The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Medicinal Trees, Chestnut

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. I'm back. Yeah, I missed one last week. Dang pear trees. We have Bradford pears in this region like crazy. Just useless. Well, they're not useless. I mean, they're ornamental pear trees, mainly for their beautiful white flowers of the spring. Those beautiful white flowers give me horrible allergies. And last week I sounded about like Fred Sanford, so I opted not to do a show. They are actually useful. The fruits are edible, although, well, it's hard to get them ripe.

Starting point is 00:00:39 You know, basically, by the time you get a ripe one, those tiny little pears, they're about half rotten, so they're not the time you would get a ripe one those tiny little pears they're about half rotten so they're not that great but also even though they're tiny little pears they have the same amount of arsenic in them as the seeds of a big pear so if you were to eat a handful of them you could actually get pretty sick so people don't really use them and now the wood is nice for carving it's hard it's very hard some of the first wood I tried to carve was pear wood and it's green form it's usable and it's when it's good and cured and dry man that stuff is like almost as hard as dogwood so but yeah it's not a useless

Starting point is 00:01:19 tree but it's not the most useful tree fact, the state of North Carolina wants to basically eradicate them. They've asked people not to plant them anymore and to cut down any that they can. But it's too late. There are millions and millions of them. And they stink as well. They really smell bad in the spring. So anyway, but let's get into a more useful tree. And this is actually one that, wow, the mountains where I live,

Starting point is 00:01:52 the entire timber industry was founded on this tree. And it was the chestnut. The American chestnuts were once, I mean, almost as big around as redwoods. I mean, they're just huge. They were. And then a blight nearly wiped them out in the last century or so. And according to legend here in the Appalachian Mountains, the blight was not a mere coincidence. Chestnuts had been enjoyed as survival food in the mountains um the chestnut is really unique

Starting point is 00:02:28 it's really more like a potato than a nut full of starch you know you roast them and i mean people literally survived off of chestnuts and um you know that's what the country was free and open and you know by the early 1900s people were starting to fence things off and put up no trespassing signs and according to the local legend the old timers said that uh because god had blessed the people with the chestnut tree and the people had decided to um prevent not share it with others, be greedy about it, he wiped out the trees. You know, I don't know, maybe. You know what, I actually wouldn't doubt it, but the blight was really devastating. Whether it's a punishment from God for misusing his

Starting point is 00:03:21 abundant and free gifts, or it was just a blight that was probably introduced from another country when they started shipping plants across the seas and such. Who knows? But it really wiped out the American chestnut. Every now and then you'll see a chestnut grow up just, you know, maybe 10 feet tall, and then it just dies. The blight is still here. maybe 10 feet tall, and then it just dies. The blight is still here. Fortunately, they have chestnuts in Europe and Asia, and they have hybridized specifically the Asian chestnut with the American chestnut, and it is blight resistant. So for the past 20 years or so, people have been reintroducing this hybridized American chestnut. The hope is that the native chestnut will further breed with this

Starting point is 00:04:11 hybridized chestnut or that this hybridized chestnut will become naturalized and that we will once again have abundant chestnut trees. We're probably a century away from that, if it's even possible. Chestnut wood is gorgeous. I mean, most of, so much of our furniture and such in early America came from chestnut. As I said, an absolute essential food. I mean, everybody knows Nat King Cole singing chestnuts roasting on open fire, you know. it was like synonymous with the americas it was just a beautiful tree and the wormy chestnut even after the trees were dead was a huge industry here in the in the mountains i'd say probably until about 1960 just going out and finding these dead worm infested

Starting point is 00:05:03 chestnut trees which as I said were huge and cutting them into planks and making uh you know beautiful furniture or paneling there's much use for paneling and uh yeah I mean I really hope it comes back but uh we'll get into the uh medicinal use of this tree here in just a second I mean that is sort of the purpose of this show but you know I'd really like to encourage you if you have a little land to get one of those hybrid chestnut trees and plant it. The more of us who do that, the faster things will turn around if they're going to turn around. And really interesting, the American chestnut really that didn't die out is what we call the chinkapin now the chinkapin is a much smaller tree it's really more like a shrub and it has a

Starting point is 00:05:50 small chestnut that is edible and I'm gonna tell you a story and y'all gonna think I'm crazy okay but it's just the God's honest truth a couple years ago I spotted an old homestead on over 100 acres in South Carolina. Old cotton country, you know, economically depressed. The land was like $1,000 an acre, you know. So, I mean, it's like big old antebellum house and land that cheap. I had to go check it out. Well, it was a bit of a drive my I was helping out my mother at

Starting point is 00:06:30 the time and I said you want to come along with me and yeah she said sure she got the car put my dog buddy in the back seat and we drove down to an area in the old cotton country of South Carolina and the farmhouse was actually in the center of about 200 acres of cotton fields now I actually have a strong toxic reaction to cotton poison so that really ruled out the property for me that what happened while I was there did not surprisingly enough I'm a little odd in that regard but you know cotton poison gives me like flu-like symptoms so I got out I started walking around I thought I smell cotton poison it smells musky it kind of smells musky but immediately I was like yeah I'm I hate it because this is going to work because this this would be

Starting point is 00:07:19 paradise it's like exactly where I've wanted to live all my life. I started walking around this beautiful white house, you know, and there were all the old landscaping that was still in place from the 1800s. There were roses, Sharon bushes, big magnolia trees, pecan trees, camellia bushes, you know, love that. Daffodils and irises were coming up. It was spring. There were roses and yuccas and crab apples and pears and several of those beautiful chinkapin trees. And I mean, they were really nice and really in good shape. And I mean, I was getting excited. And, you know, my mom and dad stay in the car with the dog. And so she just yells out, we have to go. I mean, adamant, right? And I'm just enjoying the flowers and the spring sunshine.

Starting point is 00:08:08 I mean, it really felt peaceful and welcoming. I mean, I would have just sat down and stayed for hours. And, you know, I knew that the agricultural chemicals weren't going to let me do it, but I was really trying to make it work. And so I went over and I asked her why, and she just like yells at me, this place is haunted. I'm not kidding. Okay. Let me tell you, my mom has a master's degree in psychology. She's a very serious, intelligent, professional person, not given a superstition at all. But she says to me, this place is haunted. She said, I can hear two elderly sisters at the

Starting point is 00:08:41 upstairs window talking. And they're talking about how they're excited to have guests for dinner. Now, this place had been sitting empty for like 50 years. I'm serious. Whoever owned it, the family kept it up. Nothing structurally wrong with it, but I mean, you could look at the old electrical wiring going to this house and know, you know, they had never had internet in there. They had never had cable television. I mean, this place has been sitting empty for decades and she could literally hear ghosts. And you know, I, I got in the car and said, uh, uh, cause buddy was freaking out my dog. I mean, he was like freaked out. So something was definitely freaking the two of them out. And you know, I'm pretty practical guy. I do believe in the supernatural I have no doubt that there was something going on there but whenever I think about chinkapins I absolutely remember that

Starting point is 00:09:39 beautiful plantation house it was near South Carolina, somewhere between Florence and Dillon and like Laurenburg, North Carolina, the old cotton country. And, you know, I mean, I always say I'm like the only herbalist who doesn't see fairies or have two-way conversations with plants. But honestly, I did feel like, yeah, a welcome there there I felt like I was a guest at somebody's home it was it was really odd and I said I mean I told her as I drove away I said I don't doubt you at all but it's a shame because those two old ladies must have been great gardeners you know to have such a beautiful grounds especially in a house that nobody's lived in for like 70 years, all I could figure is they were still taking care of it. So we probably would have gotten along just fine.

Starting point is 00:10:32 And I know you all think I'm crazy, but I mean, the dog was freaked out. I mean, hair standing on end, like barking and snapping at everything. My mom was freaked out. like barking and snapping at everything my mom was freaked out and I'm just like you know yeah I'd like to sit down and have a have a glass of tea with these ladies you know it just felt perfectly comfortable for me but anyway we'll talk about the medicinal properties of the tree like I said aside from being a very nutritious starchy nut that really is more like a potato in flavor, with a little sweetness, beautiful wood for carving, paneling, cabinets, furniture. It does have medicinal value.

Starting point is 00:11:15 The American chestnut was used to soothe the lungs as both an expectorant and astringent. This was taken as a tea made from the leaves. The Chinese chestnut has been used to settle the stomach and treat diarrhea. Culpeper in 1600 England mentioned the astringency of the chestnut and its use against bleeding. Miss Greve wrote of its folk use in treating fevers and spasmodic cough. its focus in treating fevers and spasmodic cough. But you know centuries before that ancient Greece, Dioscorides praised the astringency of the chestnut. So that's its main function. An Irish herbal says they are good for chest

Starting point is 00:11:58 problems and for arresting the bowels. That means for congestion, coughs, and for diarrhea. A paste made for them is good against coughing and spitting of blood. Father Johann Kunzel, this is in the German tradition, wrote of chestnut. Higher up there was a tall, well actually Kunzel was Swiss. This is in the Swiss tradition, so let me correct that. But it's actually German folk medicine, so that's the overarching term. Higher up there was a tall old chestnut tree with fruits covered in prickly pods so he's talking about the fruit fruits the laplander that was his guest

Starting point is 00:12:32 i guess what is that norwegian was beside himself and surprised when the dane opened up the shell and showed him the fruit that's the nut said, this tree provides food for millions of people because these fruits are extremely nutritious. But why are there spikes all around, he asked. Well, without this protection, the birds and squirrels and insects would eat everything up. The almighty creator added this protective skin. When the fruit is ripe, it falls to the ground.

Starting point is 00:13:01 The protective cover pops and we can collect it. In the south, that is in the south of Switzerland, I guess, they have even much taller trees. Near the fire-spitting mountain of Etna, there is a chestnut tree under which 200 riders and their horses have enough space. That's how massive chestnuts can actually become. I mean, imagine a tree big enough that 200 people on horseback could crowd under it i guess for shelter i mean these were i i mean this talk is switzerland but in eastern north

Starting point is 00:13:34 carolina every now and then you see in like pisgah national forest or something a stump of an ancient chestnut and it's like holy cow i mean these things were huge one i mean one tree was plenty of timber to build a whole house i mean without the chestnut i don't know that much of america would have ever even been settled it provided food fire lumber, you name it, and even medicine. And I'm, you know, let's see what we can do to bring it back. I mean, like I said, if you have a little garden space, if you have a little space in the corner of your yard or whatever, one of those hybrid chestnut trees, let's see if we can get these things going. For survival, but for future generations, probably one of the best things you can ever do.

Starting point is 00:14:31 My friend herbalist from Austria, Jolanta Wittob said, the southern part of Tyrol is proud of the sweet chestnut, Castanea sativa. They have beautiful, delicious seeds, which ones can use in so many ways. Every autumn, there's a kind of gourmet festival called, well, I don't speak Austrian, so I'm not even going to try it. Let's see. No, I'm not going to try it. It's T and that O with the dots over it, R-G-G-E-L-E-N. and that O with the dots over it, R-G-G-E-L-E-N. You drink wine and eat roasted sweet chestnuts together with other specialties of the region like ham and cheese and bacon. Many come for

Starting point is 00:15:13 just that. It is very popular and roasted chestnuts are so delicious. And pigs fed on chestnuts are said to produce the best ham and bacon in the world. So another reason to plant at least some chinkapins or something if you raise hogs because you can demand a much higher price for your pork. Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests written in the 1860s says the fruit of the tree and the chinkapin, so the chestnut that was Castanea vesica, that's our native, and the He says, in milk is much used in the diarrhea of teething children. I would advise a tea made of this to be used extemporaneously in diarrhea by soldiers in camp. The late Dr. Nelson Burgess of Sumter, South Carolina, informed me at the recommendation of Dr. Jones that he has used the decoction of the root and bark of chinkapin frequently as a substitute for quinine in intermittent and remitted fevers.

Starting point is 00:16:36 So this would be good for certain viruses like COVID and such, potentially, perhaps. And malaria was actually what he was talking about right there. With decidedly satisfactory results, I mentioned this hoping that it would be examined by others. I can have no clue to the reasons of its utility regarding it heretofore simply as an astringent. But hot water poured over the root and bark in a large quantity taken for 24 hours reports dr unzucker of cincinnati who uses the

Starting point is 00:17:12 cocks of the leaves is useful in the whooping cough he says he's given it in about 30 cases in all of which it gave decided relief in two weeks. He uses the decoction made with three or four drachms. That's an old pharmacist measurement. I don't know what the equivalent is, honestly. But I don't think it's one you've got to be so specific with, really. I mean, you're talking decoction. You just take the dry plant material and boil it in water until it's reduced by half. But he said it was much used uh

Starting point is 00:17:46 in this disease and in asthma so whooping cough and asthma and also used uh found very useful in the boston medical school at the time king's medical dispensatory 1898 says, chestnut leaves appear to have been brought into notice as a therapeutic agent by Mr. G.C. Close in a statement before the American Pharmaceutical Association in 1862. Subsequently, they were employed by the late Dr. J.S. Unzucker of Cincinnati, I think we just mentioned him, didn't we, who valued them highly in the treatment of whooping cough, since which most favorable reports have been made by other physicians as to their value. These leaves have thus far been employed mainly in the treatment of pertussis, in which malady they have proved remarkably efficient, but their manner of action has not yet been determined it is very probable that they may be found useful in other irritable or excitable

Starting point is 00:18:51 conditions of the respiratory nerves so they thought it had an antispasmodic effect on the respiratory system dr. unzucker employed an infusion of the leaves an ounce to a pint of boiling water, and administered this in a tablespoonful. So there we go. I don't know exactly what a drachm is, but here's just a tea made of the leaves, an ounce to a pint of boiling water, and administered it in tablespoon or small wine glass full doses. So like a little cordial glass is what they're talking like a sherry glass essentially repeatedly several times a day so they were using it often the fluid extract when properly made will be found reliable chestnut bark appears to possess

Starting point is 00:19:41 astringent and tonic properties and is used in some sections of our country as a popular remedy for fever and ague. That's a malaria fever. Other forms of paroxysmal means essentially spasmodic. Intoximal means essentially spasmodic. It can be, it was often used to describe epileptic seizures, but it's any spasming of a muscle or, especially in this case, we're talking the lungs. So, antispasmodic for the lungs. Or convulsive cough. So, you know, same thing.

Starting point is 00:20:22 Resembling pertussis have been cured with it. Professor Scudder in a medical journal at the time suggested trial remedy in cases exhibiting unstayiness of gait and a disposition to turn to one side. That's interesting. So someone was wobbly when they walked, essentially, and were kind of leaning to one side, so maybe there was a little, I don't know, vertigo or maybe there was a little I don't know vertigo or something you know I don't know um that's you know you can see that um chestnut much used in

Starting point is 00:20:55 European folk medicine much used in early American um official medicine you know a doctor would have been making these prescriptions we don't know a lot about it anymore because the tree has gone essentially extinct anything we can do to being that bring this tree back is going to be an absolute gift to our grandchildren i think it we should absolutely prioritize planting chestnuts. But they're also going to bear fruit in our life. I mean, you know, if you've got 20 years left on your time clock, you'll be able to eat some chestnuts. And they're really, really good.

Starting point is 00:21:38 They're really, really good. Mainly I've had the chinkapins. Occasionally, you know, you get some imported chestnuts from Europe or Asia. And they used to be such a part of our American tradition. It's just, you know, you cannot imagine how essential this tree was to our ancestors. There would literally literally probably not be people well living in the Appalachian mountains until much later but America may not have even made it as a nation without the chestnut I mean those chestnuts were so essential for food to our ancestor our ancestors I, before they really started growing potatoes and such, that was the starch. And I mean, you can tell by the legends how important it was to the Appalachian people. And, you know, whether you believe me or not about the potential ghost sighting in South Carolina,

Starting point is 00:22:41 I can tell you, it is just a really pleasant, whether it's a small chinkapin or a giant chestnut tree, it's just a really pleasant part of the landscape. And of course, it's medicinal as well. And I mean, if you ever, if you'd ever been in the Allegheny or the Pisgah or one of those old forests and stumbled across an old chestnut stump, you could then understand what our ancestors saw in those trees. I mean, one tree provided enough timber, at least for one house, probably for houses plus wagons and you know everything they needed they were just huge and they have a nice fragrance as well anyway y'all have a good one and uh now that the pear pollen is starting to die down uh god willing i'll talk to you next time the information this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition I'll talk to you next time. Thank you. treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no

Starting point is 00:24:25 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, 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: Medicinal Trees, Chestnut

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