Herbs as Medicine

[libby]

Today, another gloomy drizzly day, I decided to get rid of some newspapers I'd put aside to read later, then never got around to it. Of course, I had to scan them first to be sure I hadn't missed something important, and am glad I did, because I found this on the SCIENCE page of one:

URBAN JUNGLE
The Changing Natural World at our Doorsteps.

A BLOOMING PANACEA

IN March, the early-blooming, sweet-smelling flowers of spicebush enliven local parks with a greenish-yellow tinge.

Twigs bear clumps of either male or female flowers. Each bloom is only about a quarter-inch in diameter.

Emerging leaves are fragrant with camphor, as are the twigs. Both can steeped to produce an herbal tea.

The Cherokee drank the tea as a tonic, a cold remedy and for blood and menstrual problems. The Iroquois used "fever bush" to lower fevers. Mohegan children chewed the twigs to rid themselves of worms.

During the Civil War, some Confederate soldiers drank spicebush tea, which tastes very much like a spicy, aromatic black tea.

A 2008 study revealed that spicebush bark extract strongly inhibits growth of both Candida albicans yeast and the fungus that causes athlete's foot.

The shrub can also be a balm for the garden: deer avoid it, so the bush thrives in both woodlands and on urban lawns.

SOURCES: Letters of Applied Microbiology. "Native American Ethnobotony," Wild Plant Teas and Coffees of Missouri," "Florida Ethnobotony, Journal of Materia Medica, USDA

PATTERSON CLARK/THE WASHINGTON POST

clarkp@washpost.com

Libby (sounds like just the thing for my little herb garden. Will see if I can find two (male and female) at a local nursery, and get them in the ground.)