The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Beech

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. Hope everybody's surviving this rather violent spring weather we're having. It's been a very warm winter and, you know, what do you expect? We're probably going to have a pretty heavy hurricane season too, so get ready for that. The water temperatures are warmer than usual, just natural weather patterns. But anyway, that's part of being a prepper is prepping for storms and such but we're going to get back into our our regular series here that we've been doing on the medicinal uses of various trees and one that is really very useful and fairly widespread in most places is beech the beech tree that's the fagus species

Starting point is 00:00:46 f-a-g-u-s actually eight varieties have been documented for use in herbal medicine but another nine members of the beech family are also used similarly they kind of have interchangeable names but now the taxonomists, as we call them, have separated them out into more plants. They're always changing the names of stuff. That's why I try to give you the Latin and the common name and kind of tell you a little bit about the plant. There are only two beaches that are native to my region, and that is Phagos Grandifolia, Var variety Caroliniana that's also known as American Beach and here's a good example the other one is Fagus grandifolia variety grandifolia also known as American Beach and probably just a few

Starting point is 00:01:41 years ago they were both known as just fagus grandifolia American Beach so the fact that we only have two native beaches in my area certainly doesn't mean that we don't have beach trees we got a ton in fact just down the road from where I live is Beach Mountain named after beach the trees these were really really important back when the area was almost entirely dependent on logging. And then, I guess, beginning of the 50s, 60s, they built the Land of Oz up there, which was a recreation of the Wizard of Oz. It was a wonderful theme park, absolutely my favorite theme park I ever went to as a kid. It closed down in the 80s.

Starting point is 00:02:23 Still have ski slopes up there and it's more, you know, resort homes now. It's very, very, it's a high elevation, very steep. And the storms were just really, the winter storms just really took their toll on the land of Oz and it became unprofitable. But just across the mountain from there, the backside of Beach Mountain, as they call it, is Beach Creek. And that's where the Hicks family lived that taught me herbal medicine. And you want to talk about a contrast? I mean, on one side of Beach Mountain, you've got multi-million dollar homes.

Starting point is 00:02:57 I mean, Bertie Madoff used to have a place up there. Newt Gingrich had a place up there. Yeah, I mean, I remember I was working at a drugstore as a kid. In walks the Speaker of the house. He was going to play golf, and it rained, and he's like, oh, I got nothing to do. I'll stop at the drugstore and just hung out and chatted with me for a while. You know, very upscale.

Starting point is 00:03:15 And then you go to the other side, and, you know, there were Ray and Rosie Hicks in a, I don't know, 250-year-old cabin with only one electric light and no indoor plumbing and a wood stove for heat and just a completely different world that a Romanger or Beach Creek community at that time was one of the most peaceful, quiet, purely natural places I can imagine. But now they're building the big houses up there and pushing the locals out with high property taxes and zoning. So that's the way it goes. And if you ever wonder why sometimes mountain peoples don't like outsiders

Starting point is 00:03:54 or say why native Hawaiians don't like the people that have moved there, it's because that's what happens. You come in to build the big homes, the big developments, and put in zoning and regulations, and suddenly people are just pushed out of their homes. They can't afford to live there anymore. They can't pay the taxes, and they can't meet code. It's just really very unfair, very unfortunate. But, you know, the people who have the money put the money in the politicians'

Starting point is 00:04:26 pockets and get done what they want done. And, you know, until they legalize, you know, shooting tourists, we don't really have much to say about it. So, or summer people, I guess you'd say. Yeah, it really can be pretty bad sometimes. So let's talk about the beech trees. And D.S. Corides mentioned it in Ancient Greek Medicine. He said the root, the bark of the root, I'm sorry, the bark of the root boiled in water until it becomes tender and applied for a whole night, dyes the hair black. It was first made clean with simolean earth. I'm thinking that's some kind of clay. But yeah, that's one of the ancient hair dyes. And yeah, people were just as vain back in ancient Greeks as they are now.

Starting point is 00:05:20 But the leaves of all of the beaches, he's saying, pounded into small pieces to help edema and strengthen the feeble parts. And he's saying used externally, basically as a poultice. St. Hildegard von Bingen wrote a lengthy entry on beech in her book Physica, which was written around 1100, sometime between 1080 and 1100 AD. It's written around 1100, sometime between 1080 and 1100 AD. She said the beech tree has correct balance with equal heat and cold, both of which are good. It demotes discipline.

Starting point is 00:05:57 Now, she actually had a spiritual side to her herbal medicine, and she thought that beech either indicated or would help a person be more disciplined. And actually, several of these trees she recommended from walking sticks to make a person stronger and increase endurance. Don't know if it works or not, but hey, she's actually a doctor of the church and one of the greatest Christian mystics of all time and prolific writers and knew more about theology than I'll ever understand, but her herbal medicine was very interesting. She said, when the leaves of the beach begin to come out but do not yet fully show,

Starting point is 00:06:39 go to this tree and take a branch of it in your hand. Anyway, she said to cut the branch off with a steel knife and save that branch for a year and collect more every year. And if anyone in that year has jaundice, cut a small piece from that branch, place in a metallic jar and pour over it a moderate amount of wine. Whenever you pour the wine over these bits, say these words, By the holy spark of the holy incarnation by which God became human, draw from this person the sickness of jaundice. Well, that's interesting.

Starting point is 00:07:13 She said, Then heat it in wine with bits of wood which you had cut off in a small crucible. For three days give it as a warm drink to one with jaundice, and he would be cured unless God forbids it. She always said that, you know, you'd only be healed if it was God's will you be healed, if that was what was best for you. But getting back to the more medicinal uses, she said if someone has ague, that's a fever, take some of the fruit of the beech tree when it first comes out and mix it with pure spring water. And she recommends another prayer that God would, you know, take away the person's fever and give this to him in water to drink, offer it for five days, and he will be quickly healed from corchin fevers unless God does not

Starting point is 00:07:55 wish to free him. And corchin fevers were fevers that appeared every four days, usually from malaria. Well, let's see, moving on, she says says anyone who prepares and eats a puree of the leaves of beech when they are new and fresh will not be harmed by it if someone eats its fruit he will not be harmed but will become fat so interestingly i guess in ancient germany they were using uh beech for uh some you know food purposes as well and uh like i said her so it's really interesting it's very very hard to understand um she said she received her knowledge from the voice of the living light which uh may have been an angel maybe she was talking to god we don't know but she was known as actually the sybil of the rhine of the time and um the uh pope had her going around preaching

Starting point is 00:08:43 in all the regional churches, and kings and princes and great scholars would come to her for her information. Very, very interesting. If you ever want to know more about her and her odd, interesting system of herbal medicine, that's all in my book, The Christian History of Herbal Medicine. But getting back to things that are a little more understandable to us, the English herbalist Gerard in the 1500s said, the leaves of the beech do cool and the kernel of the nut is somewhat moist.

Starting point is 00:09:15 The leaves of the beech are very profitably applied to hot swellings, blisters, and excoriations, and being chewed, they are good for chapped lips and pain of the gums. The kernels or mast within are reported to ease the pain of the kidney so these are the beech nuts you know proceeding of the stone if they be eaten and cause the gravel and sand to easier come forth with these no it may says that mice and squirrels love beech nuts, so it's hard to get them before they do, and that's true. And they, interestingly said, fed to swine would make them fat. And remember, St. Hildegard just said eating the nuts would make a person fat, too. But they said, swine also be fattened herewith, and certain other beasts also, and deer to feed upon them very greedily.

Starting point is 00:10:05 Yep, yep, yep. They likewise are pleasant to thrushes and pigeons. That's another reason we like beech trees. They're great for scouting game. The ashes and wood were used in making glass. That's just a side note. And the water that is found in the hollowness of a beech, so a hollow in the tree, the water that is found in the hollowness of a beach so a hollow in the tree the water that collected

Starting point is 00:10:25 there uh he believed was good for um tetters scabs uh scurf which would be like eczema psoriasis good for both men horses uh sheep if they be washed therewith getting another 100 years ahead we're now up to the 1600s cold pepperpepper said, The leaves of the beech tree are cooling and binding, and therefore good applied to hot swellings. Every author so far has said that. The nuts do much to nourish such beasts that feed thereon. The water that is found in hollow places of decaying beaches will cure both man and beast of any scurf, scab, or running tatters,

Starting point is 00:11:04 if they be washed therewith. You may boil the leaves into a poultice and make an ointment of them at the right time of the year. Getting into much more modern use, we're going to look at Miss Grieve in 1930. She said the tar of the beach is stimulating an antiseptic used internally as a stimulating expectorant in chronic bronchitis or externally as an application in various skin diseases. I think she just basically means a sap.

Starting point is 00:11:32 I don't know. I don't think she actually meant like cook it out like you do pine tar. But yeah, I think she just basically means a sap. Looking to the German tradition, Father Johann Kunzel wrote, There are many people who, without being bedridden, are almost always unwell. They have no appetite. He was a funny guy. He said they even dislike the best sausages and are clogged up like the gates of hell.

Starting point is 00:12:00 They have no appetite and they're basically constipated they feel pressure on their chest and their stomachs and there is heat and pain in the head they cannot sleep well and when they do sleep then it is restless and they have bad dreams they run after all doctors and are a nuisance to them right to all quacks as far as london and new york swing like party leaders after an election victory, and are like complaining organs with 365 stops, often with an accompaniment of an orchestra. Father Koobz was a real, he had a very sharp wit about him. But he said, if such people have the seriousness to get well, they should take one of the so-called spring cures for 8 to 14 days

Starting point is 00:12:46 and he included in this unripe blackberries shoots from thorny bushes such as dog rose or blackberries even hawthorn raspberry and shoots from fir trees be beech, hazel trees, cherry trees, oak trees, ash trees, poplar, etc. He made a took a handful of this he actually just says a handful the mixture is thrown into a pan and one or two liters of water pour poured on heated until it simmers and makes a tea and the person should drink the tea until they feel better. Very interesting. I have not tried it. They said the lost appetite returns, the headache and pressure in the abdomen are gone, the pale color vanishes, the gravedigger can put his shovel back in its shed.

Starting point is 00:13:39 This poor creature, previously so pale and shaky, can once again rule the kitchen with power and dignity. If she takes five or seven fir tree twig bass, she's fresh and sunny again like a bride. Hey, worth trying, right? Anyway, he was a really interesting guy. Jolanta Wittib and I wrote a book on his herbal medicine. He wrote it in the 1920s. It's called The herbs and weeds of father johan kunzel if you're interested in that a lot of very practical advice and like i said really

Starting point is 00:14:10 he was a swiss priest with just a really uh biting wit he really did not care for politicians and and doctors and um it's really it's it's pretty cool book, I think. And Jalanta, speaking of him, we gave her commentaries on his old remedies, and her entry on that was, I admire these mighty trees. They're so majestic. Have you ever seen the young shoots of beech? No? Well, look out for these. You would definitely enjoy the look of them. And have you ever eaten the nuts of a beech?

Starting point is 00:14:42 My grandson introduced me to these. She lives in the Alps, by the way. She says we do not have bee ever eaten the nuts of the beach my grandson introduced me to these she lives in the alps by the way she says we do not have beaches in the alps but he lives next to a huge beach forest and in the autumn the past are strewn with the burrs those tiny boxes with beach fruit my grandson showed me how to open them with scissors just point just cutting the pointed upper part and peeling the seed absolutely delicious a beach not only gives nuts but one beach tree releases per hour enough oxygen for 50 people to breathe during that hour well shame we cut so many of them here in the mountains um going to the american tradition we'll start with uh native american we'll go with the lumbee indian the lumbee made a beach tea for taken from the bark of the trunk. The tea was drunk to treat weak back and back aches. The same liquid was mixed with hog lard to form a salve rubbed on

Starting point is 00:15:32 the affected area to treat bone rheumatism, arthritis essentially. The salve was also used to nurse pain from a sprain or broken bone. The Rappahannock soaked beach bark in salt water to produce a substance to be rubbed on the skin to treat poison ivy. The Iroquois used beech nut oil mixed with bear grease as a hair treatment and a mosquito repellent. So this was a tree with many herbal uses known to Native Americans.

Starting point is 00:16:00 By the 1860s, resources of the Southern Fields and Forests says the bark is astring Fields and Forests says, The bark is astringent and has been used, according to Dr. Farnham, in intermittent fever. Remember, just like St. Hildegard said about the agues. But it is not possessed of any decided powers. The fruit produces vertigo and headache in the human species. I have not noticed that. I've eaten beech nuts and I've never gotten vertigo or headache,

Starting point is 00:16:27 so I don't know what he's talking about there. He says that it was a popular master, you know, wild feed for hogs, of course, and the seed yields an oil that is little inferior to olive oil and also fit for burning. The pulp remaining after expressed may be converted into a flower similar in taste and color to wheat but sweeter. A narcotic principle called phagine has been found in the husks. Now that's probably what he was talking about when he said vertigo. He's not actually talking the seeds but probably the unripe husks. The young leaves are sometimes used by common people as a pot herb. So they're still using it as an edible in the 1860s. Up to modern use now.

Starting point is 00:17:13 Peterson Field Guide for Eastern Central Medicinal Plant says American beech, fagus grandifolia, American Indians chewed the nuts as a worm to get rid of worms. Bark tea used for long ailments. Leaf tea as a wash for burns and frostbite. Poison ivy and rash. And as I guess it was the Iroquois put it in salt water. They said one ounce to one pint of salt water for poison ivy and botany a day says the leaves are edible raw or cooked as a pot or herb in early spring the seeds are rich in oil and high in protein edible raw or cooked but should not be eaten in large quantities due

Starting point is 00:17:59 to an alkaloid in the outer covering oh the seeds may also be drowned and ground into flour. The roasted seed is used as a coffee substitute. The sprouted seeds are also edible and reportedly delicious, and the oil. The lore may be a little much for some people, but you know I enjoy to see the historical writing on the plants. But you know I love beech trees, and I've never eaten enough beech nuts I guess to have any problem, but I do think that vertigo was from the husk as he said I don't know anyway a very useful tree very important very important to early America especially in the Appalachians and you know one of my favorites because I mean it's just it's a tree I've grown up with and I find it to

Starting point is 00:18:58 be an excellent wood for carving for firewood for anything and just you know a tasty snack on the trail is mainly how I use it but you know a lot of great a lot of great medicinal properties as well I mean next time I get poison ivy I'm definitely gonna try that tend to get poison oak real bad once every couple of years it seems and I try just about every home remedy to try to soothe that stuff. You know, it's really uncomfortable. So anyway, y'all, now would be the time to go out and gather those leaves if you want to try them as a potter, because it's early spring,

Starting point is 00:19:35 and this would be the exact time. And, hey, maybe I'll give that a try. Y'all have a good one. I'll talk to you next time. 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

Starting point is 00:20:01 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. 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

Starting point is 00:20:31 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, 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: Beech

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