Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines: Galax and Gaultheria, Wintergreen
Galax
I only know of one variety of Galax, Galax urceolata. This plant was very important to the people of the Appalachian Mountains where I live, but was not much used medicinally. Galax was gathered to sell to the florist industry and a green decoration. However, Plants for A Future states, “The plant is used for healing all kinds of wounds and cuts. An infusion of the root is used to treat kidney problems.”
Gaultheria, Wintergreen
Twenty-seven varieties of Gaultheria have documented use in Herbal Medicine: Gaultheria adenothrix Synonym: Adendromeda, Gaultheria antipoda - Snowberry, Gaultheria appressa - White Waxberry, Gaultheria cumingiana, Gaultheria depressa - Mountain Snowberry, Gaultheria fragrantissima - Fragrant Wintergreen, Gaultheria griffithianum, Gaultheria hispida - Snowberry, Gaultheria hispidula - Creeping Snowberry, Gaultheria humifusa - Alpine Wintergreen, Gaultheria insana, Gaultheria japonica - Creeping Snowberry, Gaultheria macrostigma, Gaultheria mucronata, Gaultheria myrsinoides, Gaultheria nummularioides, Gaultheria ovatifolia - Mountain Checkerberry, Gaultheria procumbens - Checkerberry, Gaultheria pumila, Gaultheria pumila leucocarpa, Gaultheria pyroliifolia, Gaultheria pyroloides, Gaultheria rigida, Gaultheria sclelophylla, Gaultheria shallon - Shallon, Gaultheria trichophylla, Gaultheria x wisleyensis
Only one variety is native to my region, Gaultheria procumbens (Wintergreen, Teaberry).
The Lumbee used Gaultheria:
A Wintergreen root tea was used by some Lumbee healers to treat chronic indigestion. Also, the leaves were chewed for dysentery or tender gums. A tea was made from the leaves to nurse colds. The Algonquin peoples used Wintergreen in an infusion to treat colds and headache discomfort.
Towards and American Materia Medica tells us:
The Gaultheria procumbens, which we call Mountain-tea, is spread very extensively over the more barren, mountainous parts of the United- States. It belongs to the same class as the plants just mentioned. I have made use of a strong infusion of this plant, which is evidently possessed of a stimulant and anodyne quality. I am told it has been found an useful medicine in cases of asthma. But I have not learned to what particular forms of this disease it is best adapted, nor in what manner it operates.
Resources of The Southern Fields and Forest states:
SPICY WINTER-GREEN; PARTRIDGE-BERRY; M0UNTAIN-BERRY, {Gaultheria procumbens, Ph.) Grows in the mountains of South and North Carolina, Dr. MacBride; Newbern. Fl. May.
U. S. Disp. 345; Big. Am. Med. Bot. ii, 29; Lind. Nat. Sjst. Bot. 221; Bart. M. Bot. i, 178; Kalm, Amoen. Acad, iii, 14; Bart. Collcc. i, 19; Eaf. Med. Fl. i, 202; Griffith Med. Bot. 425.
The whole plant is aromatic. It possesses stimulant aromatic properties, united with astringency; hence used with advantage in some forms of chronic dysentery. It is said to have also some anodyne power The infusion of the leaves has been found beneficial in amenorrhoea attended with debility, and in promoting the mammary secretion when deficient. In the Revolutionary war it was used as a substitute for tea. The berries, which are aromatic and pleasant, are employed to flavor spirituous liquors. An infusion of them in brandy is a convenient and useful substitute for the ordinary bitters. An essential oil is obtained from the leaves by distillation. From Mr. Proctor's examination, (Am. Journal Pharm. viii, 211; and ix, 241,) it is shown to possess acid properties, and to have the same composition as the salicilate of methylene. It is one of the heaviest of the essential
oils, having a specific gravity 1.173, with a burning, aromatic taste, mixing with alcohol or ether in all proportions. This is found also in the Betula lenta, some of the Spirceas, in the Polygala lutea, etc. It is applied with good effect to diminish the sensibility of nerves affected by carious teeth, and to disguise the taste and smell of nauseous medicines.
King’s American Dispensatory of 1898 states:
This plant is a native of the United States, growing from Maine to Florida, and westward to Pennsylvania and Kentucky, in cool, damp woods, sandy soils, and on mountains, flowering from June to October. It does not grow in alluvial soil, nor in limestone countries. The leaves are medicinal, yet the whole plant may be used; the leaves have a peculiar fragrance and an agreeable, characteristic flavor, with a slight astringency; the berries possess a similar flavor with sweetness, and are eaten by many; some wild animals, as deer, partridges, etc., use it for food. Water, by infusion, and alcohol extract the virtues of the plant. The leaves contain an odorous volatile oil, which may be obtained in the same manner as oil of peppermint. The specific gravity of the oil is 1.173 at 10° C. (50° F.). It is colorless at first, but subsequently becomes more or less of a pinkish color, has a hot and aromatic taste, possesses acid properties, and is soluble in alcohol or ether (see Oleum Gaultheriae).
Mr. J. Oxley, in 1872, found the leaves to contain glucose, chlorophyll, gum, tannic acid, a body analogous to gallic acid, but not yielding pyrogallic acid upon heating, and principles found also in uva ursi and chimaphila, viz.: Arbutin, ericolin and urson. A quantitative proximate analysis of the leaves made by F. W. Droelle (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1887, p. 289) largely confirmed these results. Volatile oil was found to the extent of ½ per cent. Gaultheria procumbens was ascertained by Prof. Power and N. C. Werbke to be free from andromedotoxin, a neutral poisonous principle present in several plants of the natural order Ericaeae (see Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1889, p. 361).
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Wintergreen possesses stimulant, aromatic, and astringent properties. It is used in infusion as an astringent in chronic mucous discharges, as a diuretic in dysuria, as an emmenagogue, as a stimulant in cases of debility, and is said to augment the flow from the lactiferous vessels of nursing women, but this is doubtful. It is also recommended as a valuable remedy for articular and muscular rheumatism. The infusion and the essence both relieve irritation of the urethra and bladder, and are adapted to the incipient stages of renal inflammation. Tubal nephritis is alleged to have been arrested by it even when examination has revealed in the urine the presence of blood corpuscles and tube casts (Webster). Scudder recommends it in spermatorrhoea with increased sexual excitement, and as a sedative in irritation and inflammation of the urethra, prostate gland and bladder. The volatile oil (see Oleum Gaultheriae), or its tincture, is used to render syrups and other preparations more agreeable. The oil allays the pain of carious teeth, and large doses of it administered internally have caused death by producing inflammation of the stomach; the essence of wintergreen is a carminative, and is sometimes used in the flatulent colic of infants. An infusion of the leaves or whole plant (℥j to water Oj) may be drunk freely. Dose of essence, 1 to 30 drops; of specific gaultheria, 1 to 20 drops.
Specific Indications and Uses.—Cystic and prostatic irritation, undue sexual excitement, renal inflammation (early stage).
Related Species.—Gaultheria hispidula, or Cancer wintergreen, is supposed to be efficient in removing the carcinomatous taint from the system; used also in scrofula and prolapsus uteri.
Melastoma Ackermanni.—Colombia. Yields an oil probably identical with oil of wintergreen (methyl salicylate). Used provincially as an anti-neuralgic.
Jethro Kloss wrote:
WINTERGREEN (Gaultheria procumbens)
Common Names: Spring wintergreen, Canada tea, partridge berry, checkerberry, boxberry, wax cluster, spice berry, mountain tea, deerberry, spicy wintergreen, aromatic wintergreen, chink, ground berry, grouse berry, red pollom, redberry tea, hillberry, ivory plum.
Part Used: Leaves.
Medicinal Properties: Stimulant, antiseptic, astringent, diuretic, emmenagogue, aromatic.
Description and Uses: This is an old-fashioned remedy. Taken in small frequent doses it will stimulate stomach, heart, and respiration. Useful in chronic inflammatory rheumatism, also rheumatic fever, sciatica, diabetes, all bladder troubles, scrofula, and skin diseases. Valuable in colic and gas in the bowels. Helpful in dropsy, gonorrhea, stomach trouble, and obstruction in the bowels.
The oil of the wintergreen is used internally and externally. It is very useful in liniments.
Used as a poultice, it is good for boils, swellings, ulcers, felons, and inflammation. A douche of the tea is excellent in whites and leukorrhea. The tea is also very beneficial as a gargle for sore throat and mouth. Good wash for sore eyes.
Bradford Angier wrote:
The Indians, passing along their pre-Columbian lore to the settlers, long considered the leaves to be an important remedy for arthritis and overexerted muscles and joints - perhaps a reason you still smell it in locker rooms and training quarters. Steeped into a tea, it was drunk for this purpose and also used as a gargle for sore throats. Crushed into poultices, it was applied externally to aching and painful parts, including those arising from lumbago.
Such poultices were also placed on swellings, boils, carbuncles, felons, wounds, rashes, eruptions, and inflammations - even on aching teeth. The oil was used externally as a counterirritant and antiseptic, as well as a means of bringing down ordinary swelling from a bruise or contusion.
The Penobscots believed wintergreen , as it was commonly known, to be helpful in treating gonorrhea. The tea and mildly delectable and nourishing berries were resorted to for increasing the flow of milk in nursing motors. Also, it sometimes seemed effective in starting delayed menstruation. It was also used for dysentery.
The Sioux, Nez Perce, and other leading Indian tribes were cognizant of the fact that infusions of checkerberry leaves, although they did not realize it was from their salicin content, lowered fevers and eased the pain of arthritis, lumbago or just overexerted joints and muscles.
Individuals turned to it for alleviating hoarse sore throats, as well as other cold symptoms. It was thought to be a coagulant, one of the reasons it was used for wounds and for staunching bleeding. The tea, being astringent, was taken internally both for hemorrhages and for ulcers, particularly those of the bladder and kidneys. It was believed helpful for dropsy. It was in some places relied upon to clear up obstruction of the alimentary canal. The tea was used for astringent douches, as well as for just plain antiseptic washes.
Botany in a Day tells us:
The leaves contain phenolic glycoside methyl salicylate, and like willow, can be used as aspirin. Gaulthueria procumberns, from the eastern US, was the original source of wintergreen oil, a volatile oil and spice later extracted from the twigs of black birch and finally produced synthetically.
Plants for a Future calls Gaultheria procumbens “Checkerberry”:
Medicinal use of Checkerberry: Checkerberry leaves were widely used by the native North American Indians in the treatment of aches and pains and to help breathing whilst hunting or carrying heavy loads. An essential oil (known as "oil of wintergreen") obtained from the leaves contains methyl salicylate, which is closely related to aspirin and is an effective anti-inflammatory. This species was at one time a major source of methyl salicylate, though this is now mainly synthesized. The leaves, and the oil, are analgesic, anti-inflammatory, aromatic, astringent, carminative, diuretic, emmenagogue, stimulant and tonic. An infusion of the leaves is used to relieve flatulence and colic. The plant, especially in the form of the essential oil, is most useful when applied externally in the treatment of acute cases of rheumatism, sciatica, myalgia, sprains, neuralgia and catarrh. The oil is sometimes used in the treatment of cellulitis, a bacterial infection that causes the skin to become inflamed. Some caution is advised, especially if the oil is used internally, since essential oil is toxic in excess, causing liver and kidney damage. It should not be prescribed for patients who are hypersensitive to salicylates (aspirin). The leaves can be gathered at any time from spring to early autumn, they are dried for use in infusions or distilled to produce the oil.
Peterson Field Guides Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants also lists only this variety, but under Wintergreen or Teaberry:
Traditionally, leaf tea was used for colds, headaches, stomachaches, fevers, kidney ailments; externally as a wash for rheumatism, sore muscles, and lumbago. Essential oil (methyl salicylate) in leaves is synthetically produced for “wintergreen” flavor. Experimentally, analgesic, carminative, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic. In experiments, small amounts have delayed the onset of tumors. Warning: essential oil is highly toxic, absorbed through the skin, harms liver and kidneys.
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The information on this site is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing on this site has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I am not a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and their is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm just a guy who studies herbs. I am not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write is accurate or true! I can tell you what herbs have "traditionally been used for." I can tell you my own experience and if I believe an herb helped me. I cannot, nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use any herb I, or anyone else, mentions you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, sensitivity or underlying condition that no one else shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to read my blog you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices and not to blame me for anything, ever.
We have some native Aussie Gaultheria down south (Tas & Vic). Berries edible but bitter.