The Medicine Woman's Roots

This is Wolf’s newest brilliant and beautiful installment in the Medicine Woman series of illustrations for the Medicine Woman’s Herbal.  I am especially pleased with the way the spirit and character of the Mullein plant is so present and alive. The plant in lower part of the picture is Wild Licorice which thrives in a sunny spot by the river here in the canyon. I only wish I could write as fast as Wolf can draw! Nevertheless, the book is coming together and Wolf’s artwork is a continual inspiration to the process. Only three more Medicine Woman illustrations to go in this series. Stay tuned…

Tomorrow is garden planting day! Some of my perennials from last year, like the Motherwort, Comfrey, Catnip and Wild Carrot are already up. And there’s a little Burdock plant too, just unfurling its second leaf. This year, I want to keep it down to basic instead of growing SO many strange little plants that I couldn’t keep track of and that the packrats mostly ate anyway. So for this year my biggest garden section is going to the Oats that I shall harvest for their milky seed, I might even get two crops out of them if I plant spring and fall. Next comes the Ashwagandha babies, who I think will do nicely with our hot summers. Then the standard Mexican Poppies, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Chamomile, Sage, Burdock, Fennel and maybe some Echinacea. Whoever does well gets to stay, anyone who doesn’t germinate or gets eaten isn’t invited back next year. I can’t be babying fluffy garden plants all year, I haven’t the time or the water to do so. You’ll notice most of my chosen garden plants are weeds or near weeds. Plant or person, you’ve got to be pretty tough to live through droughts, floods, forest fire, hot summers, torrential rains and twenty below winters. Ok, maybe I do baby the Basil just a little bit! But when something smells that good, you’re much more likely to return over and over with offerings of water, plant food, prayer and adoration LOL.

Making most all of my salves in animal fat is this past year’s herbal experiment. Lard is an interesting substance, lovely and white and creamy and… so very smelly. At the moment, I’m having to use plain ol’ storebought lard since I haven’t found a good source for easily obtainable and affordable organic lard and I’m out of bear fat just now (I’m going to try making lard with the next beaver tail I get though). Regular lard from pork smells kind of like bacon, but weirder. Considering the aroma, I tend use an equally strong smelling herbs in order to balance the aroma effect. Nevertheless, the salve still usually ends up smelling a bit like food.

Why use lard, you ask. For a few reasons, not the least of which is how easily absorbed into human skin it is, making for a better vehicle of healing than plant based oils. Another is the fact that one can easily make lard from available animal fat, and I haven’t figured out how to make almond or olive oil yet. Also, you don’t have to ad beeswax to lard salves, making it a cheaper alternative to the normal olive oil and beeswax method. Animal fat, often bear fat, is the traditional way of making salves for many primitive peoples because it works well and is easily made from available resources.

You can likely make lard salves with a crockpot or double boiler or any other standard warm infusion method. I generally use the method taught to me by a cantankerous old Mexican though, which is to melt a bunch of lard in a pot, and crush up a bunch of some dried smelly, traditional healing herb like Sage or Sweet Clover and toss that in. Keep the temp fairly low, you don’t want crackling, you just want very warm fat. Stir frequently and let infuse with the lid on for at least forty five minutes, or until the plant matter begins to lose its color. For fresh plants like Estafiate (Wild Mugwort) or Indian Tobacco (that’s Mullein to all you non-local gringos), chop the plant up and toss into hot fat, but leave the lid off or at least cracked so that the water can evaporate out. It’s done with the plants are crispy (deep fried Mullein anyone?), usually in about forty five minutes to an hour. After removing the fat from the heat, let sit for about ten or fifteen minutes, then strain very carefully (animal fat gets hot hot hot and burns like hell if you’re not careful). Pour into appropriate containers and allow to set in a cool place. I was not taught with any particular proportions but the well known 1:5 for dry plants and 1:2 for fresh plants works fine.

When you’re all done, you have a nice traditional form of salve that works tremendously well. I expect that many of you, my esteemed readers, will not like the peculiar smell. And no, I can’t say that bear or beaver fat smells that much better either, different but not necessarily better. Beaver fat from winter killed beaver can sometimes taste/smell a bit like gamey cottonwood buds though, which might be better than bacon, depending on your viewpoint. I however, have grown rather fond of the scent of White Sage and bacon.

You can also make a good fat based salve with ghee, which at this point in time might actually be more cost effective than olive oil and beeswax. Either way, I find these animal fat based salves to be very therapeutically effective, and a great option for those who hunt, farm or otherwise have access to good lard or butter.

I posted a picture of Candytuft (Noccaea montana) not too long ago here, and in the comments I talked about munching on it here and there but not using it much. However, it’s so widespread this year, I decided to try a flower (before I’d only snacked on leaves, because the flowers are so pretty) and WOW, they’re amazing. Kind of like super sweet, tender broccoli. Since then I’ve been gathering a few handfuls at a time to add to salads and other dishes. They’re WONDERFUL with nearly everything, and I want to try pickling some of the buds. Yum. If you have this plant nearby, you should eat some for dinner tonight.

Taking a hint from indigenous peoples throughout the West, I use Moonwort for damn near everything.  Yes, I’ve written about it before (here and here, for example)  but I do like to repeat myself so I’ll go on about it a bit more now. Nearly every herbalist seems to have a favorite topical cure all or two. I, however, have four: Alder, White Sage, Larrea and Moonwort (like a true Southwestern herbalis, heh). Oh, and Cottonwood and Plantain and Yarrow and and and. Sheesh.

There’s this strange phenomenon in herbal books that says we should harvest Moonwort/Mugwort (Artemisia spp.) when in flower or bud stage for all uses. Hmm. The volatile oil content drops dramatically during flowering, and that may be desirable for tincture use in some cases, but I don’t find it ideal for oil at all. So usually I make oil from fresh smelly green bits in mid spring, and then I make oil from flowering tops later in the summer. Then I combine the oils to use in my favorites salves, liniments and massage oils. It seems to work extra nice in my opinion, and has a certain rich scent you can’t get from either on their own.

Moonwort is broadly antibacterial against many unpleasant little microbes, including most fungus and some viruses (both Herpes I and II). It’s also very noticeably anti-inflammatory, and topical use can penetrate all the way through to muscles, tendons, ligiments and so on. I’ve used it many times on various kinds of injuries, pulled muscles (best with Goldenrod), insect stings (best with Plantain, Yarrow or Peach), contusions (nice with Cottonwood), cuts, infections, nerve pain (with Larrea and/or Sweet Clover) and especially in anything itchy and irritated like contact dermatitis and poison ivy (use the diluted tincture or a fomentation, not the oil). It’s absolutely my first choice for anyone who thinks they’ve just gotten into some poison ivy. Wash the area well first, then douse well with diluted tincture (or vinegar) or a strong tea, this can also be used in combination with Grindelia (failing that, Yarrow will work well too).

Just as when taken internally, Moonwort has a talent for moving energy which also means that it helps allay pain, quicken recovery time and prevent pooling of blood (bruising) or energy that could result in chronic pain from a poorly healed injury. It’s incredibly multi-purpose and combines well with many other herbs. I don’t see it that often in salves, but it’s a wonderful choice for any all-purpose salve. It’s also my most common spit poultice for nearly anything, not because it tastes good (it sure doesn’t, though that bitterness will help you digest your food) but because it’s everywhere here. It may be the single most common plant in the canyon.

My relationship with  Moonwort all started years ago when I first met Darcey Blue. I’d just moved to the Gila from the Blue Ridge Mountains, and Darcey’d come to the canyon for a gathering. She promptly began gathering up medicinal plants for us, and she harvested and dried a jar of sweet little Mugwort sprigs for us. I can’t even remember what she told me about the plant, just that she was very enthusiastic about it. Later on, she recommended it to me for various belly troubles and it worked wonderfully. Thanks Darcey!

For some women, Moonwort infused oil also makes a great uterine massage oil for cramps, achiness and general reproductive malaise. This plant has a certain affinity for the reproductive system, and can sometimes even help focus and center labor pains when rubbed over the womb area.

Loba recently hurt her foot and damaged the muscles in the center of the bottom of her foot. The injury hurt bad enough to cause a slight limp and even after a week or so didn’t really improve. I then suggested she soak it in a strong infusion of Moonwort several times a day. Two days of this and the foot was fifty percent better, so of course she promptly stopped doing it, thinking it would finish up on it’s own. But week later her foot hadn’t healed any further at all. When she resumed the soaks, the foot recovered completely. Nice.

Oooh, go look at the new Medicine Woman illustration Wolf just finished!

Walking home through the forest I hear spring’s first songbirds trilling and wheeling above. They move rapidly from tree to tree, making nests and announcing territory. I step carefully along the path, watchful for the newly blooming pink Vetch flowers that crouch close to the ground and peek out from under pine needles and fallen bits of Usnea. The pack on my back is heavy with food, supplies, freshly harvested bark, wild greens and the thick field guides I insist upon carrying with me everywhere. I don’t mind the weight though, it feels good to bring home everything we need to live on my back, to be responsible for the yumminess at tonight’s dinner and the supplies we need to repair and maintain our home. I listen to the wind as roars through the canyon, though only a gentle finger of the gales touches me in the shelter of the mountainside forest.

Every step on the crispy pine needles beneath my feet releases the sweet scent of vanilla and butterscotch, an amazing fragrance seemingly peculiar to Ponderosa trees. Breathing deeply, it occurs to me how very ~happy~ I am. Not the ephemeral ecstasy of a cheap high or even the bittersweet thrill of my younger, more angst years when a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of cheap wine were about the only thing that could coax a smile from me. Back then, I was restless and sure I was destined to live the life of the perpetually discontent. I knew even then that this would make for great novels but a shitty life. Strange then, to feel so full now, to catch myself humming while I wash the dishes and smiling at the mere sight of mint green butterfly gliding from flower to flower. And funny to recognize my satisfaction in the rhythm of my work with students and clients, family and place. There’s no where else I’d rather be, and nothing else I’d rather be doing. Yeah, I still get stressed out and cuss the computer for crashing, fret over the impending fire season, and I’m still scared of screwing everything up. But somehow, those things seem so tiny next to the joy of living fully, of being this fulfilled. It hasn’t been an easy transformation, I’ve struggled through PTSD, illness and addiction to find the real me, and to be able to take in the simple sweetness of each beautiful day.

As I climb the last few yards down the mountain, seven year old Rhiannon catches site of me and howls her happy little otter howl before rushing barefoot and bare legged across the river to hug me and take one of the bags from my arms. “Oh mama!” she says, “it’s SUCH a wonderful day today!”

Isn’t it though.

The other day I was planting berry bushes in the riverbank. It was cold, and my hands were numb and covered in dirt and sand, so when the palm of my right hand started to itch I just scratched absentmindedly at it and went back to work. It kept on itching , so I looked down at it and notice a few white raised bumps. Hmmm, that’s weird, and went back to planting the nearest blackberry bush. Five minutes later when I stood up from planting I tried to wipe the dirt off my hand and noticed I couldn’t close it and that the upper right quadrant of my hand was very very swollen. After I washed my hand off in the river, I was able to sit there and watch it continue to swell, moving from one section of my hand to my whole hand and then to my wrist. I stuck my hand back in the cold river and wished for some fresh Plantain. Seeing as there was none around and moving seemed like it might worsen the condition, I asked Loba to run up to the cabin on the mesa and get my Plantain tincture. In the meantime I asked Rhiannon to harvest a handful of the fresh aromatic sprigs of Mugwort popping up nearby. I chewed up a wad of the bitter herb, spit the plant matter back on the original site of swelling and swallowed the juice. I continued to do this over and over, replacing the herb each time it grew hot. Within five minutes the swelling ceased to spread. It didn’t hurt, but the skin was alarmingly tight.

Loba came back in about another five minutes, and I doused the site with the Plantain tincture as well as swallowing about two dropperfuls right away. I took another dropperful a few minutes later and the swelling began to recede the tiniest bit. At this point, I decided sitting on the cold ground and shivering was probably not helpful and crossed the river and got myself back up to the cabin. At the cabin, I continued to keep the site soaked with Plantain tincture and took 1/2 a dropperful every half hour or so. As the swelling continued to go down, I also took two drops of Osha for good measure. My hand begin to throb and hurt as the blood was able to move around again, but resolved in a few hours. The situation was completely better by mid-day the next day.

This is similar to what happened to Loba a few weeks ago when she accidentally squished a poor sleepy bee into her inner arm and it stung her. We dabbed some Larrea oil on it and went back to supper. This helped initially, and the pain resolved for several hours. However, Loba woke up in the middle of the night in severe pain and by morning her whole upper arm was red, hot and tremendously swollen. In addition, she was beginning to break out in angry red hives on her face, which was certainly not a good sign. I got the Plantain tincture out and instructed her to take two dropperfuls internally right away and to soak a cloth in the tincture and keep it on the stung area. The pain and swelling lessened in about an hour, and with repeated doses and applications the reaction was mostly resolved in twenty four hours and completely gone in forty eight hours.

In both cases, the reaction could have become severe enough to be a real problem or potentially dangerous. I’m definitely grateful that I tinctured so much fresh Plantain this past Summer. And here’s the original Kiss Your Plantain story I wrote about last spring and in the comments you can read yet another great story by jim mcdonald.

As soon as the Plantain babies come up, I’m going to kiss one.

Don’t worry, we’ll get back to those Alterative differentials I promised sometime in the near future.

For now let’s deal with an often misunderstood herbal action: astringency. In the most physical sense, astringents are those substances that tighten tissues on contact, resulting in that puckery mouth feeling so familiar to anyone who’s ever bitten into a green apple, tasted too strong black tea or chewed on a green banana peel. There’s a tendency to label astringents as herbs that dry the tissues out, but this is an oversimplification. In reality, astringents contract tissue and thus tonify. This can serve to lessen inflammation or irritation, strengthen weakened tissue and therefor provide a stronger barrier against infection, and can provide symptomatic relief from issues resulting from excessive discharge of fluids such as diarrhea, bleeding, vaginal discharge, chronically heavy menstrual periods, profuse sweating or even excessive urination.

And so, astringents help hold fluids within the body, which can be very desirable when they are escaping inappropriately. They also firm the tissue, which is wonderful when the integrity of the skin has been broken and needs to be retightened in order to prevent infection, inflammation and an over abundance of bleeding. They can also be useful in cases of prolapsed organs or in other situations where the tone of the tissue has been compromised and has become weak and/or lax.

Many of our favorite first-aid herbs are astringent, and notable examples include Yarrow, Geranium, Plantain, Raspberry, Mullein, Comfrey, Sage, Elm and Goldenrod. The most useful astringents often have accompanying demulcent properties as in Comfrey, Elm, Violet, Plantain and Mullein. This allows them to effectively soothe the area of injury while also contracting the tissue and clearing inflammation and stopping fluid discharge. This also works very nicely for abraded surfaces within the GI tract, and Plantain is (or should be) highly regarded for its profound effect upon inflammation, pain and dysfunction of the gut. And for those who are chronically dry in nature and exhibit signs such as very dry skin and a withered tongue concurrent with excessive fluid discharge through sweating and urination, then astringents can help to actually hold the moisture in the body rather than drying it out more. And herbs that are both demulcent and astringent can provide the moisture while containing it, which is very useful indeed.

The downside of astringency is that overindulgence in very astringent substances can have several unpleasant side effects, such as decreased digestive function including constipation, and water retention in some cases. Of course, many astringents are also diuretics and alteratives, and so help to self-buffer any negative effects. Side effects are very unlikely to happen with normal use of mild herbs such as Raspberry, and is counterbalanced by the mucilage in gently astringent herbs such as Plantain and Elm. Avoid astringent herbs in cases where there is already a lack of elimination through the waste channels of the body. That is, if you already don’t pee enough, are constipated and/or can’t seem to sweat then don’t chug the Oak bark decoction.

Here I am with my fresh Lomatium dissectum roots, which seem nearly as big as I am. Resinous and highly aromatic, these roots are an intense kind of medicine. Below, you can see a picture (yes, that is my disembodied thumb) of how the latexy resin seeps out of the freshly cut root in an almost floral pattern.

Lomatium is a bit controversial, thanks to the rash some folks break out in after ingesting it. There’s a lot of theories about that, some people say that if you combine it with certain other plants, or if you take it in a certain dosage, or you only use the dried root then you won’t get this unpleasant reaction. I’ll let you know what I think when I get a bit more familiar with the plant.

I’m currently brewing up some fresh plant tincture, some fresh plant infused oil and drying some of the roots as well for dried plant preparations. The sap is very soothing and healing to the skin as well as being very anti-microbial, so it should make an excellent salve.

This plant is most famous for its ability to increase resistance to certain microbes, viruses specifically, in the human body. How this is accomplished is yet another subject of contention among herbalists, since there seems to be mixed results regarding Lomatium’s actual ability to kill viruses in the body. However, many people report great success in treating certain chronic viruses such as HIV, HCV and others. Some herbalists also consider it to have adaptogen like effects on the body, a use stemming from indigenous peoples’ use of the plant during convalescence and when treating chronic illness. I personally have not yet had enough experience with the plant to comment, although it seems hopeful.

The root tastes something like lemon-parsnip-furniture polish, pleasant but with an edge. Other varieties of Lomatium I’ve tasted are sweeter and more carroty with far less of the medicinal resins. The drying roots have given their rich scent to the whole Medicine Lodge, and you could easily get a bit intoxicated while spending time in there. It does make for a very lovely work environment.

I’m very much looking forward to blending up some of the fresh plant tincture with some of my equally amazing Balsamroot (more about this one soon) tincture, and maybe making a honey-based syrup to blend with some Elderberry Elixir and Beebalm/Osha/Wild Ginger honey for an amazing and tasty immune tonic.

Michael Moore very specifically suggests using Lomatium in formula with a diaphoretic (Elder, Wild Ginger, Beebalm), a stimulant to liver function and bile secretion (Dandelion or Oregon Grape Root) and something to stimulate mucus secretion in the resp tract (Grindelia, Osha, Balsamroot). This should aid in avoiding the rash theoretically, though Todd Caldecott has seen otherwise. Also, I suggest limiting dosage to less than 30 drops 3x/day. I’ve got more than one person eager to try the Lomatium though, so I’ll be updating this in the next few months as to rashes and positive effects.

If you buy Lomatium, make sure you get yourself a sustainable or organic source! And if you harvest yourself, take precautions to make sure you’re not making any visible impact on the population.

Resources:

Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West by Michael Moore

Healing Plants of the Rocky Mountains by Darcy Williamson

Planting the Future, edited by Rosemary Gladstar and Pamela Hirsch

Lomatium Rash Case Reports by Paul Bergner (with rash testimonial by Henriette and links to pictures)

Lomatium commentary by Paul Bergner

Lomatium Monograph by Todd Caldecott