Herbal Lesson 08

ADDITIVES & OTHER SUBSTANCES
Daniel Blankley - Tuesday, November 28, 2017

IN ADDITION to the Herbs which she grew or gathered, Great Great Grandma also employed Additives and Supplemental Substances to make herbal remedies. She also used OTHER natural healing substances related to Herbalism like salt, whiskey, butter, honey, baking soda, ammonia and her favorite Castor Oil (which I always remarked was "made for oiling castors!")

IN THIS LESSON we will learn many of the TIPS and TRICKS of Natural Healing that Great Great Grandma did in addition to Herbs!

While it is possible to use Herbs alone to great benefit, almost all Herbalists also employ additional substances. Think of it in relation to cooking. If you were to make a cake, you know that most of the cake recipe is flour, and it is the Flour which gives the cake substance and forms the base of its nutrition, but you cannot make a cake without adding some other things. EVEN WATER is an additive. Suppose we mix flour and water, would we have a cake? No, at best we would have wallpaper paste. What if we also added Salt, would that do it? No we would have that substance we used to make 3D maps and volcanoes and so on in grade school.. it hardened into a rock-like thing, neither edible nor nutritious.

I LOVE MY BREAD MACHINE and make homemade bread often in it. I especially like the aroma of baking bread that permeates my whole house just as I also loved the smell of simmering sweet pickle juice during Mom’s canning season. However I cannot make a basic bread without at least six ingredients and often more, including water, butter and yeast, flour, salt and sugar and apply heat and time and VOILLA I have bread.

LETS LOOK AT THE MOST BASIC ADDITIVES to plants and herbs, which have been with us as long as the Bible, whose oldest texts come from around the 10th or 11th centuries BC. It contains a lot of Herbalism and natural healing in its own right and the Jews besides inventing their own methods, learned from the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Babylonians and Assyrians.

The first three substances are necessary for life itself so it is no surprise to find them used in making remedies or used as healing elements themselves.

AIR One of the Ancient ELEMENTS that we now know consists mostly of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon, and Carbon Dioxide. We know we need air to breathe but we also introduce the gases of air to make bread rise or to help the body fight off disease. It was one of the primary healing elements employed by the old tuberculosis sanitariums before a cure for TB was discovered.

WATER One of the Ancient ELEMENTS that we now know to be a compound of Hydrogen and Oxygen. It is somewhat of a mystery how two light gases can combine to form a dense liquid at room temperature. The adult male body is about 60% water for a total water content of some 42 litres., so it is not surprising that the body uses water in order to heal itself. In addition we use water as an additive to prepare herbal remedies like teas, poultices, compresses, and baths.

SALT One of the Ancient ELEMENTS of Alchemy. Common salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent. The open ocean has about 35 grams (1.2 oz) of solids per litre, a salinity of 3.5%.

Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Animal tissue contain larger quantities of salt than plant tissues do. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation. IN HERBALISM It is both an additive and a substance with properties of its own. In ancient times it was one of the major elements, but now we know it is a compound of two others Sodium (NA) and Chloride (CL) sodium chloride (NaCl).

OIL In ancient times virtually all oil was derived from plants and the common one in the Bible was Olive Oil and it is still one of the most pure oils. We have a huge assortment of oils today besides olive oil, including vegetable oil, corn oil, almond oil.

Before the 19th century natural medicine was considered to derive its remedies from Animal, Mineral and Vegetable substances, so Mineral Oil was a pharmacy oil used to make remedies and as a remedy itself and one Grandma had on hand. Before Kerosene there was Coal Oil, and Pine Oil and from animals Whale Oil and Lard from Pigs.

VINEGAR is a liquid consisting of about 5–20% acetic acid (CH3COOH), water, and other trace chemicals, which may include flavorings. The acetic acid is produced by the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Vinegar is now mainly used as a cooking ingredient, or in pickling. As the most easily manufactured mild acid, it has historically had a great variety of industrial, medical, and domestic uses, some of which (such as its use as a general household cleaner) are still commonly practiced today.

HONEY is a sweet, viscous food substance produced by bees and some related insects. Medicinally in treatment of wounds, Honey contains trace amount of compounds implicated in preliminary studies to have wound-healing properties, such as hydrogen peroxide and methylglyoxal. Some evidence shows that honey may help healing in skin wounds after surgery and mild (partial thickness) burns when used in a dressing, but in general, the evidence for the use of honey in wound treatment is of such low quality that firm conclusions cannot be drawn.

For chronic and acute coughs, The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency recommends avoiding giving over the counter cough and common cold medication to children under six, and suggests "a homemade remedy containing honey and lemon is likely to be just as useful and safer to take", but warns that honey should not be given to babies because of the risk of infant botulism. The World Health Organization recommends honey as a treatment for coughs and sore throats, including for children, stating that no reason exists to believe it is less effective than a commercial remedy. Honey is recommended by one Canadian physician for children over the age of one for the treatment of coughs, as it is deemed as effective as dextromethorphan and more effective than diphenhydramine.

BEESWAX is a natural wax produced by honey bees. The hive workers collect and use it to form cells for honey-storage and larval and pupal protection within the beehive. Chemically, beeswax consists mainly of esters of fatty acids and various long-chain alcohols. Beeswax has long-standing applications in human food and flavoring. For example, it is used as a glazing agent, a sweetener, or as a light/heat source. It is edible, in the sense of having similar negligible toxicity to plant waxes, and is approved for food use in most countries. Candle-making has long involved the use of beeswax, which is highly flammable, and this material traditionally was prescribed for the making of the "Easter candle". This may be because beeswax candles are often purported to be superior to other wax candles, because they are meant to burn brighter and longer, do not bend, and burn "cleaner". It is further recommended for the making of other candles used in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. IN HERBALISM it’s primary use is that of a thickening agent when making Salves and Ointments from a base of vegetable oil.

WINE (ALCOHOL) in the Bible of The Good Samaritan, there is a notation of using a mixture of Olive Oil and wine as a healing agent for wounds. This Medical Vinaigrette is actually very effective and not too destructive to tissue since wine is generally around 10% alcohol. Alcohol is the main solvent used to prepare Herbal Tinctures and Extracts. Great Great Grandma always kept a bottle of whiskey on hand to use as a last minute additive or remedy The remaining part of the list is a compendium of substances in widespread use in the 18th and 19th centuries

BUTTER was often used prior to petroleum jelly as a base for an ointment or alone as a topical application for burns especially sunburn. Sunburn treatments today often have the word ‘butter’ as part of their name, example “coco butter” derived from Coconut oil. Modern first aid for kitchen burns is NOW to cool the burn quickly with ice or very cold tap water for fast healing. Application of Vaseline or even butter may be done after cooling the kitchen burn. Butter (not margarine) is still effective as a remedy for sunburn.

BAKING SODA BESIDES ITS PRIMARY USE IN COOKING It quickly became a home health remedy. Sodium bicarbonate mixed with water can be used as an antacid to treat acid indigestion and heartburn. Its reaction with stomach acid produces salt, water, and carbon dioxide: Bicarbonate of soda can also be useful in removing splinters from the skin. Sodium bicarbonate can be used to treat an allergic reaction to plants such as poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac to relieve some of the associated itching and relieve the acit bites of some insects like red ants.. It was discovered as early as the 1920s that bicarbonate caused increase in bone strength in patients who were losing calcium in their urine. In 1968 it was suggested that diets producing too much acid might put bones at risk. Experiments by Anthony Sebastian of the University of California, San Francisco starting in the late twentieth century found that the body was breaking down bones and muscles to release carbonates, phosphates and ammonia, which neutralize acid. Adding bicarbonate to the diet (he used potassium bicarbonate) reduced loss of calcium in post-menopausal women, amounting to the equivalent of "an arm-and-a-leg's worth" of bone if this continued for two decades. A wide variety of applications follows from its neutralization properties, including reducing the spread of white phosphorus from incendiary bullets inside an afflicted soldier's wounds. Antacid (such as baking soda) solutions have been prepared and used by protesters to alleviate the effects of exposure to tear gas during protests.

BAKING POWDER is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid and is used for increasing the volume and lightening the texture of baked goods. Baking powder works by releasing carbon dioxide gas into a batter or dough through an acid-base reaction, causing bubbles in the wet mixture to expand and thus leavening the mixture. IT QUICKLY found uses as a home remedy as it was related to Baking Soda.

CREAM OF TARTER is a byproduct of winemaking. In cooking it is known as cream of tartar. It is the potassium acid salt of tartaric acid (a carboxylic acid). It can be used in baking or as a cleaning solution (when mixed with an acidic solution such as lemon juice or white vinegar). It was most commonly used in conjunction with Baking Soda to create a Fizzing CO2 reaction, but Cream of tartar has been used internally as a purgative. Use as a purgative is dangerous because an excess of potassium, or hyperkalemia, may occur.

CASTOR OIL is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing the seeds of the Castor oil plant. The common name "Castor oil", from which the plant gets its name, probably comes from its use as a replacement for castoreum, a perfume base made from the dried perineal glands of the beaver (castor in Latin).

Castor oil is a colorless to very pale yellow liquid with a distinct taste and odor once first ingested. It was Great Great Grandma's remedy for constipation in children and sometimes administered as a punishment because of its foul taste. Tom Sawyer got it in the book about his adventures and it was still common in my childhood. I used to remark it was called "CastorOil" because I thought it was made for oiling castors! Parents often did punish children with a dose of castor oil. Physicians recommended against the practice because they did not want medicines associated with punishment.

Castor oil and its derivatives are used in the manufacturing of soaps, lubricants, hydraulic and brake fluids, paints, dyes, coatings, inks, cold resistant plastics, waxes and polishes, nylon, pharmaceuticals and perfumes.

TURPENTINE is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from live trees, mainly pines. It is mainly used as a solvent and as a source of materials for organic synthesis. Turpentine and petroleum distillates such as coal oil and kerosene have been used medicinally since ancient times, as topical and sometimes internal home remedies. Topically it has been used for abrasions and wounds, as a treatment for lice, and when mixed with animal fat it has been used as a chest rub, or inhaler for nasal and throat ailments. Many modern chest rubs, such as the Vicks variety, still contain turpentine in their formulations. Turpentine was a common medicine among seamen during the Age of Discovery. It is one of several products carried aboard Ferdinand Magellan's fleet in his first circumnavigation of the globe. Taken internally it has been used as a treatment for intestinal parasites, and candida because of its antiseptic properties.WARNING many turpentine brands in the hardware should not be used as medicinal additives. Mineral turpentine or other petroleum distillates are used to replace turpentine, but they are very different chemically and do not come from natural pine trees! '''ALWAYS USE Pure Gum Turpentine.. still sold in smaller bottles primarily used by artists who restore old oil paintings in museums.'''

KEROSENE also known as paraffin, lamp oil, and coal oil (an obsolete term), is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum, widely used as a fuel in industry as well as households. It has a history of being an ingredient in many old folk remedies, but Ingestion of kerosene is harmful or fatal. Kerosene is sometimes recommended as a folk remedy for killing head and body lice, but health agencies warn against this as it can cause burns and serious illness. A kerosene shampoo can even be fatal if fumes are inhaled. You will encounter at times old natural remedy formulas which call for Kerosene as an ingredient and it should be replaced with a safe herbal or eliminated entirely when the remedy is meant for internal use.

BORAX was first discovered in dry lake beds in Tibet and was imported to the Arabian Peninsula in the 8th Century AD. Borax first came into common use in the late 19th century when Francis Marion Smith’s\ Pacific Coast Borax Company began to market and popularize a large variety of applications under the 20 Mule Team Borax trademark, named for the method by which borax was originally hauled out of the California and Nevada deserts in large enough quantities to make it cheap and commonly available Borax is used in various household laundry and cleaning products, including the "20 Mule Team Borax" laundry booster, Boraxo powdered hand soap, and some tooth bleaching formulas.

BORIC ACID can be used as an antiseptic for minor burns or cuts and is sometimes used in salves and dressings, such as boracic lint. Boric acid is applied in a very dilute solution as an eye wash. Dilute boric acid can be used as a vaginal douche to treat bacterial vaginosis due to excessive alkalinity, as well as candidiasis due to non-albicans candida. As an antibacterial compound, boric acid can also be used as an acne treatment. It is also used as prevention of athlete's foot, by inserting powder in the socks or stockings, and in alcohol solution can be used to treat some kinds of otitis externa (ear infection) in both humans and animals. The preservative in urine sample bottles in the UK is boric acid.

LISTERINE Inspired by Louis Pasteur’s ideas on microbial infection, the English doctor Joseph Lister demonstrated in 1865 that use of carbolic acid on surgical dressings would significantly reduce rates of post-surgical infection. Lister's work in turn inspired St. Louis-based doctor Joseph Lawrence to develop an alcohol-based formula for a surgical antiseptic which included eucalyptol, menthol. methyl salicylate, and thymol. (Its exact composition was a trade secret.) Lawrence named his antiseptic "Listerine" in honor of Lister.

VASELINE The first known reference to the name Vaseline was by the inventor of petroleum jelly, Robert Chesebrough in his U.S. patent for the process of making petroleum jelly (U.S. Patent 127,568) in 1872. "I, Robert Chesebrough, have invented a new and useful product from petroleum which I have named Vaseline..." Indeed it was and mothers immediately adopted it for use on babies instead of previously used lard based topical applications.. or even those from ‘bear’s grease’.

SULFUR is a chemical element with symbol S and elemental sulfur is a bright yellow crystalline solid at room temperature. Chemically, sulfur reacts with all elements except for gold, platinum, iridium, tellurium, and the noble gases. Being abundantly available in native form, sulfur was known in ancient times and is referred to in the Torah (Genesis). English translations of the Bible commonly referred to burning sulfur as "brimstone", giving rise to the term "fire-and-brimstone" sermons, in which listeners are reminded of the fate of eternal damnation that await the unbelieving and unrepentant. It is from this part of the Bible that Hell is implied to "smell of sulfur" (likely due to its association with volcanic activity).

According to the Ebers Papyrus, a sulfur ointment was used in ancient Egypt to treat granular eyelids. Sulfur was used for fumigation in preclassical Greece; this is mentioned in the Odyssey. Pliny the Elder discusses sulfur in book 35 of his Natural History, saying that its best-known source is the island of Melos. He mentions its use for fumigation, medicine, and bleaching cloth. In the 18th century, pure powdered sulfur was used as a medicinal tonic and laxative. Early European alchemists gave sulfur a unique alchemical symbol, a triangle at the top of a cross. In traditional skin treatment, elemental sulfur was used (mainly in creams) to alleviate such conditions as scabies, ringworm, psoriasis, eczema, and acne. The mechanism of action is unknown—though elemental sulfur does oxidize slowly to sulfurous acid, which is (through the action of sulfite) a mild reducing and antibacterial agent  IT IS STILL FOUND as an ingredient in old medicinal remedies and is an ingredient in Old Fashioned Molasses.

SALTPETER Niter is the mineral form of potassium nitrate, KNO3. While a main ingredient in gunpowder it also acquired a number of medicinal uses. Niter as a term has been known since ancient times, although there is much historical confusion with natron (an impure sodium carbonate/bicarbonate), and not all of the ancient salts known by this name or similar names in the ancient world contained nitrate. The name is from the Greek nitron from Ancient Egyptian netjeri, related to the Hebrew néter, for salt-derived ashes (their interrelationship is not clear). The Hebrew néter may have been used as, or in conjunction with soap, as implied by Jeremiah 2:22, "For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap ..." However, it is not certain which substance (or substances) the Biblical "neter" refers to, with some suggesting sodium carbonate.

Saltpeter is a common food preservative and additive, fertilizer, and oxidizer for fireworks and rockets. It is one of the principle ingredients in gunpowder. Potassium nitrate is used to treat asthma and in topical formulations for sensitive teeth. It was once a popular medication for lowering blood pressure. before the 1900s, it was commonly thought that saltpeter inhibits male libido. In that day it was a main medicinal Great Great Grandma kept on hand to wage war on the dirty practice of masturbation among children and was added to foods served in boys boarding schools. It is still a popular myth and rumors STILL abound that saltpeter has been added to food in prison and military installations to curb sexual desire, but there is no current modern evidence to support this would even work. While Saltpeter and other nitrates have a long history of medical use, it is toxic in high doses and can produce symptoms ranging from a mild headache and upset stomach to kidney damage and dangerously altered pressure. When noted in medicinal formulas it was usually an additive included for its sexual repressive qualities and can generally be omitted in modern remedy making.

I will Add more of these quaint substances as I note them in reading. Many still have value in medicine making and I use a number of them.

© Copyright 2018 by Daniel Blankley. All rights reserved.