Show 267: Akebia quinata, Ampelopsis and Aristolochia

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The name down to the clan, the clan to the.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Hey, y'all, welcome this week's show. Today we're going to
talk about three plants. You know, normally I'll do one
or two, but these are they're vines. They're vining plants.
One of them is really interesting. All three are useful.
These are from my book The Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines.
And you know, good time for me putting in a plug.

(01:51):
You can still order one of my books from Amazon
and should have it in time for Christmas. My books
make great Christmas gifts, so to subscriptions to the newsletter,
which is always optional. You know, I put out free podcasts,
I put out free articles. I put out more free
info than just about any rbalist in America as far
as I know, thousands and thousands of hours over the

(02:16):
past I don't know what we've been doing this five
six years, but I do have the subscribe option on
my subsecond newsletter. If you're interested, you can support my work,
and of course an ebook can always be ordered, even
at the very last minute. I will check my email
Christmas morning. Shoot, I'll check my email Christmas afternoon and evening.

(02:37):
If you forgot somebody and you want to get them
a quick ebook, just let me know. And as always,
if you buy someone a book from me, an ebook pdf.
I can't do this with the hard copies from Amazon.
If you buy one from me and tell me it's
a gift for somebody else, I give you a second

(02:58):
as a thank you gift for yourself. So remember that's
something you can do for yourself and your friend's family
and loved ones. Now let's get into our plants, and
we're going to start with I believe it's pronounced akibia
akibia quinata. This one is not native to my area,

(03:21):
but it has been naturalized. You will find it as
an ornamental in some places, as with all vines, all
your woody vines, or yeah, especially woody vines. I mean,
I'm thinking with steria ivy kudzoo. Of course, they have
a tendency to get out and get out of control.

(03:43):
A kibia will pop up in unexpected places. Now I
don't have a lot of information on it, but according
to Plants for a Future, the stems are anodyne, anti fungal, antiflogistic, bitter, diaphoretic, diuretic,
a minagogue, fever refuge, laxative, galactogog resolvant a stringent, stimulant, stematic,

(04:07):
and vulnary. Wow, that's a pretty darn medicinal plant. Let
me see what terms have we not talked about before?
I'm gonna get you to the absolute. Let me see,
anti pH logistic was one of them. I want to
just kind of look these up real quick and make
sure I give you the proper definition. Yeah, anti, I'm

(04:32):
misspelling it. There we go. AI N T I f
l O G I S T I C very long word.
An antiphlogistic is an anti inflammatory. I was hoping it
was gonna give me more information because I already knew that.
Oh wait, well it also helps with fever, you know
how like aspiring can bring down a fever and is

(04:53):
anti inflammatory. It lessens redness, swelling of fever swellings. It
wessens fever or like hot swellings, so fevered swellings. It
helps with pain. Anything that an insead would be used
for an antiphlogistic is good. What else did I am not? Okay?

(05:16):
You know what anti fungal is? Oh, anodyne. That's an
old word. It's not used very much anymore. Let me
see what The official definition of that is anodine A N, O, D, Y,
and E capable of soothing or limiting pain. Well, okay,
this is what I thought relaxing though. Okay, no, there's

(05:36):
a property we didn't talk about. Anodynes can also be relaxing.
So you've got the properties here of an anti inflammatory
that also is going to help relax muscles and such.
So bidders. Obviously, Diaphoretic means that reduces fever, Diuretic means
it helps take off excess fluids, and minagogue means that
stimulates mincs, so should not be used in pregnancy. Fabrifuge

(05:59):
also means it helps lower fever. Laxative is obviously galactogog
means it increases mother's milk. You know, this is something
that really annoyed me. I'm gonna guess what, almost five
years ago, now, maybe not quite that long. You remember,
there was a great shortage of infant formula under the

(06:19):
Biden administration, and everybody's freaking out their kids are going
to starve to death because they have no infant formula. Okay,
so this is about the time they let me back
on Twitter or ex as it's called. Now, So what
I mean more like three years ago. I said, understanding

(06:40):
that not all women can lactate, and understanding that many
are talked into taking a pill to stop lactation by
their doctors for no apparent reason other than it makes
pharmaceutical companies and infant formula companies a lot of money
and maybe it's a little more convenient whatever. Most mothers

(07:03):
can breastfeed. The vast majority, well over ninety percent, can
naturally feed their children. That's kind of the way God
designed things in the past. When someone couldn't, they would
find a wet nurse. So you got a friend that's
got a kid had a baby about the same time,

(07:24):
you can actually ask for a favor or pay that
person to fill in, right, I said, now, understanding all
of this, and I'm being very non judgmental, even though
I believe mother's milk is the very best thing for
a baby to have. Babies who are breastfed have much
better immune systems, more strength, longer lives, less obesity, less diabetes,

(07:48):
less kidney disease. All right, I'm not going to be
judgmental in any way, shape or form. I know several dozen,
if not one hundred, herbs that can increase breast milk.
Email me or proply DM me whatever, and I'll send
you the list for free. You know, we got a problem,

(08:09):
let's try to fix it. Let's see. On that post,
which was one of the first things I posted when
I went back on Twitter, twelve hundred plus women called
me an idiot, cussed me out, gave every reason why
no one should ever have to breastfeed, and not a

(08:30):
single one wanted the urban information to learn how to
actually solve the problem on their own, or coped for
a few weeks while the market got back to normal.
Now I'm not exactly sure what to say about that.
Most I would say the vast majority of my listeners
are women, because women tend to be more interested in
herbal medicine than men. And out of the several thousand

(08:55):
people that saw that post, probably ten thousand because people
were sharing it, some said, you know, he's doing a
good job. You know, pass this on. This could be
useful information. But in the comments section under my post,
twelve hundred people telling me what a jackass I am.
And out of the ten thousand or more, probably much

(09:18):
more who saw it, not a single one wanted to
know about an herb that would increase fleectation. I don't
know where to put that. To this day, I don't
know where to put that. I you know, my philosophy,
it's self sufficiency as much as possible. Do for yourself.

(09:40):
Don't rely on the government, don't rely on businesses. Grow
your own food if you can. This one, to me
seems like a no brainer. I mean, yeah, maybe you
have to work for a living and it is inconvenient.
I got that. I wasn't being judgmental, okay, but women

(10:01):
have fed babies for tens of thousands, if not millions
of years. Suddenly in the two thousands, the twenty twenties,
now they say that's basically of impossibility. What went wrong?
Knowing that's healthier, Knowing that infant formula basically just sets

(10:25):
a child up for diabetes and heart disease and kidney
failure because there's nothing but sugar and a few vitamins.
I know, it's a little more than sugar. When it
started out, though, it was basically just sweetened condensed milk,
and the doctor said it was better, and then they
started this whole campaign. I think brenets may have even
been a part of it. You know, the father of propaganda,

(10:45):
Freud's nephew, that only poor women would breastfeed, women that
had money would buy formula, and so it was like
frowned on and looked down on to breastfeed your child.
I think that's pure evil. I mean, honestly, I think
that's one of the most evil things ever perpetrated on
Western culture. But you got to remember Burnet's was also

(11:08):
the men that encouraged women to smoke because he said
it was a sign of women's liberation. He was being
paid by the tobacco companies. He was a father of propaganda.
He worked for the American government and the Nazis. He
was a bad guy. But I mean, does it just
common sense say that if there's an infant formula shortage,

(11:32):
and especially if your child is having trouble with other
types of milk, right, Like most kids are pretty good
with goat milk, but a lot of them have problems
with cow's milk or sheep's milk can be better, it
has you know, different lactose. Whatever. It seems to me
that would have been a good idea. Not a single

(11:54):
one wanted to know. I still don't know where to
put that. I really don't. I get a lot of
questions on helping with menstrual cramping or excessive bleeding and
such as that. Always glad to help, always glad to
offer advice. I don't give advice. I don't give medical advice,
but I give links and resources and tell people what's

(12:15):
been traditional use atriditionally used. Even then, if someone says
I have a hard time, and they posted publicly and
I say, I'm an herbalist, you know, let me know.
If you want to talk privately and I can, maybe
I'll offer a few suggestions. There'll be thirty or fifty
or one hundred people saying, you know, he doesn't know

(12:35):
anything about this, he's a complete fraud, and they don't
know a thing about me. I really don't understand. Oh,
and you have to take TI and off. They're always
pushing over the calendar or prescription myths. I really don't
understand how it is. Even women on more than natural
side of things in America have been convinced that the

(13:00):
only answer is to go to a doctor. The only
answer is to go to a drug store. The only
answer is to buy something made in a factory. I
don't get it. I really don't get it. But anyway,
probably in the next two to three weeks, could even
be next week. I'm going to have another interview with Liz.

(13:24):
Oh gosh is it? Writ sing or read Sing. I
always mispronounce her name. She has to tell me every
time the calls herself the raw milk Mama. She's very
popular online, big you know personality. She's coming out with
a new book. I got to take a sneak peek
at it. It's fantastic. You're going to love it, writes

(13:45):
read Sing. Almost had it. She's gonna kick my butt
when she hears this. But anyway, Liz is great. Liz
is a friend of a friend. She's very well known.
She's even been interviewed by Naomi Wolf. I mean, she's
one of the leaders of the raw milk and natural

(14:07):
foods and food security movement. She's in the DC area.
She does a lot in the legal field. And the
reason I mentioned, Okay, so there was a shortage of
baby formula, did garbage people's feed their kids to make
them diabetic and shorten their lifespans and obese and everything. Okay,

(14:32):
wouldn't that kind of be the definition of food insecurity?
If you can't get formula and your child's going to starve.
If you were in that position and you did not
at least consider breastfeeding, maybe it's time to look in
the mirror now. Liz said, I don't have five kids.

(14:55):
She's gonna, I'm sure, discuss this topic. Her kids had
some lactose issues. That's why she got on this path.
And as I said, I know, not everyone can. But
you tell me why mothers weren't forming groups to share
breast milk. You tell me why mothers were not forming
groups to learn about unpasteurized goat and sheep milk. Why

(15:22):
did it take a government solution? In other words, what
the hell is wrong with you people? Seriously? I mean,
you vote for Biden, you put his ass in office,
he destroys the economy, and your kids are starving to
death and you won't even do what God gave you
the ability to do. What the hell is wrong with
you people? I mean, I love it. If you're listening

(15:44):
to my show to learn about herbal medicine to treat
a head cold, that's great. I'll give you that information
all day long. But I mean, I said I think
it was at the time, I said, I don't understand this.
It's like if someone's starving and they say I need

(16:05):
a loaf of bread, and you hand them a loaf
and they look at and say, no, I don't like
rye bread. I only want you know, store bought white bread.
I don't want whole week I don't want sourdough. I
only want wonderbread from the grocery store. I gotta say, again,

(16:27):
what the hell is wrong with you people? And not
you specifically, if you're listening to the show, you're probably
more thinking along the way I do. But what the
hell is wrong with our society, our culture, especially college
educated women. I did someone you know, I've told this
story before as well. It's worth bringing up because it
was so outrageous. Before I started doing this Herbal Medicine podcast,

(16:53):
I had a little cooking blog, you know, back when
blogspot dot com was popular, and it was just about
the way I cook open scratch. You know you've seen
my Omnivores Guide cookbook. And at some point a lady
got in touch and said, I can't boil pasta. What
am I doing wrong? Okay? I like mind boggling to me.

(17:17):
I just started asking her questions and it turned out
she did not understand the difference between boiling water and
simmering water. She was bringing her pot barely up to
a simmer, dumping the pasta in there, and it would
just stick together and turn into a blobby mess. And
I mean we went back and forth for days before

(17:40):
I got that figured out, because you know, obviously I
thought there was something preventing her from boiling pasta following
the directions on the back of the back or the box.
I guess I should say in this case, because she
was using dry pasta. I talked, I could ask her
about her stove, the pot, she was using everything, every thing.
You can imagine. How long was she cooking. I thought

(18:02):
there was a legitimate reason, And it turned out she
did not understand the difference between boiling and simmering water.
Why do I bring this up. She wasn't an idiot.
She was not an idiot at all. She was someone
who was about forty years old from a modern home
where both parents work. Her mother never taught her how

(18:23):
to cook, you know, moved all over the country, never
was taught about a cook by grandmother, and had a PhD. Yes,
she had a freaking advanced degrees in I don't remember
what it was English maybe, and she did not understand
the difference between boiling and simmering water, and her boat

(18:47):
counts the same as mine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean
we have a tremendous problem was stupid in this country
right now? A tremendous problem was stupid? And I'm sorry,

(19:08):
but it does seem to be coming predominantly from one group.
They usually have purple hair and rings through their nose,
and advanced degrees from universities and about a half million
dollars in debt paying for a degree in gender studies
or basket weaving or lesbian dance theory. It's if if

(19:35):
the human race comes to an end, it will be
from extinction from our own stupidity, and it will be
due to people who have advanced degrees and no sense whatsoever. Anyway,
where was we were talking about akiba? After giving all
those amazing list of words, we said, anodyne's basically anti

(20:00):
inflammatory and soothing and all that anti fungal, antiflugistic, also relaxing, soothing, bitter, diaphoretic,
lower fever, diuretic gets rid of excess fluids, a minagogue.
It brings on memphsies febrifuge lowers of fever or helps
break a fever. It's kind of different than diaphoretic one anyway,

(20:21):
it doesn't matter. Right this now, right this minute of
laxative galactagog increases mother's milk. Resolvant means it can help
well again, basically break a fever, bring things to resolution
when it comes to a cold or flu like that.
Stimulant usually more for the appetite. Stematic settles the stomach

(20:43):
and vulnerary, which means wound healing. Taken internally. It controls
bacteria and fungal infections and is used in the treatment
of urinary tract infections, lack of menstruation, to improve lactation,
et cetera, which women apparently have no interest in. The
stems are harvested in the autumn and dried for later use.

(21:05):
The fruit is anti rheumatic I means arthritis. Good for arthritis.
Direct fabrifuge, thematic tonics popa remedy for well I shouldn't okay,
it has folk used as a cancer remedy. I have
no evidence to back that up necessarily. If you want
to look into that and you can find some clinical trials,
it's great. I do actually have some information from the

(21:28):
PDR on it, but I'm not going to make that
claim because I never make that claim. It's too serious
an issue to make claims you can't back up. Rude
is fabrifuge. And this is interesting. The plant was ranked
thirteenth in a survey of two hundred and fifty potential
anti fertility plants in China. Why is that well, because

(21:49):
it can stimulate menstruation, so don't use this wh why pregnant?
And you want to be, of course careful with anything
that could do that has those properties. Now, the PDOUR
says animal experiences have experiments have demonstrated an anti demic
effect attributed to sappenant, So it's got sappenance in it.

(22:10):
We talked about that last week a lot. In addition,
its diuretic, lots of different things, anti pyretic, even mildly anergesic,
motility inhibiting, and that actually had to do with the
effect on the intestine. So it could be good for diarrhea,
but it could also again be careful because if it's

(22:32):
motility inhibiting, not only could it stop intestinal cramping, but
it could cause constipation. Effects have been reported, although no
results of controlled clinical studies have as yet been published,
so very strongly medicinal plant. Definitely, we need to take
a much much deeper look at akiba. This is Akiba

(22:55):
quintata against a K E b I A q u
I in a TA. All right, moving on. I got
a short entry on ampelopsis, which is Virginia creeper. This
is ubiquitous in north North Carolina at least eastern states.

(23:15):
I don't know throughout the whole country. I use a
ton of a for basket weaving. It does not have
a lot of a lot of medicinal value. Let me
get supporter here. Virginia creeper from Florida up to New
England State Chapin, all over the place. It was, however,

(23:36):
used by the eclectics, the one of the early schools
of American herbal medicine. Doctor Woods said it was an
alternative which means almost what we call tonic. Sometimes it
can kind of help you back to health and also
a tonic and he may have met more stimulate any
appetite in that point an expectrant. The bark and twigs

(23:57):
are the parts employed. Doctor McCall of Memphis, in a
medical journal said the infusion of the bark was he
used for dropsy the sedema. He believed it to act
rather by stimulating absorption rather than a diuretic. Okay, this
could be pretty toxic, so I'm not endorsing anything. Plants
for a future says, specifically, the variety of porcelain berry.

(24:20):
The fresh fruits and leaves are antiphlegistic, de purative. Febrifuge
resolves cloths used internally in the treatment of boils, abscesses,
alters traumatic bruises and aches. Now, Virginia creeper does have
toxicity to it, not one you want to play around
with unless you've done your research. So anyway, now we'll

(24:41):
get to Aristolochia, and this is the one that's actually
I think of the most interesting of these. There's actually
a fairly wide family of aristolochia here in America. We
have Dutchman's pipe, we have snakeroot, Virginia snake root. These
were plants used by the Native Americans, especially the Cherokee,

(25:04):
that were introduced to the early settlers. Very powerful, again,
some toxicity, but they're also aristolochias that are European and
going all the way back to Diascorides. Good well over
two thousand years ago. He said, Aristolochia, and this is
Greek tradition of verbal medicine, would help women in childbirth exceedingly. Well, now,

(25:30):
big caveat, I'm not going to recommend it for that use.
But the American ones wind are also used by Native
Americans for similar uses, So we get into that. He
goes time to describe it. Excuse me and my word,
I'm going to catch them. I throw it some off,
you know, simple water. Here he said that Clematis was

(25:57):
also an aristolochia. Now Clematis actually the Vernunculata family, so
he was mistaken on that unless there was a common
name that was being used interchangeably. Because of that, I
don't really want to get into a lot of his
uses because there could be confusion over which plant was
being used, but I'll give you a sort of a

(26:19):
general view. It was used for asthma, rickets. It's a
vitamin deficiency that causes mouth formations of the bones of
the legs of children, chills, good for an inflamed spleen,
for hernias, convulsions, and pains of the side. It was
mixed with iris and honey. Iris also has toxicity to it.

(26:43):
I don't think we need to get too much into
the ancient Greek use, okay, just because there is a
little bit of well, I should say, at least a
little bit of confusion. But they did make an ointment
combining it with with lard. Essentially, they said swine grease

(27:04):
and rubbed on it would help with chills and various sulterage,
sowars and such as set Now, the one that was
most used in European herbal medicine is called birthwart. It's
actually different plant than the one that's sometimes called birthwart
in North America, also called bethwart or beathroot. Best that's

(27:27):
sexually trillium, so very different. Saint Hiligard van Benjon wrote
of the birthwart the aristolochia that she used in Germany.
Saint Hiligard V I'm bingen I said it wrong again.
She said. Pulverize its roots and had half as much
fever fue powder and one fourth as much sem unpowder.
Mix it in them together and eat it daily, either

(27:48):
with bread or with warm wine or broth. You will
have no great or lasting infirmity until the time you die.
That's quite a claim, isn't it that if you were
to eat this type of aristolochia with fever few and
cinnamon in wine or with bread, you would have no

(28:11):
great lasting infirmity until the time you die. No one
should shun the powder prepared in this way. As a
healthy person eats his powder daily, he will not be
lying in a sick bed for a long time. If
you're sick and eats it, he would be well. In
order to conserve the power the powder safely throughout the year,
it should be placed in a new earthen well where

(28:33):
vessel enclosed with earth, and it will retain its powers.
I need to look into this, honestly. I mean, Saint
Hildegarde was the greatest herbalist of the Middle Ages. She
would have a reason for saying this. I don't know
what that reason would be. In my research, I have

(28:54):
not found such grand claims made of any of the ariostolochias,
but I don't again know exactly what variety she was using.
So I need to talk with my friend in Austria,
or maybe even go visit Germany at some point and
do a little research on this one. If it is

(29:15):
that effective, it could be a game changer for the
entire world. You know, I mean, sounds like a panacea.
But but we're translating from old German written in eight
you know what, ten eighty. I can't be sure that

(29:36):
what she wrote was accurately translated. I can't be sure
of the exact identity of the plant. And you know,
maybe something got lost somewhere along the way. So we're
going to take that one with a grain of salt
as well, not a grain of cinnamon. That would be
probably more tasty. But Gerard fifteen hundreds, England, after quoting Diascordes, says,

(30:03):
the round birthwart serveth for all things, and also for
the rest of other poisons. It is likewise available against
the suffering of the lungs, the hicket, the shakings or
shiverings of AGU's heartiness of the milt or spleen, burstings, cramps, convulsions,

(30:24):
pains of the side, if it be drunk with water. Now, okay, Gerard,
the Queen's head gardener, friend of Shakespeare and all that,
not the greatest herbalist in the world, not the greatest
botanist in the world, but a good gardener who did
not speak Latin, would have no idea of the writings

(30:45):
of Saint Hildegard. But he's also recommending a an aristolochia
called birthwart, this one being called the round birthwart. And
listen to all those uses, a serveth for all these things,
an anecdote against poison decongested for the lungs. The hicket

(31:06):
is the hiccup, by the way, so good for hiccups,
the shakings and shiverings of agus or fevers, the heartiness
of milt. That means sperm. I mean he thought it
would increase fertility for the spleen, for burstings or hernias, cramps, convulsions,
pains of the side, And that was combining it with water.
Now that I consider it to be interesting, here are

(31:29):
two herbalist, essentially five hundred years apart, and as far
apart as wherever, saying, I can't remember Bingen in Germany
to London, not going to be a lot of crossover there.

(31:50):
One Catholic of the Protestant, not going to be a
lot of crossover there. But somehow they're coming up with
a lot of similar uses. He said, apply topically. It
would help pull out thorns and splinters. It's also good
for shivers, chills. We've heard that used before. I think
from what discorydies it was used in mixed in plasters

(32:13):
and poulsices. We would removeth corruption mondafieth and scoreth the
filthy ulcer he heald sores, okay, and help protect against infection.
He quotes Galen saying that it has a pleasant smell
and was used in oilaments. That's cool. He quotes Pleaning

(32:37):
the elder. He said, it uses a remedy for cramps
and convulsions, bruises and such you have fallen from high places.
He says, it's good for them that are short winded
and are troubled with the falling sickness. That actually means
a form of epilepsy. It's very interesting, and even in
fifteen hundreds when he wrote this, he speaks of one

(32:58):
that he says is the Virginian aristolochia or pistolochia, which
had a strong and aromatic scent. So already they had
discovered fifteen hundred, so it's pretty early on in North
America for colonists to be using Native American herbs. They
said it was singular and much used anecdote against the

(33:18):
bite of the rattle snake. So that's rattlesnake root. That's
the Virginia of Ristolochia. Very interesting, also good for kidney stones,
and I'm just trying to summarize here, but said it
would help with the malignity of the poison of the bite,
which in a very short time would otherwise be proved deadly. Now,

(33:40):
if you know much about Native American herbalism, there are
probably two dozen plants that are called snake root, so
you do have to differentiate and figure out which one
they're talking about, because one tribe would call it an
entirely different plant snake root, but this one had a
lot of research into it. And then the Cherokee used

(34:01):
Virginia snake root for sharp pains, as a cold root
tea drunk to leave a headache, root decoction drunk for
stomach ache, root detoction blown upon the patient for fever.
They would take like basically a piece of bamboo, a
little bit of river cane and put a little bit
of tea in there and spray it on somebody, blow

(34:23):
it over them. That's actually was a kind of common
way to use herbs in the Cherokee culture. It was
used to a decoction also drunk for cough. To cure
snake bite. Snake bite in that case, they said, chew
the root and spit it upon the ground. It must
be pretty strong if they could do anything for a
snake bite. I don't know. I thank god I've never

(34:45):
been bitten by a poisonous snake. Boil the root for
a short oh to relieve toothache, put a piece of
the root in the hollow of the tooth. Boil the
root for a short while, and drink the tea. For
heart trouble, drink a root tea and chew the root
and swallow the juice. For colds, a cold root tea
is good for coughs. If a person gets wounded in

(35:06):
an accident like being cut with an axe, et cetera,
a cold infusion the entire plant, when drunk will relieve
the pain and prevent fainting. That's impressive. I mean, if
you get cut with an axe, you're not gonna be
hurting the bruise. Root would bring relief when held against
the nose made sore by constantly blowing it during a

(35:26):
cold So even going back to pre modern times of
the Cherokee culture, they're blowing their nose enough to have
a snore nose, and somehow it would numb it out.
I guess because they said it would numb a toothache.
I have to imagine it some numbing quality. Now, need
to start using this plant. I know a lot about
this plant. I know its uses. I have not had

(35:50):
need to use it. I'll get some dry I'll share
it with people. But I mean, yeah, you know, sometimes
I get congestion in my lungs. You know, I'll give
it a try next time. Usually there are other herbs
I go to first that grow all around me. I
we'll get into that right now. But yeah, I need
to look into this one a little bit more, especially

(36:13):
for those pain relieving effects and whatever Saint Hildegard von
Bingam was talking about. So the lumbee used a Ristolochia
serpentaria that's a snake root again, said they use it
for tea. Used a tea from the roots to treat
colic inigestion and as a diaphorretic or help with fever

(36:35):
and infrastructive menstruation. Now, the first American herbal was called
towards an American Materia medica, and it's this is going
back seventeen hundreds. It's said the snakeroot Ristolochia serpentaria is
one of the more stimulating tonic bitters. It is certainly
a valuable medicine in the second stage of certain fevers

(36:58):
after the inflammatory diathesis has been removed. I'm not sure
what diathesis is. Someone else who knows ancient medical terms
better than I probably would, but yeah, okay, you're gonna
be hard pressed to find somebody who knows ancient medical
terms better than I do. But I bet there will
be one. I bet there will be one, and it'll

(37:18):
probably be a liberal woman with blue hair and a
ring throw her nose who's gonna now make fun of
me online. And I won't take offense to that whatsoever,
because if you actually do know the name of that word,
you've got your one up on me. I may have
one up on you in many other ways, but yeah,
that's fine. You can pick on me if you want. Actually,

(37:41):
usually if someone picks on me, I actually take it
really well. I laugh, and I kind of respect somebody
who has what a moxy to do that. Don't take
it too far, though, obviously, because I will fight back.
But usually if it's good natured. It's a Southern thing.

(38:02):
We pick on each other, we make fun of each other.
We you know, have a lot of very colorful and
sayings and a lot of foul language that friends actually
use and family members use towards each other as a
sign of affection. I know that's weird to some people.
I'm sure there's some of y'all out there that get it.
But in the South, if someone is picking on you,

(38:26):
they usually have respect for you. If they're not saying
anything to you, they don't like you. That's just the
way things work. And that's always my attitude. When someone
challenges me online, I respond good nature and humored. If
they responding kind, good natured, and with humor or with
genuine questions, I'm cool with it. If they come back
with just you know, nasty insults and confrontational and aggressive,

(38:49):
I just delete them and move on. I just delete
their comment. I don't delete them. Maybe I should qualify
that statement, but I pay them no attention whatsoever. I
don't have time, energy, or interest in objectionable people. But
anyway they said, it was used with great benefit, and

(39:12):
most malignant fever attended with carbuncles, which prevailed in Bristol
and Delaware in seventeen forty nine to fifty three. Another
species of the genius genus Aerostolochius cipho grows in the
neighborhood of Pittsburgh and other parts of the United States.
This large climbing This is a large climbing plant. The

(39:34):
root is a pungent aromatic taste, and for certain purposes
is perhaps preferable to the common snake root that in
description sounds more like Dutchman's pipe to me, so I'm
not sure. Let's see Tomsonians made a use of it.
Doctor Thompson himself wrote, this is a well known article
that grows wild and may be found in most parts

(39:55):
of the country. It is of a hot nature and
is much made use of for tea and meazels and
other eruptions to keep the disorder out, for which is
considered very good. This is owing to its warming qualities
which keep the determining powers to the surface, which may
be produced by almost any strong stimulant. I guess that's
the reason I don't use it very much is we

(40:15):
have wild ginger where I live, and if I'm thinking
I need an herb to like warm me from the
inside break a coal break up congestion. That's probably going
to be my go to. It's rare in some areas.
It's quite abundant. Behind my house. I can find plenty
of wild ginger, so the harvests a little of that,
you know, so he said as stimulating to the mucous

(40:38):
membrane throughout, and large frequent doses may prove irritating. Same
with wild ginger. I think they're related, actually, especially if
the alvin canal be already more or less irritated. In
such cases, more soothing agents will be better, both in
language and languid and sluggish conditions. It arouses promptly and

(40:59):
fully interruptive eruptive diseases before the appearance of full eruption,
essentially boils. It would help bring them to a head.
You know, I'm not gonna keep trying to read this
word for word. Good for the treatment of netal rash
and rust poison. This poisoned sumac very interesting, said it
had to be given freely for a few hours and
then stop. Interesting, I have tried it for that either.

(41:23):
It's always good to have an extra remedy for you know.
That would be poisoned sumac, which we don't get a
lot in my area, but yeah, maybe we work for poison,
ivy and oak as well. Good given during partution, especially
with the feeder cold and there's generally receding blood from

(41:43):
the surface. It sounds pretty so serious. Actually, cold preparation
given freely in the influence of the kidneys to relieve congestion,
renal torpor. All right, some more modern use medicinal plants
of Southern Appalachians. I guess was written fifteen years ago now,
so it's more modern, says American Indians use Virginia snake

(42:04):
root to treat a wide variety of symptoms. As a
remedy for snake bite, the fresh bruised root was applied
directly to bites. The fresh roots were also applied to
relieve toothache. It was used to leave pain, especially sharp
pains of the stomach or breasts. Small doses of the
infusion were used to treat rheumatism, in ingestion, fevers, general weakness,
and as the gargle for sore throats. Botany A dasas

(42:27):
Dutchman's pipe, contains of folid oil, an alkaloid, a strong
and toxic acid. The tea is used for infected wounds.
Plants has cried as bitter, diaphortic, and vasodilating to stimulate digestion,
promote sweating and white blood cell activity. A tea of
the root is used as an ox oxygen. Let me

(42:49):
try it again. Oxytocic, I think as I was pronounced
O x yt ocic to stimulate uterine conceptions during childbirth. Okay,
So again, this is one of those plants that can
stimulate utere contractions. So it would be very dangerous to

(43:13):
use in certain situations. You know, before time, you don't
want to start a miscarriage. But generally speaking, oxytocin is
more mild in its action than other stimulants. When you
hug somebody, you're gonna get a little oxytocin. So I
wouldn't freak out about it, but I wouldn't advise it

(43:34):
during pregnancy in any way. Cautions advised using the herb.
The route has also been chewed and applied as a
poultice for snake bites, so in that case it was
a poultice, which makes a little more sense. Plants for
future states just use of Virginia snake root. Virginia snakeroot
is attracting increased interest for its medicinal virtues and as

(43:55):
a result becoming uncommon in the wild, so apparently being
over harvests what they're saying, it merits consideration for cultivation
forested areas. It is used in a number of proprietary
medicines for treating skin, circulatory, and kidney diseases. The plant
contains aristolochic acid, which stimulates white blood cell activities, beating

(44:17):
the healing of wounds, but is also carcinogenic and damaging
to the kidneys. Will the roos harvests in the autumn,
dried for later use. Its antidote anti inflammatory, bitter tonic,
diaphoretic direct stimulant, traditionally chewed in small doses to promote sweating,
stimulate appetite, promote expectoration or congestion. The Native Americans considered

(44:44):
it to have analgesic properties and use infusion internally to
treat rheumatism, pain, but especially sharp pains in the breast
wash and as watched for headaches. The plant should be
used with caution due to its irritating quality. Of large doses,
it can cause nausea, griping pains, and the bowels and
should only be used internally in the supervision of a

(45:06):
qualitified practitioner. I think I agree with that statement. The
bruise root placed in the hollow of the teeth for
treating a toothache. Extract of the root could be drunk
to relieve stomach pains. Boiled root or to coxture. The
whole plant could be used to treat fevers. Root chewed
or crushed was applied to snake bites. Also, the leaves
species was the most popular snake bite revety in North America. Huh.

(45:30):
It has also been applied externally for slow healing wounds
and for the treatment of pleurisy, and for Dutchman's pipe.
They said the species has medical activity that is similar to,
but weak and weaker than Serpentarius. So weaker the Virginia's
snake root. Yeah, and then they just replete the same information.
So I'm not going to give the same to say,

(45:51):
remember that Dutchman pipe is weaker than the snake root.
Peterson Field God the Central Medicinal Central and Eastern Medicinal
plant states, Virginia croute aromatic root nibbled in my newt
doses or in a weak tea that's one teaspoon dried
and one cup of water. Promote sweating, appetite and expectant.
Use for fever, stomach cache, in ingestion, suppress mint, seasoned

(46:13):
snakepiite gargled for sore throats, and for dutchment. Pipe used
like serpentinia, but much weaker in effect, little used, but warning,
potentially irritating in large doses. So really interesting plants, really
interesting plants, two of them very powerfully medicinal. None of

(46:36):
these and modern herbal medicine are much utilized, so I
think we need to do some more research on these.
We need to study them and experiment with them, and
really see what place they have in herbal medicine, because
I mean, at certain times certainly been very well respected,

(46:59):
and where I live there pretty darn abundant actually, So
y'all have a great week. I'll talk with you next time.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
The information this podcast is not intended to diagnose or
treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or write
has been evaluated or approved by the FDA.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
I'm not a doctor.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
The US government does not recognize the practice of verbal medicine,
and there is no governing body regulating herbles therefore, I'm
really just a guy who stays herbs.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
I'm not offering any advice.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
I won't even 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 would 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,

(47:50):
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 in
you don't even know about. Be careful with your health.
By continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog,
you agree to be responsible for yourself, to your own research,
make your own choices, and not to blame me for

(48:11):
anything ever.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

The Joe Rogan Experience

Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Show 267: Akebia quinata, Ampelopsis and Aristolochia

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

The Joe Rogan Experience

Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics

All Episodes

Show 267: Akebia quinata, Ampelopsis and Aristolochia

Stuff You Should Know