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

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey y'all, welcome to today's show. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. We'll just jump right back in here with another very common tree. It has wonderful medicinal uses and you'll spot this one. I don't care where you live, there's going to be a maple that someone's planted ornamentally. Even if it's in a really bad location. I'm a little hoarse today, you'll have to excuse me, but even if it's a desert southwest, I guarantee you're going to spot somebody who's put in a Japanese maple, even if it needs irrigation and deep mulch and everything. And remember, when you do mulch

Starting point is 00:00:39 your trees, don't mulch right up to the base. Always leave a ring around the base of the tree. It can prevent disease and it actually helps the natural patterns of how the water drips off the leaves of a tree. They don't run down the trunk. You know, you ever thought about that? They actually drip off the leaves. So whenever, definitely, if you live in a drought prone area or a very hot area, you're trying to grow a cooler weather tree, do deep mulch. I mean a foot, two feet deep if you live in a drought prone area or a very hot area you're trying to grow a cooler weather tree do deep mulch I mean a foot two feet deep if you want to three feet it doesn't matter but don't go all the way up to the trunk leave a good at least two feet of space between the trunk and the mulch line and you have a much healthier tree a lot less trouble with it and fewer problems with pests too because some

Starting point is 00:01:26 of the like rodents and such or insects even that will eat the bark of a tree they want to travel through that mulch so if you leave that space you're going to have a lot better time of it that said do put mulch under your trees. Especially, you know, there's a, well, there's a piece of land, I know, because you used to have some family property down there. It's in eastern North Carolina. It's just worn out farmland. I mean worn out. It was cotton fields, it was tobacco fields, and it won't even grow grass. Well, someone came in there and spent a fortune planting pecan trees to start a pecan orchard. And I've been driving past there for like 12 years now. And those things are still spindly, tiny.

Starting point is 00:02:20 I don't know that those trees will bear pecans for ever actually. I mean seriously I mean those trees can live to be 100 years old. I don't know how they're ever going to bear pecans because they're so stunted in their growth because this is just worn out farmland and the person has never put a bit of mulch on it they put the little plastic tubes around the base to keep you know deer from eating the the bark but then they spray roundup around the base of the tree to prevent weeds from growing so when there are no weeds there their trees are actually soaking up you know roundup which is probably stunning their growth, actually. And there's no fertility. There's no mulch.

Starting point is 00:03:07 There's no rotting leaves. There's nothing on that soil to promote the growth of those trees. And, you know, what do you do? I mean, North Carolina and people think spray Roundup on it. I mean, that's literally the mindset of everything. Spray Roundup on it. So that's literally the mindset of everything spray roundup on it soak everything in chemicals it's just really that's what our agricultural schools have pushed and that's what our County Extension agents encourage and basically whether it's a farmer or just a guy that has a lawn if he's not

Starting point is 00:03:43 dumping gallons of roundup on every square foot of his property, he doesn't feel like he's doing his job, I guess. Well, you know, my feelings are about such as that. But let's go ahead and get into maples. Acre, the maple family. There are at least 30 varieties of maples used medicinally. And you know what? I'm not even going to read them all.

Starting point is 00:04:05 If I see a couple here that are simple simple field maple hornbeam maple um hawthorn leaved maple i've seen that one before not very often rock maple uh actually one called box elder which isn't an elder it's actually acre inter interia sub leave Oregon maple well so many Japanese maple now that's one of those you're gonna see in a lot of landscaping even in areas where it really shouldn't be planted and it's a really neat tree I like Japanese maple because one it's darn pretty I mean it has those like red purple leaves the leaves are edible they actually have sort of that lemony sorrel type taste, and they're really good. It's actually a wild edible that I enjoy.

Starting point is 00:04:51 Norway maple, red maple, of course. Silver maple, another one of my absolute favorites. Sugar maple, absolutely one of my favorites. We can tap trees in the Appalachian Mountains. There are several trees we can tap. We have some some maples and we have hickories a lot of hickories you know people don't do it very much because people don't really know about it but yeah if you live up in New England of course you know about sugar maple big tooth maple black maple mountain maple we have a lot of mountain maple um i guess i i you know a lot of

Starting point is 00:05:28 them i don't really know now in my region we have the southern sugar maple which is also just as good i mean as for making syrup i mean and i've seen people down in south carolina that tap those trees so it's it's a really good one that people really don't know about. Acre nigundo, also called eastern box elder or ashleaf maple. I don't know why some of these trees are called elders because they're very different. Black maple we see a lot. Acre nigrum. Stripe maple, absolutely.

Starting point is 00:06:00 That's actually Acre pennsylvanicum. It's native to the Appalachians. We get a lot of that in the mountains. Definitely red maple. Carolina red red maple that grows everywhere yeah i've been over the well i know there's tons of the sand hills i mean tons of it um regular silver maple maple which is also in the sugar maple family yeah so um yeah there's a lot and of course uh people have brought in japanese maples and norway maples and etc uh infusion of the bark of maple especially red maple or acre rubrum and that really is one of the most common maples i see um i was actually talking with a fellow um i guess it was never new thanksgiving i was down in pinehurst visiting my mother and

Starting point is 00:06:45 he had just had a huge red maple taken out of his yard and he said the um the tree crew was recommending everybody cut down their red maples they said that you know they're trash trees or something they're big beautiful maple trees just because they're not planted by an arborist because they're native to here it certainly doesn't mean they should be eradicated um you know they're good for woodworking they're good for carving um you know they're they're not as like uh i guess they're just not as popularly known. But, I mean, if that's what they're telling people these days, like your arborists and your extension agents and your other people in the county that are going to be advising you, man, we really need to cut off their salaries.

Starting point is 00:07:35 I'm just telling you. I mean, we need to cut some government waste and abuse in funding these agencies because this is a tree that's good for firewood. It's a tree that's wonderful for smoking barbecue. But anyway, an infusion made of the bark of maples, especially red maple or acarubrum, is used for its astringent properties. It has traditionally been used for treating sore eyes. It has also been used to help ease cramps and as a remedy in cases of diarrhea or severe diarrhea it can also be extremely useful to treat bruises swellings and skin inflammations and by the way in the same neighborhood another neighbor who bought some of

Starting point is 00:08:18 my spoons so we were talking about carving wood and i was carving some beautiful paper birch carving wood and I was carving some beautiful paper birch and she said it was her favorite tree but she knew it was river birch. You know I was taught those are two different trees. I guess up north she was taught those two different trees but we finally figured out what tree we're talking about and her neighbor again the arborist had just come by and said that's a trash tree you need to get rid of it. You know what if somebody comes to by and said, that's a trash tree. You need to get rid of it. You know what? If somebody comes to your yard and says, that's a trash tree, get rid of it, tell them to get off your property because she paid them to remove an incredibly valuable tree from her property, probably a 30 or 40 year old birch that, I mean as firewood would have been worth you know several hundred dollars as carving wood um any wood carver uh could would pay for that wood gladly and could if you sell

Starting point is 00:09:20 your carvings you're looking at probably $1,000 or $2,000 in that tree. Minimum. Minimum. Plus, you can make baskets and all kinds of stuff out of the bark if you harvest it in the spring. And it's medicinal as well. So, I mean, I don't know what they're teaching people in schools these days. I mean, when I was down at UGA, University of Georgia, we had a forestry department. And we didn't have that kind of idiocy. I don't know what's going on in nc state i shudder to think what's going on at nc state i mean you know

Starting point is 00:09:52 the whole thing's basically funded by smithfield pork which is a chinese owned company i shudder to think what's going on at NC State. But anyway, I think the chemical companies and a lot of business interests are probably, I'll just say they probably have some influence over that curriculum. I have no idea. This is conjecture. I mean, maybe I'm wrong. But I'm not hearing a lot of good advice coming from our local agencies, state agencies. I'm not hearing any good advice coming from them, actually. Yeah, I could go on about that for quite a while,

Starting point is 00:10:35 quite a while. Let's see, how do I think about Smithfield Pork? Well, they destroyed the county that my family lived in for a few hundred years as best I can tell again this is conjecture but it appears to be as I've spent time in Tar Heel 90% of the folks that work there at their factory are illegal immigrants and a few years ago it's probably 15 20 20 years ago now it was probably 15, 20, 20 years ago now, it was during the Bush administration, ICE was called to do an inspection, and someone tipped them off, and all the illegals went out there and rioted, like with grabbing, you know, whatever they could grab, and physically attacked the federal agencies, and I don't think anyone was ever held responsible for it, you know, and, you know, the Cape Fear River smells like hog crap, you know and you know the Cape Fear River smells like hog crap you know and somehow our state

Starting point is 00:11:27 agencies keep saying it's clean they go down and test the water say oh this water is clean they're based out of NC State University who gets a lot of money from Smithfield Bork and the water smells like hog crap but it's clean yeah Yeah. The same water that there used to be a DuPont, I think it was, Teflon plant between Rockfish and Tar Heel. And it just recently came out that that water they were testing recently had basically given hundreds of people cancer due to a chemical called Gen X. How appropriate is that? Gen X. I mean, it literally seeped through the groundwater, contaminated wells, caused all kinds of disease, not just cancer.

Starting point is 00:12:12 But yeah, our state agencies, they're doing a bang-up job testing that water, aren't they? The same state agencies that convinced everybody in the mountains of North Carolina to grow Christmas trees, and now we have the highest rates of cancer in the entire state because of the chemicals that they advise them to continually spray on those trees. Yeah, they're doing a bang-up job. I mean, boy, howdy, we need some higher taxes in North Carolina to fund these freaking geniuses that come out of NC State University, or how about the guy at UNC Chapel Hill that helped the lab in Wuhan develop COVID? You aware of that story? Check it out.

Starting point is 00:12:49 Check it out. Just Google it. You know, UNC Chapel Hill. Gain of function research. Yeah, man, I tell you. Our universities have not only encouraged communism, homosexuality and transgenderism, Black Lives Matter riots, just go down the list of what a wonderful thing

Starting point is 00:13:13 the UNC system of universities has been for North Carolina. I'd shut them all down in the blink of an eye. I don't think a damn one of them is worth a thing. And you look at the teachers they turn out where in the state of North Carolina more than 50% of high school students graduate functionally illiterate and unable to do basic math. Somehow they get a high school diploma. Then they go to college and get a degree. And now they're working in our banks and our hospitals, supposedly qualified, and so freaking stupid. You would not entrust them to watch your dog for five minutes.

Starting point is 00:13:51 But yeah, we have the most teacher colleges in the southeast. Ain't that something? Alright, so charcoal made from the vine maple was used in the treatment of polio, believe it or not. A tea made from the wood and bark of rock maple was said to be effective against nausea. The moosewood, Acra pennsylvanicum, pennsylvanicum, yeah, that's what we say, has the longest and most documented history of use. It has been found effective in a number of ailments. Generally, a tea is made from the inner bark. The tea is used for coughs colds bronchitis and kidney infections as a wash it has been used for swellings

Starting point is 00:14:31 the sugar maple is said to be good used as a tonic tea diuretic and expectorant it is said to cleanse the liver and kidneys it is also recommended as a blood cleanser and an expectorant for clearing the congestion from the lungs the mountain maple has a long history of use as a poultice for wounds. It is also said to help stop internal hemorrhage taken as a tea. Overall, the chief value of the maple beyond firewood and furniture is its sugar. These trees, along with several others, can be tapped in early spring, late winter, early spring to collect the sap as it rises the sap may be fermented and turn into a delicious and health helpful maple wine or beer to this birch tip spruce tips sass fresh roots etc can be added for vitamins and as a spring tonic most often though the sap is cooked down unfermented

Starting point is 00:15:19 into syrup or sugar along with honey maple syrup is the most pure and healthful ofeners I would also add molasses to that molasses actually pretty darn good for you molasses actually does not spike blood sugar the way other sugars do so it's actually a pretty good alternative for people with diabetic type issues I mean you know check with your doctor obviously but molasses doesn't spike the blood sugar the sap is rich inasses doesn't spike the blood sugar. The sap is rich in minerals. It may help regulate blood sugar, by the way. I mean, the sap, seriously, the sap of the maple.

Starting point is 00:15:56 It is immune-supportive and anti-inflammatory and is good for gastric ulcers. Maple nuts are also of interest. Although they are very nutritious and quite tasty, no breeding has been done for nut production. think somebody would have done that over the last you know 10,000 years or something but now they're still just tiny little lentil sized nuts you know the little seed pod of the maple tree looks like a little wing and it kind of spirals you know as it falls down for the tree well there's actually a little lentil sized nut in there and you know I eat them like sunflower seeds I mean you know if you can take the time and effort to crack a sunflower seed and eat that

Starting point is 00:16:30 little seed why not eat a maple nut they're actually quite good and as I mentioned the spring leaves of several varieties especially the Japanese maple are a tasty spring snack when small and tender and they're actually used as a garnish in higher-end like Japanese restaurants I mean Japanese are pretty obsessive about their food and it's can be among the most expensive food on the face of the earth and they use a lot of little Japanese maple leaves in their cooking as decoration but also for flavor Girard in the 1500s said, and remember, this is Elizabethan English, so bear with me.

Starting point is 00:17:11 I'll try to make it as plain as I can. What use the maple hath in medicine? We find nothing written of. What use the maple hath in medicine? We find nothing written of by the Grecians. I don't think he said nothing, actually, but you know what I'm saying. Pliny his 14th book eight chapter by the way pliny wrote a lot so did uh gosh galen i mean those two guys i mean wow um no galen didn't actually write he would dictate he had slaves that wrote for him uh but Pliny I don't know and I mean they wrote Wow but yeah 14th book 8th chapter wrote that the

Starting point is 00:17:51 root pounded and applied is a singular remedy for pain of the liver and it has traditionally been used actually really more in middle eastern herbal medicine for pain or stitch in the side liver inflammation issues. Culpepper about 100 years later said it was good to open the liver and spleen obstructions of both the liver and spleen and eases the pain of the side thence proceeding an irish herbal states the root pounded in wine are beneficial for pains in the side i think we're getting a common use here right so let's get up to a more modern uh use uh plants for future says medicinal uses of sugar maple a tea made from the inner bark is a good blood tonic diuretic and expectorant it has

Starting point is 00:18:44 been used in the treatment of cough, diarrhea, etc. A compound infusion of the bark has been used in drops in treating blindness. The sap has been used for treating sore eyes. The inner bark used as an expectorant and cough remedy. Maple syrup is used in cough syrups and is said to be a liver tonic and kidney cleanser. The Rodale Her herb book said there is considerable considerable evidence of the indians using an extract of the bark and several sorts of several sorts of maple for sore eyes harrod buehner wrote a great book called sacred

Starting point is 00:19:20 sacred and herbal healing beers you know you have to remember our ancestors didn't drink the water. It wasn't clean. They drank a lot of beer and a lot of wine and a lot of whiskey, rum, and all that. But going back thousands of years, we find beer brewing in ancient Egypt, in the pyramids, etc. Anyway, really even older than that.

Starting point is 00:19:44 There are beers and evidence of beers found in old ruins of the celtic tradition that are very prehistoric and they were actually the picks which were destroyed you know genocide basically by the anglo-saxons the pics were a small race of people celtic that were said to have made the best beer on earth and their recipes were lost with them but he says indigenous cultures and he's talking native americans have traditionally used maple sap and bark for skin conditions such as hives and stubborn wounds as a wash at a coction for kidney troubles as a wash, a decoction for kidney troubles, as a cough remedy, as a diuretic for cramping, as a blood purifier, as a tonic, and as an astringent for bleeding. Oddly, in spite of the pervasiveness and importance of this tree, there is less information on its medicinal use than any

Starting point is 00:20:37 other American herb I know of. It's very true. Most herbalists don't know anything about medicinal uses of trees in general. They're just not taught that in herbal school. The way I learned, the way I came up as a folk herbalist gives me a great advantage in this and really has given me the opportunity to tell people about the medicinal uses of trees. Peterson Field Guide to Central and Eastern Medicinal Plants says, a box elder, which is actually one of the maples, American Indians use the inner bark tea as an emetic, inducing vomiting.

Starting point is 00:21:18 The sap boiled down as a sugar source. Stripe maple, they use the inner bark tea for coughs, bronchitis kidney infections gonorrhea splitting blood Spitting blood I should say a wash for swollen limbs inner bark tea was used as a wash for paralysis Historically bark tea was used as a folk remedy for skin eruptions taken internally and applied as an external wash leaf and twig tea used both to allay or induce nausea and induce vomiting depending on the dosage. Of sugar maple, American Indians used the inner bark tea for coughs, diarrhea as a diuretic expectorant and a blood purifier. Maple syrup is said to be a liver tonic, a kidney cleanser and used in cough syrup. During the maple sap gathering process in spring new Englanders drank the sap collected in buckets as a spring tonic so maple syrup

Starting point is 00:22:13 maple trees acre species may be basically unknown among modern herbalist as a medicinal plant but it's nutritious and incredibly useful and as i said you can find them just about anywhere a few trees can make enough maple wine or beer or whatever you would call it whether distilled or not for all the tinctures an herbalist would need think about that you know if you're needing a sugar water source if it were a grid down situation or whatever you wanted to make medicinal tinctures. All you'd have to do is set up a little distillation system and ferment some sap out of a maple tree, and you'd have your alcoholic base for your tinctures. Or you can enjoy it as a beverage.

Starting point is 00:22:57 I'd probably do a little of both. Anyway, it should not be overlooked. Herbal beers, wines, tinctures are really some of our most effective means of preserving and delivering medicinal herbs. For so many reasons, whether you're a woodworker, whether you're a forager, whether you're an herbalist, whether you want to try to eat those maple nuts. And by the way, the squirrels really like those maple nuts. So if you're a squirrel hunter, that's a really good tree to look for squirrels. Anyway, y'all, have a great week.

Starting point is 00:23:31 God willing, my voice is going to get straightened out. I've had just a real bad chest cold over Christmas, and it's kind of settled in my throat the past couple of days. Not really bothering me, just I sound funny. So hopefully by next week, I'll be back to normal. Remember, this comes from my book, The Medicinal Trees of the American Southeast, an Herbalist Guide. I've also done medicinal shrubs and woody vines. And my newest on that is medicinal weeds and grasses.

Starting point is 00:24:01 So, you know, I love telling you about these lesser known herbs that you're not going to find in most herb shops. Most herbalists don't have any idea with their, you know, that they even have medicinal values. And, you know, overeducated idiots go around telling people to cut down their trees and kill their weeds when they could actually be food and medicine that could save your life in a bad situation. And when it comes to wood, I mean, fuel for a fire and cooking and all that. I mean, you know, trees are probably our most valuable resource when it comes to actual survival skills, when you think about it. So anyway, y'all have a good one and I will talk to you next time.

Starting point is 00:24:43 So anyway, 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. Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs. I'm not offering any advice.

Starting point is 00:25:10 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 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

Starting point is 00:25:41 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 - Maple

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