Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium)

Parts used: aerial portions

Medicinal uses: To stimulate appetite and to treat dyspeptic complaints, including gastritis and gall bladder ailments. A traditional remedy for eliminating worms. Also used topically to treat skin disorders.

Cautions: Take only under professional supervision. Take only in small doses, generally for no more than 4-5 weeks at a time. Do not take during pregnancy (Chevallier 66).   

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Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens)

Parts used: leaves, fruits, essential oil

Medicinal uses: Strongly anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and soothing to the digestive system; effective remedy for rheumatic and arthritic problems; taken as a tea relieves flatulence and colic; the essential oil in the form of an ointment or liniment brings relief to inflamed, swollen, or sore muscles, ligaments, and joints and can also prove valuable in treating sciatica

Cautions: Those who are sensitive to aspirin should not take wintergreen internally. Essential oil should never be taken internally nor applied, even well diluted, to the skin of those under the age of 12 unless closely monitored (Chevallier 214-5). 

Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plant Guide (Check out all plants growing in Tryon Farm's medicinal garden!)
 

Willow (Salix spp.) some varieties

Parts used: bark, leaves

Medicinal uses: Formerly used to staunch internal bleeding as an astringent. Tea made from the dried bark is used against fever, flu, rheumatism, headaches, and other minor pain. By reducing sweating, white willow helps hot flashes and night sweats.

Cautions: Do not use if sensitive to aspirin. Do not take if pregnant or nursing (Chevallier 129).

Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plant Guide (Check out all plants growing in Tryon Farm's medicinal garden!)
 

Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata)

Medicinal uses: collect in summer/fall from young trees—highest oil content, antifungal, antibacterial—stimulates phagocytosis, helps athlete's foot, ringworm, jock itch, nail fungus, chronic vaginitis, stimulates smooth muscle—helps with respiratory, urinary tract, and reproductive system problems, can make tea, tincture, cold infusion, steam

Internal uses include: boiling limbs to make a tuberculosis treatment, chewing leaf buds for sore lungs, boiling leaves to make a cough remedy, making a decoction of leaves to treat colds, chewing leaf buds to relieve toothache pain, making an infusion to treat stomach pain and diarrhea, chewing the inner bark of a small tree to bring about delayed menstruation, making a bark infusion to treat kidney complaints, making an infusion of the seeds to treat fever using a weak infusion internally to treat rheumatism and arthritis

External uses include: making a decoction of leaves to treat rheumatism, washing with an infusion of twigs to treat venereal disease, including the human papilloma virus and other sexually transmitted diseases, making a poultice of boughs or oil to treat rheumatism, making a poultice of boughs or oil to threat bronchitis, making a poultice or oil from inner bark to treat skin diseases, including topical fungal infections and warts, using shredded bark to cauterize and bind wounds. Extracts of red cedar have been shown to have antibacterial properties against common bacteria. Compounds with antifungal properties have also been isolated.

Preparations:Most preparations of red cedar call for boiling the medicinal parts to make a decoction or for making a tea or infusion. Little information exists on dosages. An essential oil can be prepared from red cedar. This oil is meant to be used topically. It is toxic if taken internally, and has the ability to produce convulsions or even death if taken in even small quantities. A 1999 study done in Switzerland noted an increase in poisoning deaths from plant products, including Thuja, due possibly to an increase in people practicing herbal healing and aromatherapy.

Precautions:As noted above, the oil of all species of thuja can cause convulsions. Decoctions of the bark of red cedar can also cause miscarriage. Therefore, pregnant women should not use red cedar.

Side Effects:Many people develop asthma and bronchial spasms from exposure to red cedar or red cedar dust. This is due to an allergic reaction to plicatic acid present in the wood. Red cedar induced asthma is a serious occupational hazard to loggers in western North America.

Interactions:There are no studies and little observational evidence to indicate whether red cedar interacts with other herbs or with Western pharmaceuticals.

Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plant Guide (Check out all plants growing in Tryon Farm's medicinal garden!)