Sunday, February 12, 2012

Herbal Medicine Part 2: Bee Balm and Bee Stings

During the recent herbal medicine workshop I attended, the first herb the instructor discussed was Bee Balm. Monarda Didyma (red flowering) and Monarda Fistulosa (lavender flowering) bee balm, or wild bergamot, she said, is an invaluable addition to a medicinal herb garden. She began her talk holding her single sheet of typed notes at arm's length, she had forgotten her reading glasses... a member of the class loaned her a pair and she laughingly remarked, "Oh, I DID write this in English!"

Bee balm is excellent for treating systemic candida (yeast infections, thrush, impetigo, mouth ulcers, sore throat, diaper rash) and is also good for quickly treating burns (by adding saliva and using as a compress on the burned area).
Lavender flowering bee balm (Monarda Fistulosa)

To make a tincture of bee balm, she recommended using the top third of the plant and to tincture it in brandy rather than vodka or EverClear... why? because bee balm doesn't need a large percentage of alcohol to obtain the medicinal tincture (although if all you have is vodka, it's perfectly acceptable to use), the end product is better tasting using brandy.

In herbal terminology "tincturing" is the process of making an herbal extract by steeping ground herb in a liquid "menstruum" (the "solvent" or "liquid" portion of a tincture, usually alcohol)... usually at a 1:5 ratio (one part dried herb to 5 parts menstruum, fresh herb tinctures are more complicated due to the differing amounts of water in different herbs)... a great book with "recipes" for herbal tinctures is Making Plant Medicine by Richo Cech.

Once you get the ground herb mixed with the menstruum (a canning jar is perfect for mixing tinctures) you simply set it in a cool, dark place and give it a shake once a day for several weeks, strain it out and decant into amber glass bottles, preferably with a dropper lid on top.

Robin McGee (herbalist instructor) recommended (with a huge grin on her face and a mischievous twinkle in her eyes) shaking the mixture daily and singing to it... she calls it PFM... (Pure Freakin' Magic)

For making salves for topical use, the herb is steeped in a good quality oil (olive is great) for several weeks, then beeswax is added to thicken.

Red flowering bee balm (Monarda Didyma)
Bee balm also has the added benefit of attracting bees to your garden, helping with pollination... and we all know that good pollination makes for bigger, better, more abundant crops!

Bee balm, of course, makes me think of bees... which takes me down another branch of my memory lanes...

When I was growing up, I was the oldest grandchild on my Mama's side (Mama was the oldest child in her family)... so I had the enviable task of watching out for all the little cousins who descended on our home in the summer when Mama and the aunts got together to can, cook, paint rooms, or just visit. My two brothers and I were older than the little cousins by several years (we taught the little ones things, like how to ride a bike, we pushed them on the big tire swing, helped them catch crawdads in the creek or lightning bugs at dusk, watched out for them, teased them)... there was always a group of toddlers around and we seemed to have cornered the market on girls... one little boy cousin (my cousin Brad) amongst that gaggle of little girls... they spent their time playing in the yard, riding Big Wheels, tricycles, bikes with training wheels... running, jumping, climbing... everybody dressed in shorts and sleeveless tops, NOBODY wearing shoes... it was a happy, barefoot world... and there was always the chance SOMEBODY would step on a honeybee and the tears would begin... the one stung would cry, then some of the others would start in sympathy for the injured toddler...

The "medicine" on hand for bee stings? Well, if chewing tobacco was to be had, a big wad of wet tobacco would be applied to take the sting away... but more often than not, the "medicine" of choice was more simple... my little cousin Brad (the only little boy in that group of girl cousins) was elected to pee on the injury... he thought it was great fun and it worked every time, took the pain away and lessened the swelling of the sting... the tears were dried, everyone was given a popsicle to cool off and "paint" their lips purple or red or orange... and the summer play continued...




17 comments:

  1. Great article! Thanks for the detailed info on tinctures...I've read about making tinctures, but never researched how to.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ROTFLMHO

    Please help me, I can't get up!

    Winston

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love your blog, and all the links you put on Facebook. I do have one request, though. I am quitting FB due to issues with well, lots of stuff. Is there any way you could add your FB links to your blog?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Melody, Thanks for reading and I will see what I can do about adding Facebook links to my blog. ~~Granny

      Delete
  4. Hello,

    You have provided a very good site to knowing about Herbal Medicine. It is becoming more mainstream as improvements in analysis and quality control along with advances in clinical research show the value of herbal medicine in the treating and preventing disease...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for an informative blog! My husband and I have several hives of bees, but in all my years of working them and getting stung, I've never tried that remedy! Lol.
    We do have bee balm growing but have never made a tincture with it. That's something I will have to try! Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is a topic which is near to my heart... Thank you!
    Where are your contact details though?
    Here is my web-site :: drum tobacco

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great article. I am facing some of these issues as well.
    .
    Also visit my site : borkum riff pipe tobacco

    ReplyDelete
  8. When someone writes an article he/she maintains the image of a user
    in his/her mind that how a user can be aware of
    it. Therefore that's why this paragraph is amazing. Thanks!
    Feel free to surf my weblog ; amphora tobacco

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm pretty pleased to uncover this website. I want to to thank you for your time for this fantastic read!! I definitely loved every part of it and i also have you bookmarked to check out new things in your site.
    Visit my web blog ; Immobilienalanya.Net

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'd like to find out more? I'd want to find out some additional information.
    Feel free to surf my blog :: http://immobilienalanya.net/

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with Search Engine Optimization?

    I'm trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I'm not seeing very good success.
    If you know of any please share. Kudos!
    Feel free to visit my blog post ; property in alanya

    ReplyDelete
  12. Its such as you learn my mind! You appear to know a lot
    approximately this, like you wrote the guide in it or something.
    I feel that you simply can do with some percent to pressure the message home a little bit, but
    other than that, this is magnificent blog. A great read.
    I will definitely be back.
    Here is my web site ... propertyinturkeyforsale.net

    ReplyDelete
  13. Fabulous, what a web site it is! This weblog presents helpful facts to us, keep it up.
    Feel free to visit my homepage ... amber Leaf

    ReplyDelete
  14. It's impressive that you are getting ideas from this article as well as from our argument made here.
    Also visit my web blog van nelle tobacco

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wild Dagga

    Leonotis Leonurus is also known as Wild Dagga, this plant species in the Lamiaceae (mint) family. It is also known for its medicinal and mild psychoactive properties.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi
    Awesome ! i really found very informative article here and bookmarked this blog. Thank you. wholesale herbal incense

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre, a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code, del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var, b, u, i, center, dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li, fieldset, form, label, legend, table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td { margin: 0; padding: 0; border: 0; outline: 0; font-size: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; } body { line-height: 1; } ol, ul { list-style: none; } blockquote, q { quotes: none; } /* remember to define focus styles! */ :focus { outline: 0; } /* remember to highlight inserts somehow! */ ins { text-decoration: none; } del { text-decoration: line-through; } /* tables still need 'cellspacing="0"' in the markup */ table { border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0; }