Unstuffed: Willow tincture

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Willow tincture

A reader asked a question in the comments about what I was going to use my willow tincture for. After the internet ate my response, which I had spent some time crafting, I decided if I was going to put the time in again, I might as well make a post of it!

The short answer is that I will use the tincture for pain relief.

Willow contains salicylic acid, which is anti-inflammatory and analgesic. Willow has been used since ancient times to treat fevers and ease aches and pains in muscles and joints. In the 1800's salicin was extracted from willow bark, which led to the development of aspirin.

Traditionally the dried, inner bark of the tree was used, but many contemporary herbalists now use the twigs, buds and leaves of fresh, spring growth. This is much less damaging to the tree and sounds like a good practice to me.

Much of the literature references white willow or Salix alba as the tree of choice in herbal medicine, but I plan to experiment with different types of willows. I'll let taste be my guide here. The bitter flavour of salicylates are easy to recognise so if the twig or leaf I'm nibbling on is strongly bitter, it is likely that the species has the active constituents from which to make medicine.

This article mentions crack and purple willow being used, and I've seen references for the use of black willow as well, though for different indications:

"To moderate sexual erethism, irritability, and passion; lascivious dreams; libidinous thoughts; nocturnal emissions; nymphomania and satyriasis; cystitis, urethral irritation, prostatitis, cystitis, ovaritis, and other sexual disorders arising from sexual abuse or excesses."

Ahem.

In fact many other trees like the poplar family and plants contain salicylates, although with varying uses, some more specific than others.

Research has shown willow to be effective for treating fevers, headache, back pain, neuralgia, joint pain and reducing pain and inflammation in conditions like arthritis, tendonitis and bursitis.

A few precautions to keep in mind: Some people are allergic to salicylic acid. Also, avoid use if you have ulcers. The general belief is that willow is safer than aspirin because it contains other plant constituents that protect the gut from the damaging effects of salicylic acid, however it is still best to use it in moderation. Do not take willow if you are on blood thinners or taking NSAIDs. Willow may reduce the effectiveness of diuretics and beta blockers.

I plan to use the dried twigs, buds and leaves for tea as well as tincture, though how water soluble the salicylates are, I'm not sure. I think a decoction may be most appropriate, simmering the plant material for some time.*

*Please note that I am not a trained professional. I'm just a crazy lady who really, really likes to play with plants and learn about their medicinal uses, both historical and contemporary. I am in no way qualified to diagnose or treat anyone (except for friends and family willing to be my guinea pigs. ;)) So be smart, do your own research and don't believe everything you read on the internet! :)

Image source

3 comments:

Chile said...: Thanks for the tutorial! I'm not sure what species of willows we have here in the desert, but I plan to do some research. They pretty much only grow where there's water.; March 9, 2011 at 11:41 AM
Amber said...: Glad you found it helpful Chile. My tincture is barely two weeks old but I've already used it and found it blessedly effective for ongoing pain I've been experiencing for some time due to structural issues with head and neck posture and jaw alignment. I don't want to mask the pain and ignore why this is happening, but I find the willow is gently pain relieving while I address the underlying issues with corrective exercises and lifestyle changes.; March 9, 2011 at 7:52 PM
Anonymous said...: Thanks Amber! I have some willows growing in my yard. I think I will experiment.; March 10, 2011 at 1:26 PM

Raison d'etre

In 2008 I didn't buy anything new for the whole year. Food and basic toiletries (but not toilet paper) were the obvious exceptions (twice I broke my own rule). Used items were allowed, but I tried really hard to reduce consumption as much as possible.

I finished my year successfully, and along the way learned a lot about how much the world consumes, the waste we produce, sustainability, voluntary simplicity, climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, the water crisis, the food crisis, voting with your dollar, voting with your fork....

Now, I've transformed into a slightly nutty, very passionate, gardening, preserving, DIYing, simple living, nature loving, weed eating, backyard medicine making, urban homesteader, and I still don't use toilet paper!

With the help of the Awesomedudeguy (ADG), I'm continuing my exploration of living lightly and frugally, while increasing my self-sufficiency and resiliency, staying debt free, and preparing for a climate changed, resource depleted world, in uncertain economic times.

My nothing new restriction is lifted, but I continue to be a gentle, local consumer as much as possible.

My hope is that some of the information and resources I post about here will be helpful to others. Thanks so much for stopping by !

Yours in unstuffing,
Amber

"Forgive me if I never visit. I am from the fields, you know, and while quite at home with dandelion, make a sorry figure for the drawing room" ~Emily Dickinson

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that.... I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature." ~Abraham Cowley

"The laws of nature are under no obligation to cater to our culture’s emotionally charged fantasies of perpetual progress and limitless growth." ~John Michael Greer

"Sometimes we think we are too small to make a difference in this big world. Our actions seem insignificant in comparison to global issues such as climate change and population growth. However, the reality is that action on an individual level is exactly how big changes are made. Without individual and family sustainability, there’s no community sustainability. And without community sustainability, there’s no global sustainability. In fact, earth-wide change is absolutely impossible without individual change.
It really does come down to you and me."
~From Living Sustainably: It's Your Choice

"The universal conspiracy of the silent-assertion lie is hard at work always and everywhere, and always in the interest of a stupidity or a sham, never in the interest of a thing fine or respectable. Is it the most timid and shabby of all lies? It seems to have the look of it. For ages and ages it has mutely laboured in the interest of despotisms and aristocracies and chattel slaveries, and military slaveries, and religious slaveries, and has kept them alive; keeps them alive yet, here and there and yonder, all about the globe; and will go on keeping them alive until the silent-assertion lie retires from business--the silent assertion that nothing is going on which fair and intelligent men and women are aware of and are engaged by their duty to try to stop." ~Mark Twain

"It is not enough simply to abstain from theft...We must remember that nothing in this world really belongs to us. At best, we are merely borrowers. It is our duty, therefore, to borrow no more from the world than we absolutely need, and to make full and proper use of it. Taking more than we need, and wasting it, is a form of stealing from the rest of humankind."
~Commentary on Sutra 30 The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali