Wood Betony: A Monograph

By Aidan Blank

This darling plant has kept me intrigued since I was first introduced to it growing in my teacher’s herb garden a decade ago. It was sometime afterwards that I was able to experience the tea, and I remember feeling a distinct expressive calm radiating from my center. Drinking it again as I write I sense why it was commonly employed as a reliable and comforting ‘proper’ tea substitute; “it has somewhat the taste of tea and all the good qualities of it, without the bad ones” – Maude Grieves.  It is very smooth, pungent, nutritive, slightly moistening, and astringing at the same time. It has a decidedly calming effect in general and on the stomach in particular. In stronger infusions I can sense a slight acridity in the back of my throat that I have come to associate with some of it’s more magical or mysterious actions. Wood Betony also appears to have the curious effect of increasing my dream recall; the dreams are more lucid and often include the appearance of a benevolent being or ally. William Salmon, writing in early 16^th century England, describes one of Wood Betony’s actions as “incarnative “.  I believe that this accurately and evocatively sums up the central movement of the plant. It is a superlative remedy for bringing one back into their body and becoming reacquainted with the older instinctual knowing residing in the solar plexus, or ‘gut’. I lived for a time with a boy, then 6 or 7 years old, who experienced frequent stomach cramping and general nausea. This often concurred with a debilitating headache that left him lying on the couch for long periods of time in a detached state. His energy felt hot (like many children), ungrounded, and stuck in his head. Tincture of Wood Betony quickly brought these fluctuations to a minimum and eventually they were undetectable. Best of all he seemed to love the tincture and touted it as his personal remedy, or maybe even a constitutional ally.  Wood Betony has served likewise for me when I have had need of it.

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FLEABANE

By Karen Bond

Genus and Species: Erigeron canadensis

Family: Aster (Asteraceae)

Common Name: Horseweed, Eastern Daisy Fleabane, Canadian fleabane, Fleabane daisy, colt’s                              tail, butter weed, fireweed, blood-stanch, cow’s tail, bitter weed

Energetics: Stimulant

Properties:  Antimicrobial, diuretic (Felter & Lloyd) and astringent

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Ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia

Genus species:  Artemisia artemisiifolia

Family:  Asteraceae

Common names:  

A artemisiifolia:  Common ragweed, bastard wormwood, hogweed, Roman wormwood, bitterweed

A trifida:  Tall ambrosia, great ragweed, horseweed, wild hemp

Part used:  

Aerial parts

Energetics:  

Dry, warming

Taste:  

Bitter, pungent, slightly astringent

Actions:

Astringent, antiseptic, styptic, vulnerary, bitter [Read more…]

Lavender

By Hayden Stebbins

 

Genus and Species: Lavandula spp. (latifolia, angustifolia, stoechas, intermedia)

Family: Lamiaceae

Common Names: Lavender, English Lavender (L. angustifolia, formerly L. vera and L. spica), French or Spanish Lavender (L. stoechas), Mediterranean Lavender (L. latifolia) (Examine.com, 2017)

Energetics: Relaxing, warming

Properties: Analgesic (anodyne), antifungal, aromatic, relaxant, anxiolytic

Taste: Bitter, aromatic, astringent

Degree of Action: 3^rd

Tissue State: Tense, cold, moist

Key Uses: Lavender is a nerve sedative for “headaches, anxiety, insomnia, and depression that comes from constant worry and for ‘high strung, nervous, self-absorbed people who need to relax’ (Easley, 2016e).” Lavender tincture is a powerful digestive bitter and carminative, and is a mild analgesic that “can ease headaches and migraines when taken soon after onset (Easley, 2016e).” Lavender essential oil is a topical analgesic (McDonald, Easley, & Chalmers, 2016). Indications for lavender include when the head droops from fatigue, nervous exhaustion, picky, detailed oriented people with insomnia or IBS, nervous high strung people who are too much “up in their heads,” and for asthma where nervousness is a factor (Easley, 2016d). The tincture is different than the essential oil (as it includes bitter properties) and combines well with rosemary and Holy Basil for stagnant depression from trauma or subclinical PTSD where a person is fixated on an event or trauma where the person is in fog and has difficulty thinking (Thomas Easley, personal communication, February 16, 2017). The essential oil can be used as a sleep aid inhaled before bed, or added to baths an hour before bed (Easley, 2016c).

 

 

History: Lavender essential oil was used as a perfume for cloth cleaning (Fenner, 1888b), as an ingredient in a jelly for “sun-burn, tan, chap, (and) chafe,” in lip salve, perfume (Fenner, 1888a), and the dried flowers were put in pillows as a sleep aid and as a part of a “vulnerary spirit” (Fennner, 1888c).

Matthew Wood says that lavender is a burn remedy and Deer medicine, and is used for dogs that get bitten by asps, grows the capillary bed, spreads the blood out and sooths, and that the higher in the mountain it grows, the higher quality the plant medicine (persona communication, January 11, 2017).

Lavender was an Unani Exhilarant which “arouses the vitality in the spiritual heart and inclines the spirit toward joy (Easley, 2016a).”

Externally, Lavendula angustifolia used as a “soothing lotion for the headache of debility and in fevers” and was added to smelling salts for headaches and tendency to faint (Felter, 1922). It was a stimulant and carminative, used to “allay gastric uneasiness and nausea, in flatulent colic, hysteria, nervous debility, general languor and tendency to fainting (Felter, 1922).” “For nervous and weak individuals, who faint easily and are prone to hysterical seizures (Felter, 1922).” It was used as a corrigent and adjuvant for “less agreeable medicines,” and used in Cypripedium by Scudder (Felter, 1922).

Lavender essential oil was used for “nervous languor and headache,” and used for “conditions of nervous debility” and as an adjuvant for other medicines (Wood & Bache, 1849).

“Lavender is the child’s stimulant, and nothing, so far as I am aware, exercises so kind an influence upon the digestive apparatus and the nervous system (Scudder, 1893).”

Clinical Uses: The following studies confirm lavender essential oil’s historical use as an anxiolytic, and also to improve some measurements of cognition elderly with cognitive decline. Aromatherapy with lavender essential oil has been shown to reduce heart rate, blood pressure, measures of anxiety, and elevate measurements of mood and relaxation without sedation. Time and proximity to olfactory organs appear to play a role in the effectiveness of aromatherapy; the further from the nose, the lesser the effect, and exposure times below 20 minutes were less effective than exposure times over. However, some studies did show that essential oil diffusers in rooms were effective as long as ventilation did not interfere with patient exposure to the essential oil.

Internal use of standardized encapsulated lavender essential oil (Silexan) has also been found to have an effect on generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD, neurasthenia anxiety-related restlessness and disturbed sleep, and other anxiety related disorders comparable to benzodiazepines and SSRIs without many of the side effects associated with these drugs. There were some events of GI distress though not at rates higher than comparable drugs.

Smelling lavender essential oil soon after the onset of headache or migraine has been shown to decrease duration and severity of the headache or migraine.

Lavender essential oil works as an antifungal mixed with cajeput and thyme and diluted in a fixed oil (Easley, 2016b)

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