ELECAMPANE
(Inula helenium Asterales)
Family:  Asteraceae, formerly Compositae
IN HELEN’S HONOR
​by Linda Hall
​

 
Once upon the land of myth lived Helen, queen of the city-state of Sparta in ancient Greece and divinely beautiful daughter of the union between a mortal woman and the all-powerful god Zeus.  Under the weight of her political stature, as well as being a woman of pleasing physical attributes in a male-driven warrior society, Helen was often troubled and when so, would seek out campagnas, open rural expanses filled with flowers many times wild and glorious.  Walking through a campagna’s petalled patchwork, the beauty of the flowers would refresh her senses and lift her heart.  Yet their beauty could not compare to her own for she was known as the most beautiful woman in all the land, a quality that had not only brought her deserved praise but many trials, as well, for she was greatly desired by men, and many wanted to possess her.
Upon one visit to a campagna, Helen was especially sorrowfully afflicted as she was remembering having been kidnapped from the home of her childhood and accosted by the man who abducted her.  Although lost in her remembrance, she became suddenly alert to a plant standing nobly in her path, one whose flowers, particularly bright and vivid as the sun, brought forth in her feelings of warmth and gladness.  As tall as the plant stood, she was able to gently clasp one flower to her breast, but in so doing, she was abruptly encircled by the arms of Paris, a prince of Troy, a man who, under the daunting influence of Aphrodite, goddess of Beauty and Sexual Love, seized Helen, and in a delirium of lust, assailed her, stealing her from the land of her home.
The flower, having been so appreciated by Helen, grieved over her fate, willing itself to grow in each and every place her tears had fallen upon the campagna, for Helen had wept, her heart breaking to find herself once again brutally shorn from the place she called home.  Growing along her trail of tears, the flowering plant immortalized itself as symbol of Helen’s loss, that of unexpected and undesired departure from the home she loved, and forever after, the plant was oft used in the making of remedial cordials for the grieving heart.

                                                                                                       ***
Inula helenium remembers Helen, queen of Sparta.
Tall and statuesque (the plant can reach heights of eight to nine feet), Inula helenium proudly raises its multiple flowering sun discs into the heavens, their long, slender, bright-yellow floral rays seeking the arc of the sun and revealing a radiance almost equal to Helen’s divine beauty.
Motivated by a competitive urgency to advance across great swaths of open expanses (Inula helenium is considered an invasive plant), it replays Helen’s crisscrossing of mythical campagnas, forever renewing itself in the many brooding footsteps made by an uneasy queen.
The knowing of a woman’s loss and grief, and the succor that is the remedy for it, lies buried deep in the roots of Inula helenium.  The plant has naturalized in North America and spreads easily by aggressively creating new growth from its thick, fleshy roots, making available its wisdom to the many who, grief-stricken, walk the campagnas of life seeking solace, the kind of solace first found in the sunny beam of an elegant flower.
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                                                                 Flowers Many Times Wild and Glorious
The Asteraceae family hosts myriad diverse vascular flowering plants as well as some shrubs, trees, and vines, and is estimated to consist of approximately 35,000 currently existing species.  Of the roughly 391,000 species of vascular plants on planet earth, about 95% of them are flowering, and the Asteraceae family comprises about 10% of these.  Originating 83 million years ago in South America, over millennia it has reached the status of one of the largest plant families on earth and is found in all earth’s natural habitats. Creative and competent, it spreads far and wide the entertaining and varied countenances of composites such as arnica, artichoke, aster, black-eyed susan, boneset, burdock, calendula, chamomile, chicory, chrysanthemum, cosmos, the daisy, dandelion, echinacea, feverfew, goldenrod, lettuce, marigold, milk thistle, sage, the sunflower, tansy, tarragon, wormwood, yarrow,  zinnia . . . and elecampane. 
Unique to the Asteraceae family is the composite structure of its flowers:  a disc floret with ray florets, having the appearance of just one flower.  The yellow “petals” of the sunflower, for example, are actually each a flower (ray floret), and the brown structures in the center of the yellow ray florets are a mass of tiny individual flowers (disc florets).  Some of the family’s flowers have only ray florets (the dandelion); some only disc florets (burdock).
Embracing the globe, with so much territory to conquer, the composites have learned to spread by more than one means.  Those that produce nectar encourage pollination, primarily by bees and butterflies.  Methods of seed dispersal include buoyancy upon the wind, engaging passersby with barbs or hooks, falling into the mud to be carried off on the feet of waterfowl, floating away upon water, or being toted around by ants.  Some of the plants reproduce through rhizomes, root-born stems that grow horizontally on the surface of the soil bearing nodes that develop roots and shoots perpendicular to the ground.
The prodigious number of species in the Asteraceae family, and their accomplished heterogeneity, speak to the highly evolved adaptability of these plants that, equipped with various reproductive tools, are capable of surviving in contrasting habitats under varying climes.  Whether native or naturalized, their success has created a world of astonishingly broad plant variety, for they can take shape as eye-appealing ornamentals in the garden; wild blooms thrusting forth in the fields; as plants of medicinal quality such as chamomile, dandelion, and echinacea; and as cultivated food providers yielding such staples as Jerusalem artichokes, who give up their hearts to marinade, chicory as a coffee substitute, lettuce for our salads and sandwiches, cooking oils from safflower and sunflower plants, and the popular sweetening agent derived from Stevia rebaudiana, yet another member of the Asteraceae family.
                                                                                         ***
Most of the members of the Asteraceae family share a like chemical composition able to confer a host of benefits upon human health.  Where edible, we find significant sources of inulin, a polysaccharide with prebiotic properties; as well as a pharmacopeia representative of a range of phytochemical compounds, for Asteraceae plants provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, cardiotonic, hepatoprotective, diuretic, anti-hemorrhoidal, and wound healing gains.  Nutritionally, we find fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals. 
Whether we beautify our garden with daisies and zinnias, crowning our table with a vase of their friendly flowers; or we walk admiringly through a field of golden aster, blue mistflower, orange hawkweed, and rosy pussytoes.​

 Whether we make medicinal tinctures of earthy burdock or bitter wormwood; or satisfy our appetite with a refreshing salad of crisp lettuce, bitter dandelion greens, artichoke hearts, and a sprinkle of sunflower seeds, we give the Asteraceae plants more than a nod – for our senses have been satisfied on more than one level, and we have come to know our debt to the high order of their intelligence in the greening of our planet. 
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​                                                                                                    ***
                                                                                 “There’s no Place like Home”
It’s not difficult to imagine the grief Helen experienced being suddenly and ruthlessly removed from the home she loved in Sparta.  When we lose a home we love (by means of a business or military transfer, an act of eminent domain, an all-consuming flood or fire, or by the defeat of foreclosure), it’s likely we experience grief.
However, we’re “at home” in a variety of ways and therefore suffer loss in many differing home-like spaces.  We might, then, consider loosening the definition of home to expand beyond a fixed and loved domicile, allowing the definition to become inclusive of relationships we have with anyone or anything that bring us comfort, security, and the opportunity for love to grow – relationships that forbid thoughts of their ending. So, grief can embrace us when:
parents, who created within us our first sense of home, pass on, connection to our lineage existing now in memory only.
divorce or death separates us from a spouse; illness takes a child; a pet succumbs to age; hope and expectation both overruled.
grown children move away; stayed by the hand of time, we remain in a home of empty rooms.
a hard-won job that gained us career tenure is done away with.
any long-held ideas, opinions, judgments, and beliefs are challenged and overturned.
The sanctity of national values, cooperative foreign relations, and the sovereignty of the natural world are jeopardized; the outer world we have depended upon undergoes radical change.
we move farther and farther from the home of youth, advancing into the strange habitat of old age.
                                                                                                        ***
                                                                                                   Grief
                                                                                 and the Death of a Loved One
Alice Walker, Turning Madness into Flowers:
“It is our grief heavy, relentless, trudging us, however resistant, to the decaying and rotten bottom of things:  our grief bringing us home.”
Grieving is unavoidable, and as such, a necessary state of being, one which deepens our humanness, refining our understanding of how to be in a world where others suffer loss, too.  As a response to emotional stress, grief is by nature never ending and, if not learned from, non-adaptive.
Whether or not we see a loss of deep consequence coming, nothing prepares us for losing someone we loved greatly and upon whom we substantially depended; the pain of the loss may be cut with such treachery that we are unraveled.  The shock of it can carry us beyond the borders of the real world, certainly the world we once knew, for we can no longer see the broad stroke of a familiar horizon, the loss a cataract on our eye, dimming vision of any future; the heart, bunched painfully inside the fist of despair, synchronizing now only with the long, slow drumbeat of our mourning; our lungs, squeezed by sorrow, are an airless vacuum, the lack of oxygen dizzying; searching for words that don’t exist, we become mute.
We have landed on the start square of a path with no end, a path we’ll be walking the rest of our lives, one that stretches across a forbidding landscape; yet it is at this point that grief has quickly and summarily maneuvered us off road to a place where the enormity of our tragedy cannot reach us. In shock, we are born down deep into the winter of denial:  where our appetite for life is stilled, our emotions numbed, our mind sleepily unburdened of the hard facts, and where the psyche is blanketed against the soul-shattering reality and spiritual angst the cold cruelty of bottomless loss brings.

                                                                                    “Let the Sunshine in”
Elecampane is “a cheery, warming, goodly [herb]; [an herb] that’ll race through your veins with little torches;” a flower of the open fields associated not only with beauty but with light; purity and radiance; fire and torches; all things shining that remind us of the bright, cleansing beauty of the sun.
A vigorous and commandeering plant, elecampane thrives best in damp, poorly draining soil under full sunlight; thus, we see its signature – that of a warming, draining, restoring, and uplifting herb.
With an organ affinity for the lungs, elecampane is drawn to them when they grow weak under frequent or long-standing respiratory conditions, when they are damp and cold, when mucus in them becomes excessive and stuck.  A stimulant expectorant herb, its warming, spicy pungency (due to the richness of the root and rhizome’s volatile oils) tickles the lung mucosa into producing urgent, deep coughing, the force of which helps break up old, gluey, infected mucus.  Although the root’s pungency is its overriding taste, a hint of bitterness indicates a draining and drying effect, and a hint of acridity suggests its ability to promote relaxation of tension, tightness, and spasm in airways.  Some respiratory conditions that may respond to elecampane include asthma, bronchiectasis, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, croup, emphysema, pleurisy, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and whooping cough.  Brief respiratory infections may be resolved; advanced, chronic lung conditions with old coughs, hardened mucus, and airway damage may benefit from the deeper, more productive coughing and the lessening of tension, tightness, and spasm, if not from complete resolution.
Warming, thinning, draining, drying, clearing, and ultimately cleansing, elecampane’s pungency and bitterness are not only helpful in ridding the lungs of conditions of damp cold with stagnant mucus, but in so doing, enable the lungs to grow a fresh layer of antiseptic mucosa, rich with immune factors, that can hold fort against infection.  Its acridity relaxes and opens airways.  Now in an environment of tranquility, a place of introspection, remembrance, and reworking; relieved of infectious burden and released from constriction, the lungs can open to their purpose renewed. Considered a trophorestorative herb, elecampane’s action in the lungs reminds us of photosynthesis, albeit in reverse:  in green plants, a respiratory exchange of carbon dioxide in and oxygen out occurs, yielding fuel for the plants’ continued functioning.  In our lungs, under the sun-like, healing influence of elecampane, efficient respiratory exchange of oxygen in and carbon dioxide out provides the energy necessary to increase lung capacity to its fullest.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the lungs are linked to the large intestine:  lungs take in the pure; the large intestine rids us of the impure.  In with the good, out with the bad.  Even Western medicine describes a relationship between lungs and large intestine “from various perspectives, such as embryonic development, lymph circulation, mucosal immunity, micro ecology, and inflammatory harass.”  Thus, elecampane has an organ affinity for the digestive system for once again, the root’s pungent volatile oils are stimulating against damp cold conditions and mucus build up, warming and cleansing the gastrointestinal tract and encouraging better blood flow to it for improved digestion and elimination (the taking in of good nourishment; the removal of waste). A nutritive and stomachic herb, elecampane’s bitterness tones the stomach, promoting a healthy appetite and enhancing nutrient absorption; its inulin content (19% to 44%) provides prebiotic soluble fiber helping to restore gut microbial balance, tone the pancreas, and normalize blood sugar levels.  Fat metabolism is enhanced; the formation of adipose tissue may be inhibited. Stimulating mucosal circulation, elecampane helps relieve liver congestion, gallstones, and mucoid digestion that leads to nausea.  Also considered anthelmintic, elecampane can help remove parasitic worms.  Digestive and eliminative pathways cleared and cleansed, a now toned and energized gastrointestinal system returns to full function.
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As a stimulant diaphoretic herb, elecampane can help break the type of fever that brings chills and shivers to the body.  Stimulating and thinning the blood to move it closer to the surface of the skin, opening the capillary beds, the warmth of the herb produces a sweat that moves fever out of the body. 
Its ability to clear and cleanse the body as well as its anti-inflammatory nature allow elecampane to assist in improvement of the skin.  Eruptive, scabby, and itchy conditions that may respond to its use are acne, eczema, psoriasis, herpes, scabies, and pruritus.  Elecampane, in tea or diluted liquid extract form, can also be used topically.
Elecampane cleanses and tones the kidneys, promotes urination, helps relieve edema; as a uterine stimulant, it encourages expulsion of the afterbirth as well as menstruation.
Gains for the immune system derive from elecampane’s anti-bacterial nature.  Disrupting the biofilms of bacterial infection, thinning and draining away old mucus, as well as assisting in the movement of lymph, elecampane supports our immune defenses in their ability to clear infection. 
Due to its cleansing, anti-inflammatory, and antispasmodic potential, elecampane helps relieve the pain of arthritis, gout, and sciatica.
Even the heart and vascular system are benefitted by elecampane.  Not necessarily an herb with an organ affinity for the heart, it is a tonic to it, encouraging proper flow of blood that brings vitality and functionality to all organ systems.
Elecampane is movement forward.  Fluids are warmed, thinned, and stimulated to flow: lymph, sweat, circulation, urination, menstruation, gastric juices, and bile rise to appropriate levels, and on the crests of their waves, we are cleansed: bodily functions improved, vitality returned, and our health advanced.  (Elecampane, we are reminded, is a member of a family of vascular plants, highly evolved plants containing specialized tissues for the movement of fluids through them).  Our body is laced with channels of energy supplying nourishment, function, animation, and survival to our support systems, opening all levels of our being to the breath of life.  As a mover of congestion, elecampane’s restorative strength has the potential to open spaces obstructed by infectious matter or that of disturbed thought and emotion, removing their toxicity.  Such is the power of the sun as it radiates through this herb’s healing mechanisms.
When our lungs are weighted all the way down to “the decaying and rotten bottom of things,” when they are sick with damp and cold and mired in sorrow, elecampane removes cold, wet excess. Not only does infection yield to the extraordinary force of this herb’s warming, stimulating, and cleansing action, but so too our grief.  Stagnant infection and the stale, lingering pathology of heart and mind are lifted from us, and once again we can move forward, our grief having brought us to “a new home in the sun”.
Cunning Apothecary:
“The herb will help one [find a] home again after a long and arduous journey away from oneself.”
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                                                                                                   ***
                                                                                         A Clinical Aside
Sesquiterpene lactones make up most of the volatile oil content in the root and rhizome of elecampane. One mixture of these lactones, helenin, consists of alantolactone and isoalantolactone, with most texts attributing the herb’s medicinal powers to alantolactone.
Clinical studies have found:
Anti-inflammatory benefit – one test tube study noted that the compound alantolactone, as an isolate, suppressed airway inflammation resulting from cigarette smoke exposure; the compound has been suggested as potential therapy in COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease); research on cells and animals has shown that alantolactone can stop the development of tuberculosis.
Antioxidant benefit – over 120 studies have suggested antioxidant activity, principally attributed to alantolactone.
Anti-cancer benefit (promotion of cancer cell death; action against cancer spread) - the herb has demonstrated test tube anti-cancer effects against brain cancer.  One test tube study noted anti-cancer effects of the compound isoalantolactone, as an isolate, against pancreatic cancer; another test tube study noted the effects of isolated eudesmane sesquiterpenoid against leukemia; and yet another test tube study observed the effects of isolated alantolactone against breast cancer.  Additionally, studies have demonstrated good effects upon cervical, colorectal, liver, lung, and stomach cancer.
Anti-microbial benefit – test tube studies have indicated compounds active against Staphylococcus; other research has noted effects against Candida albicans, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherischia coli, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa; alantolactone and isoalantolactone are effective in ridding the body of roundworms, pinworms, hookworms, whipworms, and threadworms.
When a plant’s medicinal compounds are studied in isolation, how narrow the window becomes into a compound’s reason for existence.  How much more might a compound be capable of when left in the matrix of its whole plant?  Or how differently does it behave in isolation?  As a whole plant, an herb’s recorded history of use is invaluable; however, can new uses be discovered through the study of its individual parts? What are the side effects of isolates? Studies and tests performed on isolates beg the question of how they are to be used outside of clinical trials.
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                                                                                                    ***
                                                                           Dosing with Elecampane  
​                                                                                            For Grief
Even if your grief has not progressed to the point of lung infection, elecampane may still be used as a restorative herb.
As our grief travels the flowing, life-sustaining channels that crisscross our body, mind, soul, and spirit, its dark weight can settle in them, building a blockage and creating a stasis whereby there is no movement.  We are stuck in our sorrow, mired in our misery.  Elecampane’s sunny stimulation, as it moves through the channels with “little torches,” breaks through the sadness that chokes them, opens them to proper flow, and we are moved forward.
Although grieving is a personal process, variable in its degree, I would, as I progressed through the more difficult stages of grief, dose with elecampane as a cup of infusion once or twice a day:  a teaspoon of dried root, along with honey or maple syrup to taste, in your cup under the influence of 8 ounces of boiling hot water.  After approximately 10 -12 minutes, strain the infusion and sip slowly and mindfully.
Never hesitate to add herbs to increase elecampane’s grief-healing benefit:  
blue vervain, hawthorn berry, lavender, lemon balm, linden, motherwort, rose, skullcap, or Tulsi (holy basil).
Elecampane is somewhat sedating so add these heart-soothing, nervous system-relaxing herbs to your cup when you have the time to be still.
Martine Prechtel:
“Grief is praise, because it is the natural way love honors what it misses.”
Pliny:
“Let no day pass without eating some roots of elecampane to . . . expel melancholy and cause mirth.”
Latin: “Enula campana reddit praecordia sana:”  Elecampane will the spirits sustain.
Drink a cup of elecampane and sit with Helen for a while.
***
Dosing Suggestions for Adults:
Liquid Extract – 2 to 3 ml (1/2 tsp) 2 to 3 times a day.  Best to dilute its taste in water or take with honey.
Decoction – Bring 8 ounces of water to a boil, add 1 teaspoon of dried root and quickly reduce heat to a simmer.  Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Strain.  Drink 1 cup 2 times a day.  Add honey or maple syrup to taste.
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Infusion - Pour 8 ounces cold water over 1 tsp dried root.  Let stand for 8 to 10 hours.  Strain.  Heat and drink very hot 1 cup 2 times a day.  Add honey or maple syrup to taste.  Or pour 8 ounces boiling hot water over 1 tsp dried root.  Steep 10 – 12 minutes.  Strain.  Drink 1 cup 2 times a day.  Add honey or maple syrup to taste.  (See the following recipes).
For lung infections, elecampane may be combined with other herbs to enhance its effectiveness.  Consider cinnamon bark, ginger root, horehound, licorice root, mullein leaf, sage, and Tulsi. Also, add hawthorn berry when there is weakness in both the lungs and heart.
As an anthelmintic, combine elecampane with mugwort or wormwood.
Elecampane is best used for conditions of damp cold where there is stagnation and excess; it is contraindicated in hot, dry conditions.
Slow in action; use elecampane in small amounts over a length of time.
                                                                                                 ***
Recipes:
A Tea Adapted from Rosemary Gladstar –
Combine 2 parts licorice root, 1 part cinnamon bark, 1-part echinacea (angustifolia) root, 1 part marshmallow root, 1 part elecampane root, and 1/4 part ginger root.  Mix the dried herbs and keep in a glass jar away from light, heat, and damp.  Make an infusion by pouring 8 ounces boiling hot water over 1 tsp of the dried herbs.  Steep 15 minutes.  Strain.  Add honey or maple syrup to taste.
A Tea Adapted from Rebecca’s Herbal Apothecary –
Combine 1 part elecampane root, 2 parts red clover blossom, ½ part marshmallow leaf, 1 part hyssop, ½ part licorice root.  Mix the dried herbs and keep in a glass jar away from light, heat, and damp.  Make an infusion by pouring 8 ounces boiling hot water over 1 tsp of the dried herbs.  Steep 15 minutes.  Strain.  Add honey or maple syrup to taste.
 
 
An Elixir Per Teacup Alchemy –
Combine 1 tsp elecampane root, 2 tsp hawthorn berries, 2 tbsp tulsi (holy basil), ½ of a vanilla bean, and 8 oz of brandy in a canning jar.  Fasten the lid on the jar and shake the jar to combine everything thoroughly.  Allow the herbs and the vanilla bean to soak in the brandy for 2 weeks.  Shake the jar daily.  Add a little extra brandy if needed to make sure the herbs stay covered.  At the end of 2 weeks, strain the brandy into a clean bowl through a colander lined with an unbleached coffee filter.  Add either 1 ounce glycerin or 1 ounce honey to the bowl.  Whisk to combine the brandy and the sweetener.  Pour the now finished elixir into a clean amber glass bottle.  Label and date.  The elixir should be shelf stable for at least a year.  Serving size:  1 tsp up to 3 times per day.
A Honeyed Syrup adapted from Fruition Seeds –
Bring a gallon of water to a boil, add ½ ounce marshmallow root, 1 ounce elecampane root, 2.5 ounces fresh ginger and quickly reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer at least 20 minutes with lid off, allowing the water to evaporate to half its volume.  Strain the decoction, pour into a jar to cool, and measure the volume, adding an equal volume of raw honey.  Stir and store in the fridge up to one month.
Candied Elecampane Per WishGarden Herbs –
Wash, peel, and slice the fresh root to approximately ¼” pieces.  Place a single layer of the roots into a small frying pan.  Add 3 tbsp honey, adding more if needed to evenly cover all the pieces.  Bring to a low simmer for a few minutes, until the honey starts to look frothy around the roots.  Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.  Return to a low simmer and repeat this heating and cooling process until the pieces of root are completely infused with honey.  (Adapted from Making Plant Medicine by Richo Cech). 
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                                                                                                    ***
Safety Considerations:
May be safely used when appropriately consumed.
“Generally, a safe and well-tolerated herb so long as it is used in moderation, especially for the young or elderly.  Excess doses will likely cause significant gastric upset quickly so it would be difficult to overdose on this herb.  Elecampane is not recommended to take during breastfeeding (the sesquiterpene lactones will pass into the milk and upset the baby’s stomach) and it is unlikely to be of any direct danger, but it is still recommended to avoid it during pregnancy.”  (There is history of elecampane’s use as an emmenagogue and abortifacient).
Large doses of elecampane may lead to nausea, vomiting, cramping, and diarrhea.  Such aggressive intake can be emetic, cathartic, or even paralytic.
Avoid use if allergic to members of the Asteraceae family (chamomile, for one).
Avoid use if allergic to inulin.
Avoid use with sedatives (examples:  Klonopin, Ativan, Donnatal, Ambien, etc.)
Monitor use carefully if you suffer from low or high blood pressure.
Monitor use carefully if diabetic.
Avoid use with severe kidney and/or liver disease.
Appropriately, if under medical supervision and using any prescription medicine, please discuss the possibility of the use of elecampane, as well as any other herbs you wish to use in tandem with it, with your physician(s). 
Sources available upon request.
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Bug Repellant Spray:

There is not as much concern about dilution rate when creating a spray. Try the recipe below as a guideline.

1/8 – 1 full teaspoon Essential Oil or Essential Oil Mixture
1 oz Vodka, Water, or Hydrosol

Add essential oils and shake. If using water or hydrosol you must shake before each use as the water and oil will not stay emulsified. ​

ESSENTIAL OIL SAFETY INFORMATION

• Always keep all essential oils out of the reach of children. They can be poisonous when ingested in large amounts.

• Do not use essential oils on or near the eyes.

• Many essential oils can be dotted on cuts, pimples, or on the temples for headaches but in most cases its best to dilute essential oils when applying over a large area of the body. Some essential oils can be irritating to the skin, discontinue if rash occurs. 

• Use caution with pets, during pregnancy, nursing and with babies and children. 

Resources:
https://naha.org/
Non-for-profit organization promoting and elevating academic standards in aromatherapy education and practice standards for the profession.

https://aromaticstudies.com/
One of the Leading Aromatherapy schools in North America

​https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/08/010828075659.htm
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There is potency in the anti-viral mechanisms found in the herb Isatis indigotica fort, offering us no small amount of reassurance at a time when humans have discovered all over again the terror of a plague. Learning this herb’s usefulness and proper handling, Isatis may help dull somewhat the sharp edge of our fear of viruses, giving us something with healing potential to turn to in times of infection. 
                                                                                           ***
“It serves little purpose merely to be scared by viruses.  But it serves a good deal of purpose to understand them.”
The subject of viruses may only hold allure for those invested in the study of their origin, evolution, and behavior; for the rest of us, the recent eye-opening, forced intimacy with a viral plague would have us turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the academics of viruses, even as Covid-19 continues to spin off new spikey versions of itself.  We don’t have to want to be virologists, yet coming to terms with viruses, especially at a time in human history when viral pandemics may begin to occur with frequency, would be not only prudent but empowering, offering an understanding of viral conduct as well as insight into the astonishing role evidenced by some viruses in acts of creation and benefit within the human genome.
Elegantly trim, being not much more than mere pieces of RNA or DNA inside a protein coat that is sometimes enveloped in a lipid membrane, some scientists are certain viruses are not alive.  Lacking the complete set of tools to sustain life, much less reproduce, viruses are obligate parasites.  Their only opportunity to reach into the future is by hitching rides on other living organisms and worming their way inside where they take over their host’s cellular genetic equipment to make copies of themselves.  Although their particularly persuasive infectious power is recognized (viruses have been caricatured as “bad news wrapped in protein”), still some have placed viruses, at best, on the fence between being naught but chemicals on the one side or a fully alive force on the other; yet those of us who’ve ever been knocked flat on our backs by a flu may not be harboring any doubts about on which side of the fence viruses fall. 
However, if we believe life happens when a collection of non-living things finally interacts at a level of critical complexity; if life is a process of emergence, coming into view only when non-living things have self-organized in a fashion that expresses life’s properties, then we may say, viruses as bits of genetic stuff lack the complexity to certify as living things, and further, being the genetic stuff that builds genomes, viruses themselves can’t be alive.  But neither are they inert; they move bearing influence.  Perhaps, then, viruses’ verge on life, helping to shape life’s quality of emergence.
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Regardless, viruses have, over a period of roughly 3.6 billion years, managed to hammer out extremely sophisticated and successful ways of surviving and replicating, yielding them notable access to areas of highly selective inhabitability:  blazing hot deserts, the deepest, darkest sea floors, the earth’s frozen poles.  They are fiercely durable; even when swept sky-high by dust storms, viruses swim in the atmosphere until, raining down by the millions, they return to earth, and not from whence they came.  Viruses are everywhere, some saying there are more of them than stars in the heavens.  
Staggeringly incomprehensible numbers of viruses inhabit our planet.  Viruses for millennia have sought their host organisms, moving in and out of a world of living things, making it quite likely that most of earth’s genetic information dwells within them.  As Stephen Buhner writes in his book Herbal Antivirals:
“Viruses enter cells, snip off sections of DNA or RNA and weave them into their own genetic structure.  They can then weave those sections, as well as sections of their own genome, into other living organisms.  One of their main functions in fact is the genetic intermingling of all life forms on earth.  Our genome, as that of all life on this planet, contains snippets of the genetic codes of multiple other life forms.  It also contains snippets of viral genes.  Our forms, our shape, are an expression of a communication that has been ongoing since life has been.  We are the enemy we have been fighting.”
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Retroviruses are a type of enveloped RNA virus known to only infect vertebrates, those animals having a spine:  a column made of segmented bone (vertebrae) that encircles and protects a spinal cord.  Appearing on the evolutionary scene 460 million to 550 million years ago, it’s likely that retroviruses originated in the earth’s ancient seas alongside the vertebrates. As a result of following their vertebral hosts out of water and onto land, retroviruses today reveal broad representation in all life forms having a backbone, and that includes us.
Thus, half a billion years ago, vertebrates had to begin developing measures to combat retroviruses just as the retroviruses had to undertake the disarming of those measures. Those early interactions appear to correspond with the origin of vertebrate adaptive immunity, speaking to the very real possibility that those long-ago virus-host interchanges assisted in the development of vertebrate anti-viral defense.
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Once inside its vertebrate host, a retrovirus locates its target cell and integrates (injects) its genes into that cell’s DNA, uniting both genomes. Unique among viruses, it’s the necessary mixing of the two genomes that sets the retrovirus apart, for only through such union can it drive the process of infection and secure its continuing survival.  In Virolution, author Frank Ryan writes about retroviruses:
“Every day, in the vast proliferation of virus-host interactions that are taking place throughout the biological world, wholly disparate genomes are fusing, virus with host.”
Although retroviruses are singularly obligated to unite their genome with their host genome to reproduce, evidence of incidental union of virus/host genomes by diverse other virus types has been found.  Interestingly, controversy swirls around the possibility of Covid-19, another type of enveloped RNA virus, inserting its RNA into human DNA.  Proof of this, however, remains elusive.

  ​Author Frank Ryan continues:
“The normal ecology of a virus is the host genome and its immediate hinterland, the chromosomes, with their component genes, and the translational machinery that enables the genes to code for proteins, and the vast complexity of the bureaucratic apparatus.  We might note in passing that this is a remarkable situation – viruses are the only organisms small enough, and primal enough, to inhabit the genetic landscape.  It is one of the reasons why viruses, despite their miniscule size, are immensely powerful from the evolutionary and infectious point of view.”
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Owing to inefficient transmission from vertebrate to vertebrate in the wild, a retrovirus has had to guarantee its evolution in the earth’s natural settings by establishing within its host a persistent, life-long infection with little, if any, pathogenic effect, thus allowing the host to live long enough to transmit it.  A stable ecosystem where enduring low-grade infection circulates among its members, reflecting deeply rooted compatibility between retrovirus and host, warns, however, of intrusion and cross-species contamination.  Humans, for instance, straying into long-abiding ecosystems with intent to clear land or hunt the meat of wild animals, can contract from circulating infection, what is for them, a novel virus.  Where no compensatory balance exists between the infecting actions of a virus and its host’s immune mechanisms, a virus free to replicate can pose harmful, if not deadly, effects.  An example of this is when the HIV-1 retrovirus crossed species to humans, its emergence among us thought to result from human handling of the meat of primates.  
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In the human body, most of the retrovirus/host genome fusions occur within the soma (parts of the body other than the reproductive cells); fusions occurring at the germ line level (within an egg cell or a sperm cell) result in the virus sacrificing freedom of movement to become a fixed component of our reproductive nuclear machinery.  No longer able to proceed with its original intent to replicate and infect, it has instead secured a survival lasting the length of all our future generations. Inheritable and now nearly immortal, permanently embedded amongst our own genes, it has acquired formidable potential to influence our species’ evolution.  Now, rather than an obligatory parasite, the retrovirus is a symbiont, a participant in a mutualistic interaction whereby virus and host gain benefit from their relationship.

To begin to understand the significance of this, it’s important to note that stretches of retroviral genetic sequences comprising over 500,000 individual elements left over from multiple, highly contagious, pandemic-producing ancient retroviruses that ultimately integrated the germ line of our ancestors, make up 8% to 10% of the human genome.  (Also, important to note is that we modern humans are descended from those who managed to survive such viral onslaught). These genetic sequences, sitting firmly within our genome at the convergence point of foreign genes and the self’s genes, have been conserved over vast passages of time.  Finding accommodation, they’ve trotted right along beside us during our species’ development.  Once thought to be “fossilized” and inert, they bear varying degrees of influence; they’ve been acted upon by natural selection as has our own genetic material. As a result, some of them have eroded over time and may have little, if any, function left; some remain only partly intact; and some are dormant with potential for reactivation.
Still other of these ancient genetic sequences are actively expressed in many different types of human tissue, turning on at many different points in time during our species’ development; and their expression has offered up raw viral genetic material from which our cells have sometimes been able to pick and choose bits and pieces for the shaping of new, highly impactful physiological functions that have further turned us in an improved evolutionary direction.  For example, the ability to securely fuse, undetected by our immune system, with target cells is a viral function that was co-opted millions of years ago and woven into the development of the mammalian placenta, for crucial to the survival of an embryo is a tightly fused placental wall that maintains control over maternal immunosuppression and, ironically, protects against viral infection.  The earliest known ancestor to all placental mammals was a small, chipmunk-like creature that evolved after the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.  It was the germ line invasion of a retrovirus that helped this ancestor give rise to a diverse lineage of placenta-bearing mammals, a lineage that today includes more than 5,000 known species ranging from the tiny bumblebee bat to the huge blue whale. ​

Snuggled into the human genome, retroviral genetic material is softening the boundary between human and virus.  In a very real sense, humans are part of the virus.
Lest we allow this information to overtake us with a thrill, and gladly widen our hearts to these embedded genetic pieces, we require also knowing that they can play upon us in either one of two ways, wielding the classic double-edged sword:  we can credit them with helping to shape our anti-viral immune defense mechanisms as well as awarding us moments of true evolutionary progress; yet,  roaring back to life should we acquire a virus such as Epstein-Barr, herpes, HIV-1, influenza, or Covid-19, they have the potential to create within us  infectious, autoimmune, neurological, or malignant disease.
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Well beyond the scope of this article is the ever-broadening study of the effects of our retroviral heritage.  Shaped impressively as we are by our ability to balance the gain against the loss provided our species by these embedded genetic pieces, the coupling of retrovirus and human has, in the long run, helped generate change, diversity, and a continuing forward movement within both genomes.  Retroviruses and humans have long been partners in a perpetual dance of co-evolution, and the embrace endures.
The what and how of this is in active pursuit by scientists; the answer to why leads us beyond understanding that interspecies gene flow (reference Buhner’s excerpt above) creates a variety of living forms supportive of life’s overall success on this planet; that all sizes, shapes, and colors of earth’s vertebrates continue to be strung together on one endless genetic strand, fashioned into jewels of diversity by tiny, microscopic hands.  Rather, it leads us onto the terrain where epiphanies grow where the seed of understanding blooms into the highest order of judicious appreciation, without which we, as humans, certainly could not continue to evolve, this fact brought home to us by the 8% to 10% of the human genome belonging to retroviruses.
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As many viruses as there are on our planet, we humans are not falling ill with viral infection at every turn, nor are we dying from any infection we do acquire.  Some of our interactions with viral infections are benign; symptoms are manageable and self-limiting (not in need of treatment).  Some infections are acute, occurring suddenly and resolving either in our recovery or our demise (such as the flu, Covid-19, or rabies).  However, viruses have evolved many strategies by which to chronically persist at the level of the individual, the population, or even the species (for example, living the remainder of life with HIV-1/AIDS).  Further, some viruses persist by remaining dormant within us, snoozing for long periods of time before reactivating (herpes, for example). 
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Mammals, birds, and insects are reservoir hosts of large numbers of diverse viruses that exist and multiply freely within them with little or no pathogenicity.  A forbearance of the one for the other has developed, a pause born of equal parts tension, a co-existence where the host has the immune ability to attack the virus; but the virus owns an array of immune evasion techniques to escape killing.  Carried along in an environment of pressurized equanimity, the virus lives, biding its time, attentive to the possibility of transmission.
Bats host rabies, SARS, and Ebola; aquatic birds host influenza A; mosquitoes are reservoirs of dengue, yellow fever, west Nile, and zika; domestic pigs, wild boars, and chickens host Hepatitis E; and rats and mice carry hantavirus disease.  Such viral reservoirs can become sources of prominent disease outbreak and spread, and critical among them is the bat.  Comprising about 22% of known mammal species (about 50% in tropical ecosystems) and, as a noteworthy aside, host to more than 200 novel coronaviruses, the bat’s ability to fly and develop many large and dense social structures across almost every type of habitat; its means of deftly defying the chronic conditions of aging over its long life; and its exceptional ability to host many viruses without presenting any evidence of disease, attest to how easily bats can intersect with other species and enable the transmission of numerous infections.
The great numbers of bats, and the great numbers of viruses they carry, as well as human mammalian relatedness to bats and our encroaching proximity to their wildlife habitats, allow for two likely pathways to human infection a bat virus may take:  direct bat to human contact or contact through an amplifying (intermediate) host when, for instance, a bat virus passes to us through our livestock or a pet.
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Viruses are said to spill over from one species to another when a reservoir host with a high pathogenic load meets with a receptive target.  Such an event, albeit infectious, doesn’t necessarily send the virus careening through the target species, possibly due to the viral source being a species distantly related to the target, where the virus doesn’t bring with it a pre-evolved command of the target’s immune defenses.  Bird flu H5N1 (a type of influenza A) easily transmits between wild and domesticated birds, and those of us in close contact with either may contract it, just as may the caretakers of those fallen ill; otherwise, there seems to be no concrete evidence that this virus can spread unchecked and with little provocation among us.
On the other hand, a virus that makes a species jump has undergone the type of genetic change that makes it not only able to easily infect but also spread well, where the virus is coming from a species biologically like its target. Able to take effortless command of the host immune mechanisms rising against it, the virus moves with swift ease through the target species.
In the case of Covid-19, we met with a novel coronavirus making a species jump; a virus pre-evolved, ready, and able to overtake the human immune system and spread through our species. Although the origin of Covid-19 has yet to be definitively known, bats, as large capacity reservoir hosts of coronaviruses, are high on the list for consideration:  
Bats and humans (both mammals) share a common ancestor, thus biological similarity.
A wet market localizes a large and diverse range of animal species in an environment strange and stressful.  Kept from their normal food sources, retained in cages that ultimately fill and overflow with urine and excrement, and fearful of their captors’ intent, the animals suffer lowered immunity, leaving them wide open to various unfamiliar and unsolicited pathogens circulating in their crowded conditions.  Possibly hosts already to numerous viruses, in wet market animal pathogenic loads elevate and to one degree or another tip the scales in favor of species jumps.  The animal waste and bloody butchering increase the risk already attendant upon human handling.  Inherent in the construct of a wet market, it would seem, is an inhumanity shaped by negligence, profiteering, and possibly an abject unwillingness to look directly in the eye of the beast of a pandemic that waits behind the capture, forced unsanitary imprisonment, and slaughter of these hapless animals.
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Investigative research has documented “47,381 individuals from 38 species, including 31 protected species, sold between May 2017 and November 2019 in China’s Wuhan markets.”  The absence of bats in the survey data points to the fact that bats are not usually eaten in Central China, but trading of animals susceptible to bat coronaviruses is a possible disease link worthy of investigation.
Is it conceivable, then, that Covid-19 jumped species from a bat in China (as reservoir host), to an amplifying host (an animal ultimately captured for sale in a Wuhan wet market), to humans . . . and with wings, took off from there?
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Unfortunately, humans strengthen viral disease outbreak and transmission through a great number of deeply ingrained ways:  population growth, migration from rural land to dense city centers, worldwide travel, expansion of global trade, destructive manipulation of well-established ecosystems, wet markets, crowded domestic animal operations, war, neglect of the impoverished, and through encouragement of climate change, which alters habitats and spreads disease into new geographic areas.
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Albeit uniquely structurally simple, without any of the characteristics we humans deem the necessary descriptors of life, it's a virus’ ability to accurately interpret its surroundings external and internal to its host; its awareness and proper analysis of the host immune weaponry, and its skill at altering itself or that weaponry to dodge host attempts at defense, that seem indications of viral reasoning.  Other indications might include the various means viruses employ for entry into and travel through the host, their pinpointing of the host target cell, and the ways in which that cell is made to submit to viral control.  What underlies all these highly successful maneuvers is keen perception, accurate assessment, agile genetic juggling, and a billion-year-old steady and resolute will to survive.
We may wonder, again, if a virus is truly alive.
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Granted only a few hours or a few days in the outer world, a virus, in a seed-like waiting state on a tabletop or in the soil, on food, or in water or air, actively receives and analyzes information about its external environment.  Should we appear on the scene as an accommodating host, the virus infiltrates us.  Scoping out the design of our immune system, it engages strategies to hide from it.  Succeeding, it searches, under the radar, for the right cell to infect.  Finding its target cell, it engages strategies to deceive the cell’s receptors into allowing its attachment.  Succeeding, docking snugly on the surface of the cell, the virus plants its flag on the moon - espionage, shapeshifting, and trickery having greased the wheels all the way.   
We have yet to feel the virus’ presence.  
Entering the cell either through fusion with the cell membrane (enveloped viruses) or penetration directly into the cell (non-enveloped viruses), the virus topples the established working order, claiming the cell’s ability to replicate for its own purpose.  The coup accomplished, the virus prepares to infect us with its own will to survive and replicate.
We have yet to feel the virus’ presence.
In, established, and rolling out multitudinous copies of itself, populating ever greater numbers of its target cell type, with infection well under way, our immune system is in full metal battle.  Its actions against the virus begin to rise up in the form of uncomfortable symptoms.
Only now do we feel the presence of the virus.
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Prowess forged over literal eons of time, viruses, those bits, and pieces of microscopic genetic stuff, were already on the planet when we arrived, their magician-like master mindedness in full swing.  Today, we see our position in relation to what we know of viruses and our ability to survive them becoming more precarious in the light of their growing pandemic strength, as they relentlessly emerge and re-emerge into our modern times with the ever-increasing sharpness of a brilliant blade of steel, dividing, one from another of us, those who can withstand the pain and those who cannot.

This brings us back to the herb Isatis indigotica Fortune, known also as Isatis Woad.  Its leaf (Da-qing-ye) and its root (Ban-lan-gen) are both used medicinally.
This species of Isatis is indigenous to southeastern Russia and China, and because the herb grows well, re-seeds easily, and has a pronounced desire for conquest, it transplants quite comfortably; and with a will to penetrate far-reaching territories, it easily becomes invasive.  It can grow in your garden, but if not contained, its impetus to exceed its borders will take over.  Just one plant can put out approximately 500 seeds, and every one of them, if freed from its seed pod, will germinate.
This herb’s formidable will to survive speaks to its ableness as a virucidal agent.  Its considerable strength encompasses a wide array of viral diseases. 
ACTIONS:
Directly virucidal:  inhibits viral attachment to and entry into cells; inhibits viral replication.
Promotes effectiveness of the immune system inhibits virus-induced inflammation; decreases production of inflammatory mediators.
Enhances the effectiveness of viral vaccines.
ACTIVE AGAINST:
SARS and all strains of influenza.
Viral pneumonia, respiratory syncytial virus.
Laryngitis, sore throat, tonsillitis.
Rubella, measles, mumps, chicken pox, herpes simplex virus 1, shingles, Epstein-Barr (especially with acute sore throat at onset), hepatitis B, cytomegalovirus.
Encephalitis.
 
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  ​Even though both plant parts can be used medicinally, please note Isatis leaf is the most anti-viral part of the plant.  Isatis Root is also capable of anti-viral action, yet it appears better at modulating the immune system.  By normalizing, calming, immune function, the root sharpens the immune system’s ability to effectively fight inflammation and infection. 
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Dosing Suggestions:
Combine the leaf and the root in one remedy – preferably a cup of tea as most of the plant’s medicine is water soluble.  Adding Ginger Root or Licorice Root and/or honey to the tea improves the taste of Isatis.  (Reminder, this plant is in the Brassicaceae family – home to the cruciferous vegetables).
A potent decoction of the herb is made by boiling one third – one ounce of root for 30 minutes and adding one third - one half ounce of leaf for the last ten minutes of the boil.  Heated in water and drunk as a decoction is the most effective way to utilize Isatis as an anti-viral.  Better used with active infection as opposed to prophylactically, drink one cup of decoction three times a day for no longer than three weeks.  This length of time should be sufficient to bring about recovery, especially if you’ve added other anti-viral herbs to the decoction.
Let yourself be encouraged to combine Isatis with other anti-viral herbs, which will only increase the power within each herb to move you through infection to the safety of recovery.  Consider Chinese Skullcap Root, Elderberry, Ginger Root, and Licorice Root to enhance anti-viral performance and the taste of the decoction.
Safety Considerations:
Avoid using the herb as a single remedy if you present with a feeling of cold and lack a fever.  
Overuse (longer than three weeks) may cause a deep chill.
Overuse (longer than three weeks) can lead to weakness, dizziness, and an odd sensation in the bones.
High doses of the herb, or long-term use of it, may negatively impact kidney function.  Do not use Isatis if you are in renal failure, on dialysis, or suffer any kidney impairment.
The use of Isatis may interfere with tests that measure bilirubin.
Appropriately, if under medical supervision and using any prescription medicine, please discuss the possibility of the use of Isatis, as well as any other herbs you wish to use in tandem with it, with your physician(s).
Sources available upon request.

From watery reservoirs came life’s curious.  Originally, life was contained underwater.  Living billions of years in underwater colonies, the first photosynthetic organisms, cyanobacteria, utilized sunlight for food and released oxygen as waste.  Water began to fill with breathable oxygen; bubbling up into the air, oxygen began accumulating in the atmosphere.  Over time, the availability of oxygen created opportunity for ever greater diversity of life.   
It was, however, freshwater photosynthetic green algae that spawned the first ancestors of land plants.  When any of their small, wet environments fell dry, the algae, finding itself land locked, struck a bargain to continue to survive.  From certain of the soil’s bacteria, algae took genetic instruction in how to cope with the demands of a terrestrial environment. . . and the plant portal from fresh water to land opened.
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As a transitional ecosystem, the flood plain wetlands can be seen as an evolutionary step directing plant life from fresh water toward higher, drier parts of earth.  Its various vegetal characteristics result from a cresting and falling water table that, influenced by weather, geology, soil composition, and ground cover, ultimately determines what the wetland plant life can achieve in the form of overall productivity, diversity, aesthetic appeal, and contribution to life on earth. Comparable to rain forests and coral reefs, flood plain wetlands are considered one of the most important types of ecosystems.  A storehouse of nutrients; a place of refuge and fecund home to innumerable species of life, many of which are endangered; and, as part of the main, having a natural impulse to govern flooding, thereby controlling erosion, water supply and water quality, the gifts of flood plain wetlands easily exceed their borders.
Its primeval energy and protean nature give this ecosystem a place of prominence in life’s determined progression.   Human intervention in its ancient business, in the form of poorly regulated agricultural, urban, industrial, and deforestation practices, makes tenuous the life-giving hand that such wild land ordinarily capably extends.  
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When flooding occurs, the wetlands control excess water through processes of storage and filtration.  The profuse vegetation found on healthy flood plain wetlands can trap and slowly release back to land the excess water, preventing soil erosion as well as erosive damage downstream.  At the same time, the vegetation is capable of filtering nutrients, sediments, and pollutants brought by agricultural, urban, and industrial run-off.  Utilizing the nutrients but allowing the sediments and pollutants to slowly settle out, thick mats of ground cover and wide nets of roots can cleanse the water.
When, however, land upstream has been environmentally mishandled, unleashing, during periods of heavy rain, prohibitive amounts of flood water, the wetlands are unable to regulate the overflow.  The velocity and weight of unchecked, rushing flood water erodes the land, uprooting and killing plants; the unusually large amounts of alluvial sediment deposited upon the soil by unassailable volumes of water block sunlight and prevent photosynthesis.  When flood water can’t be managed, the wetlands begin to inch away from self-preservation, their contribution to life on earth diminishing with each reckless environmental transgression.
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Missouri’s flood plain wetlands deliver a tumult of well-adapted, hardy, and prosperous plant life, speaking to evolutionary energy and eccentricities that have earned its individuals a remarkable degree of success on land often appearing desultorily degraded and muddy with despair, as well as, in some instances, earning them honorable placement in our pharmacopeia as remedies for many human ailments.  Almost half our state’s total plant species are associated with wetlands.  Rich in wildflowers alone, some with common names as evocative as Blue Bottle Gentian, Queen-of-the-Prairie, Yellow Stargrass, Paintbrush, Shooting Star, Lizardtail, Water Pepper, Pickerelweed, and Copper Iris, the wetlands are not only visually stimulating but are busily sound scored by the disparate, compelling notes of droning insects, croaking frogs, singing birds, and waterfowl quacking and honking.  Covering a total of 643,000 wildly alive acres, Missouri flood plain wetlands represent, from riverbanks to uplands, nature’s strength, vibrancy, purpose, and intelligent design.
Onto this scene gallops the energetic and resilient Bugleweed, presenting itself, much like other members of the family of mint from which it descends, with great vigor and prolificacy having the singular ability to survive in even the most degraded parts of the wetlands. This rainy day, we search our flood plain wetlands for this wildflower, botanically named Lycopus virginicus.  Locating the tall, rangy plant, almost indistinguishable in the misty gloom, we realize, upon close inspection, its striking markings.  From its slender, three-foot-tall, square-shaped stem, pairs of oppositely arranged dark green, burgundy, or deep purple leaves fan out gracefully, with serrated edge, to three inches in length.  Likened to the image of a wolf’s paw, it is from the leaves the plant acquires its botanical name:  lykos (wolf) + pous (paw) = Lycopus.
Further, and almost imperceptibly in the gray of the day, tiny whorls of white flowers hug tight the plant’s stem where the leaf pairs branch.  Shaped like little trumpets (or bugles), it is from these flowers the plant’s fruit is born and its common name derives.
Running along riverbanks, leaning heavily in marshes and swamps, ringing the ponds and lakes, casting great swaths of itself over the prairies and meadowlands, established in dampened ditches and thickets, and finding purchase even at the base of gravelly slopes of cliff bluffs, with speed and alacrity, Bugleweed briskly and robustly grows across all of the Missouri flood plains. Its swift reproduction results from its energy-saving method of propagation.  Rather than generate seed, a host plant puts out extensive runners (stems) that stretch horizontally across the land.  Dotted with nodes that yield roots and vertical branches, the runners create a network of new Bugleweed plants that remain connected to the mother plant until they establish themselves through photosynthesis and begin putting out runners of their own.  In short order, Bugleweed weaves itself into the whole of the tapestry of the wetlands, making it a formidable competitor for ground space.  
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Resting at the base of the front of the neck is a butterfly-shaped hormone gland called the thyroid.  Just beneath the Adam’s apple, with its “wings” wrapped one around each side of the windpipe, the thyroid sits prepared to release hormones T3 (triiodothyronine) and T4 (thyroxine).  The goal of these hormones is to direct the pace at which the body’s cells work.  In other words, they govern the speed of metabolism.
In the brain, attentive to numerous metabolic signals, the hypothalamus gland will, when the body’s levels of T3 and T4 become insufficient to meet metabolic demands, issue thyroid releasing hormone, which activates the pituitary gland to secrete thyroid stimulating hormone, that in turn, informs the thyroid gland to deliver more T3 and T4.  Once the delivery of these hormones meets the body’s needs, the hypothalamus stops issuance of thyroid releasing hormone, the chain reaction is halted, and metabolic homeostasis is preserved through the elegance of a finely tuned feedback loop.
Healthy regulation by thyroid hormones allows metabolic processes to move at the right pace:  the slowing down or increase of heart rate; the raising or lowering of body temperature; the timing of food’s movement through the digestive system; the quickness with which the body burns calories; and the activity level of muscles, reproductive tissue, and the peripheral and central nervous systems. Masterfully juggling breathing, body thermodynamics, digestion, weight, energy expenditure, muscle strength and control, menstrual cycles and attempts at pregnancy, nerve function, cognition, mood, and sleep, the thyroid balances us, matching function to goal.   
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In Graves’ disease, a condition of autoimmunity has developed.  The immune system produces antibodies that seek out the thyroid stimulating it to release thyroid hormones, irrespective of the body’s need for them.  Levels of T3 and T4 rise to excess, forcing metabolism into a hyper state and creating a condition of hyperthyroidism.  Shortness of breath, high blood pressure, intolerance of heat, moist skin, excessive sweating, persistent hunger, increased frequency of bowel movements, weight loss, fatigue, muscle weakness, menstrual imbalance, difficulty ovulating, hand tremors, memory loss, nervousness, irritability, anxiety, depression, and insomnia are symptomatic of an overactive thyroid. 
The heart, particularly, is affected by the hyperthyroidism of Graves’ disease.  Driven hard by an overstimulated thyroid, the heart begins to outpace itself, becoming acutely alert, overly sensitive, agitated, distracted, overtaxed, and exhausted. Running on empty, the heart, in this hyper vigilant state, begins to dysregulate in the form of tachycardia, palpitation, and dysrhythmia.  
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What better herb to catch up with a racing heart than the spirited Bugleweed?  Onto this scene of cardiac stampede it gallops, running after the speeding heart, reining it in, and turning it back toward healthy homeostasis.  Having already an affinity for the heart, the herb’s most direct indication for use becomes the heart displaying a “want of energy with quickened velocity”.
Bugleweed’s ability to help restore the heart in Graves’ disease hyperthyroidism results from its sedative action as well as from its ability to block the effects of thyroid stimulating hormone on the thyroid’s receptors; to inhibit conversion of T4 to T3 (the more active thyroid hormone); and its ability to obstruct the effects of Graves’ disease antibodies.
The Eclectic physicians found Bugleweed’s ability to sedate to be “most pronounced and most frequently indicated where the vascular action is tumultuous, the velocity of the pulse rapid, with evident want of cardiac power.  It controls excessive vascular excitement, general irritability, and diminishes exalted organic action.  It is best adapted to irritability and irregularity of the heart.” 
Historical acknowledgement of Bugleweed’s benefits for an overextended, exhausted, and erratic heart led naturally to its use in cases of hyperthyroidism.  Today, preliminary studies have yielded up those constituents in the herb that are involved in helping relieve the thyroid of undue and improper stimulation and consequent overproduction of T3.
Able to wrest the heart from the grip of hyper vigilance, Bugleweed not only helps discourage some of the symptoms of hyperthyroidism but has found its way into general formulas for heart health. 
Herbs that combine well with Bugleweed in a condition of hyperthyroidism include Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis, which is not only a calming herb for the heart but has been found to have thyroid blocking benefit) and Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca, which is specific to cardiac anxiety in the form of tachycardia, palpitation, dysrhythmia, and high blood pressure).
​

Should you put on a pair of boots and begin to slog your way through the Missouri flood plain wetlands to find this herb, you won’t have far to look.  And if the day is sunny and warm, several small creatures will cross your path as you descend upon one of its wild groupings, for feeding on the Bugleweed will be aphids, grasshoppers, katydids, and caterpillars of the hermit sphinx moth, along with the tiny flies of the genus Neolasioptera developing inside galls on the stems and leaves. After the same nectar, beetles will be climbing toward the flowers where many kinds of bees, wasps, and flies swarm in the comfort of the afternoon.
Bugleweed’s place in the flood plain wetlands rests assured.  Sending its progeny running in all directions, it becomes an ever-widening feast for those dependent upon it as a source of food, as well as becomes an expansive tract of vegetation holding great areas of soil tight against erosion.
On this sunny, warm day, if you observe just long enough, one of Bugleweed’s rarer pollinators may light gently upon the flowers.  Don’t take a breath, don’t move, and the butterfly may linger with you.
 
Dosing Suggestions:
Believed best taken in liquid extract form.
The German Commission E suggests a dose of 1 to 2 ml ( ~ 1 to 3 dropperfuls) three times per day.  If combining Bugleweed with Lemon Balm and Motherwort, herbalist Hein Zylstra suggests adding Nettle to the combination and creating a liquid extract of equal parts to be taken in a 5 ml (1-tsp) dose three times per day.
​

Safety Considerations:
For mild hyperthyroidism.  Avoid use with moderate to severe hyperthyroidism. 
Avoid use with herbs Ashwagandha and Bladderwrack.
Avoid use if taking hyperthyroid medication; have hypothyroidism or any other endocrine disorders; are using contraceptives or fertility drugs; are pregnant or lactating.
Should not be taken in high amounts.
Should not be stopped suddenly creating a rebound effect that increases thyroid stimulating hormone and hyperthyroid symptoms.
Appropriately, if under medical supervision and using any prescription medicine, please discuss possibility of the use of Bugleweed, as well as any other herbs you wish to use in tandem with it, with your physician(s).
Sources available upon request.
​

​When asked to recall something special from our childhood, it’s not uncommon to name a favorite climbing tree, one that grew just outside our bedroom window; or in the woods at street’s end where we gleefully shed the day’s routines to engage a wilderness of inviting boughs; or a tree that grew beside the creek that spilled along the farthest reaches of our known childhood territory, and leaning from its branches, thumb and forefinger circling one eye as if a pirate.at sea with a spyglass, we sought knowledge of a larger world.
That favorite tree, whose branches became a stairway to a new and private world, was one in which we became overseer of buds, leaves, flowers, and fruit, their birthing, and their dying; and overseer of all the insects, birds, and squirrels that dwelled and died in the tree’s knotholes and nested branches.  It was a world where we could oversee the land below besides, as it stretched beyond the familiar neighborhood far away into the realm of our imagination.
Thus, was born an intimacy upon the strong shoulders of a tree, an intimacy that would remain alive and strong in the soul of our memory even into the last of our days.

A tree having good girth and overall solidity is more receptive to the grappling of children’s heels digging into its trunk; massive branches can better withstand being stepped upon and swung from.  When growing in open space without obstruction, where it can root, unfold, and rise to its greatest potential, the white oak tree becomes a remarkable example of a tree made for climbing: from its stocky 4- to 8-foot-wide trunk there grow large, wide-angle branches with a spread equal to or greater than the tree’s height. The lowest branches, parallel and quite close to the ground with a wide lateral extension, are the steps a child takes to his world aloft.
Under full sun, with a tap root deep in moist, well-drained soil, and with absence of abuse of the land in which it’s rooted, a white oak tree reaches an impressive 100 to 150 feet in height with the potential to live 600 or more years. 
​

​The successful growth of the white oak tree relies upon continuous transformation of new wood (sapwood) growing just beneath its bark into dead wood (heartwood) at its center.  Though dead, heartwood, if the other layers of the tree remain intact, is the reliable supporting pillar that allows the white oak tree to stand and spread high and wide for centuries. Participants in the making of the tree’s long life, the tannins are laid down during this transformation process, concentrating to a great degree in the heartwood.  There, securing to and precipitating out protein from the wood’s cell walls, tannins forge cross-linked, locked-tight, insoluble complexes, effectively building a protective water-proof shield.  Defensive against disease, as well, tannins fasten to and precipitate out protein from exudate (substances that ooze from the pores of diseased tissue) caused by microbial pathogens. Arresting the exudate by forming a film of clotted protein that walls off the microbial cells from fluid intake and outflow, the precipitate shrinks the disease-producing microbes toward obsolescence, helping prevent infection from advancing.
The mechanisms used by tannins are, therefore, those of binding (securing, fastening to), precipitating out (making insoluble), aggregating (drawing together; forming a complex), and drying up (reducing exudate; shrinking) for the purpose of establishing a stable barrier that assists in protection and healing.  In other words, tannins both astringe and help prevent the growth of pathogenic organisms and the diseases they cause.

Found not only in heartwood, tannins that are used medicinally are taken from the tree’s inner bark.  Their ascribed biological activities are most evident when we use a white oak bark aqueous or ethanol extract to shore up lax tissue, dry up leaking fluid, and relieve inflammation, thereby creating a safe space for our healing to occur through the properties of dry astringency and antisepsis.  As a result, the applications of this herb are myriad.
Externally:
Use a white oak bark decoction as a compress to stop bleeding, absorb seepage, and reduce inflammation, such actions helping to form new tissue where skin is wounded.  Use gently on lesser cuts and slight burns that are at risk of infection; avoid use on more grievous, extensive injury with broken skin and raw skin exposure.
A compress of the decoction may be applied to bruises, as well as to varicose veins.
The decoction may be used in a sitz bath to help heal hemorrhoids or introduced directly into bath water to ease itching, irritated skin. 
To tighten gums, firm up teeth in their sockets, and strengthen tooth enamel; for tooth decay and bleeding gums; for infections in the mouth or a sore throat, rinse and gargle with the decoction, holding it in the mouth for a few minutes before spitting it out.  Note:  for these applications, it’s advisable to brush and floss thoroughly beforehand.
For cleansing and removal of excess scalp and hair oil, to clarify the scalp and hair, to make hair shine;  to soothe a dry, itchy, flaky scalp; to smooth coarse hair (particularly gray hair); to strengthen hair and its follicles, use the decoction as a scalp rinse.
Internally:
White Oak Bark may be used when tissue is relaxed with too much fluid such as in conditions of profuse dampness from fever or exhaustive night sweats;  overstretched, porous veins flaccid with pooling blood; excess menstrual flow swelling the uterine lining; or irritated, inflamed tissue presenting infectious discharge.  Whether obstinate, intermittent fever accompanied by copious perspiration; veins weeping with age; menstrual cycles of heavy bleeding and long duration; wet, catarrh-soaked lungs; intestinal mucosal ulcerations; chronic diarrhea; irritated bladder with bloody efflux; or the discharge of sexually-transmitted bacterial infections, the effect of tannins is to wall off a space from offending forces that can further weaken and/or infect, counter immoderate flow of perspiration, blood, or exudate, and create a space high and dry that accommodates resolution. 
​

Not considered agents of cure in and of themselves but rather responsible for the temporary treatment of symptoms, the wisdom of tannins’ actions is to stretch and enhance the reach of the body’s immunology.  Raised up from weakness, dispelled of fluid surfeit and/or further infection, tissues begin to build back toward proper support of the body’s functions, now facilitated by the ableness of the body to complete the healing process. 
In other words, the tannins in white oak bark become steps toward a higher level of healing, the force of their actions holding us on the rise.
Dosing Suggestions:
(Important to note is the critical caveat attached to the use of white oak bark.  Owing to the strength of its tannins in their ability to astringe tissue, the use of white oak bark in any form requires strict limitation).
To make a decoction of white oak bark, use a tsp of the bark for every 8 ounces of water:  bring the water to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and introduce the bark.  Cover and let simmer 20 to 30 minutes.
Apart from infrequent use of white oak bark decoction in the bath or as only an occasional scalp and hair rinse, daily application of it topically may be safest within a one - to two-week range of time.
Internally, use is best within two to three days.  Suggested dose of a decoction is one to two cups a day; for a liquid extract, one to two dropperfuls twice daily.
Safety Considerations:
Should skin irritation or gastrointestinal upset develop while using white oak bark, discontinue its use.
Use internally only between meals, as white oak bark may disturb digestion and absorption of nutrients.
Existing liver and kidney conditions prohibit the use of this herb.  Some sources indicate that overuse of white oak bark may even create such conditions.
Avoid white oak bark while pregnant or breastfeeding.
Appropriately, if under medical supervision and using prescription medicine, please discuss possibility of the use of white oak bark, as well as herbs you wish to use in tandem with it, with your physician(s).
Sources available upon request.
​

​In a North American old-growth forest, on temperate and relatively dry Fall days, around noon as temperatures are rising and humidity levels dropping, the Lion’s Mane mushroom sporulates, producing small white spores that are released in the billions into the soft breezes.  Wind-born, they will seek purchase on the dead wood of trees:  a fallen branch or felled tree, a stump, even a tree still standing but wounded or dying.  (Should an upright wounded or dying tree become a Lion’s Mane host, the mushroom tends not to grow near ground level but higher up the trunk.  If foraging, look skyward among the standing trees).

If we take from the forest the edible Lion’s Mane mushroom, we own the responsibility of measuring its use with focused care, for what the mushroom gave the forest, it now gives you.
 
Dosing Suggestions:
Used as a functional food (as the main meal or an addition to it) or as a nutraceutical (pill, tea, or liquid extract), Lion’s Mane mushroom seems to deliver its bioactive compounds in relative safety.  Lacking studies of potential side effects in humans, animal studies indicate the mushroom and its extracts are well tolerated even at high doses.  Lion’s Mane, when eaten, is probably best enjoyed and utilized combined with other highly nutritious foods.  If using Lion’s Mane in nutraceutical form, follow the package directions.
 
STL Herbs and Aromatic’s Lion’s Mane Mushroom liquid extract is now available.  Of extraordinary benefit by itself, that benefit may be complemented by the use of apoptogenic, nervine, and nootropic herbs, furthering the promising effects Lion’s Mane has in supporting varying conditions of disorder and disease.  Some examples:
For anti-aging, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, American or Asian Ginseng, Eleuthero, Tulsi, Reishi, Rhodiola, Schizandra.

For anxiety, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha and Tulsi; with nervine herbs such as Blue Vervain, Hawthorn, Linden,  Oatstraw, Motherwort, Passion flower, Scullcap.

For depression, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, Tulsi, Rhodiola; with nervines such as Lemon Balm and St. John’s Wort.

For brain function, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, American or Asian Ginseng, Eleuthero, Tulsi,  Rhodiola, Schizandra.

For cancer, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, American or Asian Ginseng, Eleuthero, Holy Basil, Reishi, Rhodiola, Schizandra.

For diabetes, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, American or Asian Ginseng, Eleuthero, Tulsi.

For fatigue, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, American or Asian Ginseng, Eleuthero, Tulsi, Rhodiola, Schizandra

For immunity, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, American or Asian Ginseng, Tulsi, Reishi, Rhodiola, Schizandra.

Adaptogens are extremely versatile and diverse in their range of support.
Nootropics are herbs that “enhance memory, slow or prevent the onset of age- or dementia-related cognitive decline, reduce oxidative or ischemic damage to the brain, and improve mood.”
Consider combining the mushroom with any or all of the following herbs: Bacopa, Ginkgo, Gotu Kola, Lavender, and Rosemary.

STL Herbs and Aromatics offers several liquid extract combinations that you may wish to pair with the mushroom:
Maria's Tonic Liquid Extract Combination (the Essiac formula)
Blood Sugar Balance
Blood Pressure Support
Liver Detox
Kidney and Bladder Support
Brain Support
Nervine Tonic
Immune Support
Inflammation Response
 
Safety Considerations:
An allergy to mushrooms is prohibitive.
Appropriately, if under medical supervision and using prescription medicine, please discuss possibility of the use of Lion’s Mane mushroom, as well as herbs you wish to use in tandem with it, with your physician(s).
 
Sources available upon request

BLUE VERVAIN
(Verbena hastata)
Family:  Verbenaceae
Blue Vervain has a cousin known as European Vervain (Verbena officinalis).  In ancient times on ancient lands, magick, the sacred, and ritual were associated with European Vervain, creating use for it in ceremonies of  initiation, divination, consecration, cleansing, protection, and sacrifice.  And so, it was gathered by some under the Dog Star on moonless nights; put in wine to contact the dead; arched above the Fire of Beltane for the safety of livestock and at Summer Solstice, cast upon the growing fields; sprinkled in homes against lightning, thieves, and demons; and taken by soldiers into battle.  It graced altars to Venus and Diana; was dedicated to Isis, goddess of birth; and girdled the necks of those led to sacrifice.
Heavy upon European Vervain was laid supernatural power, sacredness, and high accord.  This is not to say it wasn’t used medicinally; European Vervain and Blue Vervain both have well-known remedial applications and are, for the most part, interchangeable in their medicinal uses.  Although Blue Vervain has also found implementation in arcane practices, it seems to lack the richly symbolic history of European Vervain as crafted by pagans, witches, and priests who, faraway in the remote mists of time, celebrated it as a tool to control the unpredictabilities of their worlds.
Found in the United States, Blue Vervain grows robustly over most of it.  Here, the record of its use begins with the Native Americans, widens through those who later came to settle, and, as testament to its virtues, still stands today. Blue Vervain may or may not have supernatural power yet is nonetheless capable of granting its user the good fortune of relief from a great number of complaints, some of a notably modern description.
​

Opening the door on a full-sun Summer’s day in Missouri’s river-crossed wild areas, one feels the waves of wet heat rolling lazy and heavy upon the river waters, easing out over bottomlands and beyond.  Where the rivers cut deep into the land, where their edges are shored up by a bramble of roots tying together generations of soil deposits, a profound fertility exists.  Following trails of spring water, streams, and creeks to these riverbanks are flowers:  wild and heady in their various presentations of form, size, and color, blossoming through the haze, tall and erect even as Summer bears down hard upon them.  These wildflowers flourish along the edges of moving water, or, for that matter, wherever land is moist, the successful quenching of their thirst a measure of the beauty of their blooms.  Stepping through wet meadow, marsh, or slough; traversing watery bottomland or probing a riverbank, one draws near to the flowers, whose colors are made vivid by close proximity:  Rose Turtlehead, Blue Cardinal, Bur Marigold, and Swamp Milkweed rise up from the mud and muck, some as high as 6 to 8 feet, signaling their ripeness through blooms in shades of rose, blue, violet, purple, yellow, and pink.  The land is pleased; the sky and water are pleased; beetles, flies, bumblebees, and songbirds are pleased; the cottontail rabbit is pleased; larvae, caterpillars, moths, and butterflies – all are pleased for these are the gifts of the flowers, unto themselves, their land, and its inhabitants:  leaves, nectar, pollen, and seeds used to feed and recycle their habitat, preserving its continuity and marking it as equal to sacred space.
Standing shoulder to shoulder with these flowers in the time of efflorescence and attraction is Blue Vervain, known also as Swamp Vervain, tall as 6 feet and bearing, on each of its pencil-thin spikes, a ring of tiny blue-purple flowers.  
The competency these wildflowers bring to the life cycle on their fertile wetlands is noted in their generosity born of need and their strength won through long survival.  They expertly extend their power to support life beyond their own, securing their place in the natural scheme of things, such as those things exist on the worn riverbanks, muddy bottomlands, and softly sinking swamps of Missouri.
​

The leaves and flowers of Blue Vervain bring to the teacup or tincture bottle qualities reminiscent of the plant’s capacity in the wild for generosity and strength. Through the herb’s multiple applications, its giving nature is realized; and because it can address a mosaic of symptoms particular to complex chronic conditions as if it were a whole formula, its force as a simple medicine becomes known.
The symptoms that attract Blue Vervain spring forth from general tension due to nervous weakness and from poor performance of the liver and kidneys as a result of toxic buildup.  When left untreated, tension and toxicity can reach chronic levels producing an array of symptoms that Blue Vervain has the competency to manage.  Its nervine/relaxant quality (eases nervous tension) is the template for many of its applications as well as its role as a diaphoretic (induces sweating and stimulates detoxification).
In acute cases of viral or bacterial respiratory infection (for example, cold, flu, pneumonia, tonsillitis, sinusitis), where skin is hot and dry and there’s fever but no chills, Blue Vervain, through diaphoresis, effectively steers the fever away from becoming too high by relaxing and dilating blood vessels close to the skin’s surface and easing the skin’s pores open to the flow of sweat and fever heat. Importantly, fever is then regulated and, because skin is a pathway of elimination, toxic debris from the infection is carried off by the sweat.  An expectorant and antispasmodic as well, Blue Vervain can be applied to the congestion and spasmodic coughing that can accompany respiratory infection.
Yet, it’s in chronic conditions that Blue Vervain is more often used, particularly those resulting from nervous tension.  Flowing like water into our systems and organs, nerves, when tensed adversely by long periods of stress, can contribute to constriction and pain as well as imbalance and compromised function in many areas of the body.  Those whose health and vitality are constrained by extended stress and unattended nervous tension, who are over-driven and tight-necked, are subject to a constellation of symptoms from which may emerge one or more of the following:
restlessness, irritability, anger, anxiety, depression, insomnia, exhaustion;
drug addiction;
nerve pain, spasms, tics, seizures, dizziness, tinnitus, headache, migraine;
indigestion, IBS;
spasmodic dysmenorrhea (painful, cramping menstruation);
and/or asthmatic breathing with tightness of the chest.
 
Among its myriad qualities, Blue Vervain not only aids in relaxing tension, but is considered to be:
an analgesic (relieves pain), anti-inflammatory, and antispasmodic;
a bitter (improves digestion) and hepatic (promotes function of the liver);
a hormone balancer (helps with menstrual irregularities, PMS, and endometriosis) and uterine stimulant (helps with stalled labor);
a diuretic (improves eliminatory flow from the kidneys, assisting with urinary tract infections, stones [limited use only], and gout);
a lymphatic (moves the lymph) and detoxicant (detoxifies through sweating and through support of the liver and kidneys);
an antimicrobial (has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal effects);
and an astringent (causes contraction of tissues and may help with chronic gingivitis).
 
Especially when used as an anxiolytic (to defend against the unpredictabilities of our world), Blue Vervain’s cooling, relaxing, and healing effects upon the nerves help calm worry and fear, offering even an uplift of spirit.  As has been written, one “may have a reaction [to Blue Vervain] that manifests as a full body sigh of relief.”
Overall, Blue Vervain is a restorative tonic. As one herbalist writes, it is “a low intensity, wide spectrum treatment of chronic weakness and deficiency [and] excels at multi-faceted management of complex chronic conditions.”  As a gentle restructuring remedial, Blue Vervain reaches into our places of frailty and lack, resolving long-standing tension and toxicity and the symptoms they produce, thus restoring our vitality.  Its best use is daily for long periods of time, which yields little to no provocation of side effects.
Well-qualified on its own, it’s certainly not ill-advised to combine Blue Vervain with other herbs that complement its actions.
​

Champion of its natural habitat, certifier of blooming continuity, Blue Vervain, when applied to ourselves, casts its growing seeds over our depleted fields and raises us to both health and hope.  Surely, this is a kind of magic.
 ​

Dosing Suggestions: 
Although a very bitter tea, one cup of a weak infusion may be used up to three times a day for its nervine/relaxant benefit.  Otherwise, as  a liquid extract, one to two dropperfuls up to four time a day.  One cup of infusion, as needed, is good use of Blue Vervain as a means to induce sweating during fever.
Safety Considerations: 
Because it’s a uterine stimulant, Blue Vervain is contraindicated in pregnancy.  Avoid use if iron-deficient (Blue Vervain reduces the absorption of iron).  Avoid use if taking blood-thinning medication (Blue Vervain is a source of vitamin K which helps thicken blood).  Avoid use if taking blood pressure medication (Blue Vervain has a relaxing effect on blood vessels).  Avoid use if undergoing hormone therapy (Blue Vervain regulates estrogen and progesterone receptor binding). Extremely large doses are emetic (causing nausea and vomiting).
Side effects tend to be rare but can include gastrointestinal upset and possible development of a rash.
Appropriately, if under medical supervision and using prescription medicine, please discuss possibility of the use of this herbal medicinal with your physician(s).
​

Sources:
Peter Holmes, The Energetics of Western Herbs, Volume I, Fourth Edition, Snow Lotus Press, Inc, 2007
https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=veha2
https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/factsheet/pdf/fs_veha2.pdf
https://www.americanmeadows.com/perennials/unique-perennials/blue-vervain-verbena-hastata
https://www.ecelecticschoolofherbalmedicine.com/blue-vervain/
https://www.herbrally.com/monographs/blue-vervain
https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=z370
https://www.euphoricherbals.com/blogs/news/benefits-of-blue-vervain-a-versatile-native-herb
https://www.indigo-herbs.co.uk/natural-health-guide/benefits/vervain
http://www.afrikanheritage.com/blue-vervain/
https://www.sweetwillowwellness.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-blue-vervain/
https://sweettntmagazine.com/vervain-blue-verbena-23-common-uses-benefits/
​

​                  YERBA MATE
                                          (Ilex paraguariensis)
                                                                      said to give
                “the strength of coffee, the health benefits of tea, and the joy of chocolate”

We are in the hills and mountains of the Atlantic Rainforest in east central South America: northeastern to southern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, northern Argentina, and parts of Uruguay. Below, the Parana River courses through a basin of sedimentary rock. Written on the river’s currents is the timelessness of rain and sand, as heavy storms and frequent rainfalls have, for millions of years, driven sediment down the mountains and hills into the river, strengthening the basin and mineralizing the land. Dense populations of plants and animals, through nutrients released from their decomposition, have continuously envigorated the forest’s soil.

Over eons, heat, humidity, rain, sediment, and decay have assisted in bringing an exceptionally geologically sound area of the South American continent to peak rainforest fruition. Rock solid and intensely fertile, the Atlantic Rainforest has created, with vast imagination, a populous and profusely diverse biome. From the banks of the river to the heights of the forest grows a wildly exotic flora and fauna thick with plants, birds, insects, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.

Standing in the forest, amidst its wide-ranging colors shimmering and subtle, where wing is on the rise and blooms stretch, where the hawk’s cry pierces the song of the bird, and monkeys swing high above the jaguar, deep in the chatter and buzz and noiseless slither, the industry and drive of life is greatly upon us. The predator moves with precision against its prey, and everywhere is the scent of damp, death, and procreation.

It is here, reaching 50 to 100 feet up from the forest floor and living for as long as 100 years, near water and under cover of forest canopy, in shade gently filtered by sunlight, the Ilex paraguariensis tree grows. We have found the source of Yerba Mate.

The Ilex paraguariensis tree is in the Holly family (Aquifoliaceae) of shrubs and trees. Its leathery leaves, glossy green with bright red berries, are reminiscent of Christmas Holly; yet rather than a holiday decoration, these leaves are the origin of a long-consumed, ritual-sustaining, health-supporting beverage that once was known only by indigenous South American tribes. Used to support health, tone energy, and draw together community members, a reverence of this rainforest tree was born. Over the centuries, through foreign exploration, intervention, and subsequent trading, Yerba Mate’s availability widened beyond the Atlantic Rainforest, crossed the seas, and in the not too distant past, extended to the shelves of North America’s herb shops.

Regrettably, the Yerba Mate tree, in the wild, is today an endangered species as much of the Atlantic Rainforest has been destroyed. Fragments are left of what was once a widespread, flourishing ecosystem that gave sustenance not only to its inhabitants; but by absorbing great quantities of carbon dioxide, regularly adding to the water cycle, and nurturing a considerable portion of the world’s wildlife, gave sustenance to the planet.

Some gathering of Yerba Mate is directly from the wild where few cultivation practices are employed and harvesting is manually done. In the remaining forests, interplanting trees and removing dead ones assist in densifying the tree’s population. However, to meet the world’s expanding demand for Yerba Mate, and turn a profit, plantations have been created by first stripping and destroying portions of the rainforest, then utilizing modern cultivation techniques to rapidly create a marketable yield. Rather, the intention to steward and harvest the tree in the wild as well as regenerate the soil in deforested areas is the ideal, for as a tree uniquely attached to its source, the survival of Yerba Mate is best achieved where it always has been, on its undisturbed native land. On long-lived land remarkably stable, stimulating, and nourishing, in a rainforest thrumming with variety and vigor, the success of all is the strength of the forest, and the forest’s strength is to be found in the one.

Yerba Mate leaves are made into tea, and that tea gives strength.

Harvested, held to an open fire, then air-dried, the resulting leaves are green with a mild smokey flavor. A drink may be made with hot or cold water, and the Yerba Mate may be combined with other herbs for taste or for additional medicinal value. Yerba Mate may be consumed in liquid extract form, as well.

The chemical composition of the leaf describes the story of Yerba Mate’s gifts toward good health, supplying us the reasons for its centuries’ old popular consumption. Not only is Yerba Mate bountiful in vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, but studies reveal its plant compounds help improve immunity and reduce the possibility of developing neurological and cardiovascular diseases and cancer; help promote diuresis, control appetite, and burn fat; enable proper digestion and cleansing and movement of the bowels; support better weight management and more secure control of diabetes; and perhaps most notably and noticeably, Yerba Mate offers exhilarating relief from fatigue.

Yerba Mate forwards to us its large capacity for nourishment, its encouragement of efficient metabolic function and extensive support against cellular damage, inflammation, and chronic disease, as well as its ability to shake us from our doldrums, elevating our spirit and quickening the power of our body and mind. All this born of a rootedness in one of our planet’s most magnificent examples of life in the extreme, the Atlantic Rainforest. All this in a cup of tea or a dropperful.

Dosing Suggestions: Two cups of tea or 1 to 2 dropperfuls daily. Yerba Mate contains stimulating xanthines, including caffeine. Interestingly, as a tonic herb, the stimulation Yerba Mate gives is smooth and even; however, because energy levels are raised, best to dose early in the day.

The longer Yerba Mate leaves steep in hot water, the more bitter will be the brew. Consider adding Peppermint leaf or Lemongrass to enhance flavor: add lemon juice or honey to remove any bitterness and milk to reduce the temperature.

To make a cold brew, place a tablespoon of Yerba Mate leaves in an 8-ounce glass jar, fill with water, cover, and place in the refrigerator overnight. Strain in the morning. Add orange, lemon, lime, or pineapple juice. Stir well.

The high antioxidant values in Yerba Mate are higher than those in Green Tea. Combining Yerba Mate with Green Tea and Rooibos creates an incredibly high potency antioxidant drink. To sweeten, add honey.

In a study, Yerba Mate, in combination with Guarana and Damiana, helped prolong gastric emptying, making subjects feel fuller longer and reducing their weight.

​Safety Considerations: Excessive consumption of Yerba Mate (in the form of hot tea) has been reported to increase the risk of certain cancers. No increased risk has been associated with the warm or cold tea. Yerba Mate may potentiate monoamine oxidase inhibitor medication. Appropriately, if pregnant or lactating, or under medical supervision and using prescription medicine, please discuss possibility of the use of this herbal medicinal with your physician(s

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_mate
https://rain-tree.com/yerbamate.htm https://www.herbalgram.org/resources/herbalgram/issues/129/table-ofcontents/hg129-herbprofile-yerba/
http://guayaki.com/restoring-the-ecology-and-culture-of-the-atlanticforest-with-yerba-mate/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-andpharmaceutical-science/ilex-paraguariensis
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2018/6849317/
​https://www.targui.com/en/discover/history/ilex-paraguariensis-all-you-needto-know-about-

​SKUNK CABBAGE
(Ictodes foetidus)
 
With the common name Skunk Cabbage, who would conceive of this plant holding stature in an ancient botanical family (Araceae) known for some of the most striking plant forms found in new and old-world tropical regions.  Side by side with such exotically named specimens as Dragon Lily, Flamingo Flower, Devil’s Tongue, and Golden Pothos, Skunk Cabbage takes its position in this family of plants, within the genus Arum, as one of its few species to dwell in a less than tropical climate such as that of the northeastern United States.
Its range sweeps eastward from northern Ontario and Minnesota across chilly latitudes to the eastern edge of Canada and the United States dropping south only as far as Tennessee and North Carolina.  Known as eastern Skunk Cabbage, it’s found in old, undisturbed wetlands.  Marshes, swamps, bogs, and the banks of streams and rivers are its home for the ability to keep its roots always wet is the key to its survival. 
One of the strengths of this plant lies in its substantial foot-long, 3 to 6-inch-wide root, or rhizome.  Expanding and contracting, the rhizome protectively pulls the blooming plant down closer to ground surface, snugly securing it in the wet soil, and with its extensive attached system of long rootlets, assures an upward climb of adequate water to the plant.
It is in late winter, early spring, that Skunk Cabbage begins its 1 to 3-foot aboveground journey.  Breaking through soil likely still hardened by freezing temperatures, snow, and ice, a thick, colorfully hooded stalk with tiny petal-less flowers at its tip starts its surge skyward.  A process of thermogenesis allows the plant to create heat inside the hood and around the flowers contributing to rapid growth and adding many degrees of warmth to the surrounding air, enough to melt away the remains of winter around its base and at the same time attract early pollinators to its comforting warmth and to its odor made more diffuse by the remarkable degree of heat.
Later in spring, as the flowered stalk dies back, a leaf bud near the base of the plant shoots up and out toward a maximum height of 2 feet, unfurling broad leaves one or more feet wide and as far as 3 to 4 feet outward.
Above ground, the eastern Skunk Cabbage is a watery, fluid plant, its parts spongy and soft.  It grows rapidly and dies soon, gone from the wetland scene before summer’s end.  Having dissolved gently back into the watery earth and into its obstinate, long-enduring root system, there Skunk Cabbage will brood in the long darkness of cool mud, in its memory of eons of existence, and in its heroic resolve to rise again.  An individual plant can live up to 1,000 years.
Out in wetlands among blooming Skunk Cabbage, softly bruise any part of the plant to know of its fetid odor likened to rotting meat as well as skunk and onion.  It draws pollinators attracted to carrion.  And if you should perhaps not like to be reminded of cabbage, avoid the ocean of cabbage-like green leaves surrounding Skunk Cabbage in the wild.  But know of its value to its environment.  In wetlands, plants would find it difficult to root and sustain themselves were it not for the support given such soil by Skunk Cabbage’s incredibly stabilizing root system.
The expanding, contracting action of the root of Skunk Cabbage powers its reach through cold, heavy mud as well as its strenuous pull of moisture upward.  Here we can liken Skunk Cabbage’s behavior in the wild to that of its behavior in our lungs during respiratory affliction.
The thoroughly dried, and not malodorous, root made into a safely medicinal liquid extract provides an exerting expectorant action in lungs troubled by lingering, thick, deep-seated mucus.  Decongesting and strongly anti-spasmodic as well as comfortingly supportive of the nervous system, Skunk Cabbage root stabilizes affected lungs by helping remove old, stuck mucus, relieve irritation and cough, relax airways, and ease breathing.  Of particular application is Skunk Cabbage root’s use in conditions of asthma.  The strength of asthma’s discomfort is met by the strength of this root. 
And so it is, that a plant with the off-putting name of Skunk Cabbage holds its own among some of the finest respiratory herbal medicinals in use just as it holds sway among the members of its family of ancient botanicals.
 
Dosing suggestions:
It has been suggested to dose with a dropperful of the liquid extract two to four times per day between meals.  The dose may be put in water.
Safety considerations: 
It has been claimed that large doses may cause gastrointestinal discomfort in the form of stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea as well as headache and dizziness. Appropriately, if under medical supervision, please discuss possibility of the use of this medicinal with your physician(s).
Sources:
https://www.northernappalaciasschool.com/post/ode-to-skunk-cabbage-lessons-from-the-swamp
https://www.natureinstitute.org/article/craig-holdrege/skunk-cabbage
https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=syfo
https://www.henriettes-herb.com/eclectic/bigelow/ictodes.html
https://urbanecologycenter.org/blog/native-plant-eastern-skunk-cabbage.html
https://www.rxlist.com/skunk_cabbage/supplements.htm
http://nanps.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/
http://greenmanramblings.blogspot.com/2010/03/skunk-cabbage-new-england-bear-medicine.html