Briar Patch Medicine

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Legend has it that some Native Americans used a tea made from young Ribes leaves to treat kidney stones and ate seedy fresh currants to provide sluggish bowels with dietary roughage. Frontier healers recommended currant jelly dissolved in whiskey for cold symptoms. They varied this with a mixture of black currant juice and honey, particularly for treating sore throats.

Young black currant leaves are used as a culinary herb in northern Europe, where they turn up in herbed butters and vinegars. Alas, in some parts of North America, black currants have been completely eradicated because they carry white pine blister rust, a disease that attacks valuable timber. Although rust-resistant hybrids are now available, it is still illegal to plant black currants in some states. Before you decide to plant black currants, ask your county extension agent about the latest Ribes policy in your area.

Rhus, the loved and hated

The fourth R, Rhus (sumac) is conspicuously absent from northern European folklore. Although native to all forty-eight contiguous states, as well as to Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean, sumac only recently arrived in northern Europe. Now, thanks to its fiery autumn foliage, sumac is gaining popularity in northern European gardens.

A highly diversified genus, Rhus contains tannins used for tanning and dyeing. The lacquer tree (R. verniciflua) and the Japanese wax tree (R. succedanea) are traditional Asian sources of the materials for which they’re named.

North Americans have a love-hate relationship with Rhus plants. On one hand, the sumacs are admired for their exotic beauty and herbal assets. On the other, they are detested for such species as poison oak (R. diversiloba) and poison ivy (R. radicans), although their toxins are used to treat joint pain, fevers, and even snakebite. Harmless sumacs bear little chemical resemblance to their poisonous cousins and, barring allergies, pose little threat. Most botanists are trying to resolve this love-hate situation by segregating noxious Rhus species into a new genus, Toxicodendron.

Because the generous malic, citric, and tartaric acid content of sumac’s red berry clusters reaches its height during Indian summer, the pink lemonadelike drink made from them has been a traditional harvest-time thirst-buster. Farm kitchens also have relied on sumac as a substitute for vinegar and lemon juice. Common names such as lemonade berry and vinegar tree recall these customs. The fuzzy berries of staghorn sumac (R. typhina) infuse best. Interestingly, most of the resulting liquid’s color and abundant vitamin C come from the little hairs, not from the berries themselves. Where staghorn sumac is unavailable, the less-hairy berries of smooth sumac (R. glabra) and squawbush (R. trilobata) can be substituted.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print