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

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey y'all welcome to this week's show. We're going to do a tree that well it's pretty darn easy to identify right now. It is dogwood. You'll be amazed some additional uses of this tree and you know right now it's in flower. Really doesn't matter if it's white dogwood or pink dogwood. They're actually, it's actually a really interesting family of trees of plants. It's actually a really interesting family of trees, of plants. Some only grow a few inches tall, believe it or not. They actually grow in the woods all around me. I don't know if they're native to my area or naturalized,

Starting point is 00:00:38 but they're just these little tiny dogwoods that have a flower right on top, and they're quite pretty. They're just as useful as a big dogwood tree. Some dogwoods actually bear fruit that are edible. I think this Cornelian cherry is what that dogwood goes by, if I'm not mistaken. I think I have that in my notes. You know, this all comes from my book on the medicinal use of trees. And, you know, especially this time of year, when we talk about trees such as redbud and dogwood, they're super easy to identify. And I think this is just an excellent place to start learning about herbal medicine because, you know, it's so hard to misidentify a tree, really, especially one like a dogwood. So there are actually only three native dogwoods to my region, and that's Cornus alternifolia.

Starting point is 00:01:31 So, you know, that's pretty simple Latin, right? Cornus is actually the dogwood family, and alternifolia means alternate leaf. Foliage is obviously leaves, you know. Also, there's pagoda dogwood. Foliage is obviously leaves, you know. Also, there's pagoda dogwood. There's roughleaf dogwood, and there's cornice florida, the flowering dogwood, which is by far the most common because people have planted it all over.

Starting point is 00:01:56 White flowering dogwood, pink flowering dogwood. Yeah. The, you know, they're little tiny dogwoods. There's actually a whole species of dogwood that only grows about a foot tall. You'll find them in the woods. Medicinally, they're just as useful as the big old dogwood tree. And there's one that's really of special interest, and it's called Cornelian Cherry. Now, I always have a permaculture side to my show. I think it's particularly good for preppers, obviously.

Starting point is 00:02:25 Cornelian Cherry is very popular in permaculture side to my show that I think is particularly good for preppers, obviously. Cornelian cherry is very popular in permaculture. And the reason is it's a dogwood tree that bears fruit and tastes like sour cherries. It's not a cherry. It's actually dogwood. But it can be used in pies or to make jam, just like cherries. Actually, a pretty good substitute for cranberry. It's not quite as tart as cranberry but it's got a little bite to it. So it really goes well with fatty meats. You can sweet it up and make a nice wine out of it. It's a really good plant to consider growing. it's been known for a long time it just is not widely grown in america i i don't know why for some reason we tend to grow food plants in the

Starting point is 00:03:13 garden and just want ornamental plants on the yard well you know edible landscaping is a great survival tool i mean if things are bad and you can just walk out in your yard and pick food, you're going to survive a lot better than most people. I consider edible landscaping an essential prep. My grandfather did. My grandfather planted his property full of edible landscaping. And that's how I grew up. That's how I got into foraging. When I was like three years old, my mom's pulling me around a little red wagon and she's showing me all the edible plants in the yard and there were

Starting point is 00:03:46 tons of fruit trees and nut trees there are also a lot of things you wouldn't expect and yeah so to me planting something like Cornelian cherry which the herbalist Gerard called as a dainty plant it's a pretty one it is a pretty member of the dogwood I think makes total sense the more medicinal uses of dogwood that I mean people just look at as a landscaping tree an ornamental tree people don't even it's not much use for wood it's really hard wood it's crazy hard one of the first I think the first two pieces of wood I tried to carve spoons out of, you know, it's sort of a side business of mine. I carve spoons and bowls and all kinds of things like that, make cutting boards. And I do everything the old

Starting point is 00:04:34 fashioned way. You know, it's green wood and I use knives and gouges, no power tools. It is something I really enjoy and it's become a nice little business If you're interested in that go to Judson Carroll woodcraft, that's another one of my sub stack newsletters I always have the link, you know my show notes somewhere, but yeah, they've been real popular but one of the first the first two I tried to carve one was pear it was a Bradford pear and Yeah, that's a it's not too bad a wood to carve it's uh i would call it like a medium hard and so but when it's green it's really kind of easy if your tools are sharp you know when you first get started in carving um you don't know how sharp sharp is you know the more you keep going and the more you get used to sharpening your tools you realize like razor sharp tools

Starting point is 00:05:26 are what you want to use otherwise you slip and cut yourself a lot you can still slip and cut yourself with a razor sharp gouge or spoon knife or something and it's going to do it's going to go really deep actually because it's so sharp but it actually does less tissue damage and the wounds heal faster they don't hurt as bad i actually jammed a gouge into my thumb about three days ago and um you know just put a band-aid on kept right back at work and hasn't hurt me a bit i mean you know one i think you kind of get used to it your nervous system doesn't react as badly i know that's true from cooking uh most chefs will just put their hands straight into a hot pan a hot oven boiling, boiling water, and pull something out.

Starting point is 00:06:05 Somehow the nerves in the hands get used to being burnt, and they don't react as strongly. And I think that's true also when you're a woodcarver or a woodworker. I think most people, well, mechanics who have busted your knuckles about 100 times, I mean, you know what I'm talking about. Your hands just, I don't know, they toughen up or just kind of the nerves deaden a little bit but um the first time I tried to carve dogwood it about whipped me I mean that is the hardest wood especially down you know the base of the trunk that's always going to be the hardest part of a tree and I you know it was it was very difficult and that's really where I learned to sharpen my tools and I started I made some beautiful pieces out of it, and then I wanted to make a big ladle out of the base of the trunk. And, ah, wow.

Starting point is 00:06:53 I mean, I literally had to, I could not carve it by hand. It was so hard. I had to clamp it down and use a mallet that I also made out of dogwood. That whipped me, you know. But then I'm trying to carve a ladle, and I'd take my gouges and just, you know, tap, pound them and pound them and pound them, like almost like stone. Dogwood is crazy hard.

Starting point is 00:07:12 I was talking with a guy. Well, he asked me, what's the hardest wood to carve? And I said, dogwood. He said, oh, I'm not surprised. He'd worked for a landscaper at a golf course, and he said it was a dogwood they were taking out in the trunk of it at the base was so hard that when they took the chainsaw to it it started making sparks you know it was just like metal it's there's it's crazy what hardwood that is

Starting point is 00:07:38 you know obviously um that can be very useful i mean if you're going to use, it's a good word for tool making, mallets, anything that you really need some very hard wood for. I would put it right up there with ironwood and white oak. Certainly white oak. White oak is actually easier to carve. I don't know if it's not as hard as dogwood, but the grain pattern, I think think maybe just is a little bit easier but um you know medicinally let's talk about medicinally uh decoction of the mouth uh the bark is useful for mouth sores sore throat diarrhea skin inflammations very astringent it helps with the inflammation uh it's good for swellings and blisters. You can use it as a compress. Just take that tea, a decoction of the bark.

Starting point is 00:08:27 Decoction, okay, I probably don't have to explain that since it's been a while. When you make herbal tea, which is technically called an infusion, you've taken dry herbs usually and you pour hot water over them, simmering water. Cover, let them steep. Don't let the steam escape because all the essential oils volatile oils are in that steam okay that's the biggest mistake people make making tea is they let 90 of the medicinal properties of that herb gas off seriously with uh decoctions we make those out of roots and bark twigs stuff like right? We're not worried so much, well, we're not worried really at all about volatile oils in 99% of them, you know.

Starting point is 00:09:10 And you just put that in a pot of water and boil it until the water is reduced by half. That's your good rule of thumb. And it should be, it's going to be dark, it's going to be strong. And when you do that with dogwood or, well, I mean, oak bark makes an incredibly strong decoction but dogwood really good for blisters and sores and sore throats as a mouthwash for diarrhea it's the same as oak because it has astringent properties it's just going to tighten up that tissue and dry things out you know you use oak bark oak galls actually that's where a you know wasp has made a little wound in the tree essentially that's the most tannic part of oak uh traditionally that's what's been used to tan

Starting point is 00:09:50 leather you know now things are done more with chemicals but for years for centuries thousands of years people sought out oak galls for for tanneries and there was a good business in harvesting them selling them to tanneries for like, you know, five for a penny a couple hundred years ago. That was actually good money, you know, inflation again, right? So adding dogwood leaves and bark to a bath is really good for sore joints and muscles. But that's not all. Let's start with some of the historical uses. Really, dogwood, we're going to look at as an antiviral, or maybe not so much an antiviral as one to combat the symptoms of certain viruses.

Starting point is 00:10:34 It has a quinine-like property that we'll get into in a minute. But first of all, I want to tell you in Germanic, in the German folk school of medicine, the Cornelian cherry, the one I said was used for fruit, was very much used. Really not a plant very well known to America, even today, even today. But Brother Aloysius, who was a monk, who was an herbalist, said the bark and fruit of Cornelian cherry,

Starting point is 00:11:00 that's actually a dogwood, are used medicinally. The bark is astringent and febrifusial. That means it reduces fever. So, you know, that's what I was talking about. This, this, all dogwoods have this property. Really good to know. The fruit is astringent and desiccant, meaning drying. Application of fresh bruised leaves staunches bleeding. The fruit decoction is used for fevers, burning, and dysentery, and also stimulates appetite. So a really good plant to put in your landscape. Like I said, all the dogwoods are useful, but if you've got one that you can use for both food and medicine, and it's a pretty plant, you know, even if you're in a HOA or POA, I mean, that's one I would

Starting point is 00:11:43 prioritize. Another one that's in a similar family I'm just going to go on a little tangent on this it's osier let me think red osier or it's sometimes called a willow and it's sometimes called a dogwood I've seen it called red osier dogwood I've seen it called red willow and it's sometimes called a dogwood I've caught it saying called red osier dogwood I've seen it called red willow the Native Americans the Indians call it Kenny connect or can I connect I think if I remember correctly it is a gorgeous plant I mean the stems of this plant are bright red and it's gonna get me so pretty in the winter when there's snow on the ground. Great for basket weaving.

Starting point is 00:12:29 But, and I may get into this another day. I may have to do a whole show on it. You may know Kinikinik as an ingredient in Native American smoking mixtures. They would take tobacco and combine it with a few other herbs to make the smoking of tobacco more relaxing. Well, that's like, Kinney Kinick is like the main thing. Okay, that and, oh, what is it? Squalvine, Michella repent, is that right? The common name for that one's not coming to me,

Starting point is 00:13:02 but it's a low-growing ground plant, much like wintergreen. Yeah, it's just not coming to me right now. Those are really the two main ingredients that they would combine with tobacco. The properties of that Kennekenick bark, really, and the stems, twigs, help with pain and relaxes the muscles and can help clarify the mind and can actually be intoxicating in in a large amount so if you're looking at two plants to add to your landscaping that have medicinal properties and are just really gorgeous um yeah cornelian cherry and the red osier dogwood i think that's the most common name it goes by and i cannot remember right

Starting point is 00:13:47 now the latin name or anything else but you can just google that and you'll see it it's just stunning i mean it's just bright red now another one of my favorite uh plants to have in the is Burning Bush, Fire Bush, Wahoo. Spindle Tree is in the same family. We'll talk about those separately. They can actually be quite toxic, but they do have some additional value. But, I mean, just, you know, when you live in the mountains and winter comes in and everything is just white and gray, it's just really nice to have something out there that has some color. And so I really like those

Starting point is 00:14:25 plants. Barberry is really nice to have because it gets so red you know in the fall and winter. Yeah I guess that's all that comes to mind right now. But now we get into Cornus Florida, the flowering dogwood, the one that's in flower right now, the one that you can look at your window probably and see everywhere, okay? According to resources of the Southern Fields and Forest, during the late war, and at this point, I think he was actually talking the war of 1812, because he was working for the, this is a French botanist that was working for the Confederacy, so he wouldn't have called the Civil War the late war, it was the war they were in, the bark was employed with great advantage in the place of quinine in fevers, particularly in cases of low forms of fever and in dysentery on the river courses of a typhoid character. So, you know, typhoid can cause a lot

Starting point is 00:15:18 of diarrhea and fever. You remember typhoid Mary and that whole epidemic. Chinchona or quinine was a really good remedy. And dogwood, maybe even a little better, actually. He said it has been given as a substitute for Peruvian bark. That's Chinchona or quinine. In fact, in almost any case where Chinchona bark was used, it is effective. This well-known plant possesses tonic and anti intermittent properties intermittent are fevers usually caused by malaria they called intermittent because they come regularly there are tertian fevers which come every three

Starting point is 00:15:57 days quatrain fevers which come every four days they're so reliably accurate that Sir Walter Raleigh when he had run afoul of the British government, you know, great hero of British history who founded the first colony in America, you know, in North Carolina we certainly know him because that's how we got here. He founded colonies in North Carolina and Jamestown, Virginia. Carolina and Jamestown Virginia. He well apparently was quite a ladies man and maybe made a pass at the queen or something like that or whatever a princess or something I don't remember the entire story and it may have gone a little further than that because the king decided to have him beheaded and he had malaria and he knew that every four days at the exact hour and

Starting point is 00:16:47 minute when his fever would hit and he requested he be beheaded before that time so that's how how regular intermittent fevers are and so it's very easy to tell when something works against them because they're very predictable and quinine and dogwood are very good tulip poplars another one and i think we've already discussed tulip poplar if not we'll get to it soon lyriodendron uh see if i'm in cornice no we've certainly not gotten to the l's yet but i'm uh we will soon anyway the well-known plant possesses tonic and anti-intermittent properties, very nearly allied to those of Tinchona or quinine, in periodic fevers, one of the most valuable of our indigenous plants.

Starting point is 00:17:34 Dr. Gregg states that after employing it for 23 years in the treatment of intermittent fevers, he was satisfied that it was not inferior to Peruvian bark. Again, quinine. Generally, they called it Peruvian bark. Again, quinine. Generally, they called it Peruvian bark at this time because it had been known as the Jesuit's bark. The Jesuits, of course, are a religious order of Catholic monks and priests, and they actually are the ones that discovered chinchona from the natives of Peru and introduced it. And in most British and early American herbals, they will not call it Jesuit's bark. They'll call it Peruvian bark or Chinchona because their bigotry against Catholics was so very strong. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, it was either Thompson, Dr. Thompson or Jethro Kloss,

Starting point is 00:18:27 it was either Thompson, Dr. Thompson or Jethro Kloss, went on quite a tirade in one of his books about how the only good thing the Jesuits ever did was discovering Chinchona because they worshiped Satan and the Whore of Babylon. You know, trust me, as a Catholic in the South, we get that a lot. I always say, your good Christian neighbor down the street will likely show up on your doorstep one day to tell you you are going to hell, and he'd be glad to help you get there faster. Yeah, that's kind of what the whole point of the Klan was. They didn't really teach this in school either, but the Ku Klux Klan lynched, I think, about three times more white Catholics

Starting point is 00:19:01 than it did all blacks and Mexicans and Jews put together. Yeah, anyway, the fresh bark, let's see, generally given in conjunction with laudanum, now of course laudanum is tincture of opium, so that would of course be very antispasmodic, which that would help with cramping of the bowels and such. It also possesses antiseptic powers. In the recent state, it is less stimulating than chinchona bark, but it affects the bowels more. The dried bark is the preferable form. In other words, it's better to use it dried than fresh,

Starting point is 00:19:38 and that's probably how you're going to collect and keep it you know in your herbal medicine cabinet the fresh bark will sometimes act as a cathartic meaning it could actually well it could actually cause diarrhea essentially it is more stimulating than thorough wart eupatorium and therefore is less applicable during the hot stages of fever so they were were saying use thorough wart, the show pie weed, you know, very closely related to fever for you. And that was better for intense high fevers. But the dogwood was better for low lingering or intermittent fevers. According to Dr. Walker's examination, the bark contains

Starting point is 00:20:26 an extractive matter, gum, extractive matters, gum, resin, tannin, and gallic acid. And Dr. Carpenter announces it has a new principle in medicine at this time in 1860s, cornine, cornine, that's, you know, a specific chemical that comes from the cornice or dogwood species dr. Jackson found from experiment that he was satisfied that the contains the principal analogous to quinia so cornine and quinine very very similar it has been exhibited from dr. SG Morton in intermittent fever with success we start getting to references from medical It has been exhibited from Dr. S.G. Morton in Intermittent Fever with Success. We start getting to references from medical journals. We obviously don't need that.

Starting point is 00:21:10 The ripe fruit infused in brandy makes an agreeable and useful bitter, which may be a convenient substitute for the article prepared in shops. Digestive bitters were very popular at the time. And I have actually never used the fruit, the berry of Cornus Florida. Growing up I was told it was poisonous. I never thought about even trying it, honestly. And I'm going to have to experiment with that this fall, this summer and fall. The medical and surgery journal, 1849, he gave the extract in doses of 10 grains without it producing any disturbance to the stomach as alleged by some writers so um apparently it was thought to be

Starting point is 00:21:51 poisonous at the time they're saying maybe not um usual care look into it you know from the gallic acid it contains uh link may be made and the bark of the fibrous roots the Indians extracted as scarlet color. Yes, root of dogwood was used as a dye. We don't need to get into that, but that was very interesting at the time because the whole job of this botanist was to replace everything imported to the south from outside by native plants during the blockade. The dogwood bark and root in decoction or in the form of cold infusion is believed to be the most efficient substitute for quinine. Also in treating

Starting point is 00:22:33 malarial fevers, certainly might be used in cases of occurring cramp to prevent the waste of quinine that should be substituted. Now think about this during um covet people are freaking out you know they needed this some fever antiviral property of quinine and um couldn't get it and there were all these like crazy recipes of how to make your own quinine on the internet out of grapefruit pills and such which doesn't actually work um it's similar you can get a similar compound, but it doesn't do what actual quinine does. Well, you probably had a dogwood tree in your yard or down the street. Think how useless it would have been, right? Or tulip poplar, which is, yeah, lyriadendron.

Starting point is 00:23:17 Very similar. You combine that with eupatorium boneset or joe pie weed epilobium i think it is is that right yeah i think so um and you know you could have had some stuff you could really have used to help you in such a viral condition and this is why we need to know this you know absolutely um and he encourages people to grow opium poppies mustard mustard, flaxseed, and dogwood to replace a lot of the imports coming in. So, yeah, I'm not going to encourage you to grow opium poppies. You might go to jail. But California poppy, prickly poppy, can be used, and they are illegal.

Starting point is 00:23:59 So, yeah, maybe look into that. Not that I'm advocating the use of opiates. Actually, I do everything I can to avoid the use of opiates. He also talked about red willow and swamp dogwood, that red willow is that red osier dogwood. And he found it to be more bitter and more astringent and talks about how Indians' favorite combination was combining it with tobacco for smoking. Blood red dogwood apparently could be used similarly and that's more of a swamp plant. King's Medical Dispensatory of 1898 says this is in you know official medicine at the time dogwood bark is tonic astringent and

Starting point is 00:24:39 slightly stimulant it forms an excellent substitute for Peruvian bark again. That's quinine. Having frequently proved efficient in periodic attacks when the foreign drug failed. So they're saying it's even more effective than quinine. It may be used in many cases where quinine is indicated and can be administered owing to its idiosyncracity. I'm not even sure what they mean by that. It may be used with advantage in cases where tonics are required. So the bitter property is good for your stomach. In periodic fevers, typhoid fevers, etc.,

Starting point is 00:25:14 its internal employment increases the strength and frequency of the pulse. It elevates the temperature of the body, so it helps break a fever by actually increasing the temperature of the body. It should be used in a dried state as the recent bark is apt to derange the stomach and cause more or less pain in the abdomen. So that doesn't sound good. I think it just means cramping an upset stomach essentially. Prepared by boiling in water. So it's just a decoction. And again, this one says the ripe berries formed into a tincture with brandy or whiskey are popular bitters among some country people. I may have to give it a try and the flowers are occasionally used in the place of chamomile well yeah I'm gonna have to give that a try specific indications it

Starting point is 00:25:54 uses tonic anti-periodic intermittent and or miasmic fevers good for headache general exhaustion feeble relaxed tissuesble pulse, and a subnormal temperature. Getting more up to date here, the Rodeale herb book said the Indians were the first to use the native dogwood for healing, and the white settlers were quick to add it to their folk medicine. Although the bark was the principal part used, the flowers and leaves have been used. The Delawares, Alabamas, and Humas of Louisiana all use the inner bark to make a febrifuge tea, tea for fevers. It is good in low continual forms of fever where the patient is generally exhausted, reports one 19th century

Starting point is 00:26:37 Indian folk herbal. During the Civil War, dogwood was used as one of several native plants as a substitute for quinine, which was obtained from the bark of the chinchona tree, a Peruvian native when the south was cut off by outside supply sources. Botany and Day states that dogwood contains varying amounts of cornic acid and the alkaloid cornine, mostly in the bark and inner bark. It is mildly narcotic and analgesic in effect, especially helpful for individuals who have negative reactions to willow or aspirin. So, used as a substitute for salicin. The bark is also quite astringent, which further helps draw down inflamed tissue. And we'll end with the physician's desk reference for herbal medicine.

Starting point is 00:27:26 You know, this is what your doctor would use if you go in and say, Doc, I'm taking this herb. He's going to pull it out and see if, you know, official medicine now says it's safe or not. They say it does have a cardiac effect at different levels up to the cessation of heartbeat. So you could actually, if you took way too much, it could hurt you, okay? But it depends on the concentration of the menthol extract.

Starting point is 00:27:50 It has an antispasmodic effect. It is used in malaria. And similar to quinine or sulfadiazine. Sulfadiazine, there we go. To date, results cannot be sufficiently assessed the bark works as a tonic and astringent and a stimulant stimulant northern in north america the dried bark was used in folk medicine to strengthen and stimulate the appetite for fever and chronic diarrhea it is used externally as an astringent for wounds and boils. Formerly, it was used as a replacement for quinine. It is still used for headaches and fatigue.

Starting point is 00:28:29 Under health risks and side effects, it says, following the proper administration of designated therapeutic dosages, health risks are not recorded. So, yeah, I'm sure if you took a whole lot, maybe you could hurt yourself. That's true of just about anything, though, isn't it? And the PDR, Physician's Test References, says, using designated therapeutic dosage, it's pretty much safe. So, look into it, research it, consider planting some dogwoods.

Starting point is 00:29:05 They're not just pretty trees. They're ridiculously useful for many things. So, y'all have a good one, and I will 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.

Starting point is 00:29:32 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. I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience and if I believe an herb has helped 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.

Starting point is 00:29:55 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, 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, Dogwood

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