Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines: Lonicera, Honeysuckle

Twenty-three varieties of Honeysuckle have documented use in Herbal Medicine:  Diervilla lonicera - Bush Honeysuckle, Lonicera affinis, Lonicera angustifolia, Lonicera caerulea, Lonicera canadensis - Fly Honeysuckle, Lonicera caprifolium - Italian Honeysuckle, Lonicera ciliosa - Orange Honeysuckle, Lonicera gracilipes, Lonicera gracilipes glabra, Lonicera henryi, Lonicera chrysantha, Lonicera involucrata - Twinberry, Lonicera japonica - Japanese Honeysuckle, Lonicera morrowii, Lonicera nitida - Boxleaf Honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum - Honeysuckle, Lonicera pileata, Lonicera quinquelocularis, Lonicera sempervirens - Trumpet Honeysuckle, Lonicera utahensis - Utah Honeysuckle, Lonicera venulosa, Lonicera villosa, Lonicera villosa solonis

The only shrub-form of Honeysuckle that is native to my area is Lonicera canadensis (American Fly Honeysuckle), but Lonicera fragrantissima (Sweet-breath-of-spring), Lonicera maackii (Amur Honeysuckle) and Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's Honeysuckle) are naturalized.  Native vine forms include: Lonicera dioica (Limber Honeysuckle, Red Honeysuckle), Lonicera flava (Yellow Honeysuckle), Lonicera sempervirens var. hirsutula (Trumpet Honeysuckle) and Lonicera sempervirens var. sempervirens (Trumpet Honeysuckle).

You will likely see Lonicera japonica (Japanese Honeysuckle) most anywhere - it is often considered invasive.

Dioscorides wrote of a variety of Lonicera under the name Periclymenon:

Periclymenon is a single little shrub with small whitish leaves circling it at distances similar to cissus, and by the leaves’ emergence are seeds similar to cissus. On top is a white flower similar to the bean, a somewhat round hard seed (in a way) lying on the leaf and hard to pluck out; the root is thick and round. It grows in fields and hedges and winds itself around the neighbouring

shrubs. The seed of this is gathered when it is ripe and dried in the shade. A teaspoonful (taken in a drink for forty days) reduces the spleen, dissolves weariness, and is good for difficult breathing and the hiccups. After the sixth day it makes one urinate blood. It is also birth hastening, and the leaves have the same strength. A decoction (taken as a drink for thirty seven days) is said to make men unfit for generation [birth control]. Rubbed (with oil) on those who have fever fits that recur, it drives away the shivering. It is also called aegine, clymenon, carpathum, splenium, hepatitis, helxine major, clematitis, myrsine, or calycanthemon; the Magi call it poliom veneris, the Egyptians, turcum, the Romans, volucrum majus, and the Africans, lanath.

Mrs. Grieve tells us:

Caprifoliaceae, the order to which the Honeysuckles belong, includes about 300 species, chiefly shrubs, growing in the north temperate zone or extending into the higher cool tropical regions. Besides the Viburnums and Sambucus, a number have found more or less important uses in medicine, but they exhibit but little uniformity in composition or properties.

Medicinal Action and Uses---A dozen or more of the 100 species of Lonicera or Honeysuckle are used medicinally, the fruits generally having emiticocathartic properties. Several of these drugs have more than a local repute.

The herbage of L. caprifolium (Linn.), the smaller, or ITALIAN HONEYSUCKLE, of Mid- and Southern Europe, is used as a cutaneous and mucous tonic and vulnerary and the seeds as a diuretic.

L. Periclymenum (Linn.), our common ENGLISH WILD HONEYSUCKLE, is used similarly and the stems as a substitute or adulterant for Solanum Dulcamara, the Bittersweet.

Waller says: 'The leaves and flowers of Honeysuckle are possessed of diuretic and sudorific properties,' and adds:

'a decoction of the flowers has been celebrated as an excellent antispasmodic and recommended in asthma of the nervous kind. An elegant water may be distilled from these flowers, which has been recommended for nervous headache.'

Gerard says: 'The Honeysuckle is "neither cold nor binding, but hot and attenuating or making thin." ' He quotes Dioscorides as saying that:

'the ripe seed gathered and dried in theshadow and drunk for four days together, doth waste and consume away the hardness of the spleen and removeth wearisomeness, helpeth the shortness and difficulty of breathing, cureth the hicket (hiccough), etc. A syrup made of the flowers is good to be drunk against diseases of the lungs and spleen.'

He also recommends it for sores in various parts of the alimentary canal.

Salmon in his Herbal (1710) speaks only of the Meadow Honeysuckle, 'which was the name given by the agriculturists of his day to the Meadow Trefoil (Trifolium pratense).'

The herbage of the true Honeysuckles is a favourite food of goats, hence the Latin name Caprifolium (Goats' Leaf), the French Chèvre-feuille, German Geisblatt and Italian Capri-foglio, all signifying the same. The berries have been used as food for chickens. The name of the genus, Lonicera, was given by Linnaeus in honour of Adam Lonicer, a physician and naturalist, born at Marburg in 1528, who wrote, among other works, the Naturalis Historiae Opus novum, which contains much curious information about plants.

Our native Honeysuckle has expectorant and laxative properties. The flowers in the form of syrup have been used for diseases of the respiratory organs and in asthma and the leaves as decoction in diseases of the liver and spleen. It was also considered a good ingredient in gargles.

L. tartarica, a native of Siberia, an upright species, a shrub, not a climber, has berries which are nauseously bitter and purgative.

The wood of L. Xylosteum, native of Eastern Europe and Asia, but found naturalized in Sussex, also of shrub-like nature, is used by the Russians to prepare an empyrheumatic oil for 'cold tumours and chronic pains. ' It is sold in China as Jin-tung. Animals seldom touch the leaves of this species and birds eat its berries only in hard weather - they are reputed to be purgative and emetic.

L. brachypoda repens is used in Japan as a drastic purgative, and L. Japonica (Thunb.) is sold in China as Kin-yin-keva.

Diervilla, the Bush Honeysuckle, especially Diervilla Diervilla (L. Diervilla, Linn.), has a similar repute, especially as a diuretic and as an application to relieve itching.

Various species of Symphoricarpus, Snowberry, Wax-berry, Coral-berry, Indian Currant, Turkey-berry, Wolf-berry, to give a few of its names, of North America, are similarly employed. S. racemosa (Mich.) is often planted in hedges.

Culpepper says:

'Honeysuckles are cleansing, consuming and digesting, and therefore no way fit for inflammations. Take a leaf and chew it in your mouth and you will quickly find it likelier to cause a sore mouth and throat than cure it. If it be not good for this, what is it good for? It is good for something, for God and nature made nothing in vain. It is a herb of Mercury, and appropriated to the lungs; the celestial Crab claims dominion over it, neither is it a foe to the Lion; if the lungs be afflicted by Jupiter, this is your cure. It is fitting a conserve made of the flowers should be kept in every gentlewoman's house; I know no better cure for the asthma than this besides it takes away the evil of the spleen: provokes urine, procures speedy delivery of women in travail, relieves cramps, convulsions, and palsies, and whatsoever griefs come of cold or obstructed perspiration; if you make use of it as an ointment, it will clear the skin of morphew, freckles, and sunburnings, or whatever else discolours it, and then the maids will love it. Authors say, the flowers are of more effect than the leaves, and that is true: but they say the seeds are the least effectual of all. But there is a vital spirit in every seed to beget its like; there is a greater heat in the seed than any other part of the plant; and heat is the mother of action.'

Brother Aloysius wrote:

The leaves of the plant are used medicinally…  This infusion is diuretic.  Use externally, as a gargle for inflamed tonsils and sore legs.  This infusion also greatly stimulates appetite.  On application of the bruised herb, skin complaints are cured.  The decoction of the flowers… is very beneficial for lung catarrh.

Plants for A Future states:

Medicinal use of Fly Honeysuckle: The steeped branches are a very effective diuretic. A decoction of the shoots is used in the treatment of chancres caused by syphilis. The bark is sedative. An infusion has been given to children who cry all night.

Medicinal use of Lonicera morrowii: The fruit is cathartic and emetic.

Medicinal use of Japanese Honeysuckle: The stems and flower buds are alterative, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, depurative, diuretic, febrifuge. The plant is also used to reduce blood pressure. The stems are used internally in the treatment of acute rheumatoid arthritis, mumps and hepatitis. The stems are harvested in the autumn and winter, and are dried for later use. The stems and flowers are used together as an infusion in the treatment of upper respiratory tract infections (including pneumonia) and dysentery. An infusion of the flower buds is used in the treatment of a wide range of ailments including syphilitic skin diseases and tumours, bacterial dysentery, colds, enteritis, pain, swellings etc. Experimentally, the flower extracts have been shown to lower blood cholesterol levels and are antibacterial, antiviral and tuberculostatic. Externally, the flowers are applied as a wash to skin inflammations, infectious rashes and sores. The flowers are harvested in early morning before they open and are dried for later use. The plant has a similar action to Forsythia suspensa and is usually used in combination with that species to achieve a stronger action. This plant has become a serious weed in many areas of N. America, it might have the potential to be utilized for proven medical purposes.

Resources of The Southern Fields and Forests tells us:

WOODBINE,  (Lonicera  sempervirens,  Ait.  and  T.  and  G.  Caprifolium,  Ell.  Sk.  Grows  in  wet  swamps ;  more  abundant  in lower  country ;  vicinity  of  Charleston;  collected  in  St.  John's.  Fl.  May. 

Mer.  and  de  L.  Diet,  de  M.  Med.  iv,  143.  The  plant  is  not much  used  in  medicine.  The  syrup  made  of  the  leaves  is  given in  asthma,  and  in  angina  tonsillaris.  The  leaves  and  bark  of the  i.  caprifolium  of  Linn,  are  styptic  and  acrid ;  the  flowers diuretic ;  the  latter  in  decoction  calm  the  pain  of  colic  (coliques ou  tranchees)  following  childbirth. 

Peterson Field Guides Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants tells us:

Japanese Honeysuckle: Leaves and flowers as a beverage tea (Japan).  Flowers traditionally used in tea for bacterial dysentery, enteritis, laryngitis, fevers, flu; externally as a wash for rheumatism, sores, tumors, (Especially breast cancer), infected boils, scabies, swelling.  Stem tea is weaker.  Experimentally, flower extracts lower cholesterol, also an antiviral, antibacterial, tuberculostatic.  The serious weed might be managed by utilizing it for proven medicinal purposes.

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This article is an excerpt from 

Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast An Herbalist's Guide

Read about Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast An Herbalist's Guide: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/06/medicinal-shrubs-and-woody-vines-of.html

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Author: Judson Carroll. Judson Carroll is an Herbalist from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

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Disclaimer

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.