White Willow Bark and Leaves - Natural Pain Relief

by Liliana Usvat
Blog 212 -365

History

The use of willow bark dates back thousands of years, to the time of Hippocrates (400 BC) when patients were advised to chew on the bark to reduce fever and inflammation.

Willow bark has been used throughout the centuries in China and Europe, and continues to be used today for the treatment of pain (particularly low back pain and osteoarthritis), headache, and inflammatory conditions, such as bursitis and tendinitis.

Hippocrates, Galen, Pliny the Elder and others knew willow bark could ease aches and pains and reduce fevers. It has long been used in Europe and China for the treatment of these conditions.This remedy is also mentioned in texts from ancient Egypt, Sumer, and Assyria.
 
The Reverend Edmund Stone, a vicar from Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, England, noted in 1763 that willow bark was effective in reducing a fever. The bark is often macerated in ethanol to produce a tincture.

In an article published in 1652, Nicholas Culpeper had suggested that physicians use the burnt residues of the white willow bark blended with vinegar to remove warts, corns as well as unnecessary flesh from the body.

How to Use

 
White Willow Bark: A Natural Alternative to Aspirin for Pain Relief

WHITE WILLOW tea- Natural Pain Relief 15-20 cups White Willow bark has been used for many many years as a pain reliever. Willow contains glucoside.
 
White willow bark contains salicylic acid that is also found in aspirin. It is recommended that one drink 3 to 4 cups of this tea to benefit from its use. Although the tea may be slower acting than aspirin, it has longer lasting effects.

Start by adding 1 to 2 teaspoons of white willow bark to 8 ounces of water.
 

Allow this to boil for about 5 to 10 minutes. Once it has boiled, turn off the heat and allow it to steep between 20 and 30 minutes. You will notice the herbs drop down to the bottom of the pan and the tea is taking on a beautiful red color.
 
Add cinnamon and honey to your steeped white willow bark for a better tasting tea.

Once the bark is done steeping, strain the bark out and compost it. 

Common Name
White Willow
Other Known Names
Cartkins Willow, European Willow, Pussywillow, Willow, Withe Withy
Botanical Name
Salix alba

Whats it look like
Willows range in size from the statuesque weeping willow tree to plants barely 2 inches high. The many varieties of willow—close to 500—are now considered interchangeable for medicinal use. Its bark has a spicy scent and a bitter flavor.

What part of the plant is used
Bark, leaves
Properties

• Anti-inflammatory
• Expectorant
• Antiseptic
• Analgesic
• Astringent

Uses

• Bronchitis
• Coughs
• Headaches
• Fevers
• Rheumatism
• Gout
• Diarrhea
• Dysentery
• Neuralgia
• Gastrointestinal distress
• Pain
• Osteoarthritis
• Menstrual cramps
• Flu
• Tendonitis
• Bursitis

Cautions-Adverse Reactions-Side Effects
Do not take if you have a bleeding disorder


Headache
Willow bark has been shown to relieve headaches. There is some evidence that it is less likely to cause gastrointestinal side effects than other pain relievers, such as ibuprofen (Advil) and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, do.

Low back pain
Willow bark appears to be effective for back pain. People who received higher doses of willow bark (240 mg salicin) had more significant pain relief than those who received low doses (120 mg salicin).

Hot Flashes and sweating

White willow is also useful for women as the herb helps in lowering night sweating and hot flashes through menopause period.

Dosage and Administration Adult

General dosing guidelines for willow bark are as follows:

• Dried herb (used to make tea): boil 1 - 2 tsp of dried bark in 8 oz of water and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes; let steep for ½ hour; drink 3 - 4 cups daily.
• Powdered herb or liquid: 60 - 240 mg of standardized salicin per day;
• Tincture (1:5, 30% alcohol): 4 - 6 mL 3 times per day. 

Leaves

INFUSION - infusions prepared from white willow leaves can be consumed following meals with a view to cure digestive problems as well as enhance the digestive process.

Chase-away-your-pain aperitif

• 3 cups (750 ml) Sweet white wine (Alsatian Muscat, Muscadet)
• 3 T (50 g) Willow bark, dried and crushed

Macerate month. Strain. Drink 2 T (30 ml) during attacks.

Habitat and cultivation

Basically indigenous to European countries, white willow is now found abundantly in North America as well as in Asia.

The tree best thrives in humid areas like riverbanks and can be grown from partially matured cuttings during the summer or from hard wood cuttings during the winter.

 Normally, the white willow trees are often pollarded and the bark of the tree is shredded during spring from branches of trees that are two to five years old.

Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa) used for colics rheumatoid arthritis, gallstones and menstrual cramps

 By Liliana Usvat
Blog 167-365

 
Wild yam is a perennial vine. The roots and rootstock, or rhizomes, are used in herbal remedies.

These plants are twining, tuberous vines that creep along the ground or occasionally climb trees and other structures. The woody rootstock, or tubers, is pale brown, knotty, and cylindrical in shape.  Stems are reddish-brown and can grow to over 30 feet in length.  
 
So preserving the forest wine like wild yam are preserved and we can benefits for their existence and medicinal uses.

They have broad, alternate, heart- or arrow-shaped leaves that are spirally arranged on long stems. The leaves are deep veined (may give the leaves a puckered look) with veins beginning at the base (where the stem meets) and running towards the tip.  
 
Flowers grow in clusters and are small, greenish-white or greenish-yellow with six petals.  The fruit is a capsule in most species but can be a soft berry in some species.  Their rootstock may be very large and weigh many kilograms.
 
Other common names: wild Mexican yam, colic root, rheumatism root, Chinese yam, shan yao
Scientific/medical names: Dioscorea villosa, Dioscorea oppositifolia or Dioscorea opposita, Dioscorea batatas

The roots and rootstock, or rhizomes, of both types of yam are used in herbal remedies. These plants are different from the yams and sweet potatoes commonly eaten in North America.

 History

Wild yam is a plant native to North America, Mexico and Asia.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, wild yam (Dioscorea villosa ) was used by herbalists to treat menstrual cramps and problems related to childbirth, as well as for stomach upset and coughs. 

 Medicinal Uses

The part used medicinally is the root. The active compound is believed to be diosgenin.

Wild yam has been used for menstrual cramps and discomfort rheumatoid arthritis,  pain from gallstones ailments.

Women in Mexico, for ages, ate the tuber of the Wild Yam as a birth control method. Scientific research has found that the tuber of Dioscorea does contain steroids. These same steroids were then synthetically developed and are used in the manufacturing of birth control pills.

In the 1950s, scientists discovered that the roots of wild yam (not to be confused with the sweet potato yam) contain diosgenin, a phyto (derived from plants) estrogen that can be chemically converted into progesterone, a hormone. Diosgenin was used to make the first birth control pills in the 1960s.

Although wild yam continues to be used for treating menstrual cramps, nausea, and morning sickness associated with pregnancy, inflammation, osteoporosis, menopausal symptoms, and other health conditions, there is no evidence that it works. Indeed, several studies have found that it has no effect at all. That is because the body cannot change diosgenin into progesterone; it has to be done in a lab. Wild yam, by itself, does not contain progesterone.

Early Americans used wild yam to treat colic; another name for the plant is colic root. Traditionally, it has been used to treat inflammation, muscle spasms, and a range of disorders, including asthma.

Wild yam is often touted as a natural source of estrogen

Dioscorea villosa are claimed to contain human hormones and promoted as a medicine for a variety of purposes, including cancer prevention and the treatment of Chron's disease and whooping cough. 

 How to use it

The following are recommended adult doses for wild yam:

• Dried herb to make tea: 1 - 2 tsp dried root to 1 cup water. Pour boiling water over dried root, steep 3 - 5 minutes. Drink three times a day
• Tincture: 40 - 120 drops, three times a day
• Fluid extract: 10 - 40 drops, three to four times per day
• Creams: Contain 12% of wild yam extract; use as directed

Note: Wild yam is often combined with other herbs said to have estrogen-like effects, such as black cohosh. Creams containing wild yam, as well as tablets and powders, may contain synthetic hormones. Check the ingredients carefully.

What is the history behind it?

In East Indian traditional medicine, the wild yam is used to treat sexual and hormonal problems. Chinese herbalists have long used the herb for rheumatism, asthma, and digestive and urinary complaints. Wild yam has also been used in American folk medicine to treat coughs and to induce sweating and vomiting. Some sources suggest that Native Americans and early settlers used it for its ability to relieve intestinal spasms, which is how it got the name colic root.
In the 1960s, progesterone and other steroid hormones were chemically manufactured, in part using ingredients from the Mexican wild yam. This may be the reason for the misconception that the progesterone “precursors” in wild yam could be converted into progesterone in the body.

  

Where to Find: 

True yams are restricted to tropical regions where they are an important food crop. Look for yams in fields, clearings, and abandoned gardens. They are found in rain forests, semi-evergreen seasonal forests, and scrub and thorn forests in the tropics. In warm temperate areas, they are found in seasonal hardwood or mixed hardwood-coniferous forests, as well as some mountainous areas.

Edible Parts:

Most yams are toxic if eaten fresh.  Boil the rootstock and eat it as a vegetable.

 

Yam

Yam is the common name for some plant species in the genus Dioscorea (family Dioscoreaceae) that form edible tubers. These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Oceania. There are many cultivars of yam. Although some varieties of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) are also called yam in parts of the United States and Canada, it is not part of the family Dioscoreaceae; rather it is in the morning glory family Convolvulaceae.

The true yam is a versatile vegetable. It can be barbecued, roasted, fried, grilled, boiled, baked, smoked and when grated it is processed into a dessert recipe. Yams are the staple crop of the Igbo people of Nigeria, in their language it is known as ji, and they commemorate it by having yam festivals known as Iri-ji or Iwa-Ji depending on the dialect.

Yams are a primary agricultural and culturally important commodity in West Africa, where over 95 percent of the world's yam crop is harvested. Yams are still important for survival in these regions. Some varieties of these tubers can be stored up to six months without refrigeration, which makes them a valuable resource for the yearly period of food scarcity at the beginning of the wet season. Yam cultivars are also cropped in other humid tropical countries.
Yam tubers can grow up to 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in lengthan weigh u  to 70 kilograms (154 lb) and 3 to 6 inches high.