Herbal Medicines 101
by Jason GodeskyOn the weekend of 4-5 March 2006, Jason Godesky and Giulianna Lamanna of the Tribe of Anthropik attended the “PATH WAYS” program on Herbal Medicines at Raccoon Creek, a state-operated park half an hour west of Pittsburgh. The Friends of Raccoon Creek State Park website describes the class thus: “Herbal remedies were once the only option for ailments. Even today many of our modern medicines are derived from plants. This course will cover plant history, past uses of medicinal plants and the latest research on medicinal qualities. Herbal remedies for ailments, preventative health and methods of preparation will be discussed. Participants will be able to make a variety tinctures, poultices, ointments/salves and teas. Safety concerns and a scientific approach to herbal medicines will be stressed.” What follows are accounts of that weekend by Jason, Giuli, Ben and Miranda.
Jason’s account
I suppose we’re rather “falling into” the Tom Brown “tradition,” despite my best efforts. Raccoon Creek’s PATH WAYS program is exactly what I’ve been looking for, and this year’s slate of classes should do the trick to get us “up to speed”–at least to boy scout level, if nothing else. The instructors, Patrick Adams and another I only know as “Donna,” took classes with Tom Brown and Tom Brown’s students. This weekend’s course on herbal medicines featured a number of recipes taken directly from Karen Sherwood’s class. I had tended away from Tom Brown, partly because his classes avoid total immersion, and partly because the mythology, cult of personality, and Christian proselytizing are slightly unsettling, but I have not detected any of those worrisome elements in Patrick or Donna. They’re down-to-earth, knowledgeable, and really great teachers. If it connects us in a line back to Tom Brown, then so be it.
The ability to treat wounds, sickness and other maladies without recourse to biomedicine has long impressed me as the central barometer of what makes someone “hardcore.” Perhaps it was one too many scenes in fiction, like Aragon tending to Frodo’s wounds after Weathertop in the first book of The Lord of the Rings, where a command of herbology and primitive treatment was used as a shorthand for just that, but I’ve seen few things more impressive in my life than the way in which Robert and Tim leapt into action at the fall 2005 IshCon, when Andrew stepped on a wasp hive.
I feel that this weekend’s herbal medicines course, like the wild edibles course that Giuli and I attended last summer, has raised us a full degree of “hardcoreness.” We made a number of herbal medicines, enough to stock a whole cabinet in our apartment. We have everything from cough syrup to ointments to bug repellant. My tincture of blue verbain is still steeping; hopefully, it will help me sleep more soundly once it finishes in another week and a half (I think I made it too strong).
I had a rash on my hand at the beginning of the second day. After applying the ointment I had made, though, the rash stopped itching, and slowly faded away. I was, to say the least, impressed.
In between classes, my own lack of preparation haunted us. I thought lodging was covered in the tuition for the class; I was wrong. I failed to pack proper cooking equipment, and the cabin’s range was broken. The evening between the two days was a comedy of errors that was almost entirely my fault, but we managed to survive. The rest of the year’s classes will be held at Nichols Field, where the wild edibles class was held last year. I know what to expect there, and that makes all the difference.
Giuli’s account
Jason pretty much said everything I wanted to say. My tincture is made with burdock root, which is supposed to clear up the skin (whether applied internally or externally). I can’t wait to try it out in two weeks.
I also want to add: Nichols Field has a KICK-ASS wigwam (not entirely authentic; it’s lined with some kind of plastic) that Pat Adams has told us we can claim in lieu of a tent. Score! I don’t think we can light a fire in it, though, which kind of makes me sad. It’s still cooler than a tent, though.
Miranda’s account
My interest in Herbal Medicines has been steadily increasing since my cousin got a job at a herb shop in College Park, MD. Of course, with a primitive life-style, knowing these sorts of things is rather essential. I agree with Jason; learning what we learned over the weekend about herbal remedies kicked up the level of being hardcore a notch, perhaps even two! Of course, we have a long way to go. These workshops are going to be a lifesaver, literally, in the future. Not only are they incredibly interesting, they are going to end up being quite useful. The herbal class is already turning out to be! Dry skin, cracking skin? HA! Healing ointment of comfrey, calendula, plantain, and beeswax to hold it all together fixed that right up. Next step: collecting beeswax. Good thing we all have a good supply of healing ointment to help heal the inevitable bee stings!
Ben’s account
Yeah, that ointment is going to last forever, you only need half a smear and then pull your hand back before the healing skin sucks your hand in. Ok, I exaggerate. But a little practice on what we learned and the vast majority of things that are likely to come up will constitute “easy fixes.” You have a cut? No problem. Poultice of plantain and you’ll be right as rain. Headache, take your pick: water (not actually an herb, but most headaches are from dehydration), willow, or half a dozen other herbs. Heart attack? Foxglove, be careful. Or willow tea, if you have some around. Cold? Echinacea. Cough? Horehound. There is still more to learn, but we’ve got most of the basic stuff covered in a weekend. What we need now is to practice making our own stuff. My tincture is dandelion, you know the random weeds Americans keep trying to kill off. It should be be very effective at detoxing the liver.
“dandelion, you know the random weeds Americans keep trying to kill off”
This resonates with me as I have recently been at odds with my housemate. She wants to maintain a meticulous lawn (actually paying people to come burn gas to deal with it) and remove all “weeds” while I keep suggesting we plant useful herbs and wildflowers instead. Its her brothers house, so she has the final say… but I’m already looking for more like-minded people to live with.
Comment by rob — 9 March 2006 @ 7:41 PM
Here’s what I recommend: get some dandelion wine (either make it yourself, or buy some) and get her to try it without knowing what it is. Then tell her that it’s made from “weeds.” Then tell her that dandelions are bursting with vitamin A, and easily beat out orange juice in the vitamin C and calcium department. Then make some comment about how much money she could save from not having to pay to poison her lawn AND not having to buy vitamin supplements.
Comment by Giulianna Lamanna — 10 March 2006 @ 9:44 AM
been doing the herbal medicine thing for 5 years. im self taught with books and a shitton of backwoods medicine left over from boyscouts. The Girl and i purchase about 500USD or so a year of pre-made tinctures/capsules to have on hand in the refridgerator dated and rotated. I also am learning to use them in conjunction with field surgical techniques like bullet removal. ive been teaching myself wild identification for about 3 years. very cautiously. i have 6 books to crossreference and i take it slow. I am new to this site and see that you people are rooted near where i am at. (huntington wv) Could somebody let me know if there is something like this near huntington wv in the near future?
–thanks
fr. coyote
Comment by frater_coyote — 11 March 2006 @ 1:25 AM
I heard one of my roommates coughing yesterday. To the rescue I came, leaving a note with the horehound cough syrup and the Echinacea tincture with directions.
I left the apartment and came back several hours later to the sound of her calling out her thanks.
Apparently it worked better than anything that she had bought at the store and she is very interested in learning more about these “herbal medicines”
Score one for primitivist lifestyle!
Comment by Miranda Belcher — 11 March 2006 @ 12:03 PM
Ah, this is fun to read…. I love it when the (nearly) uninitiated dive into plant medicine!
btw, Elderberry tincture works better than Echinacea for colds… and if you insist upon the Echinacea, it works better as a decoction (boiled in water for about an hour, drink the resulting tingly liquid). Ech is better for sepsis, snakebites, blood poisoning and so on.The alcohol doesn’t extract all of the immune stimulating properties.
I understand about the Frodo thing, it got me too
One of the profound moments in my early life that directed me to where I am now.
Comment by Kiva Rose — 16 August 2007 @ 9:10 PM
Hi Jason,
Ages ago, I remember either you or Giulianna mentioning having learned of three herbs which covered the basics, as far as herbal medicine goes, but you never mentioned what they were… do you still remember?
Clive
Comment by Clive — 7 April 2008 @ 3:34 AM
Probably dandelion, plantain and yarrow. Those three will cover probably something like 75% of your medical needs right there.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 7 April 2008 @ 11:27 AM
Hey guys !
great post, but can I bring my 2-cent question here ?
You always talk about “tincture” ? Do you mean the one with alcohol ? Can you get the necessary alcohol from nature as well ?
And Jason, when you mention ‘tincture of blue verbain’, did you actually mean ‘blue vervein’ ?
Kudos to the tribe…
Comment by Jean-Vivien Maurice — 13 April 2008 @ 6:58 PM
And Giuli, do you cook the burdock root or use it raw to make your tincture ? Maybe in order to prepare the tincture you have to cook the mix alcohol+plant itself ?
By the way, you also mentionned somewhere else in this blog that you prepared essential oils to repel insects. You do this, if my understanding is correct, by having some plant leaves macerate in oil.
What kind of oil would you use then ? Where would you find it in a primitive lifestyle ?
Comment by Jean-Vivien Maurice — 14 April 2008 @ 10:18 AM
Sgëno, Jean-Vivien,
We take an incremental approach to rewilding, generally. Anything that moves us in the right direction, we like. We don’t expect to get the whole way there in one stride. So, we have no problem doing things that might not use 100% primitive, hunted and gathered materials. By the same token, we do try to keep pressing further down the trail, so we always want to know how we can make things a little more primitive later on. Getting down to specifics….
Yes, with alcohol. You can certainly make alcohol primitively–you really just need to get some plant matter together and give it time to rot properly. I’ve heard of this, but I haven’t done it myself yet. Still on my list.
Well, you didn’t spell it right, either! It should look like, “blue vervain.” But in my defense, I see plenty of places spelling it “blue verbain,” too.
We didn’t find any need to cook it–in fact, cooking never came up at all before. Why would you cook it?
Right now, we use olive oil, but you could probably use any kind of vegetable oil. Primitive life doesn’t preclude vegetable oil; you just need a press, which could really just mean a fancy word for a big, heavy rock. I’ve seen olive oil made by squeezing olives by hand.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 15 April 2008 @ 4:46 PM
Hello Jason,
thank you very much for your detailled answers to my detailled questions, as usual
erm… I am wondering because you make the tincture by soaking a plant in alcohol, inside a closed pot for 2-3 weeks right ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tincture
So the alcohol cannot evaporate, and the resulting solution would still be alcoholic ? But what would you use the tincture for ? I thought it was only for skin application - for things like rash, bites/stings or cuts/woulds/burns…
But reading from the comments, it looks like some of you *drink* the tincture. Ex. : the dandelion tincture which, according to Ben, should efficiently ‘detox the liver’. Or maybe the Echinacea or Elderberry tinctures, which help against the cold.
Then I guess it is a bit like modern cough syrups…
Personnally my father, when he saw me preparing rosemary tea - we have giant patches of wild rosemary somewhere on a hilltop - mentionned that using decoctions made from aromatic mediterranean plants/flowers - lavender, rosemary, thyme - had a tonic effect.
Would you agree on that from you know/read ? Then how long would you boil the plant in order to have an efficient decoction ?
Comment by Jean-Vivien Maurice — 15 April 2008 @ 5:20 PM
Depends on the tincture. I made a yarrow/plantain tincture that I keep in my First Aid kit. Alcohol all by itself does a good job of disinfecting a cut, but when you add in plantain’s anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-microbial properties, and yarrow’s wound-treating ability to stop bleeding, you’ve got a pretty good treatment for cuts and wounds.
Other tinctures, though, you take internally, usually with a few drops in water or tea. I’ve made good use of an echinacea tincture like that lately, with some kind of cold circulating around the office.
Afraid I don’t know rosemary well enough to say.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 15 April 2008 @ 5:36 PM
just for full disclosure on my part, there seems to be some question as to whether non-distilled alcohol is suitable for tinctures. building a primitive still could be quite a challenge.
i’ve read that bear fat work very well, but i think you use a slow heat infusion process instead of the process described above. you can find a discussion about this here.
Comment by jhereg — 16 April 2008 @ 6:22 AM
Jason,
I would be very leery about using a tincture internally made from alcohol as you describe. Alcohol made from woody products tends to contain methanol which is poisonous and can cause blindness or death.
You can make alcohol from fruit, honey, or grain fairly easily. For example, take crush apples into cider and leave it out for a while until it ferments. If you need it more concentrated you can allow it to freeze and discard the ice leaving the alcohol behind without worrying about distillation.
–
JimFive
Comment by JimFive — 17 April 2008 @ 1:09 PM
Absolutely! Heck, wood alcohol would probably kill you. But all the tinctures we’ve made, whether taken topically or internally, we made with vodka.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 17 April 2008 @ 4:58 PM