Friday, March 6, 2015

Capirona Tree Cure for Diabetes and Cancer

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 302-365

Nombre común (Spanish):

Capirona

Scientific name:

Calycophyllum spruceanum

Capirona (Calycophyllum sp.) is among the most important trees in the lives of

Amazonian people. It grows over 100 feet tall, high enough to emerge above

the main canopy.

The capirona tree turns deep red and sheds its bark twice a year to get rid of parasites.

This tree avoids lichens, fungi, epiphytes and lianas, by getting rid of its bark. Once or twice a year it sheds off its bark entirely. The smooth green bark underneath is kind of like a sunburnt human! Look around you and compare its smooth, baby like bark, against the rest.

The older the tree, the more of its bark will be unpeeled, creeping up its trunk. It flowers between march and april. It fruits between july and November. Seeds are dispersed by the wind.

This tree can grow to the forest’s canopy and reach a height of 30 metres. It has a very distinctive appearance due to its smooth and shiny bark. It has the ability to completely shed its bark, which changes from a vibrant green to brown colour depending on the time of year. It is common to find Capirona trees growing close to one another.

Extremely resilient and flood resistant, the Capirona produces small, white flower and long seed pods with 3-5 seeds inside.

The bark is commonly brewed into a salve which is rubbed on the skin, forming a thin coating that helps fight the effects of aging, parasites, and fungal infections. The bark is also effective in treating diabetes. Peruvian tribes commonly use Capirona decoctions to treat fungal infections of the skin as well as certain skin parasites that are commonly found in the Amazon Basin.

Medicinal Uses

This tree is commonly used by the Kichwa, Kukama and Tikuna tribes for its medicinal properties.

The bark is used for

cleansing wounds,
cuts and burns, due its
anti-bacterial qualities.
It also has anti-fungal and
anti-microbial properties,
used for treating skin conditions.
The bark is used for treating wrinkles and patchy skin.
It is believed to help the skin rejuvenate, as does the bark of this tree.
It has been used in the cosmetic industry for its ability to prevent wrinkles,
remove discolorations and scars.
Also an antioxidant, and known to be used as a repellent and insecticide.
The bark is also effective in treating diabetes.

It has small perfumed white flowers.

This tree is a sacred teacher plant and used by shamans for its curative/spiritual qualities.

It can be used as part of a shamanic dieta or as an
admixture to Ayahuasca.
Capirona has a very light energy that can brighten dark moods.
Connect to this tree to help combat negative energies from other people or the environment.
The essence can make your energetic body slippery, like the bark of this tree, so that negative energies slide off.
The colour of Capirona's energetic medicine is lime green, representing the tree's distinctive bark.
This colour is refreshing and invigorating.

How to use it?

A bark decoction is used topically for

eye infections and
infected wounds as well as
for skin spots,
skin depigmentation,
wrinkles and scars.
It also stops bleeding quickly and
is often applied to bleeding cuts and
to soothe insect bites and
reduce bruising and swelling.

The resin is used for

abscesses, and
skin tumors.
A tea made from the bark is used as a lotion after bathing. This forms a thin film covering their bodies believed to help fight the effects of aging, parasites and fungal infections

A bark decoction is also used to treat diabetes. 1kg of the bark is boiled in 10 liters of water until 4 liters remain. It is believed that if this decoction is drunk every day (about 5 ounces daily) for three consecutive months that it is a “cure” for diabetes.

Peruvian tribes also apply the powdered bark to fungal infections of the skin.
They also prepare a bark decoction to treat skin parasites – especially “sarna negra” – a nasty little bug that lives under the skin which is commonly found in the Amazon basin area.

Calycophyllum spruceanum grows in the South American countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru

Links

http://web.horacemann.org/pages/faculty/pictures/amazonpage6.htm
http://www.thesacredscience.com/blog1/chazuta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j0dzcEBRdk

Thursday, March 5, 2015

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

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

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.

If possible work so that sunlight is filtering through the leaves

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.

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.

When you feel calm, stand facing the tree so your fingers on both hands and your toes are lightly touching the trunk.

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.

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/.

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.

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.

Hug the tree

Links