Herbs With Heart

Poppyswap.com just sent an email out titled "Emotional Herbs" listing products prepared for easing heart pain sure to come in to the winter months. I followed one link to the "Tranquility Tincture" created by Wise Mountain Botanicals so that I can see what ingrediants they are working with. It is a blend of: Lemon Balm, Lavender, Skullcap, Motherwort, and Chamomile. I have these herbs sitting in jars right now that I may as well turn into a tincture. Many of the folks I'm talking to right now are having a hard time emotionally, just like I am. A gift just in time for the holidays.

Herb Digest has been showing posts lately regarding Hawthorn. I went to a workshop recently about the connection between Hawthorn and the heart. It's right there in the rhyme. I recently picked up Traditional Medicinal's "Heart Tea" because it was on sale at PCC for $1. Unbelievable. It's a blend of Hawthorn and Hibiscus, and when steeped produces a beautiful red color. Besides that I have a little bag of Hawthorn berries I've been saving to brew in a kombucha tea.

I am particularly interested in Hawthorn for strong cardiovascular health because heart disease runs on both sides of my family - but also for it's capacity in emotional healing. Hawthorn is said to relax the arteries, stimulating healthy blood pressure. It also acts as an antioxidant and works synergistically with the body's Vitamin E levels. Apparently in experimentally-induced heart attacks in animals, as well as in animals fed high-cholesteral diets, hawthorn use has been shown to protect the liver (aiding detoxification) and to reduce cholesterol levels by 23%.

Here is an article put out by Science Daily regarding the physiological affects of Hawthorn use: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080122203321.htm

If the body and mind are intimately connected, then a heart relaxant must certainly help relax one's emotions. I am experimenting with this on my self right now. How is this plant different from the herbs in the Tranquility Tonic or something like St Johns Wort?

Salmon Bay Remedies

(W 57th St in 1890!!)

I'm spending the afternoon in Ballard Library (and at the beach) reading Passport To Ballard, researching for another project, when I came across Chapter 14 "Staying Healthy On Salmon Bay". Before there were hospitals out here, there was indigenous plant healing, and then just after that there were pioneers with no medical assistance. Kay Nelson writes the medicine chests of those days were - alum, sulphur, borax, ipecac, camphor, ammonia, morphine and opium. My mom did not keep those things around in her first aid kit. So I'm very curious about them.

More so I wonder about their use of food, spices and herbs to deal with ailments (and also where Nelson got her information). Nelson lists: mustard/bran/oatmeal for poulstices, cayenne pepper, egg yolks and whites for burn ointments and eyewashes; bloodroot, mandrake, dandelion, burdock, yellow dock, chamomile, sassafras, Scot aloes, rue, red clover, gentian, pennyroyal, tansy, rhubarb.

How did the pioneers prepare these plants? Perhaps sometime I should try one of their remedies for heatstroke (after all it's summer now): a wet cloth is wrapped around one's head, while a second bandage soaked in salt is wrapped around the neck. Then dry salt is applied behind the ears. Then mustard plasters are applied to the calves of the legs and soles of feet. Worth a try I guess?

Did the pioneers bring the plants here or learn to make use of native plants? Mustard originates from the Himilayas, oat from the Fertile Crescent, bloodroot and sassafras from Eastern U.S., dandelion, yellow dock, chamomile, red clover, gentian, pennyroyal, tansy, and burdock from Eurasia, aloe from Africa, rue from Macaronesia, and rhubarb from China. But I guess we can't blame the pioneers since they had to take with them the knowledge they had. Go figure many of these plants are now so well established. Can't get rid of the dandelion, that's for sure.

Seeds arrived! + spotlight on German Chamomile (Metricaria recutita)

Abundant seeds arrived today, although without the pole beans. So I contacted them to let them know, yet I hope they believe me. So here I am interpreting the pretty seed packages. Also at work I was chatting with a parent from Germany, and we looked up a map of where my grandmother grew up (I can't believe I hadn't done that before). She loved sunflowers, and I've shared a cup of tea or two with her. Chamomile also happens to be the tea of most abundance at my current home, here before I arrived, some which was sent from Latvia, so I can't read the packaging. But the look and smell can't be mistaken. So I am happy to grow this plant for Dita when she returns in the summer.

[Photo taken from Abundant Life Seeds website]

Of any tea to have in abundance chamomile is a wise choice. I'm sure it's in the house of every tea drinker. When I was first introduced to the tea I was told it was a relaxant and sleep aid, and good to drink when you are sick. I now understand there are better herbs for easing these ailments, but still I am attached to chamomile like a best friend. Because it's so gentle. I'm currently drinking it in a blend with St Johns Wort, Peppermint, Spearmint and Gingko, I'm calling "Dream Dance" (carminitive, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, bitter, nervine, tonic, vulnerary, hypnotic, astringent, anti-spasmodic). If you are wondering what these terms mean check out this resource: healthy people, healthy planet.

But I should say more about this wonderful plant. As an "hypnotic", the flowers are indeed a sleep aid, and a relaxant counteracting anxiety. Modern research can defend this diagnosis and treatment (although more research is always needed), while among folk therapy it's rarely disputed. In one study from University of Pennsylvania, 57 participants diagnosed with generalized anxiety received chamomile extract over 8 weeks. Compared with placebo, chamomile-takers demonstrated a greater reduction in anxiety (HAM-A scores) - in a way that was "clinically meaningful and statistically significant". Go figure centuries of traditional plant medicine could prove to be meaningful and significant in these modern times.

Still I'm not sure how I will grow chamomile. Direct sow is not advised, except in soil temps between 60-75 degrees. For best germination, I'm supposed to use a seedling tray, and expect something slow and erratic. On top of that the seeds are said to need a 4-6 week period of "cold stratification" in soil temps of 33-35 degrees. Basically I need an indoor grow lamp for that initial heat, than should leave them outside in their seed tray covered. I'm praying that my friend's offer for use of grow lamps at her house actually pans out.