The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Announcing the Spring Foraging Cookbook and Medicinal Trees, Tree of Heaven

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. I hope everybody's having a wonderful new year. The tree for today will be a bit of a shorter entry than usual. It's what many people consider to be a weedy tree. It's actually very useful. And as it's considered a weedy tree tree you're probably going to be able to find it a lot okay um i can think of like where i am right now i'm down the sound sand hills of north carolina dealing with a family issue and um if i go down to the railroad tracks i can find plenty of this on the way between my home and here in Wilkes County, Catawba County. Oh, so many.

Starting point is 00:00:52 I mean, down around Statesville, I could just keep going. David, Davy Davidson, my whole route. I could probably spot 500 of these trees in every county. And it is Allianthus, or Tree of Heaven. I believe the full Latin name is Allianthus altissima, I think. Tree of Heaven. It's a very pretty tree, and I don't really know how it got sort of a bad reputation. People used to plant it ornamentally,

Starting point is 00:01:26 which is why it is now so widespread. But before we get into that, I have a huge announcement. I have been working over the past year on a new book, which is one I've really enjoyed. It's a real passion for me. Well, I think I probably told the story, you know, enough times that y'all are at least somewhat aware of my background and how I got into herbal medicine. Well, I got into herbal medicine actually through foraging. I like to go into the woods and bring back food you know whether it's animal vegetable mineral or you know fish and quite quite often it is by no means a vegan I really do eat a lot of meat and fish well that really comes naturally for me my grandfather was sort of a pioneer of permaculture before anyone had ever heard of the term, you know, before Bill Mollison ever wrote a book and coined the term. He set up

Starting point is 00:02:33 his farm as a, well, what we would now call a complex of systems he was really into you know Thomas Jefferson's Monticello he was really into George Washington's oh shoot what was George Washington's farm name I mean we spent so much time there was a kid I mean literally we would go up to virginia and he would uh he did a lot of historic preservation for the state of north carolina and uh he was very big into antiques and restoration uh you know my aunt actually ended up working for the smithsonian and we had a lot of ends with the uh you know these historic uh these historic homes um all right, I'm not even going to worry about it. But you got Micellar, you got Mipelior, and you got the one other, which was where George Washington lived. All of them were

Starting point is 00:03:33 really advanced plantations. They were farms that were self-sufficient and uh yeah it took a lot of manpower you know it wasn't like a modern permaculture farm where you're literally um building on um well designing systems that just work so well that there's not a lot of wasted um effort or wasted material waste is considered pollution which we recycle everything in permaculture. But, you know, he really had this mindset, and he was a prepper before there were ever preppers, okay? I mean, he built a nuclear fallout shelter. He designed the whole thing. I mean, he was a builder, he was a brick mason, he was an engineer, he was everything you can imagine, a mechanic, a plumber, an electrician. He did it all, right?

Starting point is 00:04:26 And he did all that for a living, too. I mean, he was that kind of man that I aspire to be. He had a workshop that anything could be fixed or made. That's the bottom line. But, I mean, he had things set up so that the nuclear fallout shelter had this huge lead-lined door. It had its own air and water filtration system, hand pumps, electric generators that could actually be cranked by hand. I mean, he got a lot of stuff for army surplus, but he designed a lot of stuff, too. It was just incredible, just absolutely incredible. incredible but on that farm you know every um plant that was grown either went to the family

Starting point is 00:05:08 or to eat or to an animal the manure went back into the fertility of the soil everything was arranged to reduce work so that he could like replicate some of the um some of the designs of Monticello and such without having to have, you know, 100 slaves or something. You know, I mean, it was the family of five kids could run this entire, I guess, you know, the main farm was about 50 some acres. Then he had tons of woods. He was a timber man. He cut timber.

Starting point is 00:05:44 He was a sawmiller. He built houses. What didn't he do? He was a politician. He was a game warden. He was a justice of the peace. I mean, you know, talk about big shoes to fill. You know what I mean? But on his property, he had edible landscaping. That was something he really prioritized he had this beautiful you know southern plantation the house everything was brick it wasn't you know the white well he did have white columns but it was a brick with white columns you know you can picture in your mind it wasn't exactly terra of from gone with the wind It was a little smaller than that, but the landscaping was incredible. I mean, he used arbors and willow trees to create a natural air conditioning in the backyard,

Starting point is 00:06:35 so you could sit on the porch, and it'd be 110 degrees in the eastern North Carolina summer, and you'd be sitting back there, and you'd feel like you're in an air-conditioned room. And it was incredible the kind of things he did. He had little ponds, and just amazing, right? Big old brick barbecue with picnic tables and a little fish pond beside it, and you could sit there and eat big old watermelons that he grew in the summertime, and it would feel like it was cool in the wintertime it was surrounded by these

Starting point is 00:07:10 large like I say there's a brick mason he built walls around it to do be wind blocks so we could be out there and have oyster roasts and not even be cold in in January you know it's just yeah you know and my grandmother was very much the same way with all that she did preserving food and cooking and and you know it was a self-sufficient farm and you know that was the informative experience of my life was essentially growing up on a self-sufficient farm that's why I write the way I do now about the subjects I do but he was really into edible landscaping and And like earliest memories, before I could even really walk very far, my mom would pull me around in a little red wagon around the farm and we'd just pick everything. There were apples and pears and peaches. There

Starting point is 00:07:58 were pecans and black walnuts. There was a million, I mean, every kind of edible plant was either in the garden or used as landscaping. And so I kind of had this idea from a very early age that you just walk out in the backyard and pick something and eat it. To me, that was perfectly normal. Apparently, it isn't to most people. You know, my mom was not a hardcore forager by any means, but she knew what was growing on the farm. She would just take me around and we'd pick a little of this and a little of that. I think the first wild plant I really learned was sheep sorrel. Sheep sorrel is a member of the sorrel family.

Starting point is 00:08:37 The leaves are very edible. They're a nice salad grain. You can make a soup out of the stems. They are sour with a little bit of sweetness so if you like like sour patch kids or lemon bombs or whatever you'd love to chew on some sheep sorrel got into that you know but I mean from the earliest age I can remember another memory maybe 10 or so I'm out there in the field with my grandmother and we're harvesting mustard greens and between the garden and the horse pasture was a wild area you know of course my grandfather did rotational grazing he would do a paddock shift system so he'd let things grow up over here then the horses could go in and have all kinds of free food he'd let things grow up where they were he'd bring them back and they'd have all kinds of free

Starting point is 00:09:29 food you know um growing there was a plant that looked just like what we were harvesting in the garden and i asked my grandmother about it and she said well that's wild mustard and i said well why do we harvest why do we pick the mustard in the garden but we don't pick the wild mustard that's just like four feet away from us you know i'm a kid you know she's like uh well it's a little tough and it's a little bitter so we we stick with the garden mustard so obviously you all know me next time i'm out there by myself i go and start eating the wild mustard yeah it was a little tougher it was a little peppery i mean i loved it i mean you know i fell in love with it that uh that flavor by the time i was 14 or so i would say i was like a

Starting point is 00:10:13 really accomplished forager i literally collected uh field guides spent all times of all kinds of time at the gar at the library um field guides, learning about wild edible plants. I didn't really have anybody to instruct me. That knowledge had kind of been lost by that generation. And I was fascinated with the idea of just being able to go out in the woods and pick wild food and eat it. And apparently, I mean, I've been that way my entire life. My mom says when I was like, you know, between three and seven, she had to keep a bottle of Epikak around because I ate so many poisonous plants. You know, I was just, I had this idea that everything that grew was edible.

Starting point is 00:10:54 Of course, many things are quite poisonous, so, but eventually by my teens, I learned what we might call the art or skill of foraging and loved it. Spent, you know, my family, my mother and I, we moved back up to the mountains when I was about 14, 15. I was born in the mountains, kind of grew up in the eastern swamps. And then we were back in the mountains. And in the mountains, there's like food everywhere. I mean, there are mushrooms and wild edible plants like everywhere. And there's streams full of trout.

Starting point is 00:11:29 And there's, you know, hunting, fishing, trapping, everything. And so I, you know, kind of got into the... I mean, if y'all had met me when I was like 16 to 20 or so, you would have thought like, you know, Grizzly Adams or some, you know, hippie just straight out of a Grateful Dead show because I literally just spent my entire time roaming the woods and I loved it. I mean, I worked a lot. Um, I had a severe back injury when I was 19. I didn't get to spend all my time in the woods, but every spare minute in this way,

Starting point is 00:12:04 I've been all my life. I mean, when I was five, six years old, the teachers would fuss at me because I was looking out the window. I just wanted to be outside. I wanted to be fishing more than anything. And that love for fishing really did translate into a love for foraging. So I was thinking about it a few months ago, you know, six months ago, a year ago, when I started this book, I thought, all right, I want to help people become more comfortable foraging wild plants. I mean, yeah, there are books on hunting, there are books on trapping, there are books on

Starting point is 00:12:39 fishing. I could do that. There's some really good books already on the market for foraging. I mean, Gil Gibbons in the 1960s. I mean, he reintroduced everything to it. Hank Shaw, again, in the 90s kind of brought it back. But I have my own way of doing things. I have my own way of looking at things. All right, so I'm also like a, I don't want to say this, but I'm a fairly accomplished cook. I mean, you all know I've written a cookbook, The Omnivore's Guide to Home Cooking.

Starting point is 00:13:10 My family's half French. I've worked in professional kitchens. I have a real passion for cooking. That informs my foraging. I have a passion for the woods. That informs my cooking. You see, I'm some, you I'm a prepper as well. So I'm thinking in terms of these wild foods are a great resource when the grid is down or whatever, right? I'm an herbalist. So I look at the medicinal qualities of plants. So basically,

Starting point is 00:13:41 when I started thinking about it, I thought, you know, I could write a book that's about foraging that's really different than just about anything that's ever been written. So I started thinking about how to do it. And I thought, you know, one thing I don't want to do is write another field guide. There are so many good ones, especially I love the Peterson field guides. Those are my all-time favorite. Audubon would probably be a second favorite. But I have serious problems with field guides. And that's because of the way I learned to forage.

Starting point is 00:14:14 I learned to forage with books. I did have a few mentors, especially in the mountains, but using those books. So I'd get this great field guide. And back then, books were expensive. And we didn't have all the, like, you couldn't go to eBay or Amazon and buy used books I mean it was a big investment for me to drop 25 or 30 dollars on a field guide I mean that was yeah I mean for you know teenage kid in the in the 90s at least in my family that was a big investment so I got a lot of them from the library and such

Starting point is 00:14:48 and they might be older ones from the 60s and 70s and but whether they were older or new the pictures of the plants never looked right you know you'd have this like the color issues of like the 50s and I mean 60s and 70s color pictures. They were kind of faded and didn't look right. The newer ones have these nice bright pictures. But any plant you take, I don't care if it's a dandelion, if it's growing in poor soil, in hot, dry weather, it's going to look completely different.

Starting point is 00:15:24 I mean, almost completely different like 80% different from the same plant growing in you know where I live in the mountains lush rich soil cool temperatures I mean the mountains it's gonna be four times bigger than it would be in say the sand eels the leaves are gonna be lush and full they won't even have the same shape as the same dandelion growing in, you know, a side of a driveway in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I mean, you look entirely different. So you have to understand that when you take a picture of a plant, it can be a perfectly accurate ID of that plant. But depending on environmental conditions water soil conditions etc there's so

Starting point is 00:16:14 many things that can affect it that plant can look entirely different so it was like it was a constant frustration for me as a kid in my teens to go out with the field guides. It was even worse for mushrooms, so we'll get into that in a minute. But to try to use these field guides to identify plants, that's why I came to really like the Peterson field guide, because instead of pictures, it would have line drawings, and it would tell you the characteristics of the plant. Like, say you're looking at the mint family, you look at square stems, alternate leaves, and a fragrant aromatic scent. And you know a mint's a mint, right? Take the allium, the onion family. If it looks like an onion, it smells like an onion, it's an onion. If it does not smell like an onion, it could be a very, very poisonous plant. These are

Starting point is 00:17:03 like the common sense things I had to learn on my own. And honestly, I took a lot of risks I shouldn't have. I have eaten poisonous plants and poisonous mushrooms. And thank God I haven't died, but I have had diarrhea for three days and vomiting. I mean, seriously, I have made a mistake, those mistakes. I mean, seriously, I have made a mistake, those mistakes. So I wanted to write a cookbook for foraging, not a field guide. Okay.

Starting point is 00:17:34 I didn't, there's not a single picture in this book. There's not a single drawing in this book. I want you to get a good field guide like the Peterson, Botany in a Day by Thomas Elpel and now we have this incredible benefit of cell phone apps you can get an app that will do plant ID I recommend getting three of them and getting you know a second and third opinion on every plant that is something I would have just I mean I don't I would have spent all the money I had on that when I was, you know, 15 years old. That was not available. That, those cell phone apps are almost as good as a mentor when it comes to plants. I still say fungi, mushrooms are a little more tricky. So as this

Starting point is 00:18:22 is a spring book and most mushrooms really come in summer, fall, even early winter, I only included one major mushroom, it's the morel. That is the main mushroom of spring. And it's so easy to identify, and I tell you how, but still I want you to double check it and so understanding that I then thought well how do I tell someone what to look for without pictures without drawings and all that and the easiest thing really is to classify it by time of year the edible wild plants the forage plants that come in in spring are entirely different than those you'll harvest in summer and fall for the most part. I mean there are a few like oh I don't know blackberries raspberries you might get the leaves and shoots in the spring but you get the berries in the fall I mean obviously nuts and berries are going to come in later in the year but when you know when that plant is coming into harvest if you have a description of the color of the flowers where it's supposed to

Starting point is 00:19:25 be growing like ramps my favorite wild edible uh ramsons wild some people say the wild leek some people say the wild garlic some people who knows they're an allium i find ramps on generally a north to or western facing slope by a creek and i give you the description of the plant and you sniff it and it smells like garlic and you know you got a ramp right otherwise it could look identical you could have a picture of ramps and this happens to many people um without any other i mean just using a field guide you could end up eating Lily of the Valley. Looks identical in the spring to ramps. Lily of the Valley has a digitalis-like effect, which can slow your heart rate to the point that if you ate enough, it would stop it.

Starting point is 00:20:15 It would kill you. So I, you know, I said, I'm going to do a wild edibles cookbook for spring. It's going to be a a series I'll do another one for summer another one for fall I'm excited about this okay it is this is the way I cook this is the way I spend a lot of time in the woods this is a huge part of my diet and I think for a prepper it would absolutely be essential this is food okay free food that God gave us. It's all around us. And it can be as common as dandelions and plantain, burdock, wild roses, violets. Or, you know, it could be a little more rare.

Starting point is 00:20:54 And I've got a lot, actually, of great wild edibles here. Some you might even want to grow in your garden, like daylilies. Daylilies are a common landscaping plant. They have little tubers that are like potatoes, and the flowers, you can pick them daily. They'll come right back, and they can be eaten like squash blossoms. Most people don't even look at this as food, and it's actually almost ubiquitous um clovers cleavers you know i mean so many things um even the leaves of like japanese maple you know the ornamental trees that people plant they're really nice they have a sort of a tart kind of lemony flavor kind of uh used in japanese cooking you could throw them in a salad you can you know throw them in a salad. You can, you know, throw them in a soup.

Starting point is 00:21:52 So many things. So many things. I mean, from poke salad to, I don't even know, shepherd's purse, of course, wild lettuce. I mean, nettles. A lot of these are some of the most nutritious foods there are. And I use my cooking background to tell you how to cook the plants. Because it's one thing, you know, a lot of wild plants, they have stronger flavors than we're used to. I mean, our ancestors have spent thousands of years breeding the bitterness out of wild lettuce to give us iceberg. The original plant looks nothing like iceberg lettuce. But it's the same plant. plant looks nothing like iceberg lettuce but it's the same plant which has been bred hybridized turned into a more mild sweet lettuce that you know you would not even recognize the two as being related well I give you some cooking

Starting point is 00:22:36 tips so that you can cook plants that tastes like asparagus spinach you know salad greens you know I give you soup recipes casserole recipes oh so many uh there are several plants that have those nice tuberous roots like jerusalem artichokes and such you can use them like potatoes i mean roasted meats and a lot of you know really good fish recipes because like said, I'm by no means a vegan. I really enjoyed writing this book. Okay. Now one thing maybe I haven't mentioned,

Starting point is 00:23:15 I got a job writing for a magazine a couple months ago. Homestead Kitchen Magazine. You probably read it. It's very big among preppers among preppers and the lady i work with my editor said um can you recommend some books on foraging i said well yeah i'm gonna recommend peterson field guide i'm gonna recommend thomas elpel's uh botany in a day um i'm gonna recommend you don't buy about 90 of the foraging books that are available until you've gone through them. And then each one's a compliment. It's fine. It's fine. Wonderful. And I happen to be writing this

Starting point is 00:23:50 cookbook. She said, okay, well, the April issue is due January 1. Can you get this book done for me very quickly? And we'll include it in the magazine. I'm like, oh, that's fantastic. But it's going to take me another two months to write the book. And then I thought, well, okay, I'm going to just go ahead and put like eight, nine, ten hours a day in to get this thing finished. Won't have time to edit it. Just, you know, get it knocked out, get it ready for publication, and send it in. And I thought I had. I mean, by Christmas, I had gotten the book written, and it's, you know, I think it's pretty good. The recipes are solid. I mean, this is the way I actually eat, you know. I love wild food.

Starting point is 00:24:32 I attribute my great-grandparents living all to be around 100 and even more than 100 years old to, you know, that great diversity of diet, which includes a lot of wild food. So, my girlfriend says to me, you know, you know, you're dyslexic, right? And I'm like, yes, I know I'm dyslexic. You know, I work around it. She says, somebody needs to proofread this book before it goes to print. I'm like, all right, well, you know, she volunteered. And I was like oh you know that's great about a week later she sends me back something with like 350 corrections so I cannot take all the credit for this book I was a very special young lady that really put a lot of effort into it and between the two of us, we came out with something really good. And she also happens to be a professional chef and baker with, you know,

Starting point is 00:25:30 having been to culinary school and all that. So I think I can say the recipes are well vetted. I think you're going to like these a lot. So the book is The Spring Foraging Cookbook by Judson Carroll, of course. It is available right now on Amazon. You can get it in print. You can buy it from me as a PDF, only $9.99, and I'll send it to you. You can ask me any questions.

Starting point is 00:25:57 You got my email address. You're good to go. You want a paperback copy? Totally understand. You know, as I always say, Amazon is not my preference preference but right now it is the only option for print on demand so so the spring foraging cookbook by Judson Carroll I think you're gonna absolutely love this book perfect for survival situation even better for a homesteading situation where you got, you know, a little wild area,

Starting point is 00:26:29 a little few, some weedy areas. You can kind of peruse and look around, see what's growing. And you can complement your diet with all kinds of nutrient-dense wild foods, basically all of which have medicinal value. Seriously. And I include the medicinal uses of each of these as well.

Starting point is 00:26:49 So check it out if you like. You know, I think it would be a very worthy addition to your bookshelf. fun for me because like I feel like I started this road before I even was conscious of what I was doing but essentially in writing this book and the next few I'll write I'll do one on summer foraging and probably combine fall and winter together obviously kind of fulfilling a lifelong dream you know from when i was like 12 or 14 years old when i found a copy of yule givens stalking the wild asparagus in the library and i remembered him from the you know the grape nuts commercials and such and it's just like man i would i would so love to do that when I grow up. Well, I guess maybe I've finally grown up.

Starting point is 00:27:55 Oh, well, yeah, I guess I have finally grown up, whether I want to admit to it or not. All right. The tree of the week is Arianthus Autissima, of heaven you probably familiar with this like I said it's kind of a weedy tree it was used a lot in landscaping say between 1920s and 1950s and it kind of got out it's naturalized in my region it's not native miss grieve the great British herbalist of the 1930s, tells us that Tree of Heaven is used as an antispasmodic, a cardiac depressant, and astringent. It does have a very strong effect on the heart. Well, I wouldn't say very strong. It's not like digitalis, but like Hawthorne. Not as strong as lily of the valley

Starting point is 00:28:46 actually lily of the valley is actually while it can certainly be poisonous in in large amounts far easier to use than foxglove or digitalis in its wild or even garden grown state um i would say tree of heaven would be closer really to bugleweed and y'all know how much I love bugleweed. I've talked extensively about bugleweed at Juga Reptans. The effect produced... oh and let's see it was used at least in the 1930s to rid dogs of intestinal worms. It would probably work the same way in humans. I don't know if it's really been extensively tested for that purpose. I think it, yes, memory says it was used for that purpose in the 1800s,

Starting point is 00:29:43 around the Civil War and such. However, she states that the resin purges but rarely acts as an anthelmintic. An anthelmintic is something that would actually kill the worms. So this is more like purging them from the system. So it would need to be used in conjunction with something a little, you know, mason wormwood, something a little more toxic to the actual worms. That's where the wormwood, um, our, uh, Artemisia gets its, uh, it can't be right. That's where the wormwood actually gets its name. It was useful for getting rid of worms.

Starting point is 00:30:26 Sage would do the same thing, by the way, but it needs a much higher dose. In China, the bark is popular for dysentery and other bowel complaints. A smaller dose of the oleoresin produces similar results and keeps better than the bark. The vapors of the evaporating extract have a prostrating effect, as have the emanations from the blossoms. They act upon the patient, while the action upon the patient's powder or extract is disagreeable and nauseating, though they have been successfully used in dysentery and diarrhea, been successfully used in dysentery and diarrhea gonorrhea leukorrhea prolapsus of the anus and also as a tainafuge i'm gonna have to look that word up i do not remember yes i don't know all the esoteric words tainafuge oh okay so yeah tainafuse actually means it's specifically good Oh, okay.

Starting point is 00:31:27 So, yeah, tanafuse actually means it's specifically good for getting rid of tapeworms. So, you'd think it'd be an easier way to convey that idea. That's why I do this. This is why I make herbalism simple. Because a lot of these, the best herbals, you basically have to go through them with a medical dictionary just to know what the heck someone's talking about. The infusion may be given in sweetened orange flower or other aromatic water to lessen the bitterness and the resultant sickness, though it produces vomiting and great relaxation.

Starting point is 00:31:59 It is stated not to be poisonous. Doesn't sound pleasant anyway. A tincture of the root bark has been successfully used in cardiac palpitation, asthma, and epilepsy. It has a strong antispasmodic effect, and I think that's probably one of the more beneficial uses of this tree. The action of the trees in malarial districts is considered to resemble that of the eucalyptus so it's good for malarial conditions probably more like the cramping and such that accompanies the fevers you know don't make it useful for like COVID and such you know COVID and malaria have a lot in common King's American Dispensatory of 1898 tells us, The bark of Allianthus has been employed by Roberts, Duguet, and others, those were known physicians of the time, both in the recent and dried state as a remedy for dysentery and diarrhea,

Starting point is 00:33:00 also for gonorrhea, leukorrhea, prolapsus of the anus. 50 grams of the root bark are infused for a short time in 75 grams of hot water, then strained and administered in teaspoonful doses night and morning. So you're basically making a decoction or a tea and then very small teaspoonful doses given twice a day so it's very very small amounts of this plant it may be administered in sweetened orange flavored water and some other aromatic see professor hetet of the toulon naval school states let's get through all that academic information that the aqueous or alcoholic extract, which means either essentially a decoction or a tincture,

Starting point is 00:33:50 will remove tapeworm. But he found his actions upon patients to be disagreeable and nauseating, so it made him feel sick. And he said it was something like that occasioned by tobacco upon young smokers. So you remember that first cigarette it will make you puke or that first you know dip of chewing tobacco or whatever it will make you at least feel like you're gonna puke and be dizzy and all that

Starting point is 00:34:18 medical journals 1875 they were using for tapeworms. They even said that though not poisonous it would make you so nauseous that you would vomit followed by a great lack of relaxation and a death-like sickness. So not pleasant but the symptoms do gradually pass away. I have not found any actual mortality caused by this plant. The successfully employed tincture of the root bark in cardiac palpitations, asthma, and epilepsy. Yeah, he has successfully employed the tincture in, yeah, palpitation, asthma, and epilepsy. And in epilepsy in the late 1800s it was actually gaining a reputation basically to it's an antispasmodic you know it could help prevent the epileptic seizures at least help calm them i mean you, you know, epilepsy has actually various causes,

Starting point is 00:35:25 but it can be a very serious condition. And it's not one that I like to throw around a lot of saying, this can help or that can help. But yes, antispasmodic herbs can help with the severity of seizures, if nothing else. At least it was frequently used in that way, well until about 1950, 1920 at least. He states that he has been pleased with it in putrid malignant typhoid with calming eruption high temperature, typhoid with calming eruption high temperature pulse

Starting point is 00:36:08 small extremely rapid thirst delirium coma so I mean that's pretty strong medicine actually also used in homeopathic medicine and probably little bit easier use that way with fewer side effects. Specific indication uses at least as of 1898 were cardiac palpitation, spasmodic or epileptiform, meaning epileptic, muscular contraction, so the spasms caused by seizure. In modern use, let's go to plants for the future.

Starting point is 00:36:45 Medicinal use of tree of heaven. The tree of heaven is not often used in western herbal medicine, though it is more popular in the orient. Various parts of the plant are used, though the bark is the most commonly used. However, it contains a glycoside that has not been fully researched and should be used with caution. The root and stem bark are antispasmodic, astringent, bitter, a cardiac depressant, diuretic, emetic, so it gets rid of excess fluid and makes you puke if you take it in a large enough dose.

Starting point is 00:37:16 Fabrifuge means it lowers fevers. Rubifacient means it can actually redden and warm the skin, like you might want to do if you had a sprain or arthritis you know obviously a liniment you know vermifuge means it helps get rid of worms and parasites the vermifuge properties do not act on round worms or earthworms um not sure how anyone would get earthworms inside of them How anyone would get earthworms inside of them? Now, in a survival situation, you can actually eat earthworms. So, not sure where they're coming up with that.

Starting point is 00:37:52 But roundworms, yeah, are parasitic. A nauseatingly bitter herb, it is used internally to treat malaria and fevers. It also slows the heart rate and relaxes spasms. It needs to be used under the supervision of a qualified practitioner since the bark readily causes vomiting. In China, the bark is a popular remedy for dysentery and other complaints of the bowels in one clinical trial 81 out of 82 patients were cured of dysentery when they were given this herb that's impressive a tincture of the root bark has been used successfully in the treatment of cardiac palpitations asthma and epilepsy tree of heaven is a folk remedy for asthma, cancer, diarrhea, dysentery,

Starting point is 00:38:47 dysmenorrhea, dysuria, premature ejaculation even, epilepsy, eruption, fever, gonorrhea, leukorrhea, malaria. Wow, so basically any issue where there's a discharge, we'll just go with that. Sores, spasms, spermatorrhea, stomatic, oh, azostomatic, and it's good for the stomach. Probably very small doses. Tumors of the breast and china, wet dreams, believe it or not. The bark is harvested in the spring and dried for later use. The bark is harvested in the spring and dried for later use. The leaves, bark, and trunk and roots are put into a wash to treat parasitic ulcers, itch, and eruptions.

Starting point is 00:39:35 In Korea, the bark is used in the treatment of coughs, gastric, and internal upsets. The stem bark is an amenagogue, meaning it brings on menses. The leaves are antithelmintic also means helps get rid of parasites astringent and the obstruent which means it can help clear obstructions of the bowel and such the fruit is used in the treatment of bloody stools and dysentery they have also been used in the treatment of ophthalmic or eye diseases extracts from the plant are bactericidal. Bactericidal, good to know. The tree is used in homeopathic remedies for cancer. You know, I never give recommendations for cancer, but you know, looking at homeopathy, it's pretty powerful stuff actually. And resin extracted from the roots and leaves is a revulsive or Vesicant Vesicant means that

Starting point is 00:40:27 Remember how I said it would redden the skin It will also kind of bring up the veins Yeah More modern use Peterson Field Guide My recommended Peterson Field Guide For Eastern and Central Medicinal Plants Two ounces of the bark infused

Starting point is 00:40:43 In one quart of water given In teaspoonfuls for diarrhea, dysentery, leukorrhea, tapeworm, used in traditional Chinese medicine, recently shown could contain at least three potential anti-malarial compounds. So very important, especially if COVID comes back around or a mosquito-borne disease.

Starting point is 00:41:07 Warning, large doses potentially poisonous and can cause dermatitis if you're it says gardeners who cut the tree may suffer from rashes so you know just something to think about and physicians desk reference for herbal medicine is what doctors use to tell you if your herbs are safe or if they're going to contraindicate with medicines it says an anti-malarial action is being tested in an in vitro trial period the active agents also have astringent antipyretic and antispasmodic properties the unproven use the african tree of heaven is used for cramps asthma tachycardia wow gonorrhea epilepsy tapeworm and or tapeworm infestation and is increasingly used in the treatment of malaria so that weedy plant that weedy tree that, like I said, I could spot thousands of them just driving from the mountains of North Carolina to the Sandhills, especially in spring.

Starting point is 00:42:12 That's when they really jump out at me, you know. Really probably very good to have on hand in case we have another pandemic, which it seems like our betters so they consider themselves are intent on making sure happens so yes tree of heaven dog would be a good one to have around oh there's so many a lot of these have anti-malarial properties which tend to be good for many viral and feverish and respiratory conditions. So anyway, y'all, I'm going to wrap this one up. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you'll check out my book.

Starting point is 00:42:56 Love it if you buy it. You know, that's what keeps me going. That's what pays the bills and this one really was fun to share really the recipes and the foraging advice that I've really come up with on my own for the most part over 30 years or more so it does really feel like I've kind of come full circle on some things. So I hope you'll enjoy it. The Spring Foraging Cookbook by Judson Carroll. So talk to you next week.

Starting point is 00:43:32 Have a good one. The information in 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. I'm not a doctor. The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine, and there is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs. I'm not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true.

Starting point is 00:44:02 I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience and if I believe in herbs help 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 and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, a sensitivity, an underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog,

Starting point is 00:44:34 you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices, and not to blame me for anything ever.

The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Announcing the Spring Foraging Cookbook and Medicinal Trees, Tree of Heaven

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