Show 251: Sandcherry, Arrow Bamboo and Wintergreen

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. I think we're
going to get to another U three really interesting shrubs
because I've got two short entries and one that's longer.
So like last week, it should be too long a show,
but I think we can cover a lot of ground.
The first is Prunus pumila or Pumella I don't know

(01:52):
p U. M I l A. Also known as Appalachian
sand cherry. Now sand cherry is fairly interesting plant one
I have just recently been getting experience with. We have
two varieties that grow in North Carolina. The medicinal information
I have is the Appalachian version. There's also a sand

(02:15):
cherry that grows down in the sand hills of North Carolina.
Whi's a really pretty evergreen actually tree shrub, not a
small tree. You know. Most cherries lose their leaves in
the fall. This one's days nice and green. It's really
would make a valuable landscaping plant. And it is a prunas,
but I have not been able to find specific information

(02:38):
about its use. The Appalachian sand cherry, the Prunas pannella
or panilla is also called Dwarf American cherry. They do
seem to be fairly different plants, though closely related. So
I have been told that the one in the sand
Hills the berries are poisonous. I have not been able

(03:01):
to get any verification on that. That may be just
something people assume. The birds and squirrels and everything eat
them just fine. But that doesn't always mean anything. I mean,
a bird can eat poisonous berries and such and be
just fine. Squirrels sometimes, dear, you know, we have different

(03:21):
We metabolize food very differently, and you have to remember
the all members of the pruna's family have certain levels
of cyanide and the seeds. Now, it could be that
the sand Hills sand cherry is higher in cyanide. I
don't know. But normally, of course, we don't eat cherry pits,

(03:46):
so it's not much of an issue. But maybe this
one is higher, and maybe some of them gets in
the fruit. I have no idea. But the one in
the mountains is different, like I said, is called Dwarf
American cherry. It does contain amigalin and prounissan, which are

(04:08):
substances which again break down in water and form cyanide
or hydrocyanic acid, but that's normally not in the fruit,
it's in the seeds. In this case, we normally will
use the bark, so we're not even really looking at

(04:29):
the dwarf of American cherry or the Appalachian sand cherry
as a fruit. We're looking at the bark. And in
small amounts, yes, the very poisonous compound of cyanide actually
stimulates respiration, It helps with coughing, improves digestion, and gives
a sense of wellbeing. So it's one of the wild

(04:51):
cherry barks we use generally considered safe in very small amounts.
Obviously you want to be very cautious with it. But
wild cherry bark has been the go to cough remedy,
combined with you know, angelica and a little honey and whiskey,
a couple other herbs, maybe even some gen seing in there.
Appalachian folks have been using that remedy for centuries centuries

(05:17):
and still for coughing. Probably the best antitussive herb Bronchio
dilating herb, got some expectant properties. Just everything you want
to soothe cough is a wild cherry bark based tincture
or syrup. And that's really the reason why most of

(05:37):
the cough syrups, commercial cough syrups you get from the
drug store have a cherry flavor and are kind of
pink or red. It's because before they started being made,
although name brands, you know, super sweet glycerin filled, syrupy,
nasty commercial cough syrups, everybody's grandmother kept a little bit
of cherry bark based tincture on hand for coughs and cults.

(06:02):
And it's also good for digestion, so obviously you would
not want to take too much of it. But a
lot of the old formulas would actually combine cherry bark
with like morphine and such, so and even a cannabis
extract was very popular for obvious reasons. In those combinations,

(06:24):
what do you think is going to kill you first,
the little bit of cyanide from the cherry bark or
the morphine. I'm going to probably go with the and
even actually the morphine would have been more of the
safer ingredients. Some of the early commercial cough syrups that
your doctor would prescribe and you go to a pharmacist
to buy were insane. I mean they'd have every drug

(06:47):
you can imagine there, cocaine, morphine, you know, everything, and
then some really poisonous stuff in addition to that. So
I think making your own cherry bark syrup is probably
still a very good idea. You know, the most effective
over the counter cough syrup you can buy is anything

(07:08):
that ends in DM. That's always a dextromorphine or something
like that. I can't remember exactly how it's pronounced. It's
how would I put it? Probably the cheapest legal drug
on the market. You can go to a dollar tree
and get a bottle of DM cough syrup for a
buck twenty five. Before Biden it was just a dollar

(07:31):
and it will cause hallucinations and make you pretty high
if you had the whole bottle. Don't do that. It's
very very bad for you, very very very very bad
for you to do that. But the dextromorphine is a
effective cough suppressant chemically speaking and safety wise speaking, while

(07:53):
cherry bark's far safer with fewer side effects, and dude
does have side effects. It's bad for deliver, it's bad
for it can increase heart rate and blood pressure. You
can really get very sick. Or even die if you
had too much. And I did have one friend who
took a lot of it and never came back. So remember,

(08:18):
just because something is legal and available from you know,
the drug store or whatever, it's got a name brand
you've known since you were a child, does not mean
it's safe. I mean, too much tailant al will kill you.
Too much aspirin will kill you. Too much Gosh, there's
so many things those like strong anti di or real

(08:39):
tablets you can just get, you know, across counter, can
actually cause a bowel instruction that can require surgery. I
mean people take stuff from the store thinking it's safe
because it's got a name brand on it, because it's
sold over the counter. I could name probably fifty different
items that are available on any drug store shelf that

(09:02):
will kill you. We could start even with the rubbing
alcohol during times well, certainly during prohibition, but in dry counties,
which there still are some dry counties in the South.
I don't know about where y'all live, but until recently,
probably a good third of the counties in North Carolina

(09:24):
you couldn't buy alcohol. You had to go just to
get beer and wine in the next county. That's mostly
been undone. Now it may still be one or two.
There's still walls that say, you know, in certain counties
you can't buy alcohol on a Sunday or not before
a certain hour of the day or you know whatever
like that, or at a certain hour of the night.
In some cases, people would look for every single substitute

(09:47):
they could find, from mouthwash to rubbing alcohol, hair tonic
stuff that really the additional chemicals added to it would
really mess you up. But see, I also have to
remember that the alcohol you drink is ethyl alcohol. Most
rubbing alcohol is not ethyl alcohol. It's methyl alcohol that

(10:10):
will cause you go blind, it will give you stomach
in bladder cancer, it can cause all kinds of really
awful stuff. So even the ethyl alcohol on the shelf,
if your store still carries out ethyl alcohol, which very
few do now. When I worked at a drug store
in my teens, there was a small section of ethyl alcohol,

(10:33):
and yeah, usually the hardcore alcoholics would buy it, and
they would had different ways of diluting it and filtering
and flavoring it, and you know, they were usually in
really rough shape, really bad shape, because that stuff it
was not refined and not pure, and so you know,

(10:53):
it's pretty sad, but you know, they'd make their own
charcoal filters and they'd figure out how to use it.
Your average grosser tree store or drug store now just
has methyl alcohol, which is more like anafreeze. A lot
of it's made from wood wood alcohol, and that stuff
will kill you. So that's one thing that people just
like take for granted. You probably got some sitting on

(11:13):
your you know, medicine cabinet shelf, never thinking, you know
what if a kid got hold of this and tried
to drink it. That's just one example. Like I said,
aspirin would be another. So many things, so very many
things that we just take for granted, but then we
get all freaked out when we hear an herb has
a certain level of toxicity. Well, just about everything has

(11:39):
a certain level of toxicity in a significant amount. If
you drink enough water, you will die. Really, it's not
safe to drink well, certainly not at one time. But
you should never try to drink more than a gallon
of water in a day. But you also shouldn't try
to drink a gallon of water at once. Water intake
shouldn't even be near that high really, unless you're out

(12:01):
in the hot sun and you're working very hard and
you're sweating it out and all that. But yeah, even
water can be fatal in certain amounts. It's hazing rituals
and fraternities and such. They force the pledges to drink
a lot of water till they throw up. Some of
them die, and so that's had to be outlawed in
certain states. And you know that's crazy, right, But now,

(12:22):
what are you going to do? What are you going
to do? Too much caffeine is toxic. Too much nicotine's toxic.
Too much sugar is toxic. There's very few things that
one could just absolutely stuff themselves with that wouldn't be fatal.
I mean, you think about common foods. I mean, I

(12:44):
love cured meats, but it's probably my favorite food. I
love my salamis and sausages and all that. I love
smoked oysters and smoked muscles. I love cheeses, Bacon. I
could live on bacon, and basically uncooked bacon. I just
eat it almost raw. That's the way my taste of right.
Pickles and olives and such as that, that's the stuff

(13:05):
I crave. Well. A diet heavy and that can cause gout.
All those little iron oxide crystals that come through the
curing process can collect in the joint of your big
toe and you can get gout. So, I mean, there's
nothing in this world it's safe. And that's not even

(13:26):
counting all the actual poisons that you'll find in a
drug store or a grocery store, you know, bug sprays
and disinfectants and such as that. But yeah, I mean
that's a health hazard minefield if you think about it,
whereas herbal medicine mostly is fairly safe if you use
common sense. When we have an herb, we say this

(13:49):
herb has a certain level of toxicity or this herb
should not be used internally, And all you've got to
really do is pay attention and don't be stupid. There
are a lot of things that we buy from the
drug store, the grocery store, or the gas station or
the dollar store or whatever every day order off Amazon

(14:09):
that are far more toxic than ninety nine percent of herbs.
I mean, certainly not as toxic as say aconite or
water hemlock or you know anything like that. I mean,
you know, those are very very poisonous plants, but so

(14:30):
many things we buy on a regular basis are far
more poisonous, far more toxic than at least ninety percent
of the herbs you're gonna use in your herbal practice.
But the government makes us put all kinds of warning
on our herbs, all kinds of warnings on our herbs.
And you know, meanwhile, people go and buy a bottle

(14:51):
of til and all thinking it's safe. And even though
thailand all leads to more liver failure in the United
States than heavy drinking does and is actually banned in
many seed of Meniphan's band in many European countries. Yeah,
we just assume it's safe. You go to the doctor.
Doctor says, you know, you run a little fever, you
might have a called take thailand all every four hours.

(15:14):
Why why do you want to take thailand all every
four hours? Why not take aspirin because aspirn doesn't damage
the liver and thailand all does. I will say, aspirin
might upset your stomach, you know what. I'd rather have
a little heartburn than lose my liver. But go'll say
take thailanol. I don't understand why. I can't understand that
for the life of me. But they always specifically say

(15:35):
Thailand all. If you go and try to get some
over the counter cold medication. There is only one that
I know of that doesn't contain a seed ofmnifhin, and
it's the Low's Food House brand of Alcacilter Cold Plus.
It uses aspirin. That's the only one on the entire
market that I found that doesn't have a seed of

(15:56):
menathin in it. But even that isn't good enough. It
doesn't work because a few years ago they changed the
formula in all over the counter, well almost all over
the counter cold and allergy medications. We used to use,
you know, generic pseudo fit and that was what pseudoephadron,

(16:17):
and that was the primary nasal decongestant in it, and
it was in everything. You would find pseudoephidron in everything,
every cold medicine, every allergy medicine, every well almost every
allergy medicine, I should say, and you know most asthma
products and such as sat now antihistamin's allergy medicines. You

(16:40):
also have benadryl, totally different thing. And then you have
like your a leg resertex and whatever the other one
is cleratant. Yeah, totally different chemicals. They work in a
different way. But ninety of what was on the shelf
contained pseudoephestrin. They decided that people were buying it and

(17:03):
turning it into crystal meth, and they baned pseudoephidron, And
now they have something that is one or two chemical
bonds different. It looks and sounds a lot like pseudoephodron,
but it's got a few letters different, and I can't
remember it right now, and I can't pronounce it even
if I could. And it doesn't work. It actually raises

(17:25):
your heart rate and blood pressure. Worse, it could cause
a stroke or a heart attack. And the FDA is
even admitted it doesn't work. It doesn't work as a
nasal decongestion. They have admitted that ninety percent of the
allergy products and almost one hundred percent of cold and
fluid products and anything across counter for asthma doesn't work

(17:46):
and is actually dangerous. They've admitted that, but they still
won't change the law. They still mandate that's what has
to be used in there. It's insane, it's utterly insane,
but that's our government, and those are the laws that
we operate under, supposedly for our own good. You know,

(18:06):
this all started with the pure Foods and Drug Act
of nineteen sixteen, which was essentially based on a why
I mean, especially what followed with like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.
He admitted he made the whole thing up. He was
trying he was a communist, he was trying to organize
labor unions. He ended up freaking everybody out about their food,
and so everybody started writing their congressman saying, we need

(18:29):
to have laws to have, you know, better food. Not
that there wasn't some bad food back then, especially in cities,
but all of it would have been necessary, would have
been to have a truth in labeling law. You just
say this product contains these ingredients. If it's found to
contain something else, if it's adulterated, the person who made
it goes to jail. I mean, that's literally all you needed.

(18:50):
Instead we have the FDA and the USDA. And yeah,
there were some bad stuff going on, adulterated milk, spoiled meats.
But Upton Sinclair's Jump was entirely a work of fiction.
He made the whole thing up. He said, I intended
to hit him in the heart, but I hit him
in the stomach. And now we have over the counter

(19:12):
cold and flu medicines and allergy medicines that could literally
give you a heart attack or stroke and don't work,
and the law mandates that they be that way. I mean,
that's insanity. And I mean, you know, RFK Junior has
got so much on his plate, I don't even know
if he'll get to that one. We're gonna need probably

(19:34):
three or four terms of somebody like RFK Junior in
there to even begin to clean up the bureaucratic overreach,
the overregulation, the laws that make absolutely no sense. I'll
give you another example, and you know, it's illegal to
grow gooseberries or currents in North Carolina. Illegal gooseberries and currants,

(19:55):
one of the most tasty, most nutritious, easiest to row
fruits in the entire world. Popular throughout England and Europe,
widely grown in Canada, widely grown in many parts of
the United States. Is are illegal in North Carolina. Why
because potentially, in about a one in a million chance,

(20:20):
there is a little fungus that can attach itself to
mostly an imported gooseberri or current plant that could contaminate
Christmas trees. That's right. So in the nineteen seventies, essentially
When the Stay of North Carolina came in and told
the farmers in the mountains of North Carolina, we want

(20:41):
you to switch from growing tobacco and cabbages. We had
this wonderful Burley tobacco for cigars and pipe tobacco and cabbages,
big sauer Kraft industry. There were fields as cabbages when
I was a kid, blue cabbages from that really rich
soil and that good climate, best sauerkrawt you ever had
in your life. The government comes and says, we want

(21:01):
you to grow Christmas trees. Only. We don't want you
growing food. We don't want you to growing tobacco. We
want you to absolutely clear every acre of land you
can and plant it with Christmas trees. We'll go to
subsidize you, and we'll give you the seedlings for free
to start you out. Well, what do Christmas trees need?
A bazillion poisonous chemicals sprayed on them constantly so to

(21:25):
keep to make them grow, help the im perfectly uniform
and look like a Christmas card. Right, They need trimming,
and they need all these chemicals because they have various
They're not native to North North Carolina, so they have
no natural defenses to the natural conditions that are in
our area, from insects to fungus to blight and such
a step. So the farmers stop growing food no more.

(21:49):
Can we just go to our local farmer and get
corn and cabbage and you know, all the stuff I
grew up on, and you won't find decent, you know,
good quality burrow tobacco grown in my area anymore. And
that's a real shame, because natural tobacco is not as
dangerous as the chemical lid and stuff they grow for

(22:09):
cigarettes and all that. But anyway, they basically cut down
all the woods and denuded the hillsides and put in
as many Christmas trees as they could, thus contributing to flooding,
like when we have a hurricane hit the mountain every
now and then, but every year they had to soak
them down with all kinds of poisons, to the point
that my region, to say, four or five counties and

(22:32):
my county around me that where most of the Christmas
trees in North Carolina has the highest cancer rate in
North Carolina, the highest insurance rates in North Carolina. But
we can't grow gooseberries. I mean yeah, like Ronald Reagan said,
the scariest words in the English language are we're from

(22:55):
the government and we're here to help. Ironic. Probably one
ridge over, it's maybe a miles hike from my house,
there's a huge Christmas Tree farm. And I don't I mean,
I don't touch the waters downhill from it. I mean
I do not fish in the creek that's downhill from

(23:16):
that Christmas Tree farm. I try to avoid it, actually,
But there's a huge Christmas Tree farm, and up the
hill from there is where there was an old homestead,
probably one hundred and fifty years ago, and there gooseberry
bushes that are growing there that have gone feral. So

(23:37):
I can literally walk up there and take a government
agent and prove to them that these gooseberries are not
infecting those trees. But if I did, rather than accept that,
what they would do is burn them. So I don't
know where those are. I can't show you where those are.
But yeah, yeah, that's what do you expect. I mean, honestly,

(24:03):
you know, the entire river from about a mile down
from my house clear into the next county to about
I'm gonna say fifteen miles into that county is marked
private no fishing because it's owned by private fly fishing clubs.

(24:24):
When the laws of the state of North Carolina say
that any navigal waterway that means any water deep enough
to put a kayak or canoe in that you could
float down cannot be owned by a private person and
has to be open to fishing. Yeah, money talks, money talks.

(24:45):
The local folks are kind of looked down on by
the money folks that come in in the summertime. So
they have their fancy golf resorts and their fly fishing clubs,
and they posted all that river, full natural river that
God put there, that man has nothing to do with,
full of fish that the North Carolina taxpayer, including every

(25:08):
resident of my county pays to stock is off livements
because the rich folks don't want the hillbillies catching their trout.
It's messed up, folks, It's messed up. It is so
messed up, and it may be getting a little bit
better at the federal level, but it's not getting anywhere
better than North Carolina. We got stupid people running this government,

(25:32):
stupid and corrupt. Now, I will say one thing. They
finally did repeal the law until about two years ago,
maybe even one year ago. In order to buy a
pistol in North Carolina, you had to go get a
permit from the sheriff. The sheriff would have to sign
a document saying I know this person and he's a
good character, and he can have a pistol. You know

(25:54):
what that law was passed. That would be because about
one hundred years ago, the plan didn't want black people
to have guns. That's the bottom line the history of
the law. I mean, Lincoln specifically says that, so the
sheriff every county got to say who got to have
a pistol or not, so black folks couldn't protect themselves

(26:15):
against the klan. That's all it comes down to. That's
the Democrat Party. North Carolina was an entirely Democrat party
state at that time. Over time, plenty of life folk
got guns, legal and illegally, because it came down to
the fact that if you put a little money in

(26:35):
the sheriff's election campaign, he'd signed that document saying you
can get a pistol permit. Wasn't that way in every county,
but probably a majority. You put a little money in
his pocket, whether it was an official campaign contribution or
slipping a few bills and it became a way that
the local sheriffs wielded a great deal of power. The

(26:57):
sheriff could say whether or not you, John Smith could
have a firearm or a pistol at least even though
the Constitution of the United States says you can. So
sheriff became a very desirable position in North Carolina, a
way to make a lot of money and wield a
lot of influence. And I mean, think about it in
the modern day and time. You take a city like

(27:20):
Charlotte or Fayetteville. You're talking millions of people. They're little
I don't even remember, like eight million people just in
the city limits of Charlotte. And then you think the
sheriff of Mecklenburg County knows every single one of them
and can attest to their good character. No, but a

(27:40):
few million people there that need to slip the sheriff
one hundred and two hundred bucks. You know, they kept
the price low enough that people wouldn't complain about too much.
That sheriff could make a lot of money, a lot
of money, and then that sheriff could put a lot
of money into state senator's hands and congressman's hands, and
eight representatives or the governor, and he can get a

(28:03):
lot of favors for his district or for himself personally.
I'm not saying the sheriff of Mecklenburg did. I'm just
using meckelar Birds as an example, even though it has
been historically incredibly corrupt, and so has around Fayetteville, Cumberland
and all that incredibly corrupt. Well, they did finally about
a year ago repeal that. So now we are like
actual American citizens. All we got to do is walk

(28:26):
in and pass the criminal background check, which also you know,
I have my issues with, but yeah, you fill out
the forum, you give them your driver's license, and you
no longer have to give them a little permit from
your local county sheriff who says, I, you know, Sheriff

(28:46):
Bob Smith or somebody attests that this person's a good
character and it's worthy to buy a handgun. I don't
think most people realize stuff like that when they move
to the South. They think they're coming to like this,
you know, low tax, freedom, low regulation environment. Not in
North Carolina, not in North Carolina at all at all.

(29:07):
But then again, you know, Charleston, South Carolina, has a
specific city wide and county wide laws that say you
can't grow a vegetable garden, and you can't carry a
knife over so many inches or what's called a monkey fist,
which was what sailors used to use to kind of
whack each other of the head, you know, as self defense,
not for fun obviously. So it's not just North Carolina

(29:29):
specifically in South Carolina, Charleston is insane when it comes
to laws. But yeah, in North Carolina, there's a reason
we don't have many independently owned businesses and restaurants. It's
because the regulations and tax burdens are too high. Only
the chains can afford to open here, you know, the
chains and the giant farms. Giant farms like the big

(29:53):
chicken and pork farms owned by China can put a
whole lot of money into a politicians pocket, a whole
lot of money. So the little guy gets squeezed out.
And you know, this is the freedom Arian sisters fought for.
What are you gonna do? Well, I'll tell you what
i'm gonna do. I'm gonna talk about pseudo pseudo Sasa
Japonica arrow bamboo. Uh, this one has very very little

(30:17):
menditional use it's been it's been brought he it's called
a false bamboo. It's naturalized, it does originate in Japan.
It actually has some interesting qualities. It is anthelementic, it
gets rid of intestinal parasites. It is stimulant and tonic
to the digestive system. That's it, you know, no big deal.

(30:41):
But last time I think it was, we talked about
what they call it holy bamboo, Nandia Nandia. It has
somewhat similar properties with lower toxicity, so it's a good
one to know about. Nandina. That's the name Nandina. Now

(31:01):
we're getting to the one that is really useful, and
this is really the heart of the show. It is pyrolla.
Now you may remember that I told you Chimphyla is
commonly called winter green. That is true, but so is pyrolla.
Both of them have a volatile oil that has that
winter green smell and flavor. It was once widely used

(31:22):
in teas and candies, I medicinally especially, it's been mainly
replaced by either synthetics now but or birch twigs. They
all have pain reducing qualities, must relaxing qualities, good for fevers,
good for all kinds of stuff. Now, pyrolla, we have

(31:43):
three varieties americana that rounded shin leaf, Pyrolla elliptica or
elliptic shin leaf, and pyrolla rotunda foil, which is round leaf.
That just rotunda folia means it's round. So if you
ever heard here's someone using the word rotund instead of fat,

(32:03):
all they're saying is the person is round. I guess
that was considered to be a little more polite. At
one point he's rotund. Okay, we'll go with that. So
Diascorides wrote a paola as limmonium, and that's actually similar

(32:25):
root where to lemon and it has to do with
the violet oils are not related at all. Let's see
what he said about it. He said it is a
stranger to the taste an extract made with vinegar of
the seeds or taken as a drink, and wine helps
dysentery and abdominal cavities. I guess he means like ulterations actually,

(32:52):
and would stop excessive menstrual discharges. Then he describes what
it grows and gives a bunch of names for it
used by different peoples a time. We can skip that
miss grieve and lists several winter greens, some that grow
in Europe and some that grow in America and under
medicinal uses in actions. She says, A stringent diuretic tonic,

(33:14):
Let's see, do we need to define any of these terms.
I think we're good. A stringent titans tissue, diuretic removes
excess fluid. Tonic is good for digestion. Anti spasmodic means
it helps with either cramping or coughing. Anything that is
spasming can be missile cramps, can be intestinal cramps. It
can be a Charlie horse or a bad cough. The
decoction is much used in skin diseases to eradicate scorpulous

(33:36):
conditions from the system that's infected lymph nodes. Essentially, decoction
also valuable as a garlic and a wash for the eyes,
an optimalic wash for the eyes. Interestingly, she said it
was used externally for epilepsy and other nervous affections. Well,

(33:58):
I don't think we really use the same term epilepsy
in the same way all the time as he used
to in the past. Certain herbs that are sedative to
the nervous system and are anti spasmodic can help certain
types of seizures. So let's you know, put that in

(34:18):
the right mindset there, she said. In Germany it was
often used in ointments, plasters and drinks for wounds, so
for internal bleeding as well. Combined with a little cinnamon
and red wine would cure bloody stool and ultars of
the bladder and restrain some encas. So goodness stringent particularly

(34:43):
good for green wounds. That means a fresh wound. By
the way, that does not mean gangreen. Irisherbil John Keyhoe
says the leaves are useful in healing internal and external
wounds and ultars. They stop hemorrhage like passing of blood
in the urine an excessive minstrel flow. Brother Aloisious says,

(35:04):
and infusion is used for all kinds of bleeding, both
the internal and external wounds, chronic catarine diarrhea. For hard
block spleen, apply the leaves after boiling them in vinegars
to put it externally over the area of the spleen.
I don't even know where my spleen is. One of
these days I'll have to find it on a charte
or something. You know. I was not that good at

(35:27):
an anatomy and once I pass the test, I just forgot everything.
I can basically find most of my organs, but I
actually have no idea where my spleen is. For earaches
and running ears. Boil the leaves and oil and put
five drops in the ears for gravel and drops. He
take three teaspoons of the powdered berries and wine to

(35:47):
strengthen the brain and cleanse the head. Wintergreen sap should
be sniffed up the nose. I don't have any idea
what he's talking about. To strengthen the brain and cleansed
the head. I guess, oh, well, it's probably almost like
smelling salts like mental clarity, like when you smell in

(36:08):
something like menthol or different things that are like really
strong and they kind of like perk you up. That's
probably it. So towards An America and Materia Medica, America's
first herbal book talks about pyrola on bellata and let's

(36:29):
see also called pipsisiwa. That was the Indian name for it.
Let's see what he says about. Yeah, there we go.
The pyrolla is considerably astringent, and the quantity of a
stringency appears to be nearly the same in the leaves
as the stems. Hitherto. It is not greatly excited the
attention of physicians, but I think it is worthy that

(36:51):
they're notice. A respectable physician in East Jersey informed me
that he had employed this plant with manifest advantage in
the same case in which Juvia Yersie had been found
so useful. So that's for excessive menstrum bleeding that would
just be known at the time. Uvia Yers's also called
squall root. It's one of the first remedies that the

(37:13):
early Americans, the colonists pioneers learned from the Native Americans.
Let's see he said it had been used by doctor
John Mitchell with good effect in cases of intermittence. This
could be intermittent fever, malaria. Essentially good diuretic. Let's see

(37:36):
King's American Dispensatory of eighteen ninety eight describes various pyroleas
and it says roundly pyrole is tonic, astringent, diuretic, and
anti spasmodic used in decoctions both internally and externally in
various cutaneous eruptions at skin alterations, essentially likewising carson car

(37:59):
carconmotuus or scruffulous taint of the system, so he's actually
talking maybe cancerous skin conditions or scropula again, the infected
lymph nodes and in leukeraea and some uterine diseases. As
a local application will be found to be in service
for sore throats and alterations of the mouths, the indolent

(38:21):
ultars and ophthalmalia, and forms an excellent soothing poultice for boils, carbuncles,
and all painful tumors or swellings. The decoction taken internally
is valuable in many urinary infections, relieving irritation, and is
reputed very useful in gravel, hematura, hematuria and ulterrations of

(38:42):
the bladder and in some nervous diseases. The decoction extract
have been used with success in convulsions and once formed
a large portion of a popular nostrum for epilepsy. So yeah,
it was actually used for epilepsy. That's interesting, But for
specific indications in use, it was used to relieve inflammations
of the urinary tract. Now let's GetUp to more modern times.

(39:04):
Plants for a future says Pyrolla contains tannic acid and
simple phenol. Glycosides, especially useful as a diarregic for the
kidneys any urinary tract infection, and helpful for sore throats. Externally,
the plant is used to stop bleeding and heal bruises
and insect bites. Its anti spasmodic properties make the plant
useful for nervous disorders such as epilepsy. The chewed roots

(39:26):
were used as throat lozenges and plants for a future says, well,
they actually list two of them. They've got the wax
flowers shin leaf that was the second one I listed, says.
The leaves have analgesic properties that were used as a
poultice on bruised skin and other sores and wounds. A
tea made from the whole plant was used to treat
epileptic fits and babies. A decocia the whole plant has

(39:49):
been used as eye drops to treat sore eyes and
inflame eyelids. A tea made from the leaves was used
as a gargle for sore throats and cankers in the mouth,
and a tea made from the roots is tonic and
for roundly pyrola that's a pipsisila. The leaves are anti rheumatic. Yes,
it's very good. All the winter green type plants and
the birch twigs are very good for arthritis. Also antiseptic, antispasmodic, astringent, cardiotonic, contraceptive, diuretic, poultice,

(40:18):
sedative antonic decoction is used in the treatment of skin diseases,
as a gargle and a wash for the eyes. It
is used internally the treatment of epsolet epilepsy and several
nervous affections afflictions actually, in this case several other nervous afflictions.
The leaves are harvested in mid to late summer and

(40:40):
can be used fresh or dry. The plant contains our buttant,
a proven diuretic and an antibacterial agent that is used
as a urinary antiseptic. This hydrolyzes in the body into
the hydroquinone. Yes, I forgot about that. The r buttant
that is in pipsisila. The round leave winter green probably

(41:02):
most of the Pyrolla family metabolizes in the system and
actually turns into hydroquinine, which, of course quinine is somewhat toxic,
but it also is really good for bladder infections and such,
especially used this way, it's very it's a urinary antiseptic.
Now it can also help lower fevers and also has

(41:25):
some anti viral properties. But you wouldn't want to take
too much of it. Probably wouldn't want to take it
by pregnant. Certainly wouldn't want to take it when pregnant. Yeah,
it could cause a miscarriage. So Petersonfield Guide for Eastern
and Central Medicinal Plants says, shin leaf American Indians use
the tea of the whole plant to treat epileptic seizures

(41:45):
in babies. Leaf tea was gargle for sore throats, canker sores,
leaf poultice for tumors, sores and cuts, root tea atomic
and of round leaf pyrolla formally used by physicians as
a stringent for skin eruptions and sore throats or sore
mouthed diuretic for your own infections, anti spasmodic for epilepsy,
nervous disaurs, Lee's poultice on boils, carbuncles, swellings, and painful tumors.

(42:10):
Bruce plant can be used as a step that contains
our buttant, a proven diuretic and antibacterial agent that breaks
down into toxic hydroquyana and when metabolized. So yeah, Pyrola
is one along with chymphile. You could probably get some
seeds and grow these in your garden, and they're four

(42:32):
or five varieties. You might want to look into very
very useful plants, but ninety nine percent of the time
we're going to find them in the wild. So you're
going to want to learn to identify these plants and
look for them and substitute birch twigs in case you
can't find them, but do try to have them on hand.

(42:54):
I don't know of right off the top of my
head yet. I don't know of any herbalists. It sells
them dried plant or made into a tincture, although Mountain
Rose tends to have just about everything. There may be
two or three others, but it's definitely not one you're
going to find at your local health food herb shop

(43:15):
or something like that. This is one you're going to
have to learn to find on your own and process
and make your own tinctures and keep them on hand,
and really remarkably useful, and so is the cherry park.
We mentioned the bamboo a little less. The faults Bamboo
a little less useful, but it has its uses, so

(43:37):
I wanted to include it. Y'all have a great week,
and I'll talk to you nextcent.

Speaker 3 (43:45):
The information this podcast is non intended to diagnose or
treating any disease or condition. Nothing I say or write
has been evaluated or approved by the FDA.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
I'm not a doctor.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
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 IRBs. I'm not offering
any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write
or say is accurate or true. I can tell you
what Earth's 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

(44:18):
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 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

(44:41):
or read my blog, you reread to be responsible for yourself,
to your own research, make your own choices, and not
to blame me for anything ever

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