substance for the action of the stomach, ulcers, liver, kidney, bladder and the weakening inflammation of. dysentery. Beech is among the herbal tree medication for improving conditions of diabetes. The leaves are soothing to the nerves and stomach and are astringent. As a tonic for all, used to clean and tone up the entire system and improve appetite. Dose: 1 teaspoonful of the crushed leaves or ¼ teaspoonful of the granulated bark to 1 cup of boiling water, 3 – 4 cups daily. Externally: Culpeper( 1616):“ The water found in the hollow places of decaying beeches will cure both man and beast of any scurf, scap, or running tetter if they wash there with.”
The leaf tea is antiseptic, cleansing, cooling and healing to old sores, feverish swellings or skin diseases. Bath often with the fresh tea, or applications of the boiled leaves. Can be applied, or made into an ointment by boiling in coconut, or other suitable oil. Homoeopathic Clinical: Trituration of the nuts: Epilepsy, Headache, Hydrophobia, Vertigo. Russian Experience: Beech tree in Russia is called“ Buk”( pronounced, book). Medically they use creosote, distilled from Beech tar, as antiseptic, cleansing, disinfectant. The odour is very aggressive and when given internally for catarrh of the lungs, throat, etc., it is combined with more acceptable tasting herbs. Also used widely for industrial and commercial purposes.
BETH ROOT Trillium pendulum, wild, Trillium edectum, L.( N. O.: Liliaceae)
Common Names: Birth Root, Wake Robin, Indian Balm, American Ground Lily. Features: Trillium, a genus of the family Liliaceae, common to temperate North America and eastern Asia. This flowering herb has twenty-five to thirty perennial species that thrive in the acid mould of rich, moist woods.
The root has the faint fragrance of turpentine and a peculiar aromatic and sweetish astringent taste when first chewed, but becomes bitter and acid, causing salivation. Its shape is remindful of the popular Ginseng root. The simple stems range from 3 – 30 in. high, rising from the apex of a blunt tuber-like rhizome from ½ – 1½ in. thick. The leaves are from 2 – 15 in. long, and are net veined and somewhat mottled. Varying in colour according to species, the three sepals and petalled flowers are identified in May and June from white to pink and sometimes rose-maroon, red-brown, purple, green, yellow-green, or bright yellow. The fruit is a pink or red three- or six-angled berry. Medicinal Part: The root. Solvents: Diluted alcohol, water. Bodily Influence: Astringent, Tonic, Antiseptic, Alterative, Pectoral. Uses: The American Indians use Beth root as an aid to lessen pain and difficulty at the time of delivery, hence the synonym, Birth root. Taken internally, Beth root has a soothing tonic impression. The properties of Trillium are due to its active principle and it is used for all forms of haemorrhages, such as bleeding from the nose, mouth, stomach, bowels and bladder.
In female disorders it is especially valuable as a general astringent to the uterine organs and should be used in fluor albus, menorrhagia( profuse menstruation). It is considered almost a specific for female weakness, leucorrhoea, or whites. Dose: Useful in pulmonary conditions, Beth root with the accompanying herbs Slippery elm( Ulmus fulva) and a small portion of Lobelia seed( Lobelia inflata), in powder form 10 – 20 grains.
One teaspoonful of the powdered root boiled in 1 pint of milk is an expedient help in diarrhoea and dysentery. For the above mentioned 1 teaspoonful of the powdered root to 1 cup of boiling water; two to three cups a day, or more often in wine-glass amounts, as case requires.