Making Tree Medicine
by Anna Fraser
Gathering Tree Medicine
As a general rule, gather/pick all your medicinal material when it is at the peak of its growth. Leaves, flowers and berries which are picked when they are still wet with dew or rain will turn moldy more easily. Therefore choose a dry day ideally, before the sun is too hot and has evaporated any oils or fragrances which may be present, but after the dew has evaporated. You can choose to pick medicines for drying on the waning moon.
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Leaves: Young leaves, or even newly opened buds possess concentrated medicinal powers. Pick your leaves always early in the season before they become insect eaten or tired looking.
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Flowers: Pick flowers when they have first opened and before they have been much visited by bees and other pollinated insects.
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Berries and Seed: Leave to sun-ripen as much as possible. Keep a close watch and gather before they are dispersed by the wind, are eaten by birds or fall off the tree naturally.
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Roots: In the few cases where the roots are required as medicine, it is a good idea to look for a place where there is an abundance of young trees, which won't all be able to grow to maturity and whose roots are still relatively shallow. Dig up the roots from a tree, which may need thinning out anyway. If there is no such a tree available, only take a small amount, so the tree will be able to recover easily. Roots gathering is best done early in the spring or after the plants sheds its leaves, i.e. before the sap has risen or after it has descended again. Roots are more tender when the moon is waxing.
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Bark: The outer bark is the protective skin of the tree. Just below that is the inner bark which carries water and minerals upwards to the branches and leaves and carbohydrates, made by photosynthesis in the leaves, downwards to feed the tree. Therefore, the inner bark does for a tree what our blood circulation does for us. So, we must never take bark from the tree trunk as it can kill the tree. Even if you don't take the bark from all around, the wounds are very injurious to the tree and will make it vulnerable to infection by fungi or other organisms.
The best way to gather bark is from 2-3 year old branches, which are carefully pruned from the tree. This is best done in early spring or autumn.
Caution: Don't pick medicinal material from trees growing along busy roads or other polluted places, as the tree will be covered in pollutants and may also have absorbed heavy metals, etc. Also avoid trees which have been sprayed with pesticides.
Drying Tree Medicine
Leaves, flowers, berries and seeds can all be used when in season, but in order to have a supply all the year round, we will need to dry what we have harvested. Dried tree medicine is more concentrated than fresh, so the quantities you have to take to be effective are generally smaller. Like our own human bodies, a large part of the fresh material consists of water. Example: To make a cup of Birch leaf tea, you need a heaped teaspoon of dried leaves or 3x that amount if the leaves are fresh. Dosage, when mentioned in books on this website, usually refers to the dried material.
The best drying places are warm, dry, dark and airy, for example an airing cupboard, or an airy shed. If you do not have such a place, try wrapping your material up loosely in newspaper sheets or brown paper and hang in front of a sunny window. Basically avoid light and damp air, such as air from cooking or drying clothes in the same space. Light changes the chemistry and wet air, apart from obviously not helping in the drying process increases the chances of everything going mouldy. Dryness is more important than warmth and if you plan to dry large quantities, a domestic dehumidifier is a handy gadget to have or to borrow and makes a good quality dried product.
Different materials take of course different times to dry, so check often.
Rots have to be washed and/or scrubbed first. Large roots can be sliced lengthwise to facilitate drying. Hang in warm, dry, airy spaces or place on flat trays, not touching each other. The roots should loose about ¾ of their weight in drying. This may take about 10 days, depending on the size of the root, drying facilities and so on. Then dry the roots further until they are brittle near a source of warmth, such as central heating radiator or stove (may take another week to 10 days) or in a cool oven.
After drying chop leaves up finely before storage. Roots may be ground in a pestle and mortar or chopped to bits in a food processor.
Storing Tree Medicine
Light, heat and moisture will all deteriorate the medicinal qualities of Tree Medicines. Store in tightly closed glass jars away from direct sunlight or heat and ideally in a dark cupboard. Earthenware or metal containers with tight fitting lids are also suited. For example: Store different leaves in brown paper bags in biscuit tins with tight fitting lids.
Plastic absorbs oils from plant material, so plastic bags or plastic containers are best avoided.
Different forms of Tree Medicine
As with ordinary herbal medicine, there are a multitude of different ways in which Tree Medicine can be applied. Below I will give a description of all the most commonly used applications and how to prepare them. But first a list to stimulate your imagination of the versatility of using plant materials as medicine. Reading the list will make you realise that there is a lot of room for creativity.
* Tea, which is traditionally known as an infusion.
* Decoctions.
* Fresh leaves, buds, flowers, berries and leaves in salads or sandwiches.
* Cooked as vegetables, in stews, stir-fries, taken with stewed fruit, etc.
* Extract juice from fresh produce in liquidiser or juice extractor.
* Make berries, fruit, flowers, leaves or tree sap into wine, beer or cider.
* Macerations.
* Distilled water (e.g. witch hazel).Tinctures.Liquid extracts.
* Oils.
* Syrups (especially useful for children).Linctus (e.g. from cherry bark for coughs and respiratory infections).
* Washes (for holes and cavities in the body, for example: eyewashes, mouth washes, gargles, vaginal douches, enema's, etc.)
* Drops (eye, ear, nose).
* Steam inhalations.
* Powders.
* Pills.
* Lozenges.
* Capsules.
* Baths (whole body, sit bath, footbath, hand bath), e.g. juniper oil baths for rheumatic pains.
* Direct application of bruised leaves.
* Hot or cold compresses or fomentations.
* Poultices.
* Plasters.
* Liniments or embrocations (usually oil with active ingredients for application into the skin by rubbing).
* Lotions (usually a very high alcohol content, just dab on).
* Ointments and creams.
* Suppositories (torpedo shaped for rectal application).
* Pessaries (cone shaped for vagina).
* Bougies (to fit any other hole in the body).
* Vibrational Remedies
Infusions or 'Tea'
An infusion is a fancy word for making a tea the old fashioned way. This method can be used for leaves, buds, and flowers, because pouring boiling water over this material is sufficient to break the plant cells open and release their medicinal content. Leave to infuse for 5 minutes. Can be drunk hot or cold. If you are taking medicinal teas, it may be worth buying a wire tea-infuser from a kitchen shop (about £ 1.50 each) which can be used for an individual cup and saves you the hassle of cleaning out the teapot afterwards.
Infuse material, which contain volatile oils (i.e. most plants with heavy scents) in a cup with a saucer or top or in a thermos flask to stop the valuable medicinal oils from evaporating.
Quantities are 30 grams of dried herb to ½ litre or 1 pint of water or 1 heaped teaspoon per cup. With fresh plant material use 3x these quantities for medicinal purposes.
Decoctions
A decoction is plant material boiled in water and simmered for 5 - 15 minutes. This method is most suitable for roots, rhizomes, wood, bar, seeds and any other material with tuff cell walls. The simmering process is required to soften the hard cell walls of the plants, so the cells can break open and release their medicinal content.
Don't use metal or aluminium pots, as these materials can interfere with the plant chemistry. Enameled cooking ware is preferable.
The quantities used are the same as for infusions.
Tinctures
Tinctures are preparations made with plant material, whose medicinal qualities have been extracted by an alcoholic solution. The great advantage of a tincture is that it will dissolve resins, gums and oils (which often possess important medicinal qualities) far better than water. Another bonus is that the medicine will be easy to take: a few milliliters or a teaspoon in a little water. If the tincture is made with 30 % alcohol or stronger (and if it is well made) it will keep almost indefinitely.
Commercial tinctures are often made with ethanol, an industrial alcohol exempt from tax for licensees. For making tinctures at home we can use Vodka, Brandy or any other high proof spirit of your choosing.
On the labels of commercially available tinctures you will find a variety of ratio's between the plant material used and the alcoholic liquid, for example 1:3, 1:4 or 1:5 and so on. The reason for this is that some plant materials are more 'fluffy' and therefore take up more volume, so it takes a greater amount of alcohol to cover it. This means that giving recipes for the exact quantity of plant material and alcohol to use have little value, but it is more practical to give you the general rule: Use about 4 ounces (112 grams) of dried herbs (double this amount for fresh plant material), or proceed as below.
In order to make your tinctures as strong as possible, place the finely chopped up plant material (leaves, buds, flowers, berries, bark, roots, etc.) you have collected in a clean jar with a good airtight lid. Large empty coffee jars are good for this purpose. Don't pack the plants so tight that the liquid won't be able to circulate around it. Then cover all with your chosen spirit (Vodka, Brandy, etc.). Close the container and keep in a warm place (windowsill in summer, airing cupboard or near a source of heat such as radiators).
Over the course of 2-4 weeks (depending on temperature and the degree of hardness of the plant-cells, etc.) the cell walls will break down to release their medicinal content into the liquid. Shake the container vigorously every morning and night to promote this process. Finally strain the mix through a clean cloth and wring out all liquid. Put the tincture in a dark bottle (brown or dark green), close the bottle properly and store in a cool place away from sunlight.
N.B. Most commercial herbal tinctures are made with DRIED herbs in a particular ratio of plant material to liquid in order to obtain a product of a reasonably consistent strength. The average dose of most tinctures would be: 5 ml (a British teaspoon) 3 times a day. There are obviously exceptions to this rule, for example with poisonous or dangerous plants, but these should never be used for self-medication.
When we make tinctures at home, it is not always practical to dry the herbs first, so you are able to take twice the normal dosage to make up for the fact that fresh herbs are not as concentrated in medicinal strength as the dried ones (unless you have already made your tincture with roughly 8 oz of fresh plant material per pint, instead of the usual 4 oz of dried material).
Vinegar and Glycerine Tinctures
Tinctures can also be made in the same way, as described above, with vinegar. Always use Apple Cider Vinegar as this is an excellent medicine for all sorts of complaints in its own right. The acetic acid in the vinegar acts as a solvent of the medicinal substances in the plants, as well as a preservative.
Tinctures for tea-totallers and people with a sensitive digestive tract, who cannot take alcohol can be made with vegetable glycerine. The resins, gums and oils in the plants are not as efficiently dissolved in glycerine as in alcohol, but it does a better job than water with these substances.
As with alcoholic tinctures: Use about 4 oz of dried finely chopped or ground plant material to a pint of liquid (half glycerine and half water).
When you use freshly gathered plant material use 8oz and 1 pint of liquid made up from 75% glycerine and 25% water.
The process of making the tincture and dosage is the same as for the alcoholic tinctures described above.
Syrups
Syrups are useful, if children or older people need a little sweet persuasion to take Tree Medicine. They are also excellent as cough medicines (for example made with cherry bark) or as medicinal substitutes for lemonade syrups.
If desired the sugar in the recipes below can be partly or completely replaced with honey.
Dissolve ¾ lb of sugar (350 grams) into a pint of infusion or decoction and heat gently until the sugar is dissolved.
Alternatively make a simple syrup of 1 pint of water and 1 kilo of sugar and mix this syrup with tincture in a ratio of 3 parts of syrup to 1 part of tincture.
Infused Oils
Cold infused oils can be applied straight to the skin, thickened with beeswax to make an ointment or may be used as massage oils.
Chop up the plant material finely and cover with a good oil (such as Olive oil, Sunflowers Oil, Almond Oil, etc.) in a glass jar.
Put the jar in a sunny window sill or warm place for 2 - 6 weeks and shake the jar every morning and night. Strain and put in a dark glass container.
Ointments
There are many different way of making an ointment. As with other herbal preparations we need our plant of choice and we need a substance in which the plant material can be dissolved and to which it can impart medicinal qualities. Fats, oils and creams are easily absorbed by the skin and so help to transport the remedy across the skin. This is very useful where you want to relieve pain or stiffness or inflammation within the tissue by applying the remedy locally. Ointment bases like vaseline and waxes are not quite as easily absorbed by the skin and they are an excellent medium to apply antiseptic, healing and soothing substances to cuts, sores and minor burns.
Ointments can also be used as a carrier medium for volatile oils and resins, which then evaporate with the warmth of the body. Examples are chest rubs and anti-catarrhal balms.
METHOD 1
Have about 60 grams (a good handful) finely cut herbs ready and 200 grams of ointment base, for example:
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vaseline (also known as petroleum jelly);
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aqueous ointment (a creamy substance, which can be bought ready made at a chemist)
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lard (used a lot in the past in home-made ointments as it was one of the most easily available fats)
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vegetable trex (a good modern, vegetarian, cheap substitute for lard, available in supermarkets and grocery stores
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emulsifying wax (can be bought or ordered in a chemist shop. It comes in the form of a bag of wax flakes, which can be dissolved in warm water to make the ointment base. It takes a little experimentation to achieve the right consistency, because when it is still warm, your emulsion may look quite thin and liquid, but of course it will stiffen as it cools!)
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beeswax
Gently warm your ointment base in a non metallic container, such as an enameled pan. Add the plant material and simmer for 10-30 minutes. The purpose is again to break open the plant cells, so they release their medicinal qualities into the base. The cells of a flower petal will break down quicker than a tougher leaf or stem, etc. Just like the water become coloured with the plant material when you make a herbal infusion, so your ointment should become coloured too.
Strain the ointment through a cloth or sieve. Add 1% of Tincture of Benzoin as a preservative if desired (This is a tincture made from the gum, or tree sap, of a South-east Asian tree called Styrax benzoin, also available from the chemist or herbal suppliers) . Without a preservative the ointment will have a very limited life and needs to be kept in the fridge or cool place.
Pour the ointment in containers and seal..
METHOD 2
Again we need an ointment base, which can be any of the substances mentioned in method 1 or simply a good quality oil, for example: Almond Oil, Olive oil, Sunflower oil, Wheat germ oil, etc.
To this base we can add an already made plant extraction, such as an infusion or decoction.
Put your ingredient in an enameled saucepan and stir and simmer gently until the water in your mixture has completely evaporated (when this happens the bubbling stops) and the extracts of the medicinal plants is therefore incorporated into the ointment base. Take care not to overheat the ointment.
Depending on which base you have chosen, you may now want to add a thickener, for example if your base was a simple oil. Beeswax, white wax, cocoa butter and lanolin can all be used as thickeners which help us to get the consistency of cream or ointment we require. Grate the wax or cocoa butter and stir in slowly until melted and blended. Finally a 1 drop of tincture of benzoin as a preservative for every 30 grams of perishable base such as lard, which without preservative would go mouldy quite soon.
All sorts of combinations are possible. Here is a basic recipe for an ointment base from a Victorian British Pharmacopoeia, which is a good 'all-rounder' as far as skin absorption or delivering medicine to a wound is concerned:
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60 grams of wax (grated)
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90 grams of lard or vegetable trex
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90 ml of oil.
Mix the fat and oil together. Add the appropriate (strained) decoction or infusion of your plant material. Gently simmer and stir until the water has completely evaporated. Add the wax and stir until completely blended. Add 8-10 drop of Tincture of Benzoin as a preservative. Pour the finished ointment in separate containers.
METHOD 3
Start off with a cold infused oil, which already incorporates the plant material. Warm gently in an enameled pan and add some grated beeswax (or other wax) to thicken the oil in order to create the right consistency.
Suppositories, Pessaries and Bougies
The most time consuming thing about making suppositories (torpedo shaped for the rectum), pessaries (cone shaped for the vagina) and bougies (shaped for any other orifice in the body) is shaping them. If you're intending to make lots of them and want them all the same it may be worth making a mould. You can improvise by moulding aluminium foil around a ball point top or similar to get a nice torpedo shape and use an old cereal box with holes cut in to stand your little mould in upright. You can also make a tablet, which you then cut in pieces and finish rolling and shaping them by hand. This is easy to do, since the material you use should melt at body temperature. Cocoa butter (which you can order from your chemist) is an excellent material to use as a base (also called "carrier"), since it melts soon after being inserted into the body.
The advantage of using suppositories, pessaries and bougies is that you can deliver medicine right where you want it, without having to worry about what the digestive system will have on your medicine and whether the blood will carry enough of it to the body part where it is most needed. Here are two basic recipes:
RECIPE 1: Gently warm a quantity of carrier or base, such as cocoa butter "Au bain Marie" (= heat in a bowl placed in a pan of boiling water). Saturate this with finely powdered herb of your choice (powder with pestle and mortar or in a food processor). Stir well and pour into your individual moulds or tablet shape.
RECIPE 2: Dissolve 10 parts of Gelatine in 40 parts strained Infusion, Decoction or Tincture by heating gentle ("Au bain Marie" - see recipe 1). Add 15 parts of Glycerine. Heat again "Au bain Marie" to evaporate the water from the infusion, decoction, etc.. The consistency of the final product depends on how much water is removed.
Pills, Capsules and Powders
If people cannot take tinctures or teas (infusions and decoctions), making pills may be a good way of taking Tree medicine internally. Because most people are only able to swallow small pills, you may have to take several as one dose, because the amount of plant material, which can be put in a pill is of course only limited. Here are two old-fashioned ways to make home-made pills:
1. Roll finely powdered plant materials (Ground in a pestle and mortar or in a food processor) into a small pill made of fresh bread, cream cheese or whatever else you can think of.
2. Bind the powdered plant materials into a firm paste with molasses or thick honey and corn flour. Roll into small balls.
The medicinal powder can also be put into a small bit of folded paper. Allow the powder to slide off the paper straight into the mouth. Have a glass of water ready to rinse the mouth. Drink the remaining water as this will help the powder along its journey into the digestive tract.
Plant materials often have a bitter taste, which is actually very good for us, even if our modern palate is no longer used to it. The bitterness stimulates the nervous system into producing digestive juices. However, if taste is a problem plant powders can be taken in the form of edible capsules, which disintegrate in the stomach to release their medicine. You can buy empty capsules in varying sizes from most chemists. They are made of two parts which slide over each other, thus it is simply a matter of filling them with powder. Capsules are often made from gelatine, which is usually made from animal bones, but there are also vegetable based capsules available. So please ask your chemist if you are a vegetarian to order you some.
Compress
Soak a clean cloth (iron to sterilise if the compress is applied to a wound) in a hot infusion or decoction. Apply this to wounds, ulcers or other sore areas, to help the healing process. Compresses are also an excellent gentle way to treat sore or inflamed eyes. Warmth will enhance the healing action of the plant medicine, so when the compress becomes colder, re-soak the cloth again in the hot infusion or decoction. Alternatively, you can cover the cloth with a hot water bottle. Protect the rubber hot water bottle by putting a sheet of plastic or aluminum foil between the cloth and the bottle.
Poultice
A poultice is used for similar purposes to that of a compress, except we use bruised leaves or other plant material such as pulped root or bark paste instead of a cloth soaked in an infusion or decoction. The plant material can be applied directly on the skin or put between two thin layers of gauze. If you frequently use a poultice, for example for rheumatic joints, it may be worth sewing a couple of thin muslin bags to put the poultice in.
Cover the skin with a little oil to protect the skin and the make removal of the poultice easier if you are applying the plant material straight unto the skin.
Leaves can be briefly scalded in hot water and then bruised with a rolling pin or clean bottle. Dried plant material is made into a paste with hot water or cider vinegar. Like a compress, the poultice can be kept warm with a hot water bottle.
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