Faint
04-16-03, 14:38
The May 2003 issue of Better Homes and Gardens WOOD magazine has an interesting if brief article about medicinal uses of trees.
The article is sub-titled "Lumber, fruits, and nuts come from trees. But so do ingredients for cough syrup, laxatives, pain relievers, tranquilizers, and more." Author Peter J. Stephano. No volume number given, just Issue 148. Page 65. I don't know if it is still on the newstands. You should be able to find the magazine at your library, or they can bring it in through inter-library loan-probably as a fax.
Each of the 13 trees listed gets a few sentences about the medicinal properties found in it. Some like Rauwolfia you might not find outside of India, others grow in the US-Cascara, Dogwood, Sassafras, for example.
I called a herbalist friend in North Carolina and was surprised to find that some of the trees I'd thought too "exotic" for the US do in fact grow as ornamentals as far north as she is.
The article is worth looking at even though I'd want more information before I used these trees. I learned several things I hadn't known, such as Birch (Betula papyrifera, nigra, lenta) being sources of salicylic acid in addition to willows, and that Dogwood (Cornus florida) was a source for quinine for Confederate doctors treating malaria. That was also news to my friend who lives in a malaria area and whose husband still has malarial relapses.
(And I'll add a warning right here-do check the information out further. There are many many dogwoods around, but a lot of them are japonicas not floridas, so whether or not japonicas contain quinine, or something worse.... Check the information and check the identification.)
Faint
The article is sub-titled "Lumber, fruits, and nuts come from trees. But so do ingredients for cough syrup, laxatives, pain relievers, tranquilizers, and more." Author Peter J. Stephano. No volume number given, just Issue 148. Page 65. I don't know if it is still on the newstands. You should be able to find the magazine at your library, or they can bring it in through inter-library loan-probably as a fax.
Each of the 13 trees listed gets a few sentences about the medicinal properties found in it. Some like Rauwolfia you might not find outside of India, others grow in the US-Cascara, Dogwood, Sassafras, for example.
I called a herbalist friend in North Carolina and was surprised to find that some of the trees I'd thought too "exotic" for the US do in fact grow as ornamentals as far north as she is.
The article is worth looking at even though I'd want more information before I used these trees. I learned several things I hadn't known, such as Birch (Betula papyrifera, nigra, lenta) being sources of salicylic acid in addition to willows, and that Dogwood (Cornus florida) was a source for quinine for Confederate doctors treating malaria. That was also news to my friend who lives in a malaria area and whose husband still has malarial relapses.
(And I'll add a warning right here-do check the information out further. There are many many dogwoods around, but a lot of them are japonicas not floridas, so whether or not japonicas contain quinine, or something worse.... Check the information and check the identification.)
Faint