The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Mulberry

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey y'all welcome to today's show we're going to continue our series in the medicinal uses of many common trees and this is one that is a particular favorite of mine and one that if you don't have one growing in your yard right now you really need to plant one okay it's mulberry I actually heard someone say one time they had a big mulberry tree and it dropped fruit all over their patio and they cut it down because they got tired of cleaning up the fruit. That is like, I don't, that's maybe one of the stupidest things I've ever heard in my life. Okay, when you have a tree that produces food, you have a useful tree. I mean, if you're too lazy just to collect fruit, then, well, you're not going to make much of a prepper, I can tell you that much. But mulberry is delicious, some varieties more than others.

Starting point is 00:00:52 Makes a wonderful wine, jams and jellies. I think it's good. Some varieties are very good eaten as a fresh fruit. Some are better made into preserves or wine. Medicinally speaking, 11 varieties of mulberry have been documented in herbal medicine. That's Morris Alba or white mulberry. Another one called another variety of white mulberry, Morris Alba multicolus or something. I don't know. Korean mulberry Morris Alba multi callus or something I don't know Korean mulberry a couple of Asian ones I can't pronounce I'm not gonna try the Himalayan mulberry mulberry Morris microfilus Texas mulberry a Mongolian mulberry black mulberry very common red mulberry another one very common

Starting point is 00:01:42 probably white black and red are the most common around where I live. Red mulberry is the only native to my region, but the white has been naturalized. It basically grows wild now, whereas the black and the others, you know, they're usually more planted in landscaping. It's sort of an understory tree. It doesn't get super tall or anything. The leaves are really shiny. It's easy to spot once you've been able to identify it. Once you've seen one or two, you'll start spotting them all over.

Starting point is 00:02:17 The only thing is you've got to get to those berries before the birds and the raccoons and the lowlands, the deer, will stand up on their hind legs and go after because the fruit is very much appreciated by wildlife of course it makes it a good tree to scout for hunting and such but really under appreciated in America it's because those berries are too soft you know they don't go to market easily as we never see mulberries in the grocery store. Rarely ripe figs these days. Pawpaws. I mean, there are so many fruits that are soft and they don't store well on the shelves, so we don't have them in the markets anymore. A hundred years ago, it was completely different. We had far more varieties of fruits and vegetables in the grocery store than we do now.

Starting point is 00:03:03 And it really is because most of what we eat, what we buy from a store or get from a restaurant, probably isn't even grown in this country. And even if it is, it's, you know, I'm in North Carolina, let's say, so many things are grown in California, right? California is a big ag state. That's still thousands of miles to get it to my door. Amazingly enough, I mean, North Carolina is a big ag state. But if I go into most grocery stores, I don't see much fruit or vegetables at all from North Carolina. I mean, it's just that's the way our system is set up now. I mean, now like my local grocery stores like Food Lion and Lowe's is a popular one here in North Carolina.

Starting point is 00:03:43 Those are both North Carolina-based chains. They'll have a little display of local produce. North Carolina is one of the biggest cucumber producers in the entire country. We've got Mount Olive Pickles here, a very famous brand, right? Pickling cucumbers are almost impossible to find in the grocery store. All those cucumbers, unless they're already pickled and they're in jars. But so many people grow cucumbers and you can, you know, you have to go out to somebody's farm and ask to buy some. You can't just get them in the grocery store. It's just absolutely ridiculous. And that's just,

Starting point is 00:04:14 you know, one example. I mean, even, you know, when I was a kid, there was just far more variety, you know, and a lot changed with COVID. We definitely have fewer products on the shelves now. But anyway, for food and medicine, if you don't have a mulberry tree, you need to plant a mulberry tree, prioritize it, in fact. Now, let's talk about these medicinal uses. Far back as ancient Greece, probably much longer than that, it was well known medicinally. And D.S. Corrides said that the fruit makes the intestines soluble. Now what he means is it's good against constipation. But it is easily spoiled and can be bad for the stomach and the juice is the same. So yeah, if it starts to turn, it can upset your

Starting point is 00:04:59 stomach. Get a little food poisoning off of it. it makes it like i said an excellent wine he said if you boiled the juice fresh juice and let it or left in the sun it would kind of concentrate it and make it more astringent and that helps stop diarrhea a little honey mixed with it makes it good for the discharge of fluids and for gangrenous ulcerations and inflamed tonsils. The strength of it is increased if, what is that, alum, I guess? Yeah, that would be astringent, so I'm thinking he means alum there, or small bits of oak gall. So, you know, oak galls are very, very tannic. Myrrh or crocus are mixed with it, as well as the fruit of myrica, which we talked about last week

Starting point is 00:05:46 and frankincense uh yeah so that would have been used for anything from diarrhea to sore throats to ulcerous sores in the mouth anyway unripe mulberries dried and pounded are mixed with sauces or roos and they help with colic or intestinal complaints. The bark from the root boiled in water and taken as a drink loosens the bowels, expels broadworms from the intestines. It actually has some vermifuge properties. It can help you get rid of, there's another word, we'll probably get to it, anthelmintic, I think. Anyway, it helps get rid of worms and antidote for those who have taken aconitum to drink. Now, I'm not going to recommend it for that. Don't take aconitum.

Starting point is 00:06:26 That's monk's hood or wolf's bane. That's one of the most poisonous plants there is. Very useful externally as it's excellent for muscle, nerve, and joint pain. Internally, a tiny amount will kill you. It will stop your heart and you will die. So, we're not going to rely on mulberry as an anecdote. Okay. But in his time, aconite was commonly used in poisons and along with hemlock were the two main herbs that they used to execute people. So you might

Starting point is 00:07:01 accidentally get some. And anyway, just take that with a grain of salt. The leaves powdered into small pieces and applied with oil he'll burns, boiled with rainwater and wine, and black fig leaves. They dye the hair. A wine cup full of the juice from the leaves helps those bitten by harvest spiders. A decoction of the bark and leaves is a good rinse for toothache it is milked at harvest time the roots dug and around let's see the roots dug around and cut in so they got a sap out of it essentially the next day where they would be found some coalesce gum which is good for toothaches dissolves swellings and purges the bowels there seems to be

Starting point is 00:07:45 some wild mulberry similar to the one he was mentioning but the fruit was actually more astringent and he said is less easily spoiled as well and then the cultivated one it was good for inflammation healing ulcerated jaws and to fill up wounds with flesh so it has some wound healing or vulnering properties as well and then that those were found in shady or colder places um let's get up to let's see 1500s england gerard wrote of mulberry he said mulberries gathered before they are ripe are cold and dry and do mightily bind being dried they are good for the lask and bloody flux. So, bloody diarrhea and other such issues. The powder is used in meat and is drunk with wine and water. They stay bleedings and also the reds or excessive

Starting point is 00:08:35 menstrual discharge. They are good against inflammation or hot swellings of the mouth and jaws and other inflammations newly beginning. The ripe and new gathered mulberries are likewise cold and full of juice with half the taste of wine and is somewhat drying and not without a binding quality and therefore is also mixed with medicines for the mouth and such help the hot swellings of the mouth the almonds or swollen glands in the throat for which infirmity it is singularly good of the juice of the right berries is made a confection or a candy with sugar and that is after the manner or a syrup

Starting point is 00:09:13 and it was exceedingly good for ulcers hot swellings of the tongue and throat the swollen glands the uvula the throat any malady arising in those parts. These mulberries taken in meat and also before meat do very speedily pass through the belly by reason of the moisture and slipperiness of the substance and make it a passage for other meats. In other words, he thought they aided digestion. Let's just say that. And, you know, there's a long tradition of eating berries and such, you know, with your meal. You've probably had, well, cranberries, cranberry sauce with your roast turkey. You know, you may have had lingonberries before. You know, they do help digestion.

Starting point is 00:09:54 And also, well, when you eat fatty meats, you know, they just kind of settle the stomach and make you feel a little better and refresh the palate. And, yeah, it's a really good thing to do. Juniper cones or berries. They're actually cones. We call them juniper berries. Excellent with wild game.

Starting point is 00:10:13 Really, really good. Or with chicken, even. Yeah, I mean, a lot of these, you know, they're fun to use in cooking. And they're actually quite good for you. He said they are good to quench the thirst and they stir up an appetite to meet so they actually stimulate digestion they're not harmful this stomach um let's see if he has anything else good to say uh the bark of the root is bitter and hath a scouring faculty the decoction of thereof doth open the stoppings of the liver and the

Starting point is 00:10:43 spleen and purges the belly and driveth worms from it good to know the same bark being steeped in vinegar help with the toothache and a decoction of the leaves of the bark can be used the same and Galen said there isn't the leaves and first buds of this tree a certain middle faculty both to bind and scour. I don't even really know what that means. Bind would mean stop diarrhea and scour would mean to help clean you out. So I'm not sure exactly how that's working. But anyway, about 100 years later, Culpeper.

Starting point is 00:11:21 Okay, the berries good for opening the body when they're ripe and unripe for binding. Okay, we've talked about that. Especially good when they're dry. Good to stay last in flaxes and the abundance of women's courses. Menstrual issues again. The bark of the root kills broadworms in the body. The juice or syrup made from the berries helps all inflammations and sores in the mouth and throat and the palate of the mouth um juice of the leaves is a remedy against the biting of

Starting point is 00:11:51 serpents wow and for those who've taken aconite yeah okay i'm not gonna recommend it for either use but good to know you know the leaves beaten with vinegar are good to lay on any per any place that is burnt with fire. A decoction made from the bark and leaves is good to wash the mouth and teeth when they ache. The root may be slit or cut or a small hole. In the harvest time it will give a certain juice which being hardened the next day is good to help with toothache.

Starting point is 00:12:24 Dissolve knots and purge the belly. The leaves of mulberries are said to stay the bleeding of the mouth or nose or bleeding piles or hemorrhoids or of a wound being bound to the place. A branch of the tree taken when the moon is full and bound to the wrist of a woman's arm whose courses come down too much doth stay them in a short space um i seriously doubt that uh that's uh you know hey give it a try but um anyway uh cole pepper was given into well he was a rather superstitious fellow let's just put it that way um

Starting point is 00:13:01 uh interesting character to say the least. Now, 1930s, we get a little more modern here. Everything else would be a little more modern, I believe. Ms. Greve says, The sole use of mulberries in modern medicine is for the preparation of a syrup employed to flavor and color other medicines. And she describes how that was made, and it's just basically cooked down

Starting point is 00:13:25 with sugar but also slightly laxative and good as a for sore throats as a gargle now she gives a couple of good recipes for mulberry wines and jams so I'm gonna give you these because you're gonna like these okay and so for each gallon of raw more mulberries and pour one gallon of boiling water let them stand for two days so another nice thing about mulberries because they're so soft you don't really have to crush them and squeeze the juice out like you do with a lot of berries right so pour uh boiling water over them let them stand for two days then squeeze it all through um well she says a sieve or a bag. A pillowcase works great.

Starting point is 00:14:05 Make sure it's clean, of course. Wash out the tub or jar and return the liquid to it. Put sugar in at the rate of three pounds to each gallon of the liquor. Stir up until quite dissolved. Then put the liquor in the cask and let it ferment. And she said once it was clear, bottle it and it would take about four months time to be good to drink. You know, she's using wild yeast from the skins of the mulberries. You're probably perfectly safe with that. But let's say your boiling water somehow killed all

Starting point is 00:14:37 the yeast. Well, they might spoil. You might end up actually with a mulberry vinegar. I think if you get a little yeast and add to it you know any kind of cider maker or wine makers yeast would work perfectly you can even use bread yeast plain old instant yeast from the grocery store and this is really mulberry wine is particularly good she said mulberries were used to color cider and Devonshire they were would mix apple cider and mulberry wine essentially and was very popular in Greece and apparently had been made for a long time. She talks about ancient Anglo-Saxon traditions of wine and cider

Starting point is 00:15:18 making that they were using mulberries and blackberries. They called it morat. For the jam, no, you know, you don't morat for the jam no you know you don't have to have the wine if you would have an opposition alcohol mulberry jam is delicious she says unless very ripe mulberries are used the jam will have an acidic taste but a pound of mulberries in a jar let it stand in a pound of water on the fire till the juice is extracted strain them put the juice in a jar. Let it stand in a pound of water on the fire until the juice is extracted. Strain them. Put the juice in a preserving pan with three pounds of sugar. Boil it and remove the scum and put in three pounds of very ripe mulberries and let them stand in the syrup until thoroughly warm. Then set the pan back on the fire and boil them gently for a short time,

Starting point is 00:16:01 stirring all the time and taking care not to break the fruit. Then take off the pan and let them stand in the syrup all night put the pan on the fire again in the morning and boil until gently stiff so they got their own pectin it's really quite tasty now let's get back to medicinal use mulberries were official medicine in America at the time of King's American dispensatory in 1898. Under Actions, Medicinal Uses, and such, it says, Mold berries produce very slightly nutritive qualities.

Starting point is 00:16:32 They are refrigerant and laxative. Refrigerant means cooling. And their juice forms a pleasant and grateful drink for patients suffering under febrile diseases, fevers. As it checks the thirst, relieves the febrile heat, and when taken freely, gently relaxes the bow, relieves the febrile heat, and when taken

Starting point is 00:16:45 freely, gently relaxes the bowels. Juice formed into syrup and added to water answers the same purpose and forms a pleasant adjunct to gargles and quincy. That's again the swollen glands. If the berries are eaten to excess, they are apt to induce diarrhea. The bark of the tree is reputed purgative and vermin fuge and expels tapeworms. You can see this would be very useful to have around in a survival situation. More, let's see, modern use here Plants for Future says the root mark is anthelmintic and cathartic. That's exactly what it means. Gets rid of worms and cathartic is you know laxative.. It gets rid of worms and cathartic is laxative.

Starting point is 00:17:27 We'll just go with that. A tea made for the roots has been used in the treatment of weakness, difficult urination, dysentery, tapeworms, and as a general panacea. So, I mean, a cure-all. Okay, I'm not going to go that far, obviously. But the sap is used in the treatment of ringworm. Another report says the milky juice obtained from the axis of the leaf is most useful for ringworm, and the fruits are used to reduce fever.

Starting point is 00:17:51 Peterson Field Guide for Eastern Central Medicinal Plants says of red mulberry, American Indians drank root tea for weakness, difficult urination, dysentery, tapeworms as a panacea, again. Externally, the sap used for ringworms nutritious fruit used for lowering fever large doses can cause vomiting did not know that actually I guess I haven't eaten enough you know I've always I have just try to get there before the birds do you know white mulberry is very popular in China and the leaf tea is used well I mean in Chinese herbal

Starting point is 00:18:26 medicine we got plenty of it growing in America now leaf tea used for headaches hyperemia or congestion of blood thirst coughs as a liver cleanser experimentally leaf extracts are antibacterial. Young twig tea used for edema, excess fluids, so it's got a diuretic property. Fruits eaten for blood deficiency to improve vision and circulation and for diabetes. Inner bark tea used for lung ailments, asthma, cough, and edema. And finally, botany and adasis. asthma, cough, and edema. And finally, Botany in a Day says, medicinally, a tea of the bark is used as a laxative and to expel tapeworms.

Starting point is 00:19:15 The milky juice and unripe fruit may cause hallucinations, nervousness, and upset stomach. Wow, I've never eaten the unripe fruit. I've only had them when they're ripe. I've never heard that mulberries could cause hallucinations. I guess be careful with that. But I think if it was a huge danger, it would be a little more well-known and would have been mentioned by other authors. So don't eat a lot of the unripe fruit. Let's just go with that.

Starting point is 00:19:39 So, y'all, that wraps up mulberry. And, you know, as I said, said to me this is one of the most useful and it has so many medicinal uses and in most all cases it's very mild medicinally and just really darn tasty too. So like I said if you don't have a mulberry tree growing get one going as soon as possible. You know, check your local garden center. They probably order you some seedlings or young trees if they don't have any. Let's see. Well, I'm sure Stark Brothers Nursery would have them.

Starting point is 00:20:18 You can order them online. I have ordered from Stark Brothers. Absolutely fantastic company. Great prices, fast shipping, healthy plants. I'm sure One Green World has plenty. A little more expensive, but they're, you know, excellent company. And, oh boy, what's that orchard in Tennessee? There is a nursery, I mean, in Tennessee that is, the name is not coming to me right now. They specialize fruit trees and berry bushes and they have really good prices been around for a long time it may be Alan I'm not sure but yeah I'm sure if you just kind of

Starting point is 00:20:55 google that you can find it out you know fruit tree orchard in Tennessee and I mean family owned and operated good, always been good to work with. Anyway, y'all, really good to have some mulberries growing. And remember, you know, don't sacrifice your useful food-producing trees for convenience. I know another person, a relative, who inherited the most incredible pear tree. The old-fashioned, where they bartlet sown pears. That very tree my grandfather used to harvest, and he'd take his pocket knife and slice me off a piece of pear, and you know, great memories. My grandmother made pear preserves. He made pear ciders, and well, this relative just didn't want to bother picking up the fruit.

Starting point is 00:21:49 And so he cut down that beautiful tree. And I'm still not happy about that, even though the property has changed hands and I would have no access to it. It's just, you know, my grandfather planted that tree. And laziness is no excuse. planted that tree and laziness is no excuse I mean when I was a kid I mean okay the pears were just abundant I mean it was just just incredibly abundant producing tree and of course some fall to the ground they get bad spots and butterflies everywhere monarch butterflies swallowtail butterflies they would all flock to that tree so you know these memories of my childhood of being there and and just thousands of butterflies flying all around me and and eating

Starting point is 00:22:33 ripe pears are are pretty special to say the least pretty special just uh makes me mad just think about it anyway y'all a great week, and 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 a guy who studies herbs.

Starting point is 00:23:08 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. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, a sensitivity,

Starting point is 00:23:36 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: Mulberry

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