Plain old Plantago

Plain old Plantago

My first knowledge of plaintain was via its hybrid progenies, the beautiful garden hostas.  After a while I noticed the similarities in their growth and flowering.  Finally I started seeing them underfoot in our yard.  How many had I stepped on?  Native Americans called it “white man’s footprint”.

                                                Plantago lancelota

 Last summer, when my legs were full of “no see um’s” bites, Jessie said to chew some up and rub on the juice.  I did that quickly (and inadequately chewed) then opined that it was not that helpful.  But this fall I had a couple of infected itchy sores on my legs and I tried plaintain again with more intent.  By chewing longer I reached a point of release by the tough plant tissues and then applied with a bandaid poulstice.  Four hours later I noticed tha pain was gone. 

In additon to reading my references, all of which liked plantago, I explored two websites:  www.altnature.com and www.herballegacy.com/Ahlborn_Medicinal.html. 

The first describes a chemical analysis which reveals a plethora of powerful constituents, including Acubin, clinically accepted as powerful anti-toxin.  The second website, (am I glad to find Dr. Christopher after so long)  begins with Dr. Christoper’s assertion that, in cases of blood poisoning, plaintain will destroy infection and save limbs.  For that it is taken as a decoction and applied as a salve.  The whole plant is medicinal.  Dr. Christopher also remarked that its power was not felt instantly but developed over time, hence my success the second time.

Chop the whole plant and cook it with lard to make a salve.  I checked with my friend Toni who suggested I make that with coconut oil and beeswax.  That’s my plan now.  Frankly I am so impressed with what I've read, I'm  going to collect what I can for drying, decocting and extracting.

It is also an excellent “first being food”, full of the vitamins and minerals one expects from a weed.  However, for me in October it just doesn't taste that good.  Its bitter like dock, full of tannins, which will stop bleeding, and mucilage which is soothing and nourishing.  Its diuretic qualities are even good for the bladder.  See why I like it already a lot.  

Bitter Again

Bitter Again

Last week John N.  the nursery inspector from the state department of agriculture made an official call on my nursery.  This was a man who had seen and knew virtually every species of plant grown in a state known for its nursery industry.  He immediately asked “What is that, some sort of ornamental?”  He was referring to the bitter melon growing profusely on a trellis inside my greenhouse and clambering out the door and window to greet any and all.

Two plants have solidly covered an area 10’ by 20’ and are still extending as we enter fall.  The leaves are palmate like castor bean and are almost completely clear of insect or physiological discoloration.

The flowers are just numerous enough to catch your attention and they are a medium, clear yellow that compliments the deep green of the foliage.  

The fruit is also ornamental, starting out as a pale green reptilian thing, It is usually harvested when about this size and you can find it in the produce sections of oriental grocers.  Online recipes suggest that it be cooked with other vegetables in stir fries.  Frankly this is because the taste by itself is overpowering.  I find it difficult to eat, but I imagine that skilled chefs can make it quite palatable.  The developing seeds and their pulp should perhaps be scooped out…they don’t seem to alter the taste, but their crunchiness is unpleasant.

The growing plant tips are edible and I can tolerate them raw.  However, my preferred way to use bitter melon is as an infusion or tea.  I should add that infusions are made from fresh tender plant parts and are brewed just like tea.  I chop leaves, stem, and fruit and bring to a short boil.  Its ready and good…good for you.  My four plant medicine resources did not mention bitter melon, so I had to go to the internet for its health benefits.  Here’s my condensation of what I found.  Bitter melon breaks down kidney stones, lowers cholesterol, has high vitamin K values, twice the beta-carotene of carrots, twice the calcium of spinach, and twice the potassium of bananas.  For my own use its most important benefit is that it lowers blood sugar.  This means that it makes the sugars from the too many carbohydrates I consume less available to feed the cancer hanging on in my bladder and trying to form in my prostate.  This also helps diabetics.

                   Afterwards the fruit turns orange and spits out its seeds.

I think I mentioned in my first bitter melon article that the seeds are coated with a sweet and pleasant bright red pulp…too bad the entire seed isn’t juicy like the pulp!

                 Bitter Melon...A Plant for All Reasons

Barberry and its Berberine

Barberry and its Berberine

This golden-yellow cultivar is a focal point in our front garden where its spring appearance rivals the azaleas around it.  In the back yard bed where moisture is hard to come by a pair of the purple varieties are almost as beautiful.  These are tough plants that have good form and retain their foliage until deepest cold pervades.  I used to grow thousands of them at the nursery.

I only know the cultivars but there is a common European variety that has become naturalized in the Northeast.  Some have called it invasive and unfortunately it is an alternate host for a rust that afflicts our formerly fabulous Eastern White Pine.  The Latin name for this shrub is Berberis vulgaris and it along with all the many cultivars and related barberries are in the family Berberidaceae.

This should have been of great interest to me since berberine is a plant alkaloid which has been focused on by cancer researchers.  I had read about berberine in LifeExtension’s “Disease prevention and Treatment”, a source I haven’t mentioned much, but which is a most important book on health.

Berberine merits nearly an entire small print page there describing  three major studies and several “interesting” papers including hundreds of pages which assert powerful tumor reduction in brain, breast, cervical, pancreatic, tongue, skin, blood and bladder cancers.  

For some reason up till now I had not followed up on my reading.  I did try to grow goldenseal which is the most common source of berberine, but was not successful with that plant.  In the meantime my barberry plants were slowly growing to 4’ by 4’ specimens.  I saw them as landscape plants, not medicine.

It took a lucky chance for me to approach the medicine in barberry.  A young protégé’ of mine landed a landscape job in town which involved the renovation and simplification of an ornate yard.  He had me stop by for a consultation.  Among the plants which had to go were six large barberries.  Unfortunately he chopped and destroyed the tops leaving only the stumps and roots which I was able to salvage.  A fortune in berberine was lost, but enough trimmings remained for me to learn from.

                 Check out this branch with the bark skinned off.

                                not surprising that it makes a yellow dye

So when I write these articles I search all my references and also the internet to gather as much information as my mind can hold at one “meal” and “The Magic and Medicine of Plants” informed me that ancient physicians had used this plant for the liver and gall bladder illnesses which cause jaundice.  This was because they had promulgated the Doctrine of Signatures which holds that a plant’s form, appearance or noticeable characteristics indicate its healing peoperties.   In this case the yellow color could not be clearer.  Here’s the tea I made from the root and bark shavings.

         

Barberry contains in addition to berberine, other alkaloids and substances which are too difficult for me to spell.  Herbalists still use it for gall bladder and liver, but my references emphasize its effectiveness in the digestive tract and the fact that it is strongly anti-septic means it is recommended for combating invaders like giardia, cholera, schismatosis and E. coli.  There’s more!  Its effective for skin outbreaks like psoriasis and has been shown to dilate arteries and lower blood pressure.  Diluted, it is used like goldenseal as an eyewash.  Is there anything this plant cannot do?  I am very excited; the tea tastes bitter like a good medicine should and I am preparing a tincture for use this winter.

Its Not a Plant

Its Not Really a Plant

I had read that none of the shelf mushrooms are poisonous so I had pulled teaspoon sized pieces of one species off my firewood and boiled them into a tea, or more correctly, an infusion.  They were leathery and white, in contrast to the Chaga mushroom I had taken in the initial phase of my treatment.  Like the Chaga the tea was earthy and good.

A year later, last May in fact, I harvested this one when I was down in Texas.   

With the help of a reference guide I easily identified it as a Turkey Tail mushroom.    

It turned out that this is the very fungus growing on my firewood.

An internet site described it as very medicinal, with qualities that resonate in the bone marrow, helping to create more T cells, the guardians of our blood.  My reference, “The Complete Mushroom Hunter” states that Asians have long considered Turkey Tail to be a most important medicine.  Recently biochemists' analyses found several anti-cancer compounds in Turkey Tail including krestin or PSK which inhibits tumor formation.

Turkey Tail’s scientific name is Trametes versicolor.  It is a leathery polypore whose colored “feathers” seem to darken with growth.  Its medicinal qualities include all the best “anti's:  anti-tumor, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-oxidant.

As part of my research I googled “can mushrooms save the planet?” and arrived at a site describing Paul Stamets, Oregon mychologist.  Stamets reminds us that mushrooms unlike plants do not harvest the sun’s energy directly, but, like us, they feed on those plants and so are more akin to the animal kingdom.  Photos taken with special equipment show that mycelial growth of fungi looks exactly like a map of neurons in our brains.  And fungi do exhibit a great deal of intelligence as they extend their nerve like bodies through their environment finding the compounds and minerals they use for their existence.  

 Stamets has successfully shown that horrible pollution including oil spills and nuclear radiation can be consumed by selected species of mushrooms.  By chipping wood and inoculating it with spores large areas can be remediated.  He's even working on ocean pollution.  My thought is that as the thin layer of organic life begins to die on Earth mushrooms will consume it all in hopes that their recycling will support rebirth for our struggling planet.

n in Texas.

A More Beautiful Medicine

A More Beautiful Medicine

About a year ago I wrote “Beautiful Medicine” a piece about a plant that every herbalist affirms as highly medicinal, the beautiful cone flower.  At the urging of Jessie my special Creek Indian friend, I had used a three year old root of a cultivar “Pink Parasol” from my flower garden to help heal a skin infection on my leg.  We then began a discussion about the relative potency of the species versus hybrids and wild versus cultivated.  Pink Parasol is a cultivar of Echinacea purpurea, one of three species used medicinally.  Interestingly a year later I can identify Pink Parasol as an F1 hybrid or an unstable selection because its seedlings are now blooming prolifically in the garden.  And...

while the flowers of these seedlings are large and like a parasol, the pink is paler and nearly half of the flowers are white. 

Where there are stands of plant species, the seedlings are usually unchanged from their parents.  Here in the Ozark foothills, a prime eco-system for cone flower, there are four species of coneflower, Echinacea angustifolia, E. pallida, E. paradoxa, and E. purpurea.  They are all described as threatened, though I had seen plenty of purpurea along nearby highways.  They are all harvested for medicine.  So, a year after our original discussion, Jessie brings me a taproot from E. angustifolia.  Here it is in its muddy matrix along with two of its “hoyas angustas” for identification.

This is my first knowledge of E. angustifolia  (narrow leaf).  Its leaves are indeed narrow and slick rather than furry like purpurea.  My pink Parasol had a harvestable crown with fibrous roots, but nothing like the taproot Jessie brought.  He said the angustifolia’s flowers were large, pink and beautiful.  This picture is from the internet.

The root was mostly black inside, a sign of its potency.  I had recently been bothered with gum and molar discomfort, so I chewed a piece.  It tingled my mouth and soothed my gums.  Later I read that the Comanche Indians used Echinacea for toothaches.  Jessie and some of my references caution that Echinacea is powerful medicine, not to be overused.  Its laborotory derived components are proven to be anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-biotic. Its action said to be immediate.

I recently drove by large stands of E. pallida in full bloom near Fayetteville.  It has a more slender flower, very beautiful and I have since returned and collected seed from that stand.  

And the fourth cone flower found here is the desirable yellow, E. paradoxa.

With luck I will be able to offer all four varieties next spring.

A Medicine to Stick With

A Medicine to Stick With

Sometimes I read a few pages at random from my collection of medicinal plant books.  This can give me tidbits of information which may lead me to seek the illusive understanding of the plants and their properties.  So it was when I noticed the entry for Galium apartine or cleavers.  This was a weed, common in my garden which had somehow appealed to me from the first time I touched it years ago.  I called it bedstraw because its matted spongy nature promised a comfortable night’s sleep should one be trapped outside without a mattress. 

Cleavers was prescribed for psoriasis and other skin issues in the first paragraph, but following that was mentioned that it was a diuretic and used for urinary problems, kidney stones, and cancer.  Whoa! Why had I not noticed this before?

I immediately gathered an armful; boiled it making a tea, which was palatable, and cooked greens which were not.  (Yes they could be eaten, but one would need to remove the stems which I had not done.) Andrew Chevallier in his encyclopedia of herbal medicine stated that for cancer the plant should be juiced.  Our juicer is not a “Champion” but it is a high quality centrifugal model and I set it up outside to deal with a grocery bag of fresh cleavers.

 

The results at first were disappointing.  With the machine running on high speed and me pushing with most of my might, I extracted about a teaspoon.  Then in a moment of insight I grabbed a juicy handful of the pulp and squeezed hard with my hands, finding the elusive juice.

The squeezed pulp is below the pitcher

I eventually ended up with about a pint of pretty stout stuff, which I consumed over the next couple of days.  Did it fight my bladder cancer?  Who knows?  I won’t be taking it again until next year though, as my cleavers have gone to seed and these are now accumulating in Lucky’s fur.

The literature also states that the roasted seeds make a decent coffee substitute, as both plants re in the Madder family.  And for Jesse, who has a hard core interest in color, it was mentioned that a red dye can be extracted from the root.

Dancing on the Pinhead of Cancer

It was an uncomfortable winter for me.  I hadn’t slept well and though I felt a lot of my problems came from parasites and the many micro-organisms that exist within me, I couldn’t ignore compelling kidney pain which seemed as if it were caused by my bladder cancer reasserting itself and perhaps blocking the urethra from my aching kidney.  So after three years without any medical supervision or monitoring I took my bladder, previously infested with aggressive cancer, to a new urologist.  My cancer was after all the type that returns faster than any other.

In the initial visit the doctor and staff expressed surprise that I had gone so long without treatment.  Blood and urine were sent to the laboratory and a sonogram and cystoscopy were scheduled.  A bit of good news was that no blood showed up in my urine that day.  A second positive for me was that the more sensitive lab test also came back negative.  My physician daughter told me that the test was very good for indicating “aggressive” cancer, but could miss superficial ones.  The sonogram covered kidneys, bladder, and prostate.  It also showed nothing unusual.  I was now feeling much better about my health!

My new doctors instructions for the cystoscopy were quite strict.  I was to fill a prescription, they didn’t say what the drug was for, and have a friend attend me since they would be giving me an I.V. to induce “twilight” sleep.  This did not seem right to me.  I had already had two of these “periscope” procedures and there was no pain associated with either of them.  I called my nurse and told her I didn’t want the IV.  She said he might have to “cauterize”.  “Cauterize what?”, I asked; I did not want or need a biopsy.  I already knew I had bladder cancer.  She with that sudden skepticism that comes whenever a patient objects to a procedure,  said she would talk to the doctor, but since I had not heard back from her prior to the appointment I found a friend to take me, just in case.  Oh and the prescription I had been ordered to fill turned out to be $20 pain pills which I discovered in time to return.

The morning of the cystoscopy I found that the Dr. had agreed to let me endure it without the sedative (sedatives have cancer causing ingredients, by the way) but nothing was said about the biopsy.  After I was reclined and stirripped up, the Dr. came in asking if they had a leather strap to put between my teeth.  As I suspected, there was no pain whatsoever.  Unlike the previous urologist, this one had a television screen and camera to go with his periscope and was able to show me three small tumors, which he called superficial, on my bladder wall.  There was nothing blocking my urethra at all.  He showed me the junction with my prostate and said striations indicated a kind of stress.  Then with my legs spread and a wire line in my bladder he told me he wanted to take a biopsy.  “What for?”  I asked.  “If you want me to treat you I have to have a biopsy”.  So unfortunately, I relented.  I could see the miniature choppers on the monitor and on his command the nurse snapped them on a tumor; then twice more.  I felt tiny stings.  Then it was over.

For anyone who is undergoing a biopsy or surgery for cancer there is one very important bit of information that is “never” shared by the physician.  Whenever a tumor is cut, cancer cells float away.  Like viruses these cancer cells have a “Velcro” coating. This helps them latch on to healthy cells rather than continue to float in the bloodstream or lymph where they would likely be destroyed by our killer T cells.  The coating also catches other cancer cells and soon there is aggregation and a new tumor is formed. 

Several years ago researchers discovered that two inexpensive and over the counter products have the capacity to abrade and destroy the Velcro coating of cancer cells.  One is the common anti-acid Tagamet and the other is a modified citrus pectin found in health food stores.  Two long term studies found that taking these two ingredients just five days prior to surgery reduced cancer aggregation between 60% and 90%.  Further, that by the end of the long term studies the two products reduced cancer mortality by the same 60% to 90%.  I can almost guarantee that your oncologist has never heard of these studies, and that he or she would lose their license to practice should they become vocal about it.  

It was just a tiny snip, just a biopsy, and I bled for a day and a half.  After the procedure the doctor told me what I already suspected; the tumors were superficial and non-aggressive, but that if I failed to have them removed they would become aggressive and dangerous.  He knew exactly what had shown up on the screen and the only need for a biopsy was to satisfy a system that robs 80% from medicare and 20% from me to feed an obese medical industry which seeks my money rather than my health.

Next the doctor delivered his more serious message.  My blood work measured my PSA or prostate antigens as extremely high, 60, when they should be less than 4.  He told me that the number suggested that I had a very aggressive prostate cancer.  He would give me another PSAT to confirm the first result and if it were still high he would perform a biopsy and not to worry he had many new weapons with which to fight this deadly cancer.

Afterwards, I spoke with Rose about all this and spent a little time at the library with my own research on the PSA test, prostate cancer and the treatment of prostate cancer.  About the PSA test, two things stood out.  One was that many professionals said it was so inaccurate that it should not be used at all and the second, that if the blood was drawn after a digital prostate exam or after a procedure like a cystoscopy the PSA count would be elevated.  Many urologists take blood before any examination or procedure to get a more accurate result; mine preferred the higher count I suppose. 

In addition I was not really noticing the symptoms that characterize this illness.  Minor problems were more readily attributable to a common enlarged prostate than to cancer.  Yes my urinary system was clearly not good; urgency, frequency, leakage, and occasional pains all over my viscera from kidney to loin.  Sometimes I could detect pain in my hip bone where, presumably, a virulent cancer would jump next.  As my urologist warned, I could have prostate cancer requiring immediate modern medical attention.

Wait a moment, his digital exam found nothing; he told me that.  The ultra sound of my prostate showed nothing; the technician told me that.  I don’t think I have prostate cancer at all, and Rose agrees with me.  But if I were to “be safe” and do the biopsy what would be involved?  First there would be some sort of scan in order to find a spot to look at, then five needle injection/suckings under anaesthesia to confirm the cancer.  If my hip bone hurts, then a scan of that as well.  I figure my costs would be $1000 for my 20% out of pocket and another $4000 from medicare (taxpayers).  If they don’t find anything, cool, but maybe its still there lurking anyway.  If I do have it, the financial and physical misery really begins.  Surgery?  Radiation is said not to work well with patients my age.  Chemo?  Tell me I am going to let them “treat” my prostate when my bladder and who knows what else still has cancer.

So there will be no treatment.  Rose has sold me a bottle of capsules which have herbs and minerals to support my system.  Things are improving already and I am pushing more urine less frequently and feeling fewer visceral pains.  She wants me to have another PSAT in 30 days (after I finish the bottle) and she wants more thorough blood work done, telling me the urologist just ordered the standard level he requires not a complete chemistry which would tell her more.  By the way, Rose knows more about health and treatment than any of these physicians.  Of concern was that my blood sugars were high.  I had perhaps been eating too much of my home baked fermented organic bread, sustaining organic brown rice, and organic rolled oats.

So now with the scare I am eliminating as many carbs as possible, eating raw from my garden, especially asparagus and cooking kale and some legumes.  I don’t like it and I’ve had some slip ups already, but my direction is clear.  If I consume a diet which causes my system to switch from food oxidation to ketonic digestion at the cellular level my cancer cannot destroy me.

Other than this dietary effort, opposed by my own tradition and the many cravings and abnormalities of my own cells and the many micro-organisms and parasites within me, nothing really changes.  My effort to seek medicine from plants; to grow these plants for myself and others, to probe ways to extract and combine their power, to find and spread knowledge, is renewed and reinforced.  I won’t lack for subject matter; soon the blueberries will be ripe and after them the wild laetrile.