Sagebrush to Ease your Pain

Sagebrush (Artemisia californica), known to the Chumash as khapshikh (pronounced kopsheek), is an amazing medicinal plant with many uses.  I love Sagebrush.  Despite it’s name it is actually not a sage at all.  California Sagebrush is in the Artemesia family and is actually more closely related to Mugwort than Sage.  It grows in abundance all across the dry hills of southern California.  It smells wonderful and was used traditionally to bring back pleasant memories.  I run my hand across the leaves and breathe in the wonderful smell every time I am out on the trails.  I find it relaxes and invigorates me, making the hikes even more enjoyable.  Sagebrush is a survivor, and after a period of drought it is one of the first plants to sprout new green growth when the rains finally come.  That being said, I still try to respect the plants when I am picking, as they are not an unlimited resource.

This morning I went out for a hike with a close friend.  I brought a paper bag with the intention of picking Sagebrush to make medicine.  Luckily we picked a trail where Sagebrush was particularly abundant.  I walked along the path slowly, carefully picking just one small stem from each plant along the way.  The exception was a portion of a plant that had been snapped off by other hikers.  I took all of the green growth from that find.  No reason to let it go to waste.

One of Sagebrush’s most powerful medicinal effects is as a pain reliever.  The leaves and branches I picked this morning will go into a pain liniment I plan to create right after I finish this blog post.  Traditionally the Chumash people used bear grease or whale oil.  As I do not have easy access to these materials, and going to get them myself would be both dangerous and in conflict with my vegetarian lifestyle, I decided to use isopropyl alcohol as suggested by James D. Adams, professor of pharmacology.  Along with a quarter pound of Sagebrush leaves and stems, and a quart of alcohol, Mr. Adams includes six avocado seeds and one leaf of white sage in his recipe for the liniment.  I put the mixture in a large mason jar, wrapped in a shirt to keep the light out and put it in a dark cool place.  The medicine takes about six weeks to mature into a dark green brownish color, after which it is ready for topical use.  DO NOT DRINK THIS MEDICINE

Professor Adams has done us all a great service by analyzing the chemical components of Artemesia Californica, as well as running an informal trial to gauge it’s effectiveness as a pain relief medicine.  Here is that study.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3816656/.  It’s a relatively short read and very informative.  I highly recommend it to anyone considering using this wonderful medicine for themselves.

There are many reasons people experience pain, and for those with chronic pain, it can be debilitating, restricting function and activity, and causing psychological distress.  I would never suggest that someone rely entirely on pain medicine.  Of course when the possibility exists to relieve the issue that is leading to pain, that is ideal.  I dedicate my professional practice to helping people with soft tissue injuries and disorders to resolve the issues that limit their bodies function and lead them to experience pain.   But there are some things we don’t have sufficient means to treat or that will take a long time to improve.  Current arthritis treatments have very limited success, and cancer patients often experience severe pain.  Many people have found relief from the pain associated with these issues by using this Sagebrush liniment.  It can be highly effective, and is much less toxic to the body than prescription pain medicines which are taken internally.

To use the liniment, simply rub it on the painful parts of the body.  Pain relief usually is felt within 20 minutes after application.  For some more severe pain re-application may be necessary.  The pain relief experienced can often last up to a full day.  I am making this liniment to help bring relief to some of my friends who have arthritis as well as one of my friends who had a severe back injury.  I hope that the information presented here can help you and your loved ones, and I thank James D. Adams and Cecilia Garcia for bringing this knowledge to all of us through their book “Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West.”

Thanks to Kellee Matsushita for the wonderful photography.

DISCLAIMER:  This post is not meant to diagnose or prescribe.  Use medicinal plants at your own risk.  Talk to a doctor before mixing medicinal plants with prescription medication.

Yerba Santa

Hi everyone.  Last week I got a little sick.  Something respiratory system related.  It felt a bit like the sinus infections I used to get all the time when I was younger.  At its worst it involved being very congested with a deep cough and a feverish sick feeling.  I couldn’t afford to be out of work for long so I wanted to make sure I got well as soon as possible.  Luckily my local trail here in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California has a wonderful large patch of Yerba Santa.  After a short trip through Sumac, Willows, Live Oaks, Mallow, and more, I came up to the thirty foot wide patch of Yerba Santa.

It was a great time to pick.  Baby plants were sprouting up with their radiant green color

And the older plants had fresh green growth.

I went ahead and picked some of the older leaves that looked like they were due to fall off in a month or so.  I could smell the sweet fragrance of the plants as I picked the leaves.  The leaves were a bit sticky to the touch.  I took just one or two leaves from each plant, being sure to remove them gently.  Hopefully this will help preserve the health of the patch so that it will stay healthy and can help people for years to come.  It is also best to pick leaves before the plants show their beautiful deep purple flowers later in the year.  The leaves can be dried and saved for later or used fresh.

Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon crassifolium), is known to the Chumash as Wishap (pronounced Weeshap), and is prized for it’s ability to relieve lung problems including Asthma, tuberculosis, and pneumonia.  Luckily I wasn’t severely sick.  I put a couple of the leaves I had picked in a tea cup with one White Sage leaf from my garden.  I poured boiling water over it and covered the cup, leaving it to steep until it had cooled down enough to drink.  The tea was delicious with a sweet fruity sage taste.  About twenty minutes after drinking the first cup, my airways opened up and my cough subsided.  I continued with this tea once a day for three days, and by the end of the third day I was feeling fully recovered.  Of course it didn’t hurt that I got a healthy dose of sleep as well, but I was amazed at how immediate and strong the effects of the tea were.  It allowed me to sleep through the night comfortably without being woken up by congestion or coughing.

I highly recommend this wonderful medicine for anyone who feels a respiratory related illness start to show itself.  If you take it early enough you might even feel better before you start really feeling sick.  Enjoy your tea, and stay well.  If you need help identifying or finding some Yerba Santa, feel free to give me a call, message, or e-mail.

All photos were shot by Kellee Matsushita.

Disclaimer: This post was not meant to diagnose or prescribe.  If you may have a serious illness, contact a doctor.  Use medicinal plants at your own risk.

 

 

Gumplant: a beautiful flower to help you breathe freely

GUMPLANT!!

One of my favorite native medicine plants.  My partner Kellee and I went for a hike the other day and she took some great pictures of this amazing little plant.  They are maturing nicely on our local trails.  These pictures are from Victory trailhead of the Santa Monica Mountains.  Luckily they like lots of sun, because that’s about all they’ve gotten in the past year, with the exception of the recent sprinkles.  It amazes me that such a fleshy green plant thrives on the hot hillsides here in Southern California.  I usually find them right on the side of the trails in relatively dry areas.  In my experience, this medicine plant is pretty scarce here in our Southern California hills, so it’s a great candidate for growing in your own home medicine garden.  Especially with it’s beautiful flowers.

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And what a medicine it is, a gift from our co-evolution as partners in symbiosis.  Known by sciency folk as Grindelia camporum (ooooo, fancy), Gumplant is primarily a medicine for our respiratory system.  The Chumash and other native peoples use it for asthma, bronchitis, coughs, sore throats, and even tuberculosis.  It was even used clinically for these conditions in the U.S. and the U.K. from the 1880’s until 1960.  What happened in 1960?  A U.S. law was passed requiring clinical proof of effectiveness for all drugs.  This law is not all bad, and in a perfect world would protect patients from bad or ineffective treatments.  Unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world, and research takes money.  Nature’s gift of Gumplant is not patentable and therefore not profitable.  Nobody funded the research even though it’s effectiveness was evident in it’s years of clinical use.  (C. Garcia & J.Adams, “Healing With Medicinal Plants of the West”)

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Luckily you don’t need FDA approval to make and use plant medicines.  According to James D. Adams Jr, professor of pharmacology at USC, it is at the very least safe to use Grindelia camporum for “coughs, sore throats, and minor respiratory problems.”

Gumplant should not be used by those with existing kidney or heart issues.  Taking Grindelia in excessively large doses could irritate the kidneys.

Grindelia can come in various forms or be an ingredient in other products. To use an infusion, take 1 teaspoonful of the dried herb in 1 cup of boiling water and let sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Drink 3 times a day. For using a tincture, take 1-2 ml 3 times a day. In treating asthmatic conditions, Grindelia works very well.

In it’s clinical use as well as it’s traditional use, Gumplant was usually combined with Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon crassifolium), known by the Chumash as wishap (pronounced weeshap).  This is another wonderful plant for treating respiratory issues.  I’m tempted to say more, but I’ll leave wishap for it’s own full blog post.

An alcohol extract of Gumplant can also be used externally for poison oak rash and minor skin problems.

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Make sure you properly identify plants before using.  Gumplant can be easily identified by it’s distinctive bright yellow flowers with a spiky looking bulbous portion just below the flower.  Gumplant dies back and regrows each year, so if the flowers haven’t come yet, you can usually see the distinctive dry seed-heads from the year before as in the first picture of this post.  Below are a couple of great pictures of the flowers.

Always follow recommended dosages.

DISCLAIMER: This article is not meant to diagnose or prescribe.  Use at your own risk, and if you have any doubts contact a professional.

(Click on the pretty flower to be linked to another good resource on Gumplant)

Resources:

“Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West” by Cecilia Garcia & James Adams Jr

http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Grindelia+camporum

http://www.naturalstandard.com/index-abstract.asp?create-abstract=gumweed.asp&title=Gumweed

Respecting our Plant Medicines

There is a lot of talk and information going around these days about plants as medicine.  Proponents of alternative healthcare discuss the many benefits of plants (and often exaggerate), but this conversation often takes place within the existing consumerist, self-concerned framework.

The plants are looked at as a resource to buy or harvest, as we harvest and over-harvest so many of Earth’s other resources.  These discussions often place us outside of the circle of life, above it, with the rest of life below us as our servants and resources.  But plants are not resources, they are life-forms.  And we were not meant to be pure consumers, but rather partners in the ever-flowing exchange of energies that makes up the Earth’s biome.

This point is especially critical here in Southern California where the plant medicines are not often exceedingly abundant.  In dry years some of our beloved plants are barely hanging on.  That is why it upsets me deeply to see White Sage (Salvia apiana) plants with the whole tops of their branches cut off to make the Sage bundles that people like so much.  Some plants are abundant and hearty and can take more extensive harvesting, but others cannot.

It is our duty as part of the global organism to observe our plant partners and consider their needs as well as ours.  There is no need for our relationship to be one of pure consumption and destruction.  Many plants can actually flourish and benefit from appropriate human grazing.  Stinging Nettle is one example which comes to mind.  When harvested properly, taking small amounts of new growth from the tops, the plants will produce much more foliage and extend their growth period to become perennials.

The way I look at it is that we should try to operate as much as possible as cells in the greater organism.  Yes we must provide for ourselves, but we must also consider the health of the other cells, for without the health of the greater organism, the cells (ourselves included) have no chance of survival.  It reminds me of a concept I have heard H.H. The Dalai Lama discuss called intelligent selfishness.  In his discussion he points out how being compassionate and helpful to other beings actually is the best way to create one’s own happiness and so it is not selflessness but rather intelligent selfishness.  It is the same with harvesting plant medicines.  It is in our interest to have beautiful flourishing ecosystems and to have plant medicines available for years to come, so we must interact with the plants accordingly.

If I see a white sage plant that is really struggling this time of the year, I don’t harvest even a single leaf.  Sometimes I take a moment to sit down with the plant and really observe and see whether it can stand harvesting, and if so to what extent.  If there is a plant in your area that is scarce, but that you or your loved ones would get great benefit from, try growing it in your garden.  You can look for a local native plant nursery or you can pick a dry seed head from the trails and propagate it at home.  When I go hiking and harvesting I bring extra water so that I can give a little to any plants I harvest from.  I don’t know if it’s enough to actually help, or if it’s more ceremonial, but either way it keeps me aware of the mutual exchange that should be happening in the relationship.

I don’t mean to turn people away from plant medicines with this post.  I hope everyone empowers themselves to use nature’s gifts as medicine.  Many of my future posts will help to teach how we can use these wonderful plants.  I only wish that all who learn to use these medicines also learn to respect them and care for them.  Thank you.

P.S. Much of this was inspired by Cecelia Garcia and James D. Adams Jr..  I cannot recommend their book “Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West” highly enough.  Also if you have an opportunity to go on an educational hike with professor Adams take it.  He has a wealth of knowledge and wisdom regarding our native Southern California plants.

P.P.S.: I just exchanged e-mails with Professor Adams and he asked me to emphasize the importance of growing our own White Sage in particular, as it is over-harvested in many areas.