If I were to make a riddle I would ask: What is sweeter than sugar, and grows on a bush on marshy ground, and has been the well-guarded secret of two or three countries for hundreds of years? Give up? Well it’s a spindly little bush that is found in South America at about 25 degrees South Latitude and indigenous to Paraguay. It grows about two feet tall on the edges of wet pastureland where it rains about 55 inches a year. It likes to keep its roots wet. It likes humid weather that this sweet, little plant Ca-a jhee, but the common name is sweet herb or honey leaf.

Sweet herb is a native of Paraguay although it is also found in Argentina and Brazil. Now if you want to know why they call it sweet herb, or honey leaf, it is because the leaves are 30 times sweeter than common table sugar and when it is refined, they call it stevioside and it looks like sugar, only it is 300 times sweeter than table sugar. If you take a leaf and put it in your mouth you would swear that some one soaked it in honey water. A study showed that one acre of cultivated stevia plants would yield enough leaves to equal the sweetening power of 28 tons of table sugar.

The stevia stores very well. I have some that I bought about tenyears ago when they took of the market and it is in good shape and still very sweet.

Now you would think that something this sweet would be very fattening and have a lot of calories. Not so, it has no calories. You’d also think that it would have all kinds of bad side effects like causing diabetes or hypoglycemia or a host of other problems. But this is not the case. I have read that reports from Paraguay claim that stevia has helped both diabetes and hypoglycemia. They say that stevia helps to nourish the pancreas and will help to restore its normal function. Because of these and other reports, physicians in Paraguay and Brazil prescribe stevial capsules and tea for the treatment of diabetes. However, they also note that stevia will not lower blood sugar levels in normal people who don’t have diabetes.

Another part of this amazing riddle is that sweet herb seems to have no harmful side effects. Even when larger doses were given to strengthen a heart beat there were no harmful side effects.

Stevia or sweet herb also seems to have the ability to inhibit the growth or reproduction of bacteria and other infectious organisms. In other words it will help to ward off a cold or sore throat. This is one of the reasons they use stevia in a mouth wash and in tooth paste.

Stevia is also used as a beauty aid and for skin care. It is used by some ladies to make a face mask to tighten up the facial skin and smooth out wrinkles. It helps to make the skin feel and look smooth and young. Also, a drop of the concentrate applied to a facial blemish or a zit or acne or a mouth sore will help the problem.

Now some may ask, why has this riddle been a riddle for so long? Why haven’t we known about this tremendous herb long ago? Well, first off, stevia was a native guarded secret for about 1400 years. In the 1920s stevia was identified and named. Later, Japan saw the promise of this herb and started using and growing it. When companies in this country started using stevia as a sweetener, it competed with artificial sweeteners. So the FDA outlawed stevia and confiscated all the supply. Recently stevia has been OK’d as a skin cream or to used as a dietary supplement.

After reading many reports and testimonies, we find that stevia will help curb your appetite, help you lose weight, sweeten your food or drinks without side effects, reduce craving for sweets, help to stop smoking and drinking, and even provide protein, calcium, phosphorus and many other good things. Not bad for a riddle.

This sounds strange, but I know of almost a half dozen herbs referred to as squaw vine, or squaw bush. Likewise, this herb is known by a half dozen or more names like “partridge berry,’ “checker berry,” “squaw berry,” “winter clover,” “deer berry,” “one berry,” and many more. A hundred years ago, this wasn’t a big problem because no one traveled very far. Everyone around each part of the country knew their herbs by their particular name.

Some master herbalists got together to straighten this problem out. Since Latin was an international language, they gave each herb its own first and last name. The last name is capitalized and written down first. In this case the last or surname is Mitchella. The first name is capitalized and it is written down last. The given name is repens. However, most everyone still calls this herb by its common name “squaw vine.” Confusing, I know. Even yet, squaw vine might be the common name for a half dozen herbs, but there is just one herb that is called Mitchella repens, and that is the squaw vine that we are going to talk about today. Native Americans were closely in tune with herbs and herbal remedies. These were their medicines. When we started to use their herbs, we adapted their Indian names and we still use many of their Indian names today. This little herbs or vine they called squaw vine was used by the squaws during the time of pregnancy. According to ancient Indian folklore, squaw vine was used by the mother Indian, or the squaw, during the time of her pregnancy. It was said that if she drank the tea from this herb, her baby would be healthy and she would have a much easier and a faster delivery. This is why we hear stories about the young squaw who walks away from camp by herself and returns with her little baby no help from anyone.

To bear this out, I heard a woman who was in the hospital for about a day and a half for delivery. However, during her next pregnancy, someone brought her some squaw vine tea during the last week. Her delivery time was less than six hours. During her next pregnancy, she used squaw vine and red raspberry leaf tea all during her pregnancy. She said her delivery was quick and easy and this baby is the healthiest of all three. For thousands of years, these herbs have helped millions of women don’t have the faith to use these harmless but very effective herbs throughout their pregnancy.

Squaw vine is a perennial, evergreen shrub. It is a low creeper that likes shady, moist ground. You find it mostly in the forest and around trees. It has a creeping root stock that round and shiny green and grow in opposite pairs. They are tough and leathery and stay on the funnel-shaped with four petals that make one red seed pod in the fall. Squaw vine can be domesticated and used as a ground cover.

Squaw vine is sometimes called a female regulator as it is used for most female problems. It is also a tonic to tone up the female organs, an emmenagogue to help regulate the menstrual cycle, a diuretic to help increase the flow of urine, an alterative to help the body become healthier and it will also help to dissolve the stones in the kidneys. Squaw vine is one of the main herbs in Grandma’s herbal Menopause formula. Any woman who loves her baby-to-be should lay off junk food, eat fruits and vegetables, take walks or do light exercises, and take squaw vine and red raspberry tea throughout all of her pregnancy.

Those nine months are so very important to your new baby!

Many folks have written in and asked if we would write about different herbs and fruits and different.

However, recently someone asked me why I sometimes write about vegetables, instead of herbs. Well to quote a grand old herbalist I used to study with, “Remember, not all herbs are vegetables, but all vegetables are herbs.”

To start out with, all plants that we know as vegetables were once wild and uncultivated “weeds.” Even today, there are many weeds that some folks consider useless. However, some of these weeds are being cultivated and domesticated and are becoming useful vegetables. For examples, some cultures today grow dandelions, purslane and amaranth and eat them as vegetables.

The first cultivated spinach was grown in Persia, or what is now Iraq. Around the 11^th century, the moors brought the seeds of spinach and other plants to Spain when they conquered that country. From Spain, the spinach plant spread throughout Europe.

Spinach is a fleshy-leaved annual of the goosefoot family. It matures very quickly and it likes cool weather. Summer spinach, or the round seed variety, should be sown in February and March. It grows very quickly and more seeds should be sown intermittently for a longer crop yield. Other varieties, like winter spinach or the prickly seed, are cool, season plants and are very hardy. They can be sown in the late summer. Some leaves can be gathered in the late fall, and through a mild winter and spring. The crop can be harvested in late April and may.

Everyone knows what spinach looks like, so we won’t try to describe it, only to say there is a smooth-leaf and a crinkly leafed spinach. Spinach is a powerhouse of vitamins A, C and D, besides some of the B vitamins. It is well known for its iron content. If you don’t believe me, just ask Popeye-the-Sailor-man. It has a good amount of calcium; however, some say this is tied up with the oxalic acid in the plant.

Spinach, like many other herbs, has wonderful medicinal or healing properties. A few years ago, there were quite a few studies done on spinach. The conclusion was that it is a potent cancer inhibitor. One reason was because it is so rich in chlorophyll. Blood or hemoglobin has virtually the same molecular structure as chlorophyll. The main difference is that the chlorophyll molecule has a magnesium atom and the hemoglobin molecule has an atom of iron. Chlorophyll is very healing. It is almost impossible for germs to multiply in chlorophyll.

It is said that spinach along with cabbage, parsley, broccoli, mustard greens, and other green, leafy vegetables are in high in beta-carotene and histidine which is slow the activity of the cancer cells.

Health is so important in our lives if we want to be happy. Yet, there is so much sickness and misery in our country today. Our sickness is not from famine, deprivation or want of food. Our sickness today is from rich, heavy foods and fast foods or prepared foods with side effects, ranging from a clogged bloodstream and arteries to arthritis and other degenerated diseases. These are foods that clog the body and rob our strength. We are not only fat in our bodies, but fat in our minds also. We eat over five times as much meat as we did fifty years ago. Sixty years ago, every home, even city homes, had a vegetable garden. Nowadays, a garden is hard to find anywhere. What we really need are more fruits and vegetables and more exercise.

As a legend has it, there was a lady named Veronica who wiped the sweat or blood from the face of the Lord Jesus as he carried his cross up the rugged hill toward Calvary. His sweat, blood and tears left a mark on the cloth that the Saint Veronica used. They say the blossoms on the plant speedwell resemble these marks left on the cloth. The commemorate this; they named the genus or scientific name of this plant Veronica. The common name, speedwell, comes from the word “thrive.” Speedwell is a hardy plant, thriving in most stony or gravelly soils that are slightly acidic. When they started to use speedwell, it was used for many problems, so they called it an herb for survival.

When the Romans conquered the Germanic lands, they learned of a highly valued herb called speedwell. The Romans gathered speedwell and took it back to Italy and all over Europe. If they wanted to compliment a friend, they would say that he had as many good qualities as the highly esteemed herb speedwell.

Speedwell is a stomachic that assists the stomach in digesting our foods. Most everyone likes sweets and goodies and foods that the stomach has a hard time digesting. We don’t like bitter things and things that aren’t pleasant to our taste or to our pallet. So consequently, there aren’t enough bitter juices to break down and digest our food. The food sits there in the warm, moist environment of our stomach and instead of digesting, it ferments and putrefies. That is why people have a lot of gas on their stomach. As a bitter herb, speedwell stimulates the stomach so it will release more digestive juices to help us digest our food more easily. Many years ago, you could buy bitters for digestion at the drug store, but it’s hard to find them anymore. Speedwell has also been known to expectorate mucus from the stomach and help eliminate intestinal disorders.

Besides being a digestive aid, speedwell is also a blood cleanser. When made into a tea with stinging nettle tops, it is used to cleanse the blood and help to overcome eczema and other toxins out of the blood and help them overcome senile pruritus flaky skin.

A lady told of a man who had been hospitalized several times because of the high cholesterol level in his blood. The lady recommended that he drink two cups of speedwell tea each day. He was desperate and said he would try anything. She was pleased when she saw him a few months later and found out that he had just come from a checkup and found out that his cholesterol level was down to normal. He also said he seemed able to remember more. This stands to reason, when the cholesterol and sludge or plaque is removed from the blood vessels, more blood can feed the brain and the memory improves. An old preacher was having trouble remembering some parts of his sermon. He said when he took speedwell and horsetail tea for a time; he didn’t have such a hard time remembering his sermons.

Although speedwell is a member of the snapdragon family, it looks as though  it should be a mint. It is a perennial with a creeping rootstock and opposite leaves and a spike that grows from 5 to 10 inches high and has many small, purple flowers.

It has been known to help rheumatism, gout, the liver and the spleen. It is used as a tonic to tone the body. It is used in syrups and elixirs, but mostly it is used as a tea. For centuries, it has been used for skin complaints.

Not bad for a pretty little flower.

One of the most common herbs that almost everyone knows about is spearmint. Lots of people know where a wild patch of it is growing; yet, very folks take the time to pick it and use it. I am reminded of a young father who had a brand new son. He was real proud of his young son, only whenever he tried to show him off, the little guy was always crying. The crying got worse and disrupted the sleep of almost everyone in the house.

One day, the parents were given spearmint stalks by an older lady. They were told that they should strip the leaves off the stalks and make a tea out of the leaf and the blossoms and give this tea to their young son. She told them where there was a nice patch of this and that they should pick some and give it to the whole family as a nervine to calm everyone down. At first, the young father told his wife that there was no way he would allow anyone to feed weeds to their son.

After a couple more days of crying, the mother fixed the baby some tea. When the father saw how it helped the baby, he went and picked some for the whole family.

The history of spearmint goes back as far as the pyramids of Egypt. Some of the Pharaohs had buried spearmint with them so they would have a sweet smell and good digestion on their journey. During their games and tournaments, some Greeks and Romans would crown themselves with spearmint as a token of good fortune. They would also decorate their banquet tables with it, cook with it and flavor sauces and wines with it. However, the greatest use of the herb was by Greek physician for medicinal reasons. They used it in many of their healing practices.

Spearmint is about the most common of all the mint herbs. Most everyone knows what spearmint smells like. The plant grows to a height of about two feet. The leaf is narrow, deeply grooved along the veins, serrated on the edges and is very long and pointed. That’s where the name comes from, because the leaf is shaped like the head of a spear. The stem is square and the leaves are 1 to 2 inches long and an inch wide. They grow opposite each other in pairs. The flowers, which are pale blue, grow in whorls around a long, thin spike on the top of the plant.

Spearmint is one of the milder mints. It is excellent for babies with colic. It is a gentle diaphoretic that will promote sweating. Spearmint tea is very soothing and quieting to a nervous stomach. It will help to settle and soothe nerves when they are frayed. It will help to those trips to the bathroom at night. Spearmint has diuretic properties and is beneficial to the kidneys. It will help get rid of gas on the stomach for both the old and the young. Spearmint oil and peppermint oil combined together can be rubbed on the chest to relive bronchial asthma. Spearmint is used in Grandma’s herbal Night Nervine formula.

A woman who had morning sickness and could not stop vomiting was given a cup of spearmint tea with a little ginger, cloves and cinnamon in it. This mixture settled her stomach and she was not bothered much more with morning sickness.

Jethro Kloss, in his book Back to Eden has this to say about spearmint: “A highly esteemed remedy for colic, gas in the stomach and bowels, dyspepsia, spasms, dropsy, and is very useful in nausea and vomiting, also for gravel in the bladder. Will relieve suppressed, painful, or scalding urine. Excellent for local application for piles (hemorrhoids). Inject a small amount into the rectum for piles. Good for inflammation of the kidneys and bladder. Excellent to stop vomiting in pregnancy.” Spearmint is very soothing and quieting to the nerves. Never boil. No home should be without this excellent remedy.

When I lecture on slippery elm, I like to tell the story of a pioneer wagon train going across the Sierra Nevada Mountains late in the fall. One wagon broke a wheel. But they told the other wagons to keep going down the hill; that they would catch up the next day. During the night, an early winter storm came raging over the mountain, trapping the lone wagon in a blizzard that would hold them there all winter. It looked like certain doom for all six persons in that wagon.

The next spring, some of the other members of the wagon train got to gather and went back up the mountain to gather their remains so they could give them a Christian burial. They were all very surprised to find everyone well, healthy and in good spirits. It seems that one of their members knew something of herbs. They built a shelter and kept a fire going continuously. Besides their oxen, they ate mainly elm bark gruel, moss and watercress from the river. This is a true story with a happy ending, but too often, we hear of people starving with food all around them.

Slippery elm is one of the herbal greats. It is not only a good food, but it is very healing, soothing and has wonderful curative powers. The inside bark or cambium layer is the part of the slippery elm tree that is used. This inner bark is very helpful for any mucous membrane or tissue that is inflamed. This is true of the urinary organs, especially when inflammation and irritation cause discomfort. There is nothing more soothing and healing to a stomach or digestive tract than slippery elm. When stomach tissue becomes inflamed and when ulcers start to bleed and the stomach wants to reject everything that is offered, you might try a very thin porridge of water and slippery elm.

Slippery elm has been used when the lungs have a problem. It is also good for diarrhea (especially for babies), dysentery, constipation, sore throat, ulcers, bleeding hemorrhoids and even diaper rash. It is also has the ability to neutralize stomach acidity and to absorb foul gases.

The slippery elm tree grew wild mostly in the Easter half of the United States; however, some of these elms have been planted in the West. These American elm, the Chinese elm, Siberian elm and Dutch elm are among the most prevalent in the West. These species and others may not have as thick a cambium layer as the slippery elm, but they can be used for the same purpose as slippery elm.

Slippery elm is very mucilaginous. It contains starch, calcium oxalate, sodium phosphate, selenium, iron, iodine, copper, zinc, and some potassium. It also contains vitamins E, F, K, and P. The elm is a power-house of nutrients.

Slippery elm has meant a lot to the people of this country. The early pilgrims, and the native Americans before them, used this bark, not only as a food supplement in times of famine, but as a medicine in times of sickness. Many of us have forgotten that George Washington and his soldiers at Valley forge not only used slippery elm as tonic and a cure, but for almost two weeks, they lived on little more than slippery elm porridge. Many more stories could be told of how slippery elm powder, made into a paste, healed bed sores when you could see the bone; how this gruel was the only food or moisture that could see the bone; how this gruel was the only food or moisture that could be digested; how slippery elm paste helped replace a chunk of flesh that was gouged out of a leg or how the gruel or porridge helped to heal a bleeding ulcer.

Years ago, slippery elm was very common to our ancestors. It was used in many ways for many different problems, but with progress and modern drugs, it has fallen from popularity. However, you can still buy slippery elm throat lozenges for a sore throat. Learn to use this wonderful herb. Some day, it may save your life!

Mother Nature knew we might not always have some of the great outstanding herbs growing around us at our disposal. So, she made some herbs that were rough and tough and would grow in any kind of soil; some that could withstand bad weather, as well as drought and freezing cold. Shepherd’s purse is one of those herbs.

However, with the progress of time and the progress of men and medicine, we tend to forget the old herbs and old remedies that kept mankind well and healthy for thousands of years. We tend to look for a faster remedy or a quick-fix. After a generation or two, our old herbal standbys, like shepherds purse, have been forgotten. They have become weeds and garden pests. Old accounts of history say that shepherd’s purse was brought to this country by the pilgrims. They brought it along because it was used for many different health problems. The leaves of shepherd’s purse was an herb that could be eaten in the spring as a pot herb. One that would help with women’s menstrual problems, it would also staunch the flow of blood, whether external or internal bleeding. It was used if you had blood in the urine, if you had a muscle disorder or a kidney problem. Some even used it for arthritis.

Shepherd’s purse is a member of the cruciferae or mustard family. It is one of the first plants to come up in the springtime. The first thing you see is a rosette of basal leaves that are notched and look like dandelion leaves. It has a main stock with branching stems. The leaves are very sparse as you go up stock, and the upper leaves are long and thin like that of a mustard plant. The flowers are small and white. When the blossom fall, the base or seed pod is a heart-shaped leathery pouch resembling a shepherd’s purse. It is a very easy plant to identify.

I have known about shepherd’s purse for many years, but because it was such a pest in my garden and it could be found growing anywhere, I paid little attention to it. Then, one day, I read a story about an herbalist in Europe. She was an older woman who was very religious. One day an old friend gave her a beautiful old herbal book with a lot of pictures and drawings in it. She admired it very much, but was so busy she did not have time to read it.

One night, she was awakened as if someone were shaking her. The thought came to her mind that she had kept this beautiful old herbal book for some time and she had not taken the time to read any of it. She got out of the bed and got the book. As she opened the book, her eyes fell on the words, “For limb or muscular atrophy, if nothing else helps, take shepherd’s purse, finely chopped, macerated in rye spirits and kept in the sun or near the stove for 10 days. Rub well into the skin several times daily; also 4 cups of lady’s mantle tea are taken internally each day.” She went back to bed thinking no more about it. A few days later, she received a call from a retired nurse in another town. She had to retire, because she was helpless from muscular atrophy. The nurse was given the information on making the shepherd’s purse rub and drinking the lady’s mantle tea. The nurse called back in three weeks to report that she had regained her muscle strength. She was well and healthy again and she had gone back to work.

Shepherd’s purse is a diuretic. It increases the flow of urine and helps clean out the kidneys. It is hemostyptic to stop bleeding, either externally or internally. This is helpful in nose bleeds, wounds, a bleeding ulcer or internal hemorrhaging and hemophilia. It is good for female problems, hemorrhaging in child bearing and for excessive menstrual flow. Shepherd’s purse was used in battlefields to stop bleeding.

It’s everywhere – find some and try to use it.

Before the Gulf War, the name Baghdad had little meaning. Although one of the oldest cities in the world and the capitol of what is now Iraq, we have only heard the name in songs and stories.

However, in the beginning of the 9^th century, the Caliph Harun Rashid was the ruler of this great city. Being on the trade route from Asia, Baghdad was a center of trade and commerce. In spite of the great culture and learning, their fine arts and great wealth, the Caliph or someone in his family was constipated. The court physicians were called in. After little success with their regular laxatives, they used harsh purgatives.

The story goes that because their remedies caused griping, pain and suffering, they paid with their heads, and the caliph sent for new doctors. One who came was known as Mesue, the Elder from Africa. He brought with him many herbs and potions. One of the many herbs he brought with him was senna leaves and pods. He put together a potion of herbs that included senna leaves and pods and other herbs which had a bitter taste. He added cloves, coriander and ginger to tone down the potion and to make it more palatable. He and his senna potion must have pleased the Caliph because he became a prominent person in Baghdad.

This very old story tells us two things; namely, that there was constipation way back then, and that it was a serious matter even then, as it is today. It becomes serious when we realize that the bowel is like a septic tank that we carry around with us. If it is not emptied two or three times a day, poisons and toxins can develop into the blood stream and can poison the body. Many diseases are the result of a toxic bowel. The toxins break down the immune system so it is less effective in trying to protect us from disease and sickness. Most animals have a bowel movement each time they eat. A small baby, before it learns bad habits, has three or more bowel movement a day. Eating proper foods, drinking a lot of water and exercising can also help to keep the bowel clean.

The generic name for senna is cassia. This genus includes many species from all over the world. The most common is Cassia acutifolia or Alexandrian senna. It grows in Northeast Africa. It is a shrub about two feet high with leaflets that grow in opposite pairs. The leaflet is pale green, brittle and pointed on both ends. The flower is yellow. The seed pod is thin and broadly oblong. It is two to four inches long and holds four or five flat, ash-colored seeds. The senna marilandica that grows in the Eastern United States in milder in action. It has a seed pod that is longer and narrower.

The senna leaves are cathartic and can cause griping and discomfort. This is why they are used in conjunction with other, milder herbs. The senna pods are milder and cause a stimulation of the peristaltic muscles of the bowel. This helps the bowel to work naturally and without irritation. Senna pods are used in Grandma’s herbal Super-Lax formula.

Senna works on the peristaltic muscles of the bowel. This is why it is great for constipation. However, it has other values also. It has been used to overcome a fever. When cleaning the bowel, the fever that can be present from a toxic bowel will often leave. Senna has been used for obesity to help lose weight. It has been used to get rid of pimples and skin disease, to help get rid of parasites and worms, to help overcome bad breath, relieve the pains of colic, settle upset stomach and biliousness, and even to help with gallstones, gout and jaundice. Most of these problems have to do with a toxic bowel, so we can see how senna would help to overcome almost all of these maladies.

Remember, you are no healthier than your bowel.

We had a neighbor who was quite sick when he moved near us a few years ago. He would have a couple of grand mal seizures and a number of petit mal attacks each day. Because of his seizures, he had trouble with his orientation, as well as his equilibrium. Then, one day, he decided to change his diet from refined foods to fruits and vegetables. He cleaned out his body with cleanses and fasts. Each day he took an herbal combination, with skullcap, internally in capsules. He also took some skullcap tincture and put it on the base of the skull sever4al times a day. For a while, he also put some skullcap tincture in his ears at night along with some garlic oil. He got along just fine until he had to binge on candies, cupcakes and soft drinks. Then his problems would start all over. When he ate right and took his herbs, he felt fine. He built a big new garage on their house though he was eighty years old.

The name skullcap conjures up many strange and questionable notions in our mind as do some of the other common names of this wonderful plant. Some of the other names are “mad dogweed,” “helmet flower,” “hooded wort,” “blue pimpernel,” “Quaker bonnet,” and many more. However, this plant is anything but strange and questionable.

Scullcap is a member of the mint family. Like other mints, it has a square stem, leaves that grow opposite each other, toothed and kind of oval and pointed at the tip. It will grow from one to three feet tall, according to the moisture and soil. It is found mostly among other mints in moist ground and is hard to distinguish until the flower appears. The flower blooms from late spring to mid-summer and usually grows longer than the leaf around it. The blossom appears to wear a scullcap, is two-lipped, pale purple, blue or pink and somewhat resembles a snapdragon.

Scullcap is a tremendous nerve herb, helping every part of the nervous system. It will influence the spinal cord and sympathetic nervous system (which supplies the organs and blood vessels), as well as the brain. It tones and soothes the nervous system, without any narcotic properties. Dr. Shook says that, “Scullcap is a slow-working, but sure, remedy for practically all nervous afflictions, but it must be taken regularly for a long period of time to be of permanent benefit.”

Scullcap is an antispasmodic for restlessness, tremors, spasms, twitching of muscles, St Vitus dance, epilepsy, delirium, facial neuralgia, and hyperesthesia. It is a nervine which feeds and nurtures the nerves, a sedative to relax the muscles, a tonic to tone and soothe the nervous system, a calmative to feed and calm the nerves, an anti venomous for snake and mad dog bites and the list goes on and on.

Ethan Nebelkopf, in his book The Herbal Connection, says that skullcap is used very effectively in a tea he calls “relaxo brew.” Ethan works in drug rehabilitation centers trying to help people get of of drugs and helping them work through withdrawal pains. For thousands of years, skullcap has been used in many herbal formulas including Grandma’s herbal Nervine formula.

I have some friends who have a little boy whom everyone used to call “that brat.” He was very hyperactive and no one could control him. I felt very sympathetic toward him and told his folks, “If you were hurtin’ on the inside like that little guy, you’d be climbin’ the walls, too. They change his diet, took away the junk food, gave him a few herbs and he quite a nice little boy now. If skullcap and other nerve herbs were used as they are needed, the prisons and the insane asylums would be half empty. Folks wouldn’t be so uptight and full of anxiety and stress.

Saw palmetto is a strange name. The “saw” comes from the serrated edge or saw-toothed petiole or stem. In palmetto, “palm” refers to palm tree and “etto” is for miniature or dwarf. So in ‘palmetto” you have a small, or miniature, palm tree.

Saw palmetto is native to the southeastern part of the United States. From our history books, we remember that it was Ponce de Leon who discovered Florida. He told everyone that he found this beautiful paradise while he was looking for the fountain of youth.

One time in a class, I heard of an Indian legend about Ponce de Leon that was a little different. They said he heard of a miniature palm plant in the New World that was as aphrodisiac. As the story was told, this same plant was also good for men who had a prostate problem. Now, I don’t know about the aphrodisiac part, but saw palmetto is good for the male prostate gland, especially if it is inflamed and swollen. Saw palmetto is one of the main herbs in Grandma’s herbal Prostate formula.

Saw palmetto is a low, scrubby palm that can grow up to about 8 or 10 feet high, but most are dwarfs that are about 4 or 5 feet tall. They have large trunks, mostly covered with withered leaves or twiggy prostate branches. Some have large subterranean trunks or roots. Repens in the botanical name means creeping stems.

The good leaves on the saw palmetto look like a big fan and are about 3 feet to one meter across and grow in groups. The fragrant flowers grow in clusters. They are ivory to greenish-white with 3 to 5 petals and they bloom from May to July. They mature into clusters of black to dark purple meaty fruit with large, long stones, somewhat like dates. Some say this palm is closely related to a date palm. The saw palmetto likes to grow on the dunes along the seacoasts. They are native to South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.

For the most part, saw palmetto is known as a help to the prostate gland, as well as the male reproductive organs. In an old herb book that was published about an hundred years ago. It said that saw palmetto was lauded as the “old man friend,” giving relief from the many annoyances commonly attributed to an enlarged prostate. Many books and studies say that swelling of the prostate gland and that it will help to overcome slow and painful urination and dribbling that seem to affect many men as they get up in years.

Strangely enough, more than one report says that saw palmetto is also good for the female organs. The reports stated that it will help kidney and bladder problems in women, and act as a diuretic, and help with many of the urinary problems of women, and men. It also recommended in many wasting diseases and will and as a tonic and helps to restore a gland that has atrophied.

Another old herb book says that long, continued use of this herb will slowly, but surely, cause the mammae to enlarge. Some say saw palmetto is good to treat coughs and colds and to get rid of excess mucus from the head, sinuses and lungs. It is also used to soothe the air passages of the throat and bronchial and help to overcome asthma and bronchitis. When we read of all the wonderful herbs that have been available for man to use for thousands of years, it is no wonder that our forbears were so healthy. They knew herbs worked! Too bad that more people don’t have faith in herbs, or knowledge like they had.