Briar Patch Medicine

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Native Americans also infuse blackberry roots and rhizomes for use as an eyewash, cold remedy, and general tonic. During the colonial period in New England, several Oneida villages are said to have weathered an outbreak of dysentery by drinking blackberry root tea. While those villages suffered no casualties, scores of white colonists succumbed, unwilling to trust the “primitive” medicine.

Many cultures, including Native American and Haitian, rely on infusions of raspberry (R. idaeus) leaves and bark as a tonic against miscarriage, morning sickness, and uterine spasms during pregnancy, and to ease labor. Rubus decoctions also are used worldwide as topical relief for skin irritations associated with conditions such as hemorrhoids, scabies, and herpes.

Rubus leaves have been used to combat ailments of the mouth, including canker sores and bleeding gums. Typically the sufferer chews a fresh leaf, though wicked thorns on some species’ leaves can cause more harm than good. In many northern European cultures, raspberry juice is used as an excellent oral antiseptic and gargle. To use, simply dilute raspberry juice in water and gargle as you would with any commercial mouthwash.

Ribes, the English icon

The gooseberries and currants of genus Ribes are so common in hedgerows throughout the English countryside that it would be difficult to imagine the country without them. Gooseberry fool, a sweet, creamy fruit puree, is as essential a summer accessory in England as watermelon is in the United States. Currants glorify many of the sumptuous baked goods that have made England’s afternoon teas famous. The iconic status of Ribes in the United Kingdom has even inspired the makers of Ribena (an English black currant beverage) to bill their product as “quite possibly the world’s most civilized fruit drink”. While science would be hard-pressed to verify this claim, there is no doubt that Ribes species are a boon to herbalists.

The fruits and flowers of goose­berry and currant shrubs embrace all the colors of the rainbow. North American varieties play an important role in native cultures. While gooseberries and raw currants can cause nausea if eaten in large quantities, in small amounts they bring flavor and valuable nutrients to a variety of dishes.

Dried currants, which resemble raisins, are an indispensable winter foodstuff in Siberia and other northern regions of the world, owing to their long shelf-life and vitamin C content. Thinned with water, the unsweetened currant juice even substitutes for wine in Europe. Herbalists in Europe, Asia, and North America use currant juice to calm upset stomachs, improve weak appetites, and rehydrate feverish patients. One species, sticky currant (R. viscosissimum), readily identified by its gluey, bristly skin, may be a strong vomitory. The dried “currants” on the U.S. market are actually a type of raisin and not derived from a Ribes.

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