Horse Chestnut Tree Used for Varicose veins, Phlebitis Lupus and Skin Ulcers.

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 301-365

Horse Chestnut (Aesculus Hippocastanum)

Horse chestnuts are trees that are 50 to 100 feet tall that spread 40 to 50 feet wide. The trunk can grow to be 3 feet thick encased in dark colored bark. White flowers turn into large brown nuts covered in spiny husks.

It was introduced from Turkey in the late 16th century and widely planted in Canada

Horse chestnut trees grow in nearly any soil but seem to prefer a sandy loam. They grow very rapidly into tall straight trees that can reach heights of over 100 ft (approximately 30 m) tall, with widely spreading branches. 

The bark is grayish-green or grayish-brown in color, and the tree limbs are thick and have corky, elongated, wart-like eruptions that appear from a distance like ribbing. The interior of horse chestnut bark is pinkish-brown, with fine lines running its length. It is odorless and its taste is very bitter and astringent.

The characteristic horseshoe markings found on the branches are actually the scars from where leaves previously grew. Horse chestnut wood is seldom if ever used for lumber due to its soft and spongy character. 

Large leaf and flower buds are clearly visible even during winter months but are encased in a scaly, resinous protective covering that prevents damage from frost or damp. This thick sticky coating melts with the beginning of warm weather in spring, and flowers and leaves appear with remarkable rapidity, usually within three to four weeks.

Horse chestnuts native to North America are called buckeyes because of their large seeds which resembling the eye of a buck, or male deer.

Medicinal Uses

Both the bark and the fruit from horse chestnut trees are used medicinally to strengthen and tone the circulatory system, especially the venous system. It is used both internally and externally to treat varicose veins, phlebitis , and hemorrhoids. Horse chestnut preparations are particularly effective in treating varicose ulcers. 

Due to its ability to improve circulation, it is also helpful for the relief of leg cramps. Its bark also has narcotic and fever-reducing properties. A compound known as aescin, which is present in the horse chestnut fruit, is now often added to external creams and preparations used for the treatment of varicose veins , varicose ulcers, bruises, and sports injuries.

Horse chestnut preparations using the seed, bark, twigs, and leaves are all utilized in traditional Chinese medicine. 

Chinese herbalists consider horse chestnut to be a part of treatment not only for circulatory problems, but use it as an astringent, as a diuretic, for reduction of edema or swelling, to reduce inflammation, as an expectorant in respiratory problems, and to fight viruses.

Some people apply horse chestnut branch bark to the skin for lupus and skin ulcers.

Horse chestnut seed is used for diarrhea, fever, and enlarged prostate.

In France, an oil extracted from the seeds has been used externally for rheumatism. 

The topical preparation has also been used to treat phlebitis. 

Most studies have looked at the plant's use internally. But there is some evidence that applying an ointment to the affected area may also help. 

Part Used Medicinally The bark and the fruit, from both of which a fluid extract is made.  The bark is stripped in the spring and dried in the sun, or by slight artificial heat, and when dry, occurs in commerce in flattened pieces, 4 to 5 inches long and about 1 to 1 1/2 inch broad-about 1 to 1 1/4 inch thick, greyish-brown externally, showing corky elongated warts, and on the inner surface pinkish-brown, finely striated longitudinally.  The bark is odourless, but has a bitter astringent taste. Medicinal Action and Uses The bark has tonic, narcotic and febrifuge properties and is used in intermittent fevers, given in an infusion of 1 OZ. to the pint, in tablespoonful doses, three or four times daily.  As an external application to ulcers, this infusion has also been used with success. The fruits have been employed in the treatment of rheumatism and neuralgia, and also in rectal complaints and for haemorrhoids.

Preparations

Horse chestnut bark is removed in the spring in strips 4 or 5 in (10–13 cm) long, about 1 in (2.5 cm) thick and broad. 

The fruit of the horse chestnut is gathered in the autumn, when they fall from the tree. Both the bark and the fruit are dried in sunlight or with artificial heat, and are either kept whole or ground to a powder for storage. 

A decoction made of 1 or 2 tsp of the dried, pulverized bark or fruit left to simmer for 15 minutes in 1 cup of water can be either taken internally three times a day or used externally as a lotion. 

Horse chestnut preparations are also available as tinctures, extracts, capsules, and external ointments and lotions. 

Cultivation

The Horse Chestnut is generally raised from the nuts, which are collected in the autumn and sown in the early spring. The nuts should be preserved in sand during the winter, as they may become mouldy and rot. 

If steeped in water, they will germinate more quickly. They will grow 3 foot the first summer and require little care, being never injured by the cold of this climate. They thrive in most soils and situations, but do best in a good, sandy loam.

Link

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/benefits-horse-chestnut

Healing Power of Trees

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 300-365

Facts

•  Given a choice between a scene with trees and one without trees, people of all ages and ethnic groups from various countries prefer the scene with trees regardless of whether they live in urban, suburban or rural areas.
• Just knowing that natural places are available nearby makes a residence more appealing to buyers.
• 
• People are more satisfied with their neighborhoods if there are trees on or near their property. They describe their quality of life as safer, more pleasant and are more satisfying than people living in homes without trees nearby.
• Residents living in apartments with a window view of tress are significantly less aggression toward family members than those whose windows look onto concrete, asphalt or barren earth.  This includes their making fewer insults and threats and other psychologically aggressive behavior.
• Police report lower crime rates in areas of public housing developments that have a density of trees.
• Residents of urban public housing use common spaces with trees more often than common spaces that are barren of trees
• Hospital patients with a window view of trees need less pain medication and are  discharged sooner than patients with treeless views.

     India

I    In India sacred trees are visited by petitioners seeking blessings, especially for health and fertility, from the indwelling spirit or deity who is usually regarded as female and a manifestation of the Earth Goddess? Food and flowers are left at the foot of the tree or shrine and ribbons of cloth or coloured wish bags are tied to the tree.

     Ireland

The Celtic Druids worshipped not in temples, but in groves of trees. These natural woodland sites may have predated the Celts. Those that have been identified are frequently centred on a convergence of earth energies. In former Celtic groves in Wales, Brittany, Ireland and Cornwall the trees are still adorned with ribbons, trinkets and petitions for healing and blessings.

Australia

The Australian Aborigines used healing remedies from trees such as tea tree and eucalyptus centuries before they entered more conventional medicine Tea tree leaves were inhaled by the Aborigines to prevent nasal, throat and chest congestion and ground into a paste to relieve burns and skin infections.

Canada

Native Canadians knew all about those benefits. According to a nearly 500-year-old legend, French explorer Jacques Cartier's ship got stuck in the ice near Quebec. He and his crew faced certain death from scurvy (a vitamin C deficiency) until a tribal chieftain named Donacona brewed the sailors pine tea. It saved their lives and their explorations continued. Later, in the 1940s, a French researcher named Jacques Masquelier discovered that pine bark and needles contain vitamin C.

Tree Meditation - Merging with the essence of the tree

I encourage you to set aside 30 minutes to go out and climb, touch, hug or  just be near a tree and meditate on all of the richness they provide to the planet, not only visually, but in their healing medicinal properties, cleaning our air, providing a place for children to play and providing the  materials for our homes. 

The fact that trees give off oxygen just before dawn, which wakes up the birds and makes them sing! Put your hands on a tree and open to the teaching it has for you and send your gratitude back to her.

1. If possible work so that sunlight is filtering through the leaves
2. Begin by sitting against the trunk for a while, making connection with the forest floor and through the bark with the energy flowing upwards form the earth.
3.  Put your hands on the floor and press down with your feet, picturing any excess energies and negative feelings as dark light sinking downwards into the earth.
4. When you feel calm, stand facing the tree so your fingers on both hands and your toes are lightly touching the trunk.
5. Picture as liquid gold or russet red, rich light rising in beams through your feet and legs, flowing through every part of your body, finding its own pathways.
6. Then allow the stream of gold to be carried back through your fingertips into the tree, absorbing your pain or sorrow and rising again pure and clear through your feet in a continuing cycle/.
7. Focus on any part of your body that is experiencing pain or problem and visualise the energy swirling there anti-clockwise and then clockwise, clearing the blockage or problem.
8. You may experience a surge or energy or a gentler flow of light within you. Continue creating the circuit with the tree energy until you feel powerful and protected.
9. Hug the tree 

    Links

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIAA9velJ34
• http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-healing-benefits-of-hugging-a-tree.html
• http://blogs.evergreen.edu/researchambassador/projects-2/trees-healing/

Gingko Trees Sacred Chinese Tree

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 299-365

The ginkgo is a living fossil, recognisably similar to fossils dating back 270 million years. Native to China, the tree is widely cultivated and was introduced early to human history. It has various uses in traditional medicine and as a source of food.

The oldest ginkgo tree in Beijing is over 1300 years old and is still standing outside of a temple first built since the Tang Dyansty from 6th Century,the second oldest one is in a temple called "Dajue" or "Great Awakeness" in the western suburb of Beijing which is from the Liang Dynasty from 8th Century.

In ancient times, the Ginkgo Tree was called the "Duck Feet Tree". Ginkgo tree it's also referred as the White Fruit Tree 

Sacred Tree

Ginkgo biloba has been considered as a type of "Sacred Tree" in China since ancient times. Because the gingko tree has been around for millennia and has often out-survived humans during catastrophic events.

Apart from being a manifestation of the sacred concept of yin and yang, the tree was primarily a symbol of longevity and vitality. Most gingkos grow to an imposing height and width during their lifetime, often living for several millennia.

Planting ginkgo trees outside of temples was a common practice because the tree was revered as a symbol of sacred knowledge and long lasting wisdom. 

Chinese Daoist shamans used gingko trees for shamanistic tree worship and would engrave on gingko trees to communicate with the spirit world.

Daoist shamans used to engrave their magical spells and seals on ginkgo wood from old trees in order to communicate with the spirit world."

Additionally, legend has it that Confucius taught while sitting under a gingko tree.

Medicinal Uses

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctors believe that 

• the ginkgo kennel could reduce inflammation of the body if the kennels were eaten, 
• it can cure certain skin problems if the kernal is mushed and used to cover the skin rashes.
•  treatment for dementia and 
• Alzheimer's disease
• The medicinal properties of the gingko root were first reported in the Sichuan herbal primer, Chongqing Folk Herbs (Chongqing Caoyao). Different from the seed and the leaf, the root is classified as a warm herb that affects the liver and 
• kidney channels
• A similar feature to the seed and the leaf, however, is its astringent affect. In particular, the root is described as astringing kidney qi deficiency related turbid discharge from the lower burner, such as spermatorrhea, dribbling urine, and leukorrhea.
• In 1985 Dictionary of the Chinese Materia Medica (Zhongyao Da Cidian), adds that gingko leaf benefits the heart and 
• treats stuffiness in the chest, 
• angina pectoris, and 
• palpitations. 
•  The leaves contain substances that promote blood circulation,
• alleviate allergy reactions, and 
• have antioxidant properties.
• The medicinal uses of ginkgo nut were mainly involved with treatment of lung diseases. In fact, one of the famous traditional Chinese formulas for treating asthmatic breathing, Ding Chuan Tang, has ginkgo nut as a key ingredient (the original formula is sometimes called Ma-huang and Ginkgo Combination as an English designation, recognizing two of its most important ingredients). The nine ingredient decoction was first recorded in the book Exquisite Formulas for Fostering Longevity (Fu Shou Jing Fang), written by Wu Min in 1530 A.D.

To maximize the astringent effect, all three medicinal gingko items are properly harvested in September and October, when the metal qi of nature leaves its condensing and storage promoting energetic imprint on all living organisms. Because of this overriding astringing action, all gingko parts are contraindicated in true excess situations. In order of potency, the seed appears to be the strongest of the three, folllowed by the leaf and then the root. The seed is usually prescribed in amounts of up to 9g, the leaf up to 15g, and the root up to 30g.

Hiroshima

Extreme examples of the ginkgo's tenacity may be seen in Hiroshima, Japan, where six trees growing between 1–2 km from the 1945 atom bomb explosion were among the few living things in the area to survive the blast.

Distribution

Currently, about 70% of the world's ginkgo trees are in China, mainly those cultivated in Jiangsu Province in huge, dense plantations. China has recently become a supplier of ginkgo extract to America, providing an alternative to the French product that, perhaps ironically, gets its ginkgo leaves from America at higher cost.