(Texts: Duke, 1986; Moerman, 1986)
OUTLINE
A. American Herbs with European a/o Asian Success Stories
1. Bayberry (Myrica cerifera)
2. Bearberry (Uva Ursi) (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)
3. Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)
4. Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa)
5. Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
6. Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
7. Cascara sagrada (Rhamnus purshianus)
8. Coneflower (Echinacea spp.)
9. Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpum)
10. Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)
11. Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius)
12. Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis)
13. Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum)
14. Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata)
15. Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens)
16. Skullcap (Scutellaria sp.)
17. Slippery Elm (Ulmus fulva)
18. St. John's-wort (Hyperericum punctatum)
19. White Pine (Pinus strobus)
20. White Oak (Quercus alba)
21. Wild Cherry (Prunus serotina)
22. Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa)
23. Witchhazel (Hamamelis occidentalis)
24. Yew (Taxus spp.)
B. More localized (or introduced and weedy) here in America
1. Birchbark (Betula lenta)
2. California Poppy (Eschscholtzia californica)
3. Eyebright (Euphrasia sp.)
4. Horsebalm (Monarda punctata)
5. Horsetail (Equisetum arvense)
6. Ladyslipper (Cypriperdium sp.)
7. Licorice (Glycyrrhiza echinata)
8. Lobelia (Lobelia inflata)
9. Pennyroyal (American) (Hedeoma pulegiodes)
10. Pilewort (Collinsonia canadensis)
11. Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana)
12. Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
13. Willow (American species) (Salix sp.)
14. Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens)
1. Burdock (Arctium lappa) (?Introduced Weed)
2. Chickweed (Stellaria media) (Introduced weed)
3. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) (Introduced weed)
4. Dock (Rumex obtusifolia) (?Introduced Weed)
5. Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) (Introduced weed)
6. Kudzu (Pueraria lobata) (Introduced weed)
7. Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) (Introduced weed)
8. Sheep Sorrel (Rumex acetosella) (?Introduced Weed)
9. Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) (Introduced weed)
10. Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) (Introduced weed)
REFERENCES: Duke's Handbook of Northeastern Indian Medicinal Plants (1986); Moerman's
Medicinal Plants of Native America (1986)
THE TOP TEN
(GREEN IS GOOD)
1. Echinacea sp. Coneflower 9.9% 158,400,000
2. Allium sativum Garlic 9.8 156,800,000
3. Hydrastis canadensis Goldenseal 7.0 112,000,000
4. Panax spp. Ginseng 5.9 94,000,000
5. Ginkgo biloba Ginkgo 4.5 72,000,000
6. Serenoa repens Saw Palmetto 4.4 70,400,000
7. Aloe Aloe vera 4.3 68,800,000
8. Ephedra sp. Ma Huang 3.5 56,000,000
9. Eleutherococcus senticosus Siberian ginseng 3.1 49,600,000
10.Vaccinium spp. Cranberry 3.0 48,000,000
Echinacea's tops with you,
Can prevent the cold and flu;
N'you can run the flu away
With some garlic pills today.
It's sure that you can really heal
With a touch of goldenseal,
While the real ginseng is really cool;
Puts some power in your tool.
(Drink some ginseng with your lunch
Put some power in your punch)
If your memries fadin' way
Ginkgo pills will help it stay
You can keep your prostate well
With a saw palmetto pill
From the Bible you can learn;
'Bout Aloe, good for burns
China's known it all along,
'bout the magic of ma huang.
You can eliminate some stress
With eleuthero's caress
(Siberian ginseng, yes
Helps relieve you of your stress)
Urinary germs cut loose
With cranberries' healthy juice
QUAKER'S DOZEN
Keep depression on the run
With the magic of Saint John
Escape the sour grapes of wrath
On the evening primrose path.
I wonder what's to be
What will come of you and me
We can't just pop a pill
We depend on chlorophyll.
Take a moment if you will
And give thanks to chlorophyll
Think about it, you'll recall
That it's green that feeds us all
The plants you will recall
Make the food that feeds us all
And the medicines they give
Help the Herbal Village live
Not to mention all the flowers
Help bring smiles to all our hours
And there's more to all those blooms;
They are loaded with perfumes.
Yes the flower in its grace
Puts a smile on frowning face
And I think that we all should
Think about it if we would
GREEN is GOOD
Ladyslipper's scarce
And the goldenseal is rare
And the ginseng just ain't there
Beware
AMERINDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS
The Indian branches of my family tree
Lay long concealed, moot mystery;
But my mother lately confided in me
My great aunt Exra was Cherokee!
Uncle Roland married quietly
Another Indian decorating my tree,
But the Cherokee side of my family tree
Leads elsewhere but not to me,
The trail of tears, but a memory;
Adopted into the family tree;
So I'm as caucasian as I can be,
And don't even think like the Cherokee
I thought was part of me (1986)
All that was written a decade ago
But now there's news you need to know
Irony has struck the family tree
My son John married Cherokee
His John, Kara and Sara make three
Cherokee's back in the family tree (1996)
(First published in Duke's Handbook of Northeastern Indian Medicinal Plants, Quarterman
Publications, 1986. Now only available, like several of Duke's books, from the American
Botanical Council, P.O. Box 201660. Austin, TX 78720-1660)
I've seen published estimates of the Amerindian arrival on this continent ranging from 12,000 to
100,000 years ago. Virtually all non-headline hunting anthropologists will side with the shorter
time span. I'll be generous and speculate that AmerIndians have had some 20 millennia to
evolve an empirical relationship with the native American plants. Many of those "virtually all"
anthropologists will speculate that man (Homo, sensu lato), not necessarily Chinese man has
been in current China and probably also Java and India for at least a million years. Does that
mean that the Ayurvedic, Chinese (TCM) and Jamu (Indonesian) traditional medicines are better
because mankind (Homos, sensu lato) has coevolved with plantkind there for 1,000,000 years
(1000 millennia). And that African Homo, for more than 2,000,000 years (2,000 millennia), has
had even more time to coevolve with the African flora and fauna.
Traditional Med Coevolution Millennia Generations
(Years)
EUROAMERICAN 500 0.5 25
AMERINDIAN ~20,000 20 1,000
AYURVEDIC ~1,000,000 1,000 50,000
CHINESE ~1,000,000 1,000 50,000
JAMU ~1,000,000 1,000 50,000
AFRICAN ~2,000,000 2,000 100,000
Coevolution of Man with Traditional Medicine Systems
If we accept the very broad rounded numbers I have tabulated, then we see that the Asian
traditions have coevolved with man for 50 times longer than the Amerindian, while in Africa,
the cradle of mankind, man has coexisted and coevolved with the African Flora 100 times longer
than the Amerindian has coevolved with the American Flora and Fauna, natural foods and
medicines. Yet Eurocaucasians like myself are using more Amerindian medicinal plants than
African medicinal plants.
Recent press suggests strongly the power or religion in medicine. While the Bible and Koran did
not stress medicinal plants as much as faith in healing, both are full of references to medicinal
plants. At the cross roads of the African and Eurasian world, the Holy Land Bridge marks the
most likely "exodus" route for wander lusting early man leaving the African continent for the
first time, to radiate out in various directions. The geographical crossroads was also an
ecological crossroads, where rainforest and desert Africans funneled in to meet Mediterranean
Africans. And evolved Africans and Caucasians would meet again and again in this narrows we
call the Holy Land.
This leads to a deeper appreciation of early Arabic, Biblical, Coptic, and Moslem medicinal
wisdom, which has roots several orders of magnitude earlier than our adventurous AmerIndians
who crossed a colder, more cruel land bridge, another meeting of continents and life epochs.
And the emigrating->immigrating bridge crossing first Americans brought with them genetic and
mental recollections of many of the Russo/Sino/Tibetan foods and medicines, many of which
have cognates here in North America. Perhaps some of the eurosiberian weeds, bitter herbs of
the Bible, traveled with them, intentionally in their survival (food and medicine) kits or
hitchhiking as homophilic weedy waifs, long associated with non-agricultural humans near
human dwellings.
Perhaps the healthiest recommendation in the Bible is to "eat with bitter herbs", anticipating by
a couple millennia the NIH appeal to eat your leafy veggies. The bitter herbs of the Bible have
variously been interpreted to include chicory, dandelion, endive, lettuce, sheep sorrel, and
watercress. Zohary (1982) adds dwarf chicory and poppy-leaved Reichardia, and by close
juxtaposition, rocket. I find it more bitter than the endive, lettuce, and watercress. All of these
bitter herbs contain many important nutraceuticals which primitive and modern agriculture tends
to select against as seeds of more palatable variants are saved, more bitter ones discarded; or
modern agriculture selectively breeds to diminish the bitter nutraceuticals. I suspect that a half
cup a day each of five of these bitter herbs would lower the incidence of many diseases of
modern man.
But the AmerIndians, like Caucasian Americans, have adopted many of these bitter herbs into
their pharmacopoeia. Alphabetically first is the chicory, which the Cherokee and Houma used as
a tonic for the nerves. Iroquois used the root as a wash and poultice for chancres and fever sores.
This may even foreshadow the great antiviral news for chicory and its namesake cichoric acid.
This news suggests that cichoric acid, perhaps in many of our bitter herbs, especially in
dandelion and chicory, and the Amerindian coneflower, may have antiHIV activity.
Perhaps none of the Biblical bitter herbs are native to America, but all are represented among
our weeds. Alphabetically second, dandelion, if alien, has nonetheless entered the
pharmacopoeia, of the Aleuts, the Bella Coola, Cherokee, Chippewa, Delaware, Fox, Iroquois,
Kiowa, Mohegan, Ojibwa, Papago, Potawatomi, Rappahannock, and Shinnecok, e.g. (Moerman,
1986). Modern Homo sprays his dandelion with pesticides, killing many less weedy plants, and
perhaps himself, slowly, and then goes to the dugstore to but a lecithin/selenium pill. The
dandelion is one of the best sources of lecithin, according to my database. And all plants
aparently contain selenium. The bitter compounds, mostly important phytonutrients for us,
discourage herbivory and diseases of these bitter herbs, actually increasing their weediness. The
meek shall inherit the earth. Where once the green trees were kissed by the sunrise There's a
highrise 'tween the sunrise and the smog in your eye. All the other flow'rs got twisted by the
herbicide squirt The last dandelions laughing, man's bitter dessert.
Before we go to the individual disease accounts, let me name the many important Amerindian
medicinal plants that have made their way into world commerce, one , echinacea,being the
biggest seller in herbal North American, and it was probably the most important Amerindian
medicinal plant before the caucasian arrived.. Five others in the top ten US sellers are
Amerindian herbs, cranberry (No. 10, a standby for cystitis), ginseng (No 4; for debility, stress,
and some say impotence), goldenseal (No. 3, for most germ-induced diseases), saw palmetto
(No.6, outselling the pharmaceuticals in Germany for BPH). Four also may be attributed to
TCM, ephedra, ginkgo, ginseng, siberian ginseng The Chinese ephedra is clearly outselling the
Amerinidan ephedras, which contain less ephedrine a/o pseudoephedrine. Siberian Ginseng
comes to us both from China and Russia, and it grows as a weed here at the Herbal Village. Who
knows whence came number 2, garlic, but it was mentioned even in the Bible, and figures in all
major pharmacopoeia. Only one of the top ten is African, aloe, also mentioned in the Bible. Two
other that are gaining importance in the world market are evening primrose for acne, alcoholism
and PMS, and passionflower, for insomnia and stress. Strangely capsicum, with its capsaicin,
clearly an Amerindian, food, spice and medicine, though it is one of the most widely advertised
herbal medicines, from A to Z (Axsaine to Zostrix).
Too often we are provincial and only talk about North American herbs. But South America has
produced several of the worlds most important medicines, like quinine and ipecac, and food
farmaceuticals, like avocado; one of the best sources of MUFAs and the best plant source of
vitamin D; brazilnut, world's best source of selenium; cacao, guarana and mate, important
sources of xanthine alkaloids, like caffeine, theobromine and possibly theophylline; camu-camu,
world's best source of vitamin C; capsicum, mentioned above as the unique source of capsaicin;
mil-peso oil, a better source of MUFAs than olive oil; oil palm, one of the best sources of
tocotrienols; papaya, unique source of papain and chymopapain; pineapple, unique source of
bromelain.
GAIAN DISTRIBUTION OF PHYTOCHEMICALS
Once Gary Null asked me to discuss Amerindian medicinal plants for the following ailments. I
could come up with a few fabulous, some good and more mediocre remedies, here at the Herbal
Village. My herbal village concept came up many years ago after hearing David Hoffman talk
about Gaia and about synergy, two very important concepts in my herbal philosophy. I talked
about the Gaian distribution of important phytochemicals. There's e.g. a licorice in most
pharmacopoeias, Amerindian, Ayurvedic, Chinese, European, etc. Though the species may be
different, the chemical glycyrrhizin, and its medicinal attribues is common to all. Of the seven
species of Hypericum I submitted to the NCI, all, including some strictly American species,
contained hypericin a/o pseudohypericin, and one American species, Hypericum hypericoides
contain more and showed more antiviral activity and would probably exhibit more
antidepressant activity, than the more widely use Hypericum perforatum. Ramps and other wild
onions share many chemicals and biological activities with the more famous garlic. The
isoflavones antidipsomanic daidzein and antiangiogenic estrogenic genistein occur in most, if
not all clovers, not just Chinese kudzu and Chinese soybean. I much prefer American black
beans, butter beans and pinto beans to soybeans anyhow. They come out a little lower than some
soy varieties, but I eat ten times as many, thereby getting more genistein from palatable
amerindian beans than from oriental soybeans.
Analyses being published any day now by Peter Kaufmann, John Boik and myself, rank some 80
legumes as to genistein content. Psoralea, Indians black dotted bean was first at 2,150 pps,
followed by kuzdu root at a distant 315 ppms., then came fermented soybean ( I suspect that
other beans that are fermented will have more genistein (one USDA study showed that fungal
invasion increases genistein content 100-fold), then Baptisia at 350, Japanese pagoda tree at180,,
upine at 100, hog peanut at 85, with one soy at 70, anotehr at 40, tied with the more palatable
tepary bean from out west. You mentioned alcoholism, and kudzu's daidzein is indicated for
that. The faba-bean was by far our highest source of that. But as for total daidzein + genistein, it
was Psoralea, 2250 ppms, kudzu root at 1265. Faba bean at 1,125 (and you can but a pound of
them in a can for $1.25 getting significant quantities of l-dopa in the process, which also might
be useful in alcoholism), then fermented miso at 755, the Baptisia at 395, clover at 185, pagoda
tree at 180 (also our best source of rutin, along with buckwheat and Native American
polygonums), lupine at 125, hospeanuit at 115, vegetable soybean at 105, oreintal varieties of
soybean and tepary bean at 75.
On every continent, some nettle, with its urticating acetylcholine a/o choline a/o formic acid a/o
histamine a/o serotonin, has been used in primitive pharmacopoeia in self flagellation for
arthritis and rheumatism. Most continents have endemic sources of the antiseptic alkaloid
berberine, goldenseal and coptis in America, oregon grape in western America, yellow root in
Appalachia, coptis et al in China, and members of the citrus family in Asia and Africa. The
pycnogenols are in the American grapes as well as the normal source, European grapes.
American and Chinese ginesngs share many of the same ginsenosides, folklore and hype. GLA
not only occurs in our American evening primrose but also in borage, currants and cannabis.
Taxol has been found in every species of yew yet examined. And senna-like cassias on every
warm continent contain the synergistic sennosides. The lignans, peltatin and podophyllotoxin,
are nort restricted to the American and Ayurvedic mayaplle, but rather occur in many unrelated
species, some widely distributed, some narrowly endemic, bush mints (hyptis), chervil, flax,
junipers, e.g. Sitosterol from the saw palmetto has been praised for its antiprostatic activity, but
sitosterol occurs in every continent, perhaps in every plant, along with campesterol, cholesterol
and stigmasterol.The resveratrol is not restricted to the American, or the Chinese, or the
European grapes, but probably occurs in many, if not all, astringent fruits.
And don't tell me that plant X will cure disease Y because it contains ascorbic acid,
beta-carotene, glutathione, selenium, tocopherol. Probably all green leaves of all plant species
contain these and thousands of other phytocehmicals, many common to all living plants,
somewhat fewer common to all life, and many rather but not totally ubiquitous in green plants,
and perhaps fewer unique to that individual species. Our 100,000 genes, directing the thousands
of homeostatic equilibrating chemical reactions between thousand of biochemicals and
zoochemicals in our bodies, have been coevolving with perhaps as many biochemicals and
phytochemicals, within the many culinary, food, and medicinal plants, some still extant, that our
ancestors have ingested for millions of years. We ignore this empirical wisdom derived from
this coevolution at our own risk. The empirical truths of the hundreds of existing forest-dwelling
ethnic groups are dieing with the wise old elders, just as the forest-dwelling species and their
medicines for todays and tomorrows diseases, wil disappear. Our centennial synthetic
pharmaceuticals, while sometimes quicker in action, are much more liable to upset our chemical
equilibria, than are the millennial natural foods and medicines with which our ancestors.
coevolved. Though our own black walnut, resembling the brain, is the best source of that
brainfood serotonin, most walnuts hickories and pecans also contain high levels of serotonin.
Natural salicylates probably occur in all willows, poplars, meadowsweets, and at lower levels in
all plants. Rosmarinic acid, the famous antioxidant, is not restricted to rosemary. It occurs in
most mints, including American bugle and self-heal, and many borage and verbena relatives.
MEDICAL PROBLEMS AND AMERINDIAN SOLUTIONS
(Parenthetical more folkloric, or not yet proven)
Acne: Echinacea, Evening Primrose, Pineapple (AHA, proteolysis), (Goldenseal, Selfheal, Yarrow)
Alcoholism: Echinacea, Evening Primrose, (Hops)
Allergies: Nettles, Wild Onion
Alzheimer's: Horse Balm (Hound's Tongue)
Amenorrhea: Bugle, Mountain Mint, Pennyroyal, Spice Bush, Sweet Flag
Anemia: Grapes, Nettles Hematinic
Angina: Angelade, Hawthorns, Ramps, Wild Onions (Arbor Vitae)
Anxiety: Passionflower (Damiana, Hops, Hypericum)
Arrhythmia: Angelade, Hawthorns, Quinine
Arthritis: Cat's Claw, Cayenne, Chaparral, Cohosh, Dragon's Blood, EPO, Licorice, Meadowsweet, Nettle, Pineapple/Papaya, Willow, Wild Yam, Yucca
Atherosclerosis: Blueberry, Brazilnut, Hawthorn, Willow
Athlete's Foot: compounds in teatree (>30% terpinen-4-ol; <15% cineole)
Att.Def. Disorder: Evening Primrose, (kava polynesian; valerian a weed in Maine)
Boils: 50 herbs indexed
Bronchitis: Capsaicin and other hots, Echinacea, Garlic, Goldenseal, Osha burdock, goldenseal, ramps
Burns: Hypericum in EPO
Bursitis: Nettle, Papaya/Pineapple and CICs
Cancer: Mayapple, Yew, Pau D'arco, Cat's claw, Walnut
Preventives: Bugle, Burdock, Echinacea, Garlic, Selfheal
Candidiasis: Echinacea, Goldenseal, Wild Garlic
Cataracts: Bugle (rosmarinic-acid)
Colds & Flu: Cayenne, Dragon's Blood, Echinacea, Goldenseal, Slippery Elm; Walnut, Wild Onion, Willow
Constipation: Paleolithic Diet and then Cascara Sagrada, Senna
Cystitis: Bearberry, Cranberry
Depressions: Hypericum (Damiana)
Diabetes: Burdock, Legumes and the Desert Indians
Diarrhea: Bilberry and Blueberry
Diverticulitis: Paleotlith Diet
Dysmenorrhea: Cohosh, Evening Primnrose
Ear Infections: Mullein and Goldenseal
Eczema: Evening Primrose
Flatulence: Any old mint, American or otherwise
Headaches: Angel's Trumpet, Walnut, Willow, Wintergreen
Hepatitis: American thistles and dandelions
Hypertension: wild garlics
Hypoglycemia:
Insects: Dittany, Horsebalm, Mountain Mint, Pennyroyal, Walnut
Menstrual Pain: American angelicas, EPO
Parasites: Barberry, Goldenseal, Ipecac, Quinine, Senna, Walnut
Pregnancy: Pennyroyal most mints
PMS: Cohosh, Evening Primrose
Prostate Conditions: Prosnut Butter:Saw Palmetto (all plants contain sitosterol), Pumpkin, Brazilnut, Licorice
Psoriasis: Barberry, Dragon's Blood,Goldenseal, Sarsaparilla
Ulcers: Licorice , Cayenne, Pumpkin (plus bactericides)
UTIs: Barberry, Bearberry, Burdock, Cranberry, Goldenseal, Wild Garlics.
Whiplash:
