Echinacea

Yesterday was the day to harvest pears. Our pear tree was over loaded and they looked wonderful. I had taken some in last week and after allowing them to sit out on the cupboard for about 4 or 5 days, they became soft and yellow and delicious!

In the process of going up the ladder to cut some of the fruit off the tree, I must have taken on a passenger. When I came done to the ground I felt something stinging me so I crushed my pant leg and rushed into the house to see what bit me. When I got inside, I found a very large red spot with a raised area that covered a two inch round section of my leg. I dragged out my Echinacea tincture and put some of a dropperful on my leg while rubbing it in to keep it in that area. I did this a second and third time and then I went back out to finish my work. By the time I was done with and came in, the area was not raised but still red. That was yesterday; today it is just pink and itches a bit.

Echinacea is a native to my area and it has been used a lot. Most people think of it being used only to boost the immune system but it has many uses.

While we are talking about bites, I must mention spider bites because they are very different from other insect bites. Spiders inject an enzyme that breaks down the cells and this is why when one is bitten by a spider, the red streak starts up or down that body part. Echinacea when dropped on the bit of a spider, it will stop the enzymatic action and contain the problem.

Echinacea will put the immune system on high alert but will only do this for about a week. After a week one must switch to another herb for this same action. A couple that might be used for this purpose are Chinese Astragalus or Calendular flowers.

The American Indians would chew on the root of Echinacea for relief from respiratory afflictions.

In Germany there are many salves, tinctures and extracts made using Echinacea. The claim has been made that it is antiviral and can be used for virus infections as well as for bacteria. Most Doctors only have antibiotics although they are starting to get antiviral products on the market.

I just researched Dr. James Duke's Database to see what else this wonderful herb can do. I found that the plant contains about 120 different constituents and that the root (I make my tincture from the root) contains 70 of those constituents. A lot of these constituents would be things that you recognize such as Chromium, Iron, Manganese, Niacin, Selenium, Zinc and many more. All of these are organic so that our organic bodies can use them as needed. That is a lot of things to put in balance and if they aren't in balance with each other, the plant will die.

Now what are these constituents capable of doing for me? Using only the ones in my tincture, they are capable of so many things that I will just mention things that more than two of these constituents are capable of doing. They are: antiallergenic, antiacne, antiaging, antialzheimeran, antiarthritic, antiasthmatic, antibacterial, anticataract, antidementia, antidiabetic, antidote for aluminum and lead, antiinflammatory, antiLeukemic, antimigraine, antioxidant, antiparkinsonian, antiseptic, antistaph, antistress, antisyndrome X, antiviral, cancer preventive, cardio protective, fungicide, sedative, and vasodilator.

That is a lot of hard work and it is all in a bottle for me without side effects. This pharmacy is growing in your front yard. No more pills and shots for your family when Dr. Mom gets busy. These remedies can be made in your kitchen.

To make a tincture one needs to have the herb of choice, in this case it is Echinacea Root. In herbal language this is called the Marc. (The Marc can be any herbal part, be it root or plant.) When using root material, one needs to chop it into small pieces. When using leaves this isn't that necessary.

Now we need some form of alcohol as a preservative. In herbal language this is called the Menstrum. (Menstrums come in all forms from water, to oil or even vinegar) I use 100 proof vodka. Why 100 proof? Because it is 50 % water and 50 % alcohol, it doesn't have fillers like 80 proof does. One can use a brand of vegetable alcohol called Everclear. Vodka is a vegetable alcohol too.

Step one is to put the herb into a glass bottle, filling it one fourth to one third full of plant.

Step two is to pour the alcohol over the plant material and fill the bottle to the top.

Step three is to shake the bottle every day for fourteen days. This makes sure that the plant matter doesn't settle at the bottom of the bottle. The object is for the alcohol to pull out the constituents that will be used for healing from the plant material. (Hence the small pieces of root material)

Step four is to strain the plant material out of the preservative and return the preservative that contains all the helpful constituents to the bottle, putting some of it into a dropper bottle to be used as needed in the medicine chest.

Dr. John R. Christopher, founder of the School of Natural Healing in Utah, said that we should eat from our own back yard. This means that foods grown at our latitude, our longitude and our altitude has the right vibration for our body cells. Perhaps that is why herb books never mention bananas. Most herb books were written for the people of Europe and North America. I find that most interesting.

Stay healthy and use what is growing in your own back yard to do this.