Prunus serotina, The Cherry

Prunus serotina, The Cherry 

Prunus emarginata, Prunus serotina, bitter cherry, choke cherry, (yes the cherries are quite bitter with an intriguing sweetness, almond, cherry taste Rosaceae (Rose family)

     Wild Prunus choke cherry species are highly variable from place to place, and i'm sure there's a lot of communication via pollen in the cherry community. Botanists and books will often give various names to the same species, or different varieties at different locations. They are for our purposes useful the same, not the same as far as names, same with regard to herbal usage. 

     Yet there are some common characteristics, it's a small tree, with deciduous leaves, the bark has a distinct straight line light colored notching that circles the older branches and trunk looking like it was applied with a stencil. It tends to like water, here in a seep high on a mountain at 5000ft, though not always visible flowing water, although it can be in a riparian plant community. It tends to fall down and resprout where it touched down. It can form thickets.  The leaves are opposite and can have tiny serrated edges or not even on the same tree. 

     Cherry bark has been used because, it has for most of us an intriguing inherently pleasant evocative fragrance, i haven't met anyone who doesn't like it but there probably are some. I believe it goes deep into the  collective biospirit muscle memory of northern eurasian people's for whom cherry blossom fragrance signal the ending of winter, fertility, the increase in daylight and renewed abundance. The scent of bitter cherry bark is intense and resembles cherry almonds honey sweetness. 

    The scent is due partly to cyanogenic glycosides, hydrocyanic acids, coumarin and inherent flavonoids. Yes a cyanide compound that has a sedative quality that calms the cough reflex in aggressive nighttime coughs and cough formulas. It has been used for hundreds of generations and will continue to be used by those of use who do such things. 

      Personally i am here gathering wild cherry after fruiting, after first frost, which has occurred here at 5000 ft in northern mountains. This will vary from place to place. Basically gather in autumn fall, when the cherry fruit is red or purple black depending on species, not during early spring when in flower, some people wait until the leaves fall off. However i wouldn't hesitate to gather wild cherry in the spring while in flower, using fresh bark, leaf and flower in roughly equal portions to utilize as a nervine, for use in anxiety and agitation as a specialized formula for sleep, and calmness. I guess everyone can chose what to worry about, and i chose not to worry about a plant that has been used for thousands of years by people wherever they lived. A fresh whole plant tincture of wild cherry is quite strong as a relaxant in agitated persons, and you don't need to use a lot, only 5-10 drops. It is useful to have a whole plant flower, leaf and bark available for situations of out of control emotions crying, sobbing, and the like. You'll have to decide if you're up for using something like that. Other people will of course disagree and that's fine as far as i'm concerned. Wild cherry is safe and as a specialized limited batch type of thing for extreme coughing fits and high levels of anxiety it's useful to have on hand when these situations arise. Rather than pop a xanax or benzo, ritalin or amphetamine salts for children and that sort of thing, highly addictive substances, i feel wild cherry used in this way is harm reduction. Our bodies as biospirits have ingested rose family plants from beginningless time and have internal means of detoxifying these substances in our biospiritual memory rather than say a benzo. Again if you're on this path then you're going to gravitate towards it.
      Utilize small straight branches pruning at the point where the beach meets the trunk stem. Then peel off the bark, sometimes in a straight branch you can make a cut length wise and peel off the bark in one piece or in long wider strips, which is good if you are drying the bark as this way it will last longer without losing its aromatic quality. It's a good idea if making tincture to make a straight fresh plant tincture FPT 1:2, or DPT 1:5 50% of wild cherry bark and add 10% glycerine so tannins don't compete for the medicinal constituents. It's also best to make a make a straight cherry tincture with 10% glycerine, then add cherry to formula rather than mixing all the herbs and roots together in one jar. This way you can make a formula by adding the various root, bark, leaf tinctures  together in small batches and avoid making a big batch of limited use formula or making a failed formula that you can't salvage. 

     Prunus spp has cardio reductive relaxing qualities for rapid pulse which accompanies acute lung congestion and coughing fits. In a cough formula it can be combined with an aromatic antimicrobial Ligusticum Tishwoof, Abies grandis, pine resin, balsalm root, angelica, grindelia, sweetened with honey, or sweet root, licorice.

Tishwoof osha root

 A good strong wild cherry tincture can be added in small amounts like sweet root, licorice, angelica to sweeten formulas taste. Although you have to be careful because some flavors can get heightened by this mixing, for instance Larrea tridentata is Larrea tridentata and no mixing is going to lessen its inherent taste. 

https://youtu.be/yPNB27dRQys

  Description of the Cherry Tree in the South West

   Prunus serotina, the wild cherry of the western mountains, is a valuable part of my Materia Medica. Prunus serotina refers to ‘prunus’ the greek word ‘prunos’-plum or cherry and ‘serotina’ the latin word ‘serus’- late maturing fruit. Ironically it blooms in early spring in the mountains of the south west. It is found in wet moist north facing canyons. It has striking beautiful flower and adorns the tree conspicuously with white dreamy blossoms.

      Prunus serotina is a member of the Rose or Rosaceae family. In the southwest US it is often straggly and srubby, with deciduous leaves bright green above, when the leaves are crushed it has a distinctive ‘almond’ fragrance with a hint of cherry. When the tree is crowded it can grow tall and slender with a short life span. The leaves have a ponted tip, finely serrated, alternate, simple. The flowers are showy and move fast in the spring, occurring before the leaves have grown to full size. They are white on a extended raceme and are so fragrant you can sometimes smell the fragrance wafting on the wind before sighting the tree. The bark is distinctive, when young there are small arcs of grey circling the diameter of the smooth shiny trunk. When older the bark takes on a mottled grey rough exterior, looking very different than the smooth bark of younger spindly trees.

      It occurs in North America widely in the eastern states. I have walked through the extensive distinctive deciduous forests with maple in the Alleghey mountains in western Pennsylvania. There in Pennsylvania it presents as a large great tree of dimension and size. In the western region of Arizona and New Mexico, it is a mid- to higher elevation shrub to small tree, ocassionaly getting to size but rare to see. Often found in shady canyons with Quercus (oaks) in moist riparian zones.

      The bark of wild cherry was listed in the US Pharmacopeia from 1820- 1970. It was used extensively by Native North American people across the range of its growth. The early pioneers learning and interacting with these people likewise prized wild cherry bark for coughs and as a mild sedative. It has an uninterrupted use by folk herbalists, such as myself into the present day.

      The familiar taste and flavor of wild cherry bark is used in the familiar cough drops and cough syrup. Dr DeWitt’s cough and cold syrup from 1930 contained horehound, tar, wild cherry, glycerine, alcohol 5%, and gum Arabic. It was marketed by W J Parker Company. Smith Brothers developed a similar cherry cough drop in 1928, the original flavor although secret, had a high licorice extract content. In addition to being the active ingredient cherry bark also took on a dubious role in disguising a wide range of ingredients from, laudanum, a liquid opiod to codeine, heroin and cocaine in patent medicines in the early part of the 20th century.

       The bark of Prunus serotina contains a wide range of active medicinal chemicals including: Amygdalin: anti-inflammatory, antitussive, anti spasmodic, expectorant
Gallic acid: analgesic, anti flu, astringent, Bronchodilator
Prunasin:cyanogenic, aldose reductase inhibitor, uterosedative, bronchorelaxant
Scopolletin: anti asthmatic, cns-stimulant,
 Tannin: hepatoprotective, antiviral, anticancer,

 Dr Duke’s Phytochemical and ethnobotanical database
https://phytochem.nal.usda.gov/phytochem/plants/show/1597#act-42946-close 

Cherry in Herbal lore

      “The cherry as a single image was frequently the love-cherry;as such it survives today in American slang as ‘the maidenhead’ . Erotic connotation was there for the makar to use if he wished. But the cherry was heavenly fruit. It was the object of craving in the Mother of God before Christ was born-in the well known ‘Cherry tree Carol’ that is a variation on the early legend of Mary and the date palm on the flight to Egypt…There was that in the nature of the cherry, the white and red of it’s flesh and juice, that could eloquently figure the body and blood of Christ, of the sacrament.”
 -Quote
Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland Under King James VI By Helena Mennnie Shire, Cambridge University Press, 2010

      “I suppose there are few but know this tree, for its fruit's sake; and therefore I shall spare writing a description thereof.

Place : For the place of its growth, it is afforded room in every orchard.

Government and virtues : It is a tree of Venus. Cherries, as they are of different tastes, so they are of different qualities. The sweet pass through the stomach and the belly more speedily, but are of little nourishment; the tart or sour are more pleasing to an hot stomach, procure appetite to meat, to help and cut tough phlegm, and gross humours; but when these are dried, they are more binding to the belly than when they are fresh, being cooling in hot diseases, and welcome to the stomach, and provokes urine. The gum of the Cherry-tree, desolved in wine is good for a cold, cough, and hoarseness of the throat; mends the colour in the face, sharpens the eyesight, provokes appetite, and helps to break and expel the stone, and dissolved, the water thereof is much used to break the stone, and to expel gravel and wind.”

-Quote

Nicholas Culpepper The Complete Herbal 1653

 Sir Cleges, Knight of the round table and the Cherry:

      Sir Cleges was a knight of the round table. The story of Sir Cleges, translated by Jessie L Weston, 2000, Sir Cleges through his generosity and gifting to the less fortunate became poor. Gradually after a time living in poverty he was forgotten by those to whom his generosity shined and by and by he was left uninvited to the King Uther Pendragon’s palace and court. Uther Pendragon, the father of King Authur was having a feast at Christmastide. Sir Cleges was again univited and forgotten. Not without gifts he took comfort from his ever faithful, loving wife Dame Clarys. Sir Cleges as a devout Christian had pledged his feal loyality both to King Pendragon and the Queen of Heaven, the Most Blessed Virgin.

He sought out the interseccion of the Virgin Mary. While he was praying under a cherry tree at Christmas tide, he looked up and and lifting his head was struck on the head by a cherry branch thick and heavy with fruit in late December. “
      "Dear God,” quoth he, “what manner of berry may this be that grows at this time of the year? At this season I know not that any tree should bear fruit.”” Sir Cleges presented the cherries to his wife in gratitude for comforting him and then decided to take them to the King Pendragon, father of King Arthur. After first being rejected by the keepers of the court he persevered and was able to present them to the king. The king rewarded Sir Cleges with gifts and a return of his prestige among his peers with a place in the court.

 American Eclectics and wild Cherry Bark:

      Within the American Eclectics, cherry bark was esteemed as a complex remedy with a wide variety of application, in the American Eclectic practice of Medicine, Volume 2, by Ichabod Gibson Jones, 1858. “
      “I have also usually administered at the same time tablespoonful doses, two or three times a day, of a decoction of wild-cherry bark and sanguinaria, which, in cases connected with debility of the stomach, will rarely fail to produce highly beneficial effects, and should be continued for some time after the healthy secretion of the liver has been restored. Its action upon the biliary secretion obviates the necessity for constantly resorting to cathartics, and it should never be neglected except in those cases presenting evidence of gastric irritation, when the blood-root should be omitted and the cherry bark be given alone.”
        Ichabod Jones was writing here of cherry bark given as a treatment for jaundice and a stuck liver. Another Eclectic formula using wild cherry bark, this one from Lorenzo ElbridgeJ ones, The American Eclectic Materia Medica, 1863, was to combine Berberis bark, Aspen bark and wild cherry bark.” Infuse Barberry bark, Wild-cherry bark and American Aspen, four ounces of each, in one gallon of cider for forty-eight hours in a covered vessel, maintaining a gentle heat: one gill may be taken four or five times daily, in jaundice and torpid states of the liver.”
      Prunus serotina bark is not used much now for jaundice or liver issues. Yet these 19th century eclectic’s use of it in this way bears careful consideration for the modern herbalist.
      Ichabod Jones, describes Prunus Spp bark as ‘aromatic tonic, astringent and sedative.’ Both indicated in irritable stomach and nervous system. In addition he describes it for uses in chronic bronchitis, phithisis which is an old term for tuberculosis. Frequently with what we would now call ‘shortness of breath’, as occurs in COPD and exacerbations of asthma, and influenza there is anxiety.      
       Wild cherry bark is useful then as now in addressing anxiety connected to breathing. Wild cherry extract is a valuable ingredient in my materia medica. I wild craft it from the pristine moist mountains here in the southwest bioregion of mountains and Sky islands. I process it immediately in organic cane alcohol to preserve its medicinal aromatic properties. I offer it as a pure fresh plant tincture and in formulas.
      It combines well with Aralia racemosa, spikenard, Osha, Ligusticum porteri, American Licorice, Glycyrrhiza lepidota, Monarda spp, Lomatium, Asclepias spp and other southwest bioregional respiratory herbs. In addition it lends itself to being an ally, not only for coughs and respiratory issues.
     “Therapy—The tonic influence of this agent is more markedly apparent when it is administered in disease of the respiratory apparatus of a subacute or chronic character. It is not given during the active period of acute cases, but is of value during the period of convalescence. It is a common remedy in the treatment of chronic coughs, especially those accompanied with excessive expectoration. It is valuable in whooping-cough. The syrup is used as a menstruum for the administration of other remedies in this disease. It is excellent also in reflex cough—the cough of nervous patients without apparent cause. The syrup may be used persistently in phthisis, for the administration of many other agents which seem to be indicated during the course of the disease. Wild cherry is popular in the treatment of mild cases of palpitation, especially those of a functional character, or from reflex causes. Palpitation from disturbed conditions of the stomach is directly relieved by it. It is said to have a direct tonic influence upon the heart when the muscular structure of that organ is greatly weakened, where there is dilatation or valvular insufficiency, especially if induced by prolonged gastric or pulmonary disease.”
–John Uri Lloyd

       Prunus serotina resonates deep into the body energizing the largest gland in the body, the liver. Especially in terms of torpor and stagnation. It’s interesting to see herbalists today describe cherry bark almost exclusively for cough and respiratory issues. Both the eclectic physicians acknowledge this use yet acknowledge its use internally not connected with cough. Perhaps the best way of describing these broader range of uses is the description of wild cherry bark as a blood purifyer and tonic. Native American tribes also used the bark topically for sores, internally for diarrhea and digestive issues and for ‘old’ coughs, and during the first stages of a woman’s labor. The eclectic physicians of America felt strongly its use in jaundice/liver issues in addition to respiratory problems, along with cough and anxiety related to shortness of breath.
      “As a remedy for dyspepsia it has many advocates. It is a tonic to the stomach improving digestion by stimulating the action of the gastric glands. It soothes irritability of the stomach from whatever cause. Although the properties of a nerve sedative are not ascribed to this agent, general nervous irritation is soothed by its administration, nervous irritability of the stomach and of the respiratory organs is allayed, and a tonic influence is imparted to the central nervous system.” –John Uri Lloyd
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 American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy JOHN URI LLOYD, Ph.M, 1915

      “The officinal portion is the bark, and that of the root should be preferred to that of the trunk and branches. It should be renewed annually, as its properties are much impaired by age and drying.” “Properties and Uses.—Wild-cherry bark has a tonic and stimulating influence on the digestive apparatus, and a simultaneous sedative action on the nervous system and circulation. It is, therefore, valuable in all those cases where it is desirable to give tone and strength to the system, without, at the same time, causing too great an action of the heart and blood vessels, as, during convalescence from pleurisy, pneumonia, acute hepatitis, and other inflammatory and febrile diseases. It is also useful in hectic fever, cough, colliquative diarrhea, some forms of dyspepsia, whooping-cough, irritability of the nervous system, etc., and has been found an excellent palliative in phthisis.”
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The American Dispensatory, By John King

       “Prunus Virginiana— Pruni Virginianae—Wild Cherry. U. S. P. Origin.—The bark, collected in autumn, of Prunus serotina Ehr, a large forest tree indigenous in North America. Description and Properties.—It is met with in curved pieces or irregular fragments -fa inch (2 Mm.) or more thick; outer surface greenish-brown or yellowish-brown, smooth and somewhat glossy, marked with transverse scars. If the bark is collected from the old wood and deprived of the corky layer, the outer surface is nut-brown and uneven; inner surface somewhat striate or fissured. Upon maceration in water it develops a distinct bitter-almond odor. Taste astringent, aromatic, and bitter. It contains a volatile oil, hydrocyanic acid, tannin, a bitter glucoside, resin, etc. Dose.—i-i drachm (2.0-4.0 Gm.).”
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 A TEXT-BOOK MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND PHARMACOLOGY. GEORGE FRANK BUTLER, Ph.g.. M.D., , 1896

       “The cherry as a single image was frequently the love-cherry;as such it survives today in American slang as ‘the maidenhead’ . Erotic connotation was there for the makar to use if he wished. But the cherry was heavenly fruit. It was the object of craving in the Mother of God before Christ was born-in the well known ‘Cherry tree Carol’ that is a variation on the early legend of Mary and the date palm on the flight to Egypt…There was that in the nature of the cherry, the white and red of it’s flesh and juice, that could eloquently figure the body and blood of Christ, of the sacrament.”
 -Quote
Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland Under King James VI By Helena Mennnie Shire, Cambridge University Press, 2010

       “I have also usually administered at the same time tablespoonful doses, two or three times a day, of a decoction of wild-cherry bark and sanguinaria, which, in cases connected with debility of the stomach, will rarely fail to produce highly beneficial effects, and should be continued for some time after the healthy secretion of the liver has been restored. Its action upon the biliary secretion obviates the necessity for constantly resorting to cathartics, and it should never be neglected except in those cases presenting evidence of gastric irritation, when the blood-root should be omitted and the cherry bark be given alone.”
-Quote
American Eclectic practice of Medicine, Volume 2, by Ichabod Gibson Jones, 1858

 Felter, H. W. The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, J.K. Scudder, 1922 -Quote The American Eclectic Materia Medica, by Lorenzo Elbridge Jones, 1863 “Infuse Barberry bark, Wild-cherry bark and American Aspen, four ounces of each, in one gallon of cider for forty-eight hours in a covered ves- sel, maintaining a gentle heat: one gill may be taken four or five times daily, in jaundice and torpid states of the liver.”

 References  
    A TEXT-BOOK MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND PHARMACOLOGY. GEORGE FRANK BUTLER, Ph.g.. M.D., , 1896.

    American Eclectic Practice of Medicine, Volume 2, by Ichabod Gibson Jones, 1858.

 American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy JOHN URI LLOYD, Ph.M, 1915.

 "BRIT - Native American Ethnobotany Database." BRIT - Native American Ethnobotany Database. Accessed September 29, 2016. http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=Prunus serotina.

 By William and Robert Whistlecraft, of Stowmarket, in Suffolk, Harness and Collar-Makers. Intended to Comprise the Most Interesting Particulars Relating to King Arthur and His Round Table. Bath: H. E. Carrington, 1842.

"Post-Medieval Arthurian Literature in English (Other than Fiction): A Preliminary Bibliography | Robbins Library Digital Projects." Post-Medieval Arthurian Literature in English (Other than Fiction): A Preliminary Bibliography | Robbins Library Digital Projects. Accessed September 29, 2016.

http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/lupack-post-medieval-arthurian-literature.

Culpeper, Nicholas. The English Physician Enlarged: With Three Hundred and Sixty-nine Medicines, Made of English Herbs, That Were Not in Any Impression Until This. Being an Astrologo-physical Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of This Nation, ... By Nich. Culpepper. .. London: printed for W. Baynes, 1799.

 Jo. Conversation, Field Notes. Tucson, AZ, 2015. John Slattery, Sonoran Desert Apprentice

Mich. Conversations. Silver City, New Mexico, 2015. Field talk Michael Cottingham, Voyage Botanical Herbal Medicine Program

 Felter, H. W. The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, J.K. Shudder, 1922.

Charles W. Kane, Medicinal Plants Western Mountain States, Lincoln Town Press, 2017

 Moore, Michael. Medicinal Plants Mountain West. 2012

 Prunus Virginiana— Pruni Virginianae—Wild Cherry. U. S. P. Song,

Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland Under King James VI By Helena Mennnie Shire, Cambridge University Press, 2010. The American Eclectic Materia Medica, by Lorenzo Elbridge Jones, 1863.

Toadflax, Linaria dalmatica

Linaria dalmatica, Dalmatian toadflax, Family: placed currently by botanists for their botanist reasoning in Plantaginaceae, or plantain family which it doesn't seem to resemble, formerly in Scrophulariaceae, or figwort family.

Toadflax Linaria dalmatica 

For herbalists it's understood as a figwort. This is a non-native perennial plant naturalized now in many areas. It is native to the mediterranean, Yugoslavia, Dalmatian Coast of the Adriatic Sea. It is considered to be an invasive weed and in many areas, the regimes in power release various beetles and insects and spray poisonous chemicals to eradicate it, and they make studies on which herbicide works best in killing toadflax, usually unsuccessfully. There are narrow leafed and broad leaf varieties, this is the broad leaf variety.

Clasping alternate  leaves

     Linaria dalmatica is a tall plant, up to 4 feet tall, with alternate heart shaped to oblong clasping leaves, with a pointed tip that circle the stem. It has showy yellow distinctive flowers, in a spike raceme. Individual flowers resemble snapdragons with a long spur at the base, that delicately curves. The flowers are unique, bright yellow, asymmetrical with two lips the upper with two lobes, and the lower with three lobes, and an orange throat.
     It was brought by colonial Quakers to Pennsylvania and Delaware as a yellow dye and medicinal plant.
    John Gerard (1545-1612)the English herbalist who wrote a classic text of herbalism, Herball, published in 1597. His book was 1500 pages and is the first of its kind in English with extensive block plant drawings.

Herball John Gerard 1597

The early Quaker's as well as all English speakers were acquainted with it. He writes of Toadflax:  "A. The decoction of Toad-Flax taketh away the yellowness and deformity of the skin, beeng washed and bathed therewith.

            B. The same drunken, openeth the stoppings of the liver and spleen, and is singular good against the jaundice which is of long continuance.

            C. The same decoction doth also provoke urine, in those that piss drop after drop, unstoppeth the kidneys and bladder."

     Which is how we understand the plant, as a liver tonic and stimulant."
     Nicolas Culpeper writing at roughly the same time as Gerard in 1652, wrote of Toadflax: "Government and virtues. Mars owns the herb. In Sussex we call it Gallwort, and lay it in our chicken's water to cure them of the gall; it relieves them when they are drooping. This is frequently used to spend the abundance of those watery humours by urine which cause the dropsy. The decoction of the herb, both leaves and flowers, in wine, taken and drank, doth somewhat move the belly downwards, opens obstructions of the liver, and helps the yellow jaundice; expels poison, provokes women's courses, drives forth the dead child, and after-birth. The distilled water of the herb and flowers is effectual for all the same purposes; being drank with a dram of the powder of the seeds of bark or the roots of Wall-wort, and a little Cinnamon, for certain days together, it is held a singular remedy for the dropsy. The juice of the herb, or the distilled water, dropped into the eyes, is a certain remedy for all heat, inflammation, and redness in them. The juice or water put into foul ulcers, whether they be cancerous or fistulous, with tents rolled therein, or parts washed and injected therewith, cleanses them thoroughly from the bottom, and heals them up safely. The same juice or water also cleanses the skin wonderfully of all sorts of deformity, as leprosy, morphew, scurf, wheals, pimples, or spots, applied of itself, or used with some powder of Lupines."

Toadflax flowers long spur

     Toadflax is a useful liver stimulant and the protocol is dry the plant first before use. Use a teaspoon of the dry herb to make a tea. Use it for a liver flush or liver inflammation flare ups, best combined with Mahonia, dock, dandelion root, and or red root. You can also use toadflax as a bitter digestive tonic for chronic indigestion and add a warming aromatic herb such as poleo, angelica, fennel catnip. One of the side effects of chemotherapy, radiation treatments and even some recent biospiritual viral attacks is an inability to taste, a deficit of salivary saliva- it would be useful if someone is in this condition to try a formula of toadflax. In severe cases swishing the mouth before meals can encourage saliva and digestive juices. Oftentimes with liver issues there are skin issues such as allergic dermatitis, excema, psoriasis which are related to liver, formulas listed previously could be explored. Toadflax is an herb with a profound history in our biospirit. A useful addition to your materia medica, widely available, and easily found. Make sure when gathering toadflax, you gather in areas the self appointed regime has not sprayed with herbicides. A tincture of dried toadflax, DPT 1:5 may also be useful to some

Wormwood

Wormwood

Wormwood 

Artemisia absinthium, wormwort,

 wormwood, wormwood comes from the German wermet, meaning to maintain the mind  thought to aid in clearing mental fog, strengthen clarity.

Wormwood flowers

A acetum was given to Yeshua the Messiah. "the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar" Luke 23:36. When the serpent slithered away from Eve in the garden, in its serpent endless medicine road path grew up wormwood. For that reason marriageable maidens and those who seek them out are fond of it. Angelica root and seeds of the herb of the archangel is added to it for stomach bitters. If there is weakness in the stomach burner and nourishing food swallowed becomes hard lumps, like an extra lower rib and arching the solar plexus you can use this one. Take the flowers and mix with a white wine, or vinegar add Angelica root or seed you have gathered, with a bit of sweet root, you can also make a tincture.
Biospiritherbalists are glad to provide this to increase well being.

Agastache

Agastache urticifolia

Agastache

Agastache urticifolia, horse mint, giant hyssop mint,  Lamiaceae family. Greek Agastache: again-much, Stacey's-ear of grain referring to the flower and seeds. Urticifolia meaning nettle-like.  An erect perennial mint. Strongly squarestemmed in cross section at woody base. Flowers are dense spike like terminal inflorescence clusters. Calyx is tinged lavender, corolla petals irregular bent arched sloping tubular, upper lip is notched. Leaves are arrow shaped, alternate, toothed and creased upwards, larger towards base with a longer petiole. The leaves and flowers are skunky scented mint aromatic fragrant. 

Agastache

     Agastache is a biospirit interface plant used by biospirit folk to increase wellbeing.  The taste is hot, spicy, sweet and warming. Not as fiery, peppery hot as more southern agastache . It grows in transition open meadows in full sun with ninebark, Rosa, Oregon grape. It's circumpolar Eurasia with a wide range from arizona mountains north to British Columbia.

       Agastache is useful in bioreregional biospirit materia medica. Like other mints it is diaphoretic and will encourage sweating, urination, movement in a initial stuck fever. As such it mixes with blue vervain tea at the first sign of a cold due to the polysaccharide water based immunostimulant qualities, and like blue vervain it has a mildly relaxing sedative sleepy quality. You can add drops of tincture to blue vervain tea. It will function as a biospirit servant herb to circulate vervain through the tissue and increase movement of blocked conditions during restful sleep. 

     It can be used with women to promote movement in stuck crampy periods and has usefulness in a formula for cramping and pain with silk tassels, viburnum and red bane berry as a formula. It has mild antispasmodic quality. 

     Due to it's relaxant nerve tonifying quality it can be combined in formula for loose anxiety and agitation and unsettledness with episodes and outbursts with no specific cause. It combines well individually with St. John's wort, bugle weed, skullcap, and Pedicularis. Combine agastache with any of the above herbs in a ratio of 4:1, 75% base to 25% agastache. To these above 4:1 formulas 10-15 % anemone pulsatilla can be added to any of the above for sudden oncoming worry and episodic fretting. 

Agastache

Poleo mint, Mentha canadensis

Northern Poleo mint Mentha Canadensis, corn field horse mint, is a riparian wet boggy marsh native mint, with our biospirit covenant teacher poleo...

 

Northern Poleo, Mentha Canadensis 

Northern Poleo is a Lamiaceae (Mint family), i prefer the botanical name M. canadensis vs Mentha arvensis from an herbal rather than a botanical distinction because as one on a continuous endless medicine road at a certain point in a 1700 mile journey it has diverged from southern varieties in its presentation and herbal energetics. Different botanists will list Mentha candensis as a different species, a sub species or just one species Mentha arvensis from Canada to Mexico. Regardless of botanical name, you'll find subtle but obvious differences. 

https://youtu.be/uEMI1dALX2Q

     While like southern Poleo Mentha arvensis it has the flowers white to white pink purple inflorescence of many-flowered, separated, axillary clusters growing up the stem, 4 lobed, and sharp-toothed leaves tips pointed. It's growth is much more vertical without the bushy sprawling growth seen in southern Poleo. I have found big bushy sprawling soft leafed southern poleo where one small bunch of plants would take up a big botanical space, bags and bags. Northern Poleo is more strictly up and down with little branching off the stem. In addition while the stems of southern Poleo are bushy, softer sprawling and have strong aromatic scent glands present, Northern Poleo canadensis stems are thicker and lack strong scent. The actual scent of Northern Poleo canadensis is a little more reminiscent of a hedioma or mock pennyroyal than southern Poleo. Northern Poleo energetics are sweet, spicy hot, both warming and cooling. 

     

     It does work well as a carminative upper GI remedio, for indigestion dispelling gas and abdominal discomfort with cooling soothing effects while at the same time having warming spicy sweet taste. As a strong tea or use of gathered tincture will promote sweating and while diaphoretic has both cooling and warming qualities both from evaporations of sweat and the menthol cooling sensation. It women it can help stimulate delayed menses period. It has been used in folk remedio formulas and has a stimulating effect on a woman's cycle and can be added and used for premenstrual cramping formulas at the preperiod bloating stage. Topically it can be added to liniments and rub formulas due to some pain relieving qualities. Used topically it works better than southern Poleo in biting bug and tick formulas, similar to hedioma or mock pennyroyal. Poleo does well FPT 1:2, as a spirit de poleo, alone and in our biospirit formulas to nourish northern biospirit. 

     Different stages in Northern Poleo growth will see big changes in the aromatics, like most aromatic plants gather in late flowering stage and you'll notice on an endless medicine road as we are all on differences in aromatics in different plant stands. Since you'll be seeing scullcaps, bugle weeds, poleos together you'll want to taste them, bugle and skullcap for bitterness and Poleo stands for strong aromatics as indicating strong medicine. Gather in full flower above ground portions, you will need to separate lower thick stems vs upper leaves, flowers and tender flexible thin stems. Up to a certain point of course,  dried or tinctured Poleos will improve with age. 

     Along the lines of a lower GI stomachic, the intriguing energetics of northern Poleo as a warming carminative mixes well with many bitter formulas especially a straight bitter like a gentian. You'll need to play around with these formulas but adding seeds of sweet root, Angelica, oshà Tishwoof, northern poleo tincture, can make a more effective unique bioregional signatures bitter. 

    

     Poleo as a Biospirit Bridge herb. Poleo due to its strong aromatics and deepening of the heart, mind biospirit is an herb we use to bridge a space, transition from one space to another. If you don't have poleo, yarrow flowers will work as well. Often times we bring unneeded stuff from space to space. This baggage carried from space to space can interfere with the work we need to do in that space. You don't need to carry anxiety into a test environment. You have studied and adequately prepared so now it's about doing. Whether making love at the full moon, breast feeding, studying for a difficult exam, giving a public talk, poleo is a valuable herb for biospirit bridge. When you're breast feeding you and baby need to be breast feeding. Poleo helps the milk drop down. When you are taking your final exams you don't need to be cooking dinner. When you and your partner are together making love there is no need to bring finances or past lovers into a cool meadow with the sounds of flowing water. In each activity you need to be in that activity completely. https://pgmanski.blogspot.com/2016/10/el-empacho-remedio-nebada-poleo-hinojo.html "Recently I was with a woman who had some how been exposed to this type of 'susto' or fright. She was a bright, attractive and well educated, yet she was living in her car. Moving continuously from place to place she wasn't able to accomplish her goals. Then I noticed she was drawn to some herbs I had on the table, some traditional Remedios. She was drawn to the Espiritu de Poleo I had made and some yerba santa smudge sticks. In another south west tradition this is called moth sickness. Moths are drawn towards flames. Someone with moth sickness is unable to remain in one place. They are continually coming and going. Often seeking romantic relationships of a transitory nature, they may leave their partners unexpectedly seeking to hook up for one night stands. They go again and again towards the flame," -Wild Herb Ways 

     One common use of northern Poleo i found useful effective while gathering and exploring southernly poleo along the virgin river, arizona strip, fishlake and tributaries in the 1980's for students of endless road biospirit is to use poleo as a set apart study aid. Use Poleo or yarrow to transition from one formal space to another. You can use poleo tincture to increase learning retention, recall, facilitate approach to a next space effortlessly with minimum baggage dragged between space. Poleo and yarrow are both strong biospirit bridge herb, a traveling walking herb. 

      

Northern Poleo with bugle weed friend

     Use it in this way: before studying, making love, learning a new language, take a few drops of poleo. Smell and taste the Poleo. Have dried leaves nearby, or a rolled smudge stick. You can rub Poleo or yarrow all over your body, under your arm pits, in private areas, on your hair and chest. This will set up the study session. This will develop recall of new material. Frequently during the study session smell and taste Poleo. It doesn't matter the subject. It could be learning a musical instrument, learning a solo, breastfeeding, preparing for a speech, presentation or talk, studying a text, preparation for erotic biospirit work with a loving committed partner, preparing for an exam. Partners can also use Poleo in the same way for intimacy, bridging a space. Then when taking the exam, take the poleo tincture immediately before the exam, rub Poleo or yarrow in your arm pits and private areas, musical performance, breast feeding session, romantic intimacy or whatever you've studied. The poleo will allow whatever you've diligently studied to come to mind on your exam. If you are with a biospirit endless medicine road partner the poleo or yarrow for both of you will allow you both to settle into the space. Recall information and get 100% into the space you need to be nourish biospirit and carry it forward.

     In the support and grateful service of biospirit by His love and grace, sincerely biospirit covenant teacher Paul Manski, Wildherbways. 

      

El Empacho Remedio: Nebada, Poleo, Hinojo, Menta de Lobo and Hinojo

     Understanding El Empacho:

   Empacho is a term used in the south west and refers to stomach distress, Empacho is when food gets stuck in the intestines or accumulates around the stomach. It often manifests with a blocking in the epigastric area. I was wanting to make this formula for a while now. Published original 2015.

Today while walking along the river the herbs came to me. Our recent mild October weather brought up new growth of Bugle weed, Poleo and Catnip- the 3 ingredients along with fennel seed which are the basis of this remedio.
    In empacho the food becomes stuck and digestion suffers. This can lead to bloating, gas and constipation in dry empacho, or loose stools in wet empacho.  There is dry empacho with constipation and wet empacho with diarrhea. It can occur for several reasons including:
eating fatty foods, eating outside the normal rhythm; eat faster or slower than usual, eating foods that are not well prepared; They may be raw or eating foods that are difficult to digest like too many beans and not enough vegetables. In different biospirits,  empacho can occur from eating too much bread, pizza, eating on the run, eating with strangers.

Poleo and , Menta de Lobo grow together in families 

Menta de Lobo 

Poleo

     In traditional south west teaching, eating should be done with friends and loved ones.There should be harmony with the cook, and the people eating together. You should avoid for profit restaurants where people serving and cooking the food may be angry, judgemental or hostile to various biospirits. Crowded dining with diverse groups of people who may be jealous or confused by dominant culture meme pathogens. Women who hate men, men who hate women and all this will go into the food and cause a severe kind of indigestion. Especially people who cultivate programming in dominant culture cinema, music and literature. These people sometimes with and sometimes without intention seek to even a score for perceived past grievance and although no one can atone for a grievance not done, they seek to inflict justice by causing others to suffer, creating havoc in biospirit. These types of people can transfer this type of fearful paranoid energy to the food. Food must be balanced. Balanced in relation to the hot and cold intrinsic characteristics of the elements consumed. It's best not to eat too late, the last meal should be finished near sunset. If you are having this type of stomach upset you can make this remedio or find someone who honors the unique biospirit of each, to make it for you specifically. Often herbs are made in big batches and then someone will take the herb and wonder why it didn't work? Herbs should be made in small batches, for specific purposes, for specific people, with specific conditions. If at all possible a cleansing should be done, with the various prayers that we have been taught to use by Father God.

https://youtu.be/uEMI1dALX2Q

    There is a special type of emapacho that occurs with nursing mothers and their babies. Women and girls are often nursing, feeding babies and both their state of mind and what they are doing influences their milk. This can create colic in the baby drinking the mommas milk. Therefore fruits that are "cold" like oranges and watermelons, should not be consumed by pregnant women whose nature at that time is "hot". Likewise they should avoid windy places because the wind can enter the milk. In this sense, the ingestion of "cold" or "hot" food in the nursing mother can cause milk "curds" and harm the infant, just as if being in the sun too much she in excess or suffers a "cooling off" when wash or take a bath. Consequence of this is the "enlechamiento"  a variety of 'colic' that occurs when the child eats breast milk under the conditions listed, or mom offers her milk too frequently, too much,  or Mom nurses her baby after suffering a surprise event (shock) or a stressful event. In all cases, the milk is in lumps, and produces colic in the baby. The baby will be filled with gas and crying, if it progresses the baby will lose sleep and lose weight.
     If the Mom is frightened, or mistreated by her husband, if there is a lot of yelling in the house, this can spoil the milk. The idea that a husband and wife should always be together, always sleep together, is a crazy idea. During certain times a woman and man should not spend a lot of time together, they should not be intimate because they will make each other sick. If a husband and wife need to fight and argue, they should do it outside rather than in an enclosed space like a moving car or inside the house.  Often times when men and women separate and divorce it is because they were fighting inside the house. They want to break up and separate from the fighting angry energy in the house. That's why if you work with herbs you should also do house blessings and cleansing. If the woman is angry or jealous she may spill bile into the milk, creating empacho in the baby. Empacho can also be caused by older women beyond child bearing years who is jealous of the Mom with her baby. Jealous of her youth and beauty, she may intentionally or unintentionally stare at the Mom or kiss the baby and create a special type of empacho which can be helped by this remedio, but it may require a cleansing by someone able to do so. https://pgmanski.blogspot.com/2020/08/poleo-mint-mentha-canadensis.html

     Poleo as a Biospirit Bridge herb. Poleo due to its strong aromatics and deepening of the heart, mind biospirit is an herb we use to bridge a space, transition from one space to another. If you don't have poleo, yarrow flowers will work as well. Often times we bring unneeded stuff from space to space. This baggage carried from space to space can interfere with the work we need to do in that space. You don't need to carry anxiety into a test environment. You have studied and adequately prepared so now it's about doing. Whether making love at the full moon, breast feeding, studying for a difficult exam, giving a public talk, poleo is a valuable herb for biospirit bridge. When you're breast feeding you and baby need to be breast feeding. Poleo helps the milk drop down. When you are taking your final exams you don't need to be cooking dinner. When you and your partner are together making love there is no need to bring finances or past lovers into a cool meadow with the sounds of flowing water. In each activity you need to be in that activity completely. 
     Recently I was with a woman who had some how been exposed to this type of 'susto' or fright. She was a bright, attractive and well educated, yet she was living in her car. Moving continuously from place to place she wasn't able to accomplish her goals. Then I noticed she was drawn to some herbs I had on the table, some traditional Remedios. She was drawn to the Espiritu de Poleo I had made and some yerba santa smudge sticks. In another south west tradition this is called moth sickness. Moths are drawn towards flames. Someone with moth sickness is unable to remain in one place. They are continually coming and going. Often seeking romantic relationships of a transitory nature, they may leave their partners unexpectedly seeking to hook up for one night stands. They go again and again towards the flame, eventually burning in the flame. Something outside of themselves is compelling them to run around. Leave their loved ones and family and go tramping about. It's not like they enjoy this running around. They are suffering. She agreed to try a limpia, which I did with yerba santa, and tincture of osha, Ligusticum porteri. It was a great help to her. In this type of susto, it's often necessary to use herbal formulas and techniques to resolve the condition.

     (left to right)  Poleo, Menta de lobo, Nebada

     El Empacho Remedio is a traditional remedy for treating empacho. I use the following 4 herbs together in a formula called El Empacho Remedio:Nebada, Poleo, Hinojo, and Menta de Lobo. Nebada is catnip Nepeta cateria. Poleo, is our native bit Mentha arvensis. Hinojo is Foeniculum vulgar or Fennel seed. Menta de Lobo is Lycopus americanus or Bugle weed. Use fresh herbs and try to gather the herbs from the same place. Don't mix herbs from far away places, they all come from the same place.
    The first ingredient is Nebada, or catnip, Nepeta cateria. I prefer the catnip which grows wild along the river. Nebada relieves stomachache, cramps, and spasms of the intestinal tract. The second ingredient is Poleo, Mentha arvensis. Poleo is a sweet and spicy mint growing in riparian areas. It relieves stomach pain, and settles the stomach along with dispersing heat. It is used as a colic remedio for infants. The 3rd ingredient is Menta de Lobo, Bugle weed, Lycopus americanus. The traditional name Menta de lobo refers to Lycopus refers to the greek 'lyco", wolf and 'plus'-little foot, referring to the plants leaf shape. You can find out about these herbs from books but it is best to encounter them face to face and learn them that way. Michael Moore, in Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West, states, "Bugle weed is specific to nervous indigestion, being both tonic and nervine. As a sedative and tranquilizer it is strong but not druggy, producing few symptoms other than relaxation...much better than something like Valerian...", this combination of equal parts Nebada, Poleo, Menta de Lobo with seeds of Hinojo makes an exquisite remedio for empacho. I encourage you to try it. 

Bugle weed, Lycopus

Lycopus, Bugle weed is an important herb to know on our Heavenly Father who breathes in our nostrils  biospirit worship as healing continuous no-separation endless medicine road.

Lycopus uniflorus, Northern bugle weed in flower

     lycopus asper, rough bugle weed, lycopus uniflorus, northern bugle weed

Lamiaceae (Mint Family)

Rough Bugleweed (Lycopus asper) is distinguished by its (usually) hairy stem and calyx square upright stems. The various bugle weed Lycopus like all herbs are moving, walking here and there. In finding a Lycopus that is active, use your organoleptic taste and harvest the bitter ones, they be most active for biospirit and what we are doing rather than specific botanical names. Although it is helpful to loupe them and know the subtle differences. This wet swampy northwest medicine garden has two different Lycopus species i have been working with. 

Lycopus asper, rough bugle weed, 2 stamens, purple tinge flowers

      Undivided with no separation medicine road garden Bugle weeds are a perennial, short low to the ground wet mint, growing from a thin white nodular trailing root. The white knobby root has a crispy texture and varies in bitterness, having been eatable by many. In this sense bugle weed is a food/medicine plant, maybe more medicine/food in certain stands. As such it is a relatively safe, non-judgemental plant that works for people. Not a heavy medicine plant it does have a complex chemistry. You gather the whole plant in flower with occasional roots as they present. FPT 1:2 it's a delightful abundant and frequently encountered plant with a wide distribution from east to west, north to south Arizona to Cascadia. 

    Lycopus in the northwest hugs lake edges, marshes, watery boggy swaps and small feeder creeks that tend to dry out mid summer. Bugle weed has erect square stems, leaves serrate to deeply saw toothed. Usually there are several species growing together. Often bugle grows with other water loving mints such as Scutellaria galericulata hooded skullcap, Mentha arvensis, Mentha canadensis in little groups. Telling the bugle weeds apart is easier in the field than on paper because in one place the same species will tend to have different growth patterns and character. Generalizations don't apply to species across broad areas outside of a face to face encounter. You will find 2 foot high hairy spindly varieties and short varieties. 

     

 Lycopus bugle weed is an important herb to know on the continuous endless medicine road. what i am seeing? i am seeing a lot of flowering Bugle weed. Like every single person reading this, i am feeling wet mud between my toes. Lot of mosquito bites, sunburned, everyone, anyone reading this, without a doubt you are walking through the mud on undivided endless biospirit medicine road. 

https://youtu.be/uEMI1dALX2Q

    Here at this medicine garden there are two different bugle weeds. After sloshing about the mud for a couple of weeks we see everyone going from one wet muddy boggy swamp to another. Begin to acknowledge the patterns of growth in the species. Lycopus asper, rough bugle weed can often be distinguished by its frequent densely hairy stems, and purple spots on the flowers. Lycopus uniflorus tends to be shorter and more in clusters from a thin bulbous trailing root node, although this is a local trait that varies. All the bugle weed i have encountered in the west have white flowers around the leaf axil, four lobed flowers with two stamens unlike most mints. While most southern bugle weed flowers in arizona and new mexico are white in some northern populations i have worked with in Nevada, BC, montana, washington and idaho on continuous medicine road you'll see pink and purple splotches in the white. Flowers occur in all varieties in dense clusters around the opposite leaf axils, tiny 1/8 inch or less, tubular four lobed white with two purple tipped stamens unlike most mints. 

      Many mints are highly aromatic, bugle weeds are not strongly aromatic in the mint sense. Northern bugle weeds do have a distinct scent in the crushed leaves. You recognize it in time. It is not a typical mint mentha scent. It's a iodine and sulphur scent. This scent says about its relationship to thyroid gland as sulfur and iodine are connected there. Look for a bitter bugle weed that is best for tincture. A good bugle weed will have bitter taste not immediately noticed because it can be so wet, the bitter comes on stronger as you chew leaves. Look for that taste and smell in your bugle weeds. 

      Bugle weed is an excellent folk biospirit  plant due its mildness and complex chemistry. Bugle weed nourishes glands in the body including the kidney. It works on many body systems and lends itself to wide presentation. It promotes blood circulation and prevents blood pooling. It can encourage movement of fluid accumulation in lower limbs. It will support the kidney. In a superficial rapid thready pulse it subtly decreases pulse while increasing more definitions in the beat, so fluid moves. It is a quieting relaxant to the nervous system. 

    Although mint plants are usually aromatic this one is not. So many good changes as biospirit folk plant more and more people are gathering closely intimately together using bugle weed...Undivided. Most mints also are not hemostatic, bugle weed is. As such it can be used by women in heavy periods or in older women who are losing their monthly but then it returns spotty. It is also a useful herb for women to try in menopause for night sweats and hot flashes. It combines well with motherwort. It can be helpful for sweating, bounding pulse, at night for women with these hot flashes and promote relaxation and sleep. 

     Although not widely known in biospirit positive circles bugle weed is becoming more and more useful as a mild nervine. For insomnia and sleeplessness it works best for people who tend to jump and look around when there's a loud sound, and continue to look around after the sound is gone. It works for people who become afraid at the sound of thunder and lightning. In short people who are thin, naturally don't gain weight, tend to be jumpy and worry about what people think about them. In generalized uneasiness and hesitancy with an anxious dark worried mind it can work to relax and calm. In these cases it can be a valuable nervine ally. It's not a druggy sedative chemical it's more of an alterative to support the hormonal stress glands. Especially the thyroid and pituitary complex, that tend to get switched on and locked on, so the natural loops that turn things off and on are stuck on. 

      If the pulse is too fast and there is a tendency for breathlessness where the heart beats quickly and thumps, then decreases and a person is anxious it can encourage the heart beats to be more distinct and separate, like a bum-bump, rather than b-b-b-bum,  rather than all clumped in quick little beats that don't move stuff around very well. Because this herb grows in wet moist cool slow flowing water it tends to balance flow of blood with the kidney so the water can mix and piss out of the blood and get to a proper thickness.  

    This folk formula growing together in moist wet swampy low places, the three herbs catnip, poleo and bugle weed or minta de lobo grow together and create a polycrest place formula. It addresses accumulation of hardness in the belly which is called empacho. In children this can be colic, crying fits, and restlessness. This formula can sweeten the milk in a breastfeeding mother, especially if she has been sad or crying, fighting with her husband's family, or arguing with her husband about money, and not sleeping well, or sleeping too much. In adults this can be either hard or soft, with constipation or loose stool. Often in adults this formula will help heartburns below the  small space between ribs in the upper abdomen. 

      So apparently appreciate this Bugle weed medicine and enable it to appropriate biospirit wellbeing, now going free do no harm bless and praise His holy name. 

Lycopus Bugle weed with nutlets and flowers