Working with bark - another tree gift

This post has been written as part of the February UK Herbarium Blog party. You can find the list of other articles here.

Tree bark is not something which immediately springs to mind when you think about herbal medicine, but when winter is upon us and fresh herbs are difficult to come by, trees can offer us their bark to treat many different conditions.

Horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) was the first tree to teach me how to work with bark medicinally. It was February 2008, three months after I developed an inflammatory condition which made my ankles swell and itch and kept me at home on the sofa for nearly three weeks. The itching meant my veins were in a bad way and although I recovered sufficiently to go back to work, it was likely I would always suffer with swollen ankles as my job meant I was standing up for several hours at a time when I was training.

I knew horse chestnut conkers could be used both as a salve and tincture to help strengthen vein walls, but it was the wrong time of year for conkers and I didn’t have any oil, only a very muddy tincture which I began to take in minute doses.

Around that time, Henriette Kress made a comment on her email discussion group about using horse chestnut bark if nothing else was available, so the next time I was down at the farm, I collected an armful of sticky bud twigs and started peeling off the bark in short strips. It was easier from younger twigs rather than older branches. I ended up with a sore thumb but the oil was just as good as conker double infused oil. Even better, my ankles recovered and hardly ever swell unless I’m very tired and run down.

Crampbark (Viburnum opulum) was the next bark I worked with. I purchased my first tree from Poyntzfield Herb Nursery by mail order in 2006. It was very small and I didn’t want to remove any prunings, so the next year I made a trip to Northern Derbyshire and brought back another larger specimen along with two short leaf lime and two spindle trees.

Crampbark is a strange tree because you harvest the bark when the tree is flowering, unlike all other barks which are taken before the sap rises. I’ve now made tinctures from bark taken both when flowering and when the tree is dormant and there doesn’t seem to be any major difference. The tincture is a wonderful shade of dark red and can be used for any kind of muscle cramp. I’ve given it to people with night time leg cramps and it’s been very successful.

Wild cherry (Prunus serontina) was my next bark. I knew it was good for dry coughs, but couldn’t seem to find any trees. My father planted three wild cherries in the rickyard many years ago, but they’ve never flourished. I did take some prunings from them in 2009, removing the bark, which I dried. I used it for the first time this month, when Chris returned from his annual ski trip with a cough which rocked the whole house and turned him into “blob” for several days.

I tried the bark in a tea with other cough herbs and when that didn’t work; I brought out the cherry blossom elixir I’d made from the tree at the bottom of our garden two years ago. I mixed the cherry blossom elixir with an elixir of horehound and hyssop and dosed Chris with it every few hours. He seemed to either sleep or cough alternately during the day and the next day he was much improved and the cold came out.

What I’d like to try in the future is make a cherry bark tincture and mix that with equal amounts of the cherry blossom elixir and see how that works, although with all honesty, I’d really rather not have to deal with a similar cough ever again!

The one bark medicine everyone is familiar with is willowbark. It has been mentioned in medical texts from ancient times as a remedy for aches and fever. The white willow,(Salix alba), has been the one most used in European medicine. Maud Grieve wrote that it was a “Tonic, antiperiodic and astringent”. It was used in dyspepsia connected with debility of the digestive organs. She also said, “In convalescence from acute diseases, in worms, in chronic diarrhoea and dysentery, its tonic and astringent combination renders it very useful.” The astringency came from the tannins in the bark.

The Eclectic herbalists in America used the black or pussy willow, (Salix niger) for a very different purpose. Matthew Wood in his Earthwise Herbal says it was a sexual tonic, used when the specific indications included nocturnal emissions, impotence, ovarian pain before and after menses, nervous disorders and leucorrhea. Mrs Grieve said the bark was prescribed in gonorrhoea. She also said that a liquid extract of the willow bark was prepared and used in mixture with other sedatives for ovarian pain.

Matthew Wood said that pussy willow could also be used as a pain reliever, like white willow, as it also contained salicin. He said “it acts like aspirin but is soothing to the stomach instead of irritating. He quotes Louise Tenney, who wrote in 1983 in her book, Today’s Herbal Health, that “Willow is valued as a nerve sedative because it leaves no depressing after-effects.”

I had never worked with willow until this month when we held a bark workshop. I cut some shoots from my young pollarded crack willow (Salix fragilis) and after we removed the bark we made a tea and a decoction. The aspirin-taste was much more noticeable in the tea, hitting the very back of my tongue. The decoction was a much deeper yellow colour and had an almost smoky flavour. The taste came on both sides of the tongue towards the back, but not on the same spot as the tea, which was really interesting.

There are still several barks I have yet to work with. Oak (Quercus robur) bark can be used for severe skin conditions where a tannin-laden astringent is called for. The bark of Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium) lower branches can be substituted for the root if it is sufficiently yellow. I’m keen to try out its many properties. Oregon Grape is related to the Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) and the bark can be carefully harvested to obtain yellow berberine either from stems or root bark. Jim Macdonald uses apple bark’s astringent properties for digestive and other problems.

My first year apprentices have been working with elder bark during January. There was a lively discussion about which constituents within the bark should help with bruising since none of the literature seemed to mention this effect referring only to the leaves. Historically the bark has been harvested, dried and powdered as an emetic. One of the apprentices used her bark salve on her husband’s bruised foot and proved it did help as the bruise was much reduced the following day.

My feelings on the subject are very much tied up with the season. Sometimes barks have a specific use, well researched and documents, but sometimes another part of the tree is not available, so you use what you have access to. In winter, this means the bark. If it can help, it will and for that I shall always be grateful.

Spring Trees

Gazing out of the railway carriage this morning on the way into work, I was struck by how many trees are either coming to life or displaying blossom. Noticing these changes teaches us so much about our local environment and what is available during the lean time of the year.

The waste ground across from the station platform is growing an impressive array of feral trees, reminding me that every cultivated plot would return to native woodlands within five years if not managed.

The trees are mainly hawthorn and sycamore, but along the lineside, pussy willows were flowering alongside “ordinary” willows and a lone cherry tree was showing the first signs of blossom. The hawthorn leaves were a beautiful shade of light green, but it will be several weeks before the sycamore buds burst. Any elders were hiding, but I know their purple budded leaves are already growing green.

What could we use these trees for?

Bark collection is normally done in winter while trees lie dormant, but the green bark of the young willow branches is a useful source of anti-inflammatory and headache potions. Willow bark can be harvested at any time during dormancy but is said to achieve optimal quality in the spring just as the first leaf buds start to form.

Glennie Kindred says “willow bark has been used for its pain-relieving qualities for at least 2,000 years. The Salix alba (white willow, withe, withy) contains salicin, which is converted to salicylic acid in the body.” Willow bark reduces fever and relieves rheumatism. A decoction can be used for gum and tonsil inflammations and as a footbath for sweaty feet.

The decoction is made by soaking 3 teaspoons (15ml) of the bark in a cup of cold water for 2 - 5 hours. Then bring to the boil. Strain and take a wineglassful each day, a mouthful at a time. The bark can be dried, powdered and stored in an airtight container.

Many herbalist believe black willow (Salix nigra) to be the most effective tree, but the difference is negligible if the bark is freshly harvested. Salix nigra is the pussy willow and has black bark as opposed to the light greens of the white willow. Its properties are much the same, but Glennie says it was used in the past as an aphrodisiac and sexual sedative.

Goat willow or sallow willow (Salix caprea) is used in very much the same way as the white willow, but sallow bark tea is recommended for indigestion, whooping cough and catarrh. It can also be used as an antiseptic and disinfectant.
Young hawthorn leaves were historically known as “bread and cheese” because it often found its way into mouths when other foraged food was rare. They make a refreshing tea for heart conditions and other water retention issues, but don’t take them without advice if you are on other heart medication.

Now is the time to make a cherry blossom elixir. The bark of the wild cherry, Prunus serontina is the species usually recommended for dry, involuntary coughs. The inner bark is the most potent part of the tree, acquired by a mixture of whittling and scraping with a hand-knife. Experiments with modern cultivars of Prunus. avium, the Sweet Cherry, show that good results can be obtained from pruning garden cherry trees.

Ananda Wilson first alerted me to the possibility of using the cherry blossom for a delicious elixir and every year I try to find blooms to cover with brandy and honey for coughs later in the year. The cherry tree in my garden is too high up to gather flowers easily, but maybe this year I will find some at a height I can reach!

Another joy in my garden at the moment is the yellow forsythia. If this were the forsythia suspense of Chinese origin, it would be a staple medicinal herb. The fruit is one of the most common components in Chinese herbal formulas for treating the common cold, influenza, and allergies.

Now would be the time to gather young horsechestnut leaves for salves and tinctures to strengthen arterial walls and support varicose veins. The time for harvest is very short since it must be done before the conical flowers appear.

Elder leaves too could be harvested for bruise salves, but I prefer to allow them to remain on the trees as I would rather use plantain, yarrow or comfrey, but that is my choice. I’m waiting for the flowers which will show summer is just around the corner.