir z.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
G I b e r.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
When the stomach is very foul, it will frequently operate
as an emetic, so combined ginger it could actually help
you throw up and get rid of a six stomach.
In connection with libilia, it is used in producing immense emeses,
so it can bring on minstration, very valuable in the
treatment of conditions found in scrophula and secondary syphilis. For

(18:49):
emetic purposes, it should be given with libilia and hot infusion.
That's a t and is excellent to rid the system
of impurities.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Now.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
By the eighteen sixties or so, it was listed in
Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests saying that the
species all had similar properties, so yeah, they probably are
fairly interchangeable. But specifically a Bayberry said it was a
stringent and stimulant and large doses is what brings onminstration.

(19:22):
Successfully employed in scrapula, jaundice, diarary and dysentery, and other
diseases where a stringent stimulant is indicated beneficial as a
gargle in a sore mouth and throat. For sweet gale,
it says a stringent stimulant, et cetera. Yeah, looking pretty interchangeable.

(19:44):
King's Medical Dispensatory of eighteen ninety eight lists some different varieties,
some that are in the bays and some that said
are in dry fields from Florida to Canada. So you
should be able to find a variety of murica somewhere
wherever you live. Let's see. He talks about the bark

(20:07):
and how to the root bark and how to collect it,
the wax myrtle, how to collect the wax, the chemical compositions.
All right, here we go actions, meddical uses and dosages.
Bayberry bark is a stringent and stimulant, and as such
is a valuable in debilitated conditions of the mucous membranes

(20:30):
act to occasion immense emsies. It was largely employed by
the followers of Samuel Thompson, those are the Thomsonians in
catarrhal states of the elementary track, essentially mucus in your intestines.
The bark has been successfully employed in scrophula, jaundice, diary dysentery, APPA,

(20:50):
and other diseases where stremulent a stringent stimulants were indicated. Specifically,
mierica in small doses will be found a good stimulant
to the nerves, aiding the process of digestion, but blood
making and nutrition in larger doses. It is a decided
gastric stimulated stimulant. In small doses has been found advantageous

(21:13):
in chronic gastritis, chronic catteral diarrhea, mucos charitis in dysenteria.
Having a typhoid character, it is said to restore arrested
local discharge. Cases calling from mirac show feeble venus action.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
While the pulse is full and.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Oppressed, it is not adapted to acute disorders of the
alienmentary tract.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
As a rule, a weak.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
Confusion is an admirable remedy for a minorrhea and atonic lukerea.
The okay powdered bark combined with blood root another plant
we discussed many times. Sanguinaria form an excellent application to
indolent ultcers. It has likewise been employed as a snuff
for the cure of some form of nasal polyps. I

(22:03):
don't think that would be very pleasant.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (22:06):
The blood root is a really unique plant. It's actually
in the Opium poppy family, and it has a caustic
sap people would put on wartz and such or ulter
red sores and such. It numbs the area out because
it's got a certain morphine type quality to it, well,

(22:27):
kind of burning away whatever you put it on. Combined
with the miurica and that a stringency, I could see
that that would shrink the polyp and then the blood
root would kind of burn it away anyway you look
at it. Not your best option these days, definitely not
your best option. You best definitely on that when you
want to go to an ear, noose and throat specialist,

(22:51):
maybe be a little sedated and have it cauterized. Yeah,
that would you'd be bleeding a lot from the nose.
I guess the miraca. The stringency would probably shrink the
capillaries to reduce the bleeding, but you'd have some serious
sores in your sinus cavity, which would not be fun.
Let's see decoction and beneficial is a gargle in sore
mouth and throat, good for lucal re and fistula as

(23:15):
an injection, also as a wash for ultcers. Forms an
excellent gum wash for tender, spongy and bleeding gums. The
leaves are reputed astringent and are useful in scurvy and
spasmodic affections. Lists the America Pennsylvania, the Carolinensis, the America

(23:36):
gale with similar properties to bayberry and wax myrtle, and
lists a lot of entries by different physicians of how
they've used it in medical journals specific indications for profuse
mucous flows, cattal states of the gastro intestinal tract, atonic diarrhea,
typhoid dysentery, at any of the cutaneous circulation. Full of

(23:59):
press poults used locally and internally for storm, swarmouth, spongy, flabby,
bleeding gums, sore throte from scarlet fever, especially when fevered
and swollen, and gives related species the American gale, the linnae,
the sweet gale, the Dutch myrtle, some grown says the

(24:20):
swamps of the Carolinas and swamp areas up to Canada,
and others in drier areas so and many on the
coast as well, and a lot that we've not even mentioned.
One that grows in Brazil that was made apparently a
very good wax, and one from Japan that was very
waxy as well. So jethro Claus wrote of bayberry miracle,

(24:45):
Sarah Farrah gives a lot of names for it. To
use the bark, leaves and flowers as a stringent tonic
for the digestive system and a stimulate. The leaves are
aromatic as stimulant, and they are very aromatic. The very nice,
A little allergic to them, so you know, I don't
get to enjoy them that way. But if you do,
you know, could you sell some baberry candles. They're really

(25:07):
great and they have a really interesting colonial history. He
says that this is one of the most valuable and
useful herbs. The tea is most excellent. Gargle for sore throat.
It will thoroughly cleanse the throat of all putrid matter.
Steep a teafoons teaspoonful in boiling water for thirty minutes
and gargle until the throat is clear. And drink a

(25:28):
pine of lukewarm tea thoroughly to thoroughly cleanse the stomach.
If it does not come up easily, tickle to the
back of the throat. In other words, he was saying,
use it to make you throw up. This restores the
mucous secretions to normal activity. For chills, make a tea
as given in the preceding paragraph, adding a pinch of cayenne,
and take a half a cup warm every hour. That's

(25:49):
actually an old Tomsonian remedy with this tea made from
the miraca, which is warming in itself, and then a
pinch of cayenne pepper. All the Timesonians were up in
I think New Hampshire before modern heating and furnaces, who
were very cold, so they were very interested in using

(26:09):
cayenne pepper and other warming herbs to help with chills
and fevers and arthurritic conditions and such as. That said,
bayberry is an excellent minic after narcotic poisoning.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
Of any kind. Sip of water. Here, let's try that again.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Bayberry is an excellent emetic for narcotic poisoning of any kind.
It is good to follow the bayberry with an emetic
such as libylia. Now, an emetic is what makes you
throw up. And they're saying if somebody took anything that
had a narcotic property, they were basically overdosing, inducing vomiting.
Using bayberry and libilia would be the go to for

(26:52):
Samuel Thompson said. Bayberry is also valuable and taken in
the usual manner for all kinds of hemorrhages, whether from
the stomach, lungs, excessive menstruation, and when combined with capsicum
again that's cayenne pepper, it is an unfailing remedy for this.
Very good in lucarrhea has a general effect on the
female organs and has an excellent influence on the uterus

(27:15):
during pregnancy. Well, let's get that with a grain of
salt there. You know, as I always say, I don't
recommend any herbs during pregnancy, and as this one has
in certain doses the ability to bring on menstruation, it
could also cause a miscarriage, so let's stay away from
that advice. Excellent results will be obtained from its use

(27:35):
in goiter, diarrhea and dysentery and use of the tea
is an enema for gangrenous sores, boils and carbuncles. Use
a wash and poultice, applying the powdered bayberry to the infection.
The tea is an excellent wash for spongy and bleeding gums.
The tea taken internally is useful in jaundice, scruffula, canker
sores of the throat and mouth. Your tea taken warm,

(27:56):
promotes perspiration and improves the whole circulation and tones of
the tissue. Taking in combination with yarrow, catnip, sage or peppermint,
it is unexcelled for colds. Got very popular. That's that's
a really common old cold remedy, yarrow, catnip, sage, peppermint
with a little bit of bay. Now remember too much
of it's gonna make you throw up. And this is

(28:18):
another one. Definitely you don't want to be using sage,
peppermint and the mierica and during pregnancy, not in a
medicinal dose anyway. You know, a little bit of sage
in your sausages, a little bit of peppermint in your
candy is certainly not gonna hurt anything. But you know,
medicinal doses are different. An excellent formula made made with

(28:39):
bayberry and used by the famous Dominion Herbal College for colds, fevers,
flu colic cramps and pains of the stomach is four
ounces bayberry, two ounces ginger, one ounce white pine, one
dram of clothes, and one dram of capscum of cayenne.
That's also going to be very warming, gonna be very

(29:00):
good for fevers and such. And yeah, that was just
basically as a hot tea, and or it could be
taken in capsule for him. It's interesting as well Bradford
and Jeer, it was a real character. I don't quote
from Bradford and Jeer, enough. He was an outdoor writer
in the probably thirties through fifties. Bit of a plagiarist,

(29:26):
but a real character. He wrote. His most famous book
is How to Stay Alive in the Woods that was
actually used in a movie not too long ago, Robert
Redford movie. But anyway, he wrote a lot on herbs.
He was a pretty good herbalist and his wife was
a very good illustrator, and during a time this is,
you know, between the big push in the nineteen teens

(29:48):
and twenties to make herbal medicine illegal, and before the
hippies got all interested in it in the sixties, and
before Ugh Gibbons even brought it back in the early
sixties and late I guess Bradford Angier was one of
the only guys writing books on herbal medicine and field
guides to help you learn how to identify the plants.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
He said that the.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Base of the bark, best secured during the latter part
of autumn, was often gathered by bringing in the entire route,
washing and scrubbing it diligently, and then while steel fresh,
separating the bark with a hammer, or by pounding it
and grinding the whole plant between two stones. Others went
to the trouble, stripping small shreds from the still growing roots.
The bark, in any event, was kept in a dry place.

(30:36):
When dehydrated and then pulverized, the resulting powder was thoroughly
dried and kept in a dark place and a sealed
jar bottle. The powdered bark was sent steeped or boiled,
the former process by stirring a teaspoon of the ingredient
into a cup of steaming hot water, allowing this to cool,
and then when it was cold, drinking one or two
cups full of day. The latter produced by simmering an

(30:57):
ounce of the powdered bark and two cups of bubbling water,
and by it was still worn. So has different uses,
whether hot or cold. Essentially, the outstanding characteristic of both
infusions was a marked astringency. It was used in cases
of diarrhea and dysentery, both as an enema and a drink.
In large doses. It was sometimes employed as an emetic

(31:19):
make you throw up into the words, particularly since it
had an agreeable aromatic scent and a spirited medicinal taste.
It was favored as a mouthwashed especially when cankers were
present and the gum saar are bleeding, and as a
gargle for sore throats. The tea was also deemed efficacious
in cases of jaundice. It was sometimes used to treat
uterine hemorrhage. The powder used as a snuff was excellent

(31:43):
for cattarine for cleansing the nasal congestion. The powder was
also used to treat boils, carbuncles, and milder sores, being
directly applied to the afflicted part. It was usedful in
pulsterices for cuts and bruises, some scratches and insect bites.
The leaves and stem of bay were boiled in water

(32:04):
and drunk both to a lay of fever and in
stronger doses to eliminate worms in the intestinal chact. The
leaves where their vitim s cured and prevent scurvy, and
the berries were used to relieve flatulence and to ease
cold systems. A lot of great home remedies there plants
for a future. Says of bog myrtle, the leaves can

(32:25):
cause a miscarriage. They give a big warning on that,
so let's just keep that in mind. Our aromatic is
stringent menagogue, which means brings on minsis and stematic. The
leaves are normally used as a tea, but they do
not contain a poisonous aromatic oil. I'm sorry, but they
do contain Yeah, let's.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Get that right.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
The leaves are normally used as a tee, but they
do contain a poisonous aromatic oil, so some caution is
advised in their use. And of the northern bay berry,
they said the root bark is a stringent and emetic
in large doses. A tea made from the leaves is
used in treatment of fevers and external as a wash
for itchy skin. Peterson Field Guide for Eastern and Central

(33:04):
Medicinal Plants says of the wax myrtle miracle seraphera wax
was produced in the fruit root bark formally used in
tea as a stringent and emetic for chronic gastritis, diarrhea, dysentery, leucarreea,
cattal states of the elementary tract, jawn, dysgraphula, indolent or
hard to heal, altsers leaf tea was used for fevers

(33:25):
externally as a wash for itching. Powdered root bark was
an ingredient and a composition powder that was once a
widely used home remedy for colds and chills. That's actually
the powder the recipe we just gave you. The says
warning wax is irritating, and constituents of the wax are
reportedly carcinogenic. The miraca gale or sweet gale similarly similar

(33:49):
uses to those of says for ferra. Branch tea was
once used as a diuretic for ganrhea.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Warning.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
Essential oil was reportedly toxic and basically all essential oil
have a toxicity to them. I'm always warning people. You
know you don't want to be taken essential oils internally,
certainly not straight, or even apply them to your skin
without waking them down with some neutral oil like olive
oil or something. But it has been found to inhibit

(34:17):
the growth of various bacteria. The Mierica pennsylvanica, which may
also be the Carolina niques if it actually exists. Same
use for m.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
Serah fera.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
The Micmac tribe used to make a snuff of the
leaves of fine powder and sniffed up the nose for headaches.
The leaf tea was used as a stimulate and poultice
root bart for inflammation. Warning the wax is considered toxic.
And finally, it's actually still listed in the Physician's Desk

(34:50):
Reference for Herbal Medicine and its States of the America
serah fera. The active compounds have diaphoretic stimulant and a
stringe effects. So I think we'll wrap it up there.
Three really interesting plants, certainly all useful in their own way,
but the Mierica fascinating history, especially in the beers of

(35:14):
Europe and all the old herbal preparations, but also in
the history of the United States and the colonies, the
use of the wax and everything, not just from medicinal
properties for making candles and such. If you had gone
into any home and say Colonial Williamsburg, it would have
smelled of bayberry candles made with a combination probably a

(35:38):
bayberry and beef tallow so you would have kind of
gotten a smell of like McDonald's French fries and bayberry,
which probably fairly appetizing actually. So anyway, y'all have a
great week, and I'll talk to you next time.

Speaker 4 (35:57):
The information on this podcast is non intended to die
knows 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 herbless Therefore, I'm really just a guy who
stays herbs. I'm not offering any advice. I won't even

(36:18):
claim that anything I write or say 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 herb has helped me, I cannot nor what
I tell you to to say. If you use an herb,
anyone recommends you are treating yourself, you take full responsibility
for your health. Humans are individuals, and.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
No two are identical.

Speaker 4 (36:39):
What works for me may 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 of it.
Be careful with your health. By continuing to listen to
my podcast or read my blog, yougree to be responsible
for yourself, to your own research, make your own choices,
and not.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
To blame me for anything. Ever, and

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