Red Osier Dogwood as medicine and tincture:

Red Osier Dogwood as medicine and tincture:

            It’s that time of year again, the time to harvest bark from woody shrubs and trees, for tincturing! This past year, I was involved in a local herbal program, called “3 Seasons of Herbal Medicine”, taught by Lise Wolff. Lise is a very experienced herbalist, teacher, and one of several herbalists in Minnesota that are registered with the AHG, American Herbalists Guild. From this course, I learned much about medicinal plants and their uses, as well as how to harvest and make medicine.

            One of the few barks we harvested in this course, was Red Osier Dogwood, which must be collected when it is very cold, or as Lise mentioned before the first thunderstorm of the year. Red Osier Dogwood, also known as Red Twig, Kanikanik or Kinikenick (spelling varies), whose botanical name is Cornus sericea and C. serivea spp. sericea.  With Native Americans being the primary people that use this herb, here are some major uses of Red Osier, specifically Cornus sericea spp. sericea. This plant is used to treat eye, lung and pregnancy related ailments, and pain. The Cree use it for sore eyes, the fruit to treat snow-blindness and pith for cataracts. The Iroquois use the inner bark for hemorrhages, pain, headaches, chest congestion, sore throats, coughs and fevers. When smoked with tobacco it helps to treat lung sickness; and cleanse the blood and improve circulation when mixed with Chokecherry or Alder bark. Red Osier is used to prevent frequent pregnancies, by the Okanagan-Colville tribe, and an inner-bark poultice, when applied to a woman’s back and belly, helps “heal a woman’s insides”, after childbirth (Moerman). When mixed with warm ash as a painkiller; and the decoction of the inner bark treated rashes, sores, diarrhea and poison ivy. Lastly, it is smoked in ceremonies by the Apache, and the Blackfoot tribe would put the ‘berry spittle’ on arrows and musket balls to make the wounded that were shot by it infected.

Materials for Bark Tincture Making

            Back to my course learnings, Lise also informed us that Native Americans used this bark for treating headaches, but besides in their culture, this herb represents reflection, observation, and is a ‘third eye’ remedy, which symbolizes intuition. As such, this herb is a very good remedy in treating paranoia, irrational fears, P.T.S.D. and hyper vigilance. Through seeing her own patients, Lise found that Red Osier Dogwood helped young children that felt like they were constantly being watched, or were going to be kidnapped; so this herb is also for social phobias. It is believed in Chinese Medicine that what causes this paranoia is a lack of ‘shen’ in a person. TCM also uses Red Osier to treat excessive menstruation blood, kidney weakness, and replenishes and cleanses the kidneys and blood. Lastly, Lise informed us that it is also a lung ailment, which can be symbolized by where the berry stems in the fall, based on the Doctrine of Signatures (believing plants represent what they treat—walnuts for brain health).

            During our class on the day we harvested and learned about this plant, we took a small nibble of the fresh bark and overall this is what we felt: mellow, but very alert an clear headed, like taking a glass of wine without the fuzzy-feeling; also a numb, warm feeling at the base of my skull at in my 3^rd eye region.

Directions for Bark Tincture Making:

Lise taught us to use the outer bark for tincture-making, and to have 1 part fresh bark, to 4-5 parts alcohol (vodka or brandy-80 to 100 proof preferred).

So what you need for tincture making (see above picture)
includes:
-small jar with lid
-paring knife
-cutters for cutting small twigs from the shrub
-labels and markers or pencils
-80 or 100 proof vodka (or brandy)   

What you will do is gently cut off the outer bark, and take those pieces and put them in your small jar. Once you have cut off all the bark on the small twigs, you will put them in your jar and for every 'part' of bark (amount) you will add 4-5 times as much vodka.



Red Osier bark tincture (Cornus sericea)
after only a few hours

WARNING: ALWAYS consult a physician before considering to take herbs. Do not ingest or apply topically, anything from outside before consulting a experienced botanist, forester and or herbalist. Herbs are not to be taken in place of/instead of drugs, if you have any health issues and are interested in taking herbs please consult your doctor.

References:

-Lise Wolff  http://www.herbalistlisewolff.com/

-American Herbalists Guild website  http://www.americanherbalistsguild.com/

-For information regarding other species of Dogwood, see “Indian Herbalogy of North America” by Alma R. Hutchens

-http://www.plants.usda.gov/java/nameSearch

Works Cited

Cornus Sericea. N.d. Photograph. Http://classes.hortla.wsu.edu. Web. 2 Feb. 2013. <http://classes.hortla.wsu.edu/hort231/List03/Slide9.JPG>.

Cornus Sericea. N.d. Photograph. Wikipedia. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Web. 3 Feb. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornus_sericea>.

Moerman, Daniel E., and Daniel E. Moerman. Native American Medicinal Plants: An Ethnobotanical Dictionary. Portland, Or.: Timber, 2009. 155-58. Print.