Medicinal Trees: Honey Locust and Kentucky Coffee Tree

Gleditsia triacanthos, Honey Locust

This tree is also mentioned under Black Locust, but is a different tree. Honey Locust is naturalized in my region. It is a tall and stately tree, that produces pods full of a sweet and nutritious pulp. It is very similar to carob, and these trees are the “pods” eaten by the prodigal son and the “wild locusts” that sustained John the Baptist in the Bible. Honey Locust is an extremely useful food tree and an often-overlooked source of natural sugar for beer brewing.

It is unknown whether Dioscorides wrote of Honey Locust or Carob under the name Keratia:

The pods (taken while they are fresh) are bad for the stomach and loosen the intestines, but dried they stop discharges of the bowels. They are also better for the stomach and diuretic, especially combined with the remains left after pressing out grapes.

Plants for A Future states:

Medicinal use of Honey Locust: The pods have been made into a tea for the treatment of indigestion, measles, catarrh etc. The juice of the pods is antiseptic. The pods have been seen as a good antidote for children's complaints. The alcoholic extract of the fruits of the honey locust, after elimination of tannin, considerably retarded the growth, up to 63% of Ehrlich mouse carcinoma. However, the cytotoxicity of the extract was quite high and the animals, besides losing weight, showed dystrophic changes in their liver and spleen. The alcoholic extract of the fruit exerted moderate oncostatic activity against sarcoma 180 and Ehrlich carcinoma at the total dose 350 mg/kg/body weight/mouse. Weight loss was considerable. An infusion of the bark has been drunk and used as a wash in the treatment of dyspepsia. It has also been used in the treatment of whooping cough, measles, smallpox etc. The twigs and the leaves contain the alkaloids gleditschine and stenocarpine. Stenocarpine has been used as a local anaesthetic whilst gleditschine causes stupor and loss of reflex activity. Current research is examining the leaves as a potential source of anticancer compounds.

Peterson Field Guides Eastern and Central Medicinal Plants states:

The seedpods of a Chinese species G sinensis are used in Chinese medicine for sore throats, asthmatic coughs, swelling, and stroke. Experimentally, seedpod causes the breakdown of red blood cells, is strongly antibacterial, antifungal, and acts as an expectorant, aiding in expelling phlegm and secretions of the respiratory tract. Minute amount of the seeds are taken in a powder for Constipation. The spines constitute another drug used in traditional Chinese medicine; they are users of wash to reduce swelling and disperse toxic matter, in the treatment of carbuncles and lesions. Early reports of cocaine in the plant have been discredited. Warning: all plant parts of both species contained potentially toxic compounds.

Gymnocladus dioica, Kentucky Coffee Tree

This naturalized tree is much like the locusts in bearing useful pods. It was an important tree in early America, for the “coffee” brewed from its seeds.

King's American Dispensatory, 1898 tells us:

Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—The tincture of the pulp and pods, and in some instances of the bark also, has been used with benefit in intermittent fever. More recently it has been tried, and with advantage, in cases of abnormal states of the nervous centers, as indicated, among other symptoms, by impaired sense of touch and vision, numbness, dull headache, apathy, and formication. In one case of locomotor ataxia it proved decidedly beneficial, and is valuable in some of the more serious symptoms resulting from excessive masturbation. Recent reports (Dr. N. G. Vassar) confirm its value as a remedy for spermatorrhoea. Prof. Roberts Bartholow, M. D., investigated physiologically the purified tincture of the leaves as prepared for him by J. U. Lloyd and found it to be very marked in its qualities. It has likewise been recommended in laryngeal cough with chronic irritation of the mucous lining membrane of the air passages, in erysipelas, in all fevers presenting a typhoid condition, in puerperal peritonitis, and in the exanthematous affections. It is certainly deserving the attention of our practitioners. The tincture is best made by taking 2 ounces of the coarsely bruised seed and 1 ounce of the pulp, and adding to them 8 fluid ounces each of water and alcohol; let it macerate 12 or 14 days with frequent agitation, and then filter. One fluid drachm of this is to be added to 3 fluid ounces of water, of which the dose is a teaspoonful, to be repeated every 3 or 4 hours.

Plants for A Future States:

Medicinal use of Kentucky Coffee Tree: The pulverised root bark is used as an effective enema. A tea made from the bark is diuretic. It is used in the treatment of coughs due to inflamed mucous membranes and also to help speed up a protracted labour. A snuff made from the pulverized root bark has been used to cause sneezing in comatose patients. A tea made from the leaves and pulp from the pods is laxative and has also been used in the treatment of reflex troubles. A decoction of the fresh green pulp of the unripe fruit is used in homeopathic practice.

Peterson Field Guides Eastern and Central Medicinal Plants tells us:

Caramel like pod pulp used by American Indians to treat lunacy. Leaf and pulp tea formally employed for reflex troubles an as a laxative. Root bark tea used for coughs due to inflamed mucous membranes, diarrhetic, given to a childbirth in protracted labor, stops bleeding; Used in enemas for Constipation. Warning: toxic to grazing animals. Seeds contain toxic saponins.

This article is an excerpt from The Medicinal Trees of the American South, An Herbalist's Guide: by Judson Carroll

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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.