Algerita a perennial shrub, here in this presentation is about 6 feet high. It's growing at the site of a spring in the dry southwest mountains. Late March, it's fully in flower as per usual. It is a little bigger, bushier and lush then most algeritas given that it's growing in a small micro niche. Like most of the plants in Berberis Mahonia it has in the yellow outer layer of the above ground branches, and throughout the root, the bright, mustard yellow, alkaloid, berberine.
There is a hegemony of facts that go into the cultural framework of liberalism maintaining that scientific facts are universal truth. This seems to be movement extending into modern medicine as it confluences with universal police state to enforce the dogma of so called scientific facts. There is a tendency with plants to lock them into a conceptual pattern, based on what others have written, on how we met the herb, what we've been told about the herb. Repetitive conversation comes up that tends to reinforce a rigid framework for how we use, process and understand the herb. Algerita is one such herb that illustrates this locking down a particular herb to fit a pre-existing pattern. There is a major caveat in trying to understand this herb with reference to active constituents, active chemical compounds. Likewise a major caveat when we adapt a scientific approach that tends to approach the herb as a pharmaceutical substance. Algerita is not berberine. Algerita is algerita.
When dealing and approaching a polycrest herb such as algerita, Berberis haematocarpa, we come face to face with the hegemony of liberal universalism with regard to active constituents of said plant. If Berberis haematocarpa works due to the berberine, then use the part of the plant which has the deepest yellow, the most berberine. It also begs the question, '¿why not take a berberine pill?', ¿why not take 100% berberine?', '¿why even mess with a crude home brewed whole plant preparation?' This approach negates the leaves which are obviously a major part of the plant. It also negates other so called scientific facts that identifies substances in the so called non-active part of the plant, little to no berberine right?
"B. trifoliolata (algerita) leaf also contains 5′-methoxyhydnocarpin and B. fendleri (Colorado barberry) leaf also contains pheophorbide A with drug efflux pump-inhibitor effects in S. aureus."
The problem with the dominant culture is not so much that it is the dominant culture but it is that it IS the dominant culture preventing the full percolation of ideas into a thought process and therefore an action plan. It's important to understand the synergistic elements of a whole plant extract versus standardized formulas for one particular constituent within that plant. I am of course in no way advocating that every plant should be used as a whole plant extract. I am simply putting out there that with some of these polycrest herbs, that are in general non-toxic, a whole plant approach has increased validity. Mahonia repens our Algerita is a distinct medicinal plant with expanding uses in our materia Medica. Understood as a cold herb, it contains multiple antibacterial compounds one of which is berberine, but many other compounds recently found are intrinsically active throughout the bodies. i say bodies, because we have many bodies, many body systems not only the western medicine measured and quantified systems. Algerita is a plant that transcends any verbal descriptions of use. Algerita is a mind blowing plant that we have to visit again and again to approximately grasp in terms of herbal use.
Some use it in uses similar to golden seal although it's not known as strongly for its affinity to mucus membranes, it can have similar uses. The plant is active from leaves, roots to berries.
Probably the most important use of Algerita berries, is the restorative balancing nature of the ripe seeds. The Mahonia species and the Pacific west species, when purple red ripe, abundant this year, have all the five tastes: salty, sweet, tart, bitter, pungent. They are especially useful to balance and recharge the essential body. They are invigorating and nourishing.
The root is useful for blood sugar and diabetes used to balance irregularities in the metabolic complex of energy, insulin and fat storage. Sit with this plant to approach what it has to say to you and your people.
So persons that advocate berberine containing plants as an anti-biotic, or anti-viral, may be sabotaging their objective by taking a less than whole plant extract at delivery. The same was found to be true when other polycrest herbs such as yerba mansa were studied, whole plant extract vs specific constituents for uterine cancer when attempting to validate or understand the folk usage of yerba mansa, Amenopsis californica.
" B. aetnensis (Mt. Etna barberry) has also been shown to contain similar pump inhibitors in its leaves as that of M. aquifolium and to also inhibit the efflux of ciprofloxacin from drug-resistant S. aureus, thereby enhancing the efficacy of the drug."
Berberine is present in plants such as goldenseal root (Hydrastis canadensis), the Mahonias now classified as Berberis spp, and most significant in Coptis chinensis, most of you are familiar with it as yellow thread or huang lian in TCM. From the TCM framework, berberine containing plants are used to address clearing damp heat. It is considered one of the four yellows” (coptis, scutellaria, phellodendron and rhubarb) "Their ability to affect multiple target signaling pathways and their potential mechanisms of action contributing to their anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity may be related to their action of removing heat and counteracting toxicity."
"TCM theory states that the occurrence of the disease depends on the interaction between zheng qi (nonpathogenic qi) and xie qi (pathogenic qi). The idea of disease is the struggle between pathogenic qi and nonpathogenic qi; in this struggle process, there will be changes between yin and yang."
"Traditional Chinese Medicine does not classify diseases according to their viral strain. Rather, TCM classifies diseases according to the accompanying signs, symptoms, and the surrounding pathology (development of the disease)."
So in attempt to clarify I'm now going to call Berberis haematocarpa, algerita, the whole plant preparation. Algerita, can be understood as a bitter digestive tonic, because it adds in the release of bile from the liver complex and therefore aids in the nutritional absorption of fats. It also is an important plant with regard to metabolic syndrome, because it helps to reduce blood glucose levels and assist with the transfer of sugar in the blood to sugar within the body system so it doesn't flow as a supranormal compound creating damage throughout the body.
What I am not doing however is linking algerita as an herbal antibiotic, antiviral, anti-microbial, because the tests that can indicate the specific cause of the condition still do not change the actual presentation of the symptoms. In this sense I am advocating concepts that are more vital to a TCM or folk herbal tradition. TCM and the full herbal tradition look at the person presenting specific symptoms rather than a so-called disease process. TCM and the folk herbal tradition didn't grow up with the laboratory analysis to identify a pathogen, specific bacteria, or specific viral agent causing disease. So for instance, looking at some thing as influenza, therefore let's go for an antiviral, ~ that would not be Central to their approach. The approach is going to look at the face to face person. The approach is to deal with the specific person, presenting with specific symptoms, which might be something like dry cough versus productive cough, fever how long? even the concept a fever is going to be a different concept because we're talking about warmth in a particular part of the body not so much global temperature of the body. So is the head warm?, Is the stomach warm?, Is the area above the kidneys towards the back warm? And although the concept of course is temperature, we're not talking about doing a temperature reading with thermometer. We are talking about touching a specific part of the body with our hands and fingers. Feeling body heat or having the person in front of you, tell you, "my head is hot" or, "my stomach is hot.", or "it feels like my lower back is burning."
http://pgmanski.blogspot.com/2016/01/ulcerative-colitis-protocol-by-paul.html?m=1
http://pgmanski.blogspot.com/2016/01/ulcerative-colitis-protocol-by-paul.html?m=1
Stermitz FR, Beeson TD, Mueller PJ, et al. Staphylococcus aureus MDR efflux pump inhibitors from a Berberis and a Mahonia (sensu strictu) species. Biochem Syst Ecol. 2001; 29(8):793–798.
Musumeci R, Speciale A, Costanzo R, et al. Berberis aetnensis C Presl extracts: antimicrobial properties and interaction with ciprofloxacin. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2003; 22(1):48–53.
Journal of Restorative Medicine, Volume 4, Number 1, 1 December 2015, pp. 60-73(14)
Author: Yarnell, Eric
J Tradit Complement Med. 2014 Apr-Jun; 4(2): 93–98.
PMCID: PMC4003708
PMID: 24860732
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