The Earthwise Herbal Repertory

by Matthew Wood

  Note: The above information is based on Hershoff/Rotelli and Brent Davis.

  Electric Shock: • Juglans nigra.

  Radiation: • Achillea • Althea • Chrysanthemum • Fagopyrum • Helianthus (used extensively and successfully after Chernobyl to remove radiation from the soil) • Larrea (a traditional Ute Indian medicine for prevention of cancer from exposure to radiation; confirmed) • TRAMETES VERSICOLOR (used in Japan for cancer associated with radiation).

  Heavy Metals: • Coriandrum (leaf) • Eugenia (combine with Coriandrum) • GLECHOMA (lead, mercury, and other metals are removed efficiently; in fact, there is a concern that this plant may also remove nutritional iron and other required metals) • LARREA • OCIMUM (lipophilic toxins—Davis) • Stillingia (mercury).

  Food Sensitivities, Gluten Intolerance: • PLANTAGO (leaky gut) • POLYGONUM PERSICARIA.

  Rabies-Shot Side Effects: • Scutellaria.

  FORMULARY

  Glechoma—with Plantago, Prunella, Coriandrum (internally, to draw out heavy metals).

  “Toxins” are incompletely metabolized substances which build up through lack of elimination, “leaky gut” or gut absorption issues, poor metabolism in the liver or the cells, low thyroid (causing low metabolism), exotoxin production by bacteria, and poor removal of waste from the extracellular matrix. Although frequently called “bad blood,” “toxins in the blood,” “impure blood,” or “liver toxicity,” these waste products build up in the extracellular matrix, between the cells. Originally called “humors” or “humors in the blood” in Hippocratic and English medicine, the terms “bad” and “impure blood” became popular in the nineteenth century. The idea is still popular in folk medicine and account for the popularity of “cleansing” diets and herbal protocols, not all of which are needed, but most of which are safe. The herbs used to “detoxify” the blood are called “alteratives” or “blood purifiers.” They are assisted by laxatives.

  Weight

  Obesity, Overweight: • Alchemilla • Astragalus (loose tissue) • Camellia sinensis (tea) • Cichorium • Crataegus • Daucus (abdominal weight, beer belly) • Phytolacca (berries, not seeds) • STELLARIA • Trigonella • Zea mays (corn silk tea).

  Thin, Underweight: • Acorus (bath, cold decoction) • Agnus castus • Chondrus (malnutrition) • Codonopsis (thin, weak, tired, dried-out) • Cornus (thin, low stamina and sexual energy) • Dioscorea • Glycyrrhiza • Gentiana • Trigonella (“general debility and anorexia of convalescence”—BHP) • Ulmus (convalescence).

  Cancer

  Cancer arises from many different causes and therefore requires many potential treatments. This is a very tough and formidable adversary, and conventional therapies should not be shunned. However, it should be remembered that many cancer patients die from biomedical treatments rather than the disease itself. It often seems that cancer therapy is geared towards helping the patient accept their eventual death by delaying the inevitable, or making the last months or years into a heroic battle. Making a person believe they are fighting an heroic battle for their life is, in my opinion, a worthy therapy, even if the cancer ultimately wins.

  Alternative methods can be used alongside conventional methods. The following approaches should be considered, bearing in mind that other approaches are also possible:

  • Treatments to strengthen the constitution.

  • Organ and tissue treatments to strengthen regions affected by the cancer.

  • Organ and tissue-directed treatment to strengthen body structures weakened by surgery or drugs—the extracellular matrix, lymph, and liver.

  • Clearing stagnant blood (indicated by blue color in face, tongue, wrists, legs, etc.) Cancer often develops on old bruises, and thrives where blood is poorly oxygenated.

  • Removing the cancer directly, through the use of escarotics that burn it away.

  • Strengthening the immune system to reduce cancer-cell division; immune cells devour cancer cells.

  • Strengthening the system by combating cachexia (wasting).

  • Repairing the ECM (extracellular matrix) after surgery (pioneered by Alfred Pischinger).

  Many of the following indications need confirmation, but some have proved surprisingly effective in clinical and anecdotal experience.

  One final note: Always encourage the cancer patient or family to read the literature about their kind of cancer thoroughly. Doctors often don’t have time to explain all the facts, or (understandably) can’t deal with the emotions of their clients. Never allow intimidation to enter the medical relationship. Always bring an advocate, if possible. From hearing about numerous truly terrible experiences, I have to say that this is particularly true for women and minorities; but even a big, imposing man, faced with cancer, needs an advocate, friend, or family member present.

  Cancer: • Achillea (breast cancer, from a blow) • Acorus (supportive in upper GI neoplasia; anorexia from therapy—Moore) • ALLIUM SATIVA (one ounce of garlic a week is believed to be preventative or suppressive to GI, breast, prostate, liver, lung, and brain cancers) • Apocynum cannabinum (Weiss) • Aristolochia (adenocarcinoma—Sherman) • Arctium (supportive, nutritive) • Astragalus (exhaustion, cachexia; increases cancer-fighting immune cells, supports recovery from radiation and chemotherapy) • Bellis (cancer resulting from a blow; to prevent or treat; homeopathic or herbal) • Beta (nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy; cachexia—Weiss) • Calendula (lymphatic cleansing; perhaps anti-tumor) • CAMELLIA (preventive; inhibits spread; for colon and rectal cancers; use decaffeinated tea) • CANNABIS (pain, glioma; nausea, anorexia from therapy) • CETRARIA (vomiting from chemotherapy; cachexia) • CHELIDONIUM (escharotic; liver support) • Commiphora myrrha (white blood cell deficiency) • CONIUM MACULATUM (sexual glands, breast, testicles; poultice on breast in old-time herbalism, now homeopathic remedy used internally—many confirmations in homeopathic literature) • Crataegus (skin, larynx, Burkitt’s lymphoma—Rogers) • CURCUMA (cancer of mucosa, breast, lymphatics; preventive) • DAUCUS (skin cancer; seed oil externally) • ECHINACEA (supports the system stressed by chemotherapy and cancer; do not give in leukemia) • Epilobium (prostate) • Euonymus (anorexia from therapy) • Fouquieria (supportive in lymph dysplasias—Moore) • GALIUM (traditional) • GANODERMA (immune tonic; stomach, breast, lung) • Gentiana (supportive in upper GI neoplasias) • Glechoma (“beefsteak tongue” of advanced cases; palliative) • GRIFOLA (breast, colorectal, lung, bladder, liver, blood, lymph; inhibits spread, growth) • HYDRASTIS (worn, jaded look, yellow or sallow complexion, “hide-bound state of skin, low spirits, loss of appetite, chronic constipation”; 1-drop dose—Clarke) • INONOTUS (traditional on two continents for cancer; pharmacological mechanism is established; “more miracles from this than any other”—Wood) • LARREA (traditional and sometimes proven; “essential in neoplasia”—Davis) • Lentinula (to increase immunity, shrink existing tumors) • Lilium longiflorum (cervical dysplasia and neoplasia; confirmed—Wood) • Lithospermum (skin cancer; wash) • Monotropa (for pain of advanced cancer; lessens need for opiates and maintains conscious awareness; helps people deal with their regrets as they are dying—D. Winston; often confirmed) • Nigella (immune normalizer; traditional remedy for cancer; research shows action on cancer and tumor cells) • Panax ginseng • Panax quinquefolius (anorexia from therapy; to prevent metastases, strengthen the extracellular matrix) • PHYTOLACCA (external, on breast cancer; traditional and sometimes confirmed; “tendency to fatness, sluggish circulation, lazy disposition, glandular enlargements”—Clarke) • Podophyllum (ovarian cancer—Weiss) • Potentilla (“drink tormentil tea”—Tilke) • Prunus serotina (liver) • Rhodiola (bladder, recurring) • Rheum • RUMEX ACETOSA (the most “active ingredient” in Essiac and also traditional; internal, external) • Rumex crispus (supportive) • SANGUINARIA (very corrosive escharotic; use with caution) • SCROPHULARIA (Hodgkin’s lymphoma; specific affinity for the breast, and breast cancer, in women with large breasts—Boericke) �
� Silybum • Taraxacum (supports cleansing when tongue is dark-red, to bring heat to the surface and out of the body—Wood) • Thuja (skin, rectum, bladder) • TRAMETES VERSICOLOR (breast, colorectal; for radiation exposure) • TRIFOLIUM (skin, glandular, breast, lung, general; to prevent regrowth; internal or external; large dose or highly concentrated; traditional) • Vinca (acute leukemia in children; Hodgkin’s lymphoma; solid tumors—Weiss) • VIOLA (“neoplasm in breast or alimentary canal” or lymphatic nodes; “after tumor extirpation, to protect from metastases”—BHP; often confirmed—Weed) • VISCUM (injectable form, for cancer) • Vitis (old saying: “when all hope is lost, resort to the grape cure”—or before hope is lost; fasting while eating only organic grapes) • WITHANIA (immune and general support).

  Cancer from Congealed Blood, Bruise, Blow: • Achillea • Bellis perennis (usually homeopathic) • CONIUM (homeopathic) • Phytolacca (blue-purple complexion) • Symphytum (homeopathic).

  Chemotherapy and Radiation Side Effects: • ACHILLEA (for radiation; flower essence) • ALTHAEA (dry, red tongue; burnt tissues from radiation—Fischer) • Arctium • Astragalus • Beta (nutritive) • Calendula • Cetraria (vomiting) • ECHINACEA (low WBC count after chemotherapy) • Galium • Grifolia • Hypericum • Lentinula • Mahonia • Rheum • Rumex crispus • Taraxacum • Trametes • Trifolium • Uncaria • Withania.

  Note: Give lymphatics, hepatics, and laxatives after chemo and radiation, to cleanse the system of toxins. Statistically, people who receive traditional therapy are expected to get cancer from the radiation within twenty years.

  Cachexia (wasting): • Acorus • CETRARIA • Chondrus • Cola • Sabal.

  Pain: • Acorus (palliative for stomach pain in inoperable cases) • CANNABIS • MONOTROPA (introduced by David Winston to lessen the pain of dying from cancer without diminishing consciousness; has often been confirmed; helps deal with regrets when dying) • Petasites (tumor pain).

  Escharotic: • Calendula (not destructive to dermis) • Chelidonium • Sanguinaria (very destructive to dermis) • Thuja • Trifolium.

  Note: Escharotics are used externally on skin cancer to overheat the cancer cells (which already have a high metabolism) and destroy them. They are a form of chemotherapy because they particularly act on cancer cells. Although an “alternative” treatment, some escharotics are quite destructive; though not harmless, they can be skillfully used, as can conventional cancer treatments.

  “For an excellent overview of Essiac, Hoxsey, and other historical and current herbal cancer formulas, consult Ralph Moss’s Herbs Against Cancer.”

  —HERSHOFF AND ROTELLI

  FORMULARY

  Arctium (52 parts)—with Rumex acetosella (16 parts), Ulmus (4 parts), Rheum (1 part). This is the famous “Essaic Formula” for cancer (Les Moore 2002, 89), originated by Rene Caisse and based, she said, on a formula used by an Ojibwa medicine man. All the ingredients except Ulmus are native to Europe, so this is ultimately not Native American in origin. Sheep sorrel has a long non-Native use in cancer.

  Echinacea—with Calendula, Trifolium, Galium, and other herbs, according to the case, to ease exhaustion during chemotherapy. I call this “chemo companion.” Contraindicated in leukemia.

  Trifolium pretense—slowly boil red clover blossoms down into a paste, attending carefully and stirring regularly. This is a time-consuming process, but it yields a famous cancer salve for the skin, and an internal remedy for prostate and other cancers. (Evidently the active ingredients are not heat-sensitive.)

  CHAGA (INONOTUS OBLIQUUS)

  If there is a single remedy that might be called a “miracle remedy” in the treatment of cancer, it would be the chaga mushroom, traditionally used by northern people in Finland, Russia, Siberia, and North America for cancer. In the north woods of Minnesota, it is known by the Native people as “the mushroom that grows in the birch tree.” I have seen it remove diagnosed cancer in less than thirty days; I have seen it hold dangerous cancers in check for years; and I have many herbalist friends who could give more testimonials. Margi Flint told me that she has used it successfully in melanoma “many times.” It can also be used as a preventive.

  5. Acute Conditions

  For ease of use, it may be desirable for the reader to color the page edges of this section red or another bright color, in order to be able to find it quickly in acute and first-aid situations. (This can be done with different colors for any section where easy access is desired.)

  Fever

  Fever with Little or No Sweat (warming, stimulating, and relaxing diaphoretics): • Anagallis • ANGELICA (incipient fevers, coughs, and colds; warm decoction or tincture) • Aralia spinosa • ARCTIUM (skin dry or profusely oily) • Borago • Carthamus (fever in infants, with constipation; exanthema, chicken pox; tincture or oil) • CHAMOMILLA (tension, pain, complains; one cheek red, the other pale; skin dry) • Cnicus • Dioscorea (dry skin) • Echinacea (exhaustion) • Ephedra • EUPATORIUM PERFOLIATUM (hard to break a sweat) • Fumaria • Glechoma (antiviral; inflammation of middle ear and facial mucosa) • HEDEOMA (full, pungent heat of skin, face, and neck; hot infusion) • HYSSOPUS (dry skin; sore throat; respiratory inflammation; deep heat in organs) • Inula (checked perspiration, sudden onset of cold; incipient bronchitis, cough; warm decoction or tincture) • LIGUSTICUM • Majorana • Mentha piperita • MENTHA PULEGIUM • NEPETA (infantile fever; infantile constipation) • Ocimum • Origanum • Polemonium (skin cold, dry, torpid, with languor, internal venous congestion) • Polygonum hydropiperoides, punctatum (stimulant for cold, dry, inactive skin; heart action suppressed by internal congestion) • Rosmarinus (colds, fevers) • SALVIA (colds, fevers, sore throat, lungs) • Sassafras (promotes circulation, thins the blood; root bark) • Satureja (warm infusion in the early stages of fever, inflammation, colds, catarrh) • Scrophularia (lymphatic assistance) • THYMUS (incomplete sweat; contagious fever; cough, lungs) • Vinca minor • Zanthoxylum (inactive skin, depressed nervous function) • ZINGIBERIS (sudden cold, checked perspiration; fresh rhizome; bath or hot tea).

  Fever (cooling agents): • ACHILLEA (incomplete, somewhat oily sweat; red, flushed face; rapid, nonresistant, full pulse; red tongue, blue in center) • Agastache • AMYGDALUS (hot, dry skin) • ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA (harsh, dry skin; softens and moistens gently) • Borago (exhaustion) • BUPLEURUM • Chrysanthemum • Citrus limonum (juice, in water) • ECHINACEA • Hibiscus • Lonicera • Melilotus (blood congestion, mild perspiration; cools by thinning the blood) • MELISSA (specific for most acute children’s fevers) • MENTHA PIPERITA (fever with chills) • MENTHA SPICATA (incipient fever, with nausea and vomiting) • Papaver somnifera (dry skin with nervousness, restlessness, constipation; poppy seed tea) • Rehmannia (uncooked root) • SAMBUCUS (parched, dry, red skin; blue swollen skin, or both) • Selenicereus (excited heart activity) • Tilia (early stages of influenza, colds, and fevers, especially in children; excessive immune response) • Tussilago (respiratory; cool infusion) • Verbena (hard to break a sweat; flooding pulse).

  Fever with Sweat: • ACHILLEA (incomplete sweat) • ARCTIUM (excessive oily sweat) • Asclepias tuberosa (profuse sweat) • CINNAMOMUM CASSIA (thin, fair, firm, moist skin; spontaneous sweating and low fever—Huang) • Lobelia (high fever with profuse sweat) • MELISSA (almost specific for clammy palms) • MONARDA FISTULOSA (specific for generalized cool, clammy skin) • Platanus (twig, bark, or heartwood) • SAMBUCUS (blue, pale, clammy skin) • SALVIA (relaxed skin and nervous system, night sweats) • Verbena (profuse sweating) • Veronica (drowsiness; hot tea).

  Intermittent Fever (Chills and Fever, Influenza, Malaria): • ACHILLEA (sudden intense fever with chills; irregular chills) • Acorus (sudden flush of heat; chills with exhaustion) • AGRIMONIA (with pain) • ANGELICA (influenza, often with respiratory involvement; at beginning or end) • Aralia racemosa • Aristolochia (homeopathic; septic tendency) • Artemisia absinthium • ARTEMISIA ANNUA (specific for malaria) • Asclepias tuberosa • Betonica �
�� BUPLEURUM • CAPSICUM (stimulant; use at the start) • Ceanothus (spleen congestion and pain; glandular fever) • Centaurium • Centella (fatigue) • Chamomilla (one cheek red, the other pale; complains, whines) • Chelidonium • Chimaphila • Chionanthus • Cinnamomum spp. (fever/chills; bark in hot wine) • CINCHONA (tonic for debility following chills and fever) • CNICUS (intermittent chills; may originate in serious inflammation of organs) • Cornus florida • Dipsacus • ECHINACEA (malaria; continue for three weeks afterward to prevent relapse) • Eryngium (with upper respiratory infection) • Eucalyptus (malaria) • EUPATORIUM PERFOLIATUM (influenza, chills, crushing pain in bones, “aching all over”) • Filipendula (slowly developing) • Geum urbanum (chills and catarrh, initial onset, sore throat—Grieve) • Hypericum • Juglans cinerea • Ledum (cold, shivery conditions with chattering teeth) • Liriodendron • Marrubium (cold; constipation) • Menyanthes • Petroselinum • Populus tremuloides • Potentilla • Salix alba (gouty, rheumatic) • SAMBUCUS (beginning of influenza, with dry skin) • Taraxacum (disturbed sleep) • Tilia (nervous tension associated with flu) • Verbena (severe chills; skin won’t open; convulsions in children).

  Fever, Low-grade, Prolonged, Septic (stimulants and antiseptics): • Acacia • ACHILLEA (phlebitis, boils, abscesses; nonresistant pulse of febrile exhaustion) • Aesculus hip. (phlebitis) • ALLIUM SATIVA (external; mixed with egg white or other preparation, on sepsis) • Anthemis cotula (stimulant for low-grade fever, depressed vital powers, congestion of internal organs; cold, shrunken, shriveled skin surface) • Aralia racemosa (needs confirmation) • Aristolochia serpentaria (low-grade, septic, exhausted; skin atonic, circulation feeble; confirmed in flesh-eating bacterial fever; small or homeopathic doses) • AVENA (nervous exhaustion) • BAPTISIA (low-grade fever with putrid, sticky discharges, swollen glands, lack of circulation) • CALENDULA (infections, boils; external) • CARBO VEGETABILIS (homeopathic; never fully recovered from previous illness) • Carthamus (low-grade fever with skin eruptions; brings out eruptions) • Dicentra (general malaise and indisposition to exertion after protracted disease; with sluggishness of digestion, glands, kidneys, skin, circulation) • ECHINACEA (low immunity, exhaustion, low-grade fever, swollen veins, infected wounds, boils, abscesses) • Eupatorium perfoliatum • Eleutherococcus • Eupatorium purpureum (abscesses, purulent matter in system) • Hyssopus (low-grade infection and fever, dry skin) • Lycii (with fluid loss) • Phytolacca • PLANTAGO (draws out pus, infection; “digests” putrid tissue and “reincarnates” new tissue; infected roots of teeth; external, on boils and infected wounds) • Rehmannia (low-grade fever, wasting diseases, heat in the blood, hemorrhage during high fever, thirst, mouth/tongue sores, sore throat, restless and irritable mind; uncooked root) • Scrophularia (combines well with Rehmannia in the above conditions; clears lymphatic stagnation) • Solidago (low-grade fever, sores, tired kidneys following fever; relapse as waste tries to pass through kidneys).