Neem

Botanical Name: Azadirachta indica A. Juss. (older name Melia azadirachta)

Family: Meliaceae (Mahogany family)

Other Names: Nim · Margosa · Indian Lilac

Parts Used: Leaves, bark and twigs. The oil pressed from the seeds is used on the outside of the body.

Quick Look

Neem is the great shade tree of India, so widely used there that it is called the village dispensary. Every part of it is intensely bitter, cooling and cleansing. Reach for it first for the skin, when a rash is hot, itchy or infected, and for fungus, lice and biting insects. It is also an old remedy for the teeth and gums, for worms, and for fevers. It is a strong herb, for short use.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Skin. Its chief use. Neem is for skin trouble that itches, burns or is infected: eczema, psoriasis, acne, ringworm, athlete's foot and scabies. The diluted oil or a paste of the leaf is put on the skin, and the leaf is taken as well. The old physicians used the leaves for pustular skin diseases.

Lice & insects. The oil is worked into the hair and scalp for lice and dandruff, and a very little of it in a balm or spray keeps mosquitoes off.

Teeth & gums. In India the young twigs are chewed as toothbrushes, and Neem is an old remedy for toothache and sore, inflamed gums.

Worms. The juice of the leaves was given to expel worms.

Fevers. The bark had a name as a fever remedy, and a decoction of the leaves was given in the fevers that come and go.

Stomach & liver. The bark was used as a simple bitter, like Gentian, to wake the appetite, and the leaves were given in liver complaints. Herbalists use the leaf for a hot, sour, inflamed stomach and bowels.

Blood sugar. Herbalists use the leaf to help keep blood sugar steady.

Swollen glands. The leaves were used for swollen glands.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Powder · Tincture · Poultice

• Leaf powder: ¼ to 1 teaspoon a day, stirred into water or put in capsules. It is very bitter.
• Tincture: 1:5 in 25% alcohol, ¼ to 1 teaspoon, up to three times a day.
• Leaf paste: Mix the leaf powder with water to a paste. Spread it on the skin, leave it about twenty minutes until nearly dry, and rinse it off.
• Neem oil (store-bought): It is strong and strong-smelling. Stir ½ teaspoon into ¼ cup of coconut or olive oil and rub it on the skin or scalp. For the outside of the body only.
• For the teeth: Chew the end of a fresh twig to a brush.

Cautions

• Neem oil is for the outside of the body. Herbalists do not take it by mouth.
• Never give Neem oil to a child by mouth, and keep the bottle out of children's reach. In India, where the oil is a household remedy, infants and small children who were given it for a cough or a cold, or who swallowed it by accident, have suffered vomiting and seizures, and in some cases lasting harm or death.
• Avoid Neem in pregnancy and when trying to conceive, man or woman. It is said to lower fertility.
• Safety while nursing has not been established. Talk with a knowledgeable herbalist or care provider first.
• It may add to the effect of medicines for blood sugar and blood pressure.
• It is cooling, drying and very bitter. Herbalists do not give it to someone who is thin, cold and run down, and they use it for a few weeks, not for months. Stop if it brings on nausea or loose bowels.
• Be sure of the tree. Chinaberry (Melia azedarach), a look-alike cousin often planted in the South, is a different tree, and its fruit is poisonous.

Know the Plant

Neem is a broad-leaved evergreen of the mahogany family that can reach a hundred feet, with a wide, rounded crown. It bears small white flowers and a smooth, olive-shaped fruit up to three-quarters of an inch long. A tree may live more than two hundred years.

It probably began in Assam and Burma and now grows all over India, and it has been carried to Africa, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. In the United States there are small plantings in southern Florida, southern California and Arizona.

A Little History

Neem has been used in India for at least 4,500 years, and the tree has long been called the village dispensary. British physicians in India took it up: it was made official in the Pharmacopoeia of India, and the British Pharmaceutical Codex of 1911 listed Neem bark as a bitter to be used like Gentian, and in America King's American Dispensatory (1898) called the bark a bitter, astringent tonic. The old books often confused Neem with its cousin the Chinaberry or Pride of China, and the two are still mistaken for each other. In 1992 the United States National Research Council published a whole book on it, titled Neem: A Tree for Solving Global Problems.

Nettle

Botanical Name: Urtica dioica L.

Family: Urticaceae (Nettle family)

Other Names: Stinging Nettle · Common Nettle · Great Stinging Nettle

Parts Used: The leaves and young tops, gathered before flowering. The seed and the root are used as well.

Quick Look

Nettle is the stinging weed of rich ground that turns, once dried or cooked, into one of the most nourishing herbs we have. It is a mineral-rich food, a spring tonic and a builder of the blood. Reach for it when someone is run down or pale, for hay fever, for aching joints and gout, and for the kidneys and bladder. Herbalists say that when in doubt, choose Nettle.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Nourishment & blood. Nettle is rich in iron, calcium and magnesium in a form the body takes up easily. It is given for anemia, for weakness after illness, and as a daily strengthener. Nettle tea has long been a country spring medicine and blood purifier, and the young shoots were eaten to cure scurvy.

Hay fever & allergies. Herbalists rely on the leaf for hay fever and other allergies. It works best started a month or two before the season.

Joints & gout. Taken to help the kidneys carry off uric acid in arthritis, rheumatism and gout. The fresh plant was also put to work by its sting: aching joints were struck with it to draw warmth and blood to the part.

Kidneys & bladder. A tonic for the urinary system, used for water held in the body and for long-standing bladder trouble with mucus in the urine. The seed is counted a food for the kidneys.

Bleeding. The old physicians gave it for nosebleed and bleeding from the lungs, stomach or womb, and laid the leaves on bleeding wounds to stop the flow. Herbalists use it for heavy periods.

Bowels. Given for diarrhea and dysentery with much mucus.

Skin. Used inside and out for eczema and other stubborn rashes.

Nursing mothers. A long-trusted herb to increase and enrich breast milk.

Hair. A Nettle rinse was said to keep the hair from falling and make it soft and glossy.

The root. Herbalists use the root for an enlarged prostate.

The seed. Used to restore energy in the tired and worn out.

Food. The young tops are cooked like spinach. Samuel Pepys wrote of eating Nettle porridge and finding it very good.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Tea · Tincture · Powder · Decoction · Wash

• Tea: 2 teaspoons dried leaf to a cup of boiling water. Cover and steep 10–15 minutes. Drink 3 cups a day or more.
• Nourishing infusion: Put 1 ounce of dried leaf in a quart jar and fill it with just-boiled water. Cover and let it stand four to eight hours or overnight. Strain, and drink it within a day or two.
• Tincture: 1:5 in 30% alcohol, 1 teaspoon, three times a day.
• Powder: Grind the dried leaf fine. Stir 1 to 2 tablespoons into a smoothie, or shake it over eggs, soups and casseroles.
• In the kitchen: Cook the fresh young tops as you would spinach. Cooking or drying takes away the sting.
• Root decoction: Simmer ⅛ to ¼ ounce of dried root in a pint of water for 15–20 minutes. Drink it through the day.
• Seed: 1 to 2 teaspoons a day, sprinkled on food.
• Hair rinse: Simmer a handful of young Nettles in a quart of water for two hours. Strain and bottle it, and wet the scalp well with it every other night.

Cautions

• Nettle is a food and one of the safest herbs.
• The fresh plant stings. Wear gloves to gather it. Dock or plantain leaf rubbed on eases the sting.
• Gather the leaves before the plant flowers. Older leaves are said to irritate the urinary tract.
• It is drying, and too drying for some people. Drink plenty of water with it.
• Herbalists differ on Nettle in pregnancy. Many count the leaf tea a nourishing tonic for mother and child, and others advise against it. Talk with a knowledgeable herbalist or care provider first.
• Herbalists advise care alongside blood thinners, water pills, and medicine for blood sugar or blood pressure.
• Swelling from heart or kidney disease needs medical care, and is not a case for Nettle alone.

Know the Plant

Nettle is a perennial, two to four feet tall or more, with square stems and opposite, heart-shaped, sharply toothed leaves that taper to a point. The whole plant bristles with fine, hollow hairs that sting at a touch. Small greenish flowers hang from the leaf joints from June to September. It spreads by creeping yellow roots into dense patches.

It grows in rich, moist ground, in waste places, along wood edges and in gardens, across Europe, Asia and North America. The smaller Dwarf Nettle (Urtica urens) is used in the same way. The Dead-nettles, which look something like it but do not sting, belong to the mint family and are different herbs.

A Little History

The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon netel, perhaps from the word for needle. Tradition says that Roman soldiers brought Nettle seed to chilly Britain to rub on their cold limbs. Nettle has clothed people as well as fed them. The poet Campbell declared, "In Scotland, I have eaten nettles, I have slept in nettle sheets, and I have dined off a nettle tablecloth," and when cotton ran short in the First World War the German army made cloth from Nettle fiber. The Bible knows it as the weed of ruined places: "nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof" (Isaiah 34:13), where the plant meant is a larger and fiercer cousin of ours.

Nutmeg

Botanical Name: Myristica fragrans Houtt.

Family: Myristicaceae (Nutmeg family)

Other Names: Nux Moschata. Mace is the lacy red covering of the same seed, sold as a spice of its own.

Parts Used: The kernel of the seed (Nutmeg). The seed covering (Mace) is used in the same way.

Quick Look

Nutmeg is the warm, sweet spice of custards and eggnog, and a real medicine in the spice jar. A pinch settles a gassy, queasy stomach and checks loose bowels. A little more, taken at suppertime, is one of the herbalist's best helps for the person who wakes in the night. It is a spice to respect: kitchen amounts are safe, and large doses are not.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Stomach. Used for gas, nausea and vomiting, and for cramping pain in the stomach and bowels. The old pharmacists put it in other medicines to cover their taste and keep them from griping.

Loose bowels. An old remedy for diarrhea. It is stirred with cinnamon into applesauce.

Sleep. Its chief use among herbalists today. It suits the person who falls asleep but wakes in the small hours with a busy mind. Nutmeg works slowly: it takes two to six hours to act and its effect lasts about eight, so it is taken at supper and not at bedtime.

Nerves. Herbalists use it to calm and soothe frayed, tense nerves.

Sore chest. Grated Nutmeg spread on a greased cloth and laid on warm was said to give prompt relief to a sore chest.

Piles. Grated Nutmeg mixed with lard was an old ointment for piles.

Kitchen. Nutmeg and Mace season custards, pies, eggnog and chai.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Powder

• Grate it fresh. Buy whole nutmegs and grate them as needed. Ground Nutmeg loses its strength within a week or so.
• For the stomach: A pinch, up to ¼ teaspoon, in food, warm milk or tea.
• For sleep: ¼ to ½ teaspoon of freshly grated Nutmeg in warm milk or applesauce at supper.
• A night drink: Simmer half water and half milk with a little ginger, cardamom and Nutmeg.
• An old ointment for piles: Grated Nutmeg worked into lard.

Cautions

• In the amounts used in cooking, Nutmeg is safe for everyone.
• Large doses are another matter. The old physicians saw stupor and delirium from about 1 to 1½ tablespoons of ground Nutmeg taken at once, the weight of one or two whole nutmegs, and deaths from more. The signs are headache, vomiting, coldness and heavy drowsiness.
• Because it acts slowly, do not take more when nothing seems to happen in the first hour or two.
• In pregnancy and nursing keep to the amounts used in cooking. Herbalists advise against larger doses.
• Herbalists advise care alongside sleeping pills, and medicines for blood pressure or depression.
• Sleeplessness that goes on for weeks needs medical attention.

Know the Plant

The Nutmeg tree is a tropical evergreen, twenty to thirty feet tall, with bright green leaves and small yellowish flowers, the male and female on separate trees. The fruit looks like a yellowish peach. When ripe it splits to show a brown seed wrapped in a scarlet, lacy net, which is the Mace. Inside the seed's thin shell is the kernel, the Nutmeg itself, whitish and veined with red-brown.

It is native to the tiny Banda Islands of Indonesia, the old Spice Islands. Today much of it is grown in Grenada in the West Indies. It is a tree of the wet tropics.

A Little History

For centuries every Nutmeg in the world came from the Banda Islands. About 1151 Hildegard of Bingen wrote that if a person eats Nutmeg "it will open up his heart, make his judgment free." After Constantinople fell in 1453 the nations of Europe raced one another to the spice lands, and a small bag of Nutmegs was said to be worth a sailor's fortune. The Dutch East India Company seized the islands and guarded its monopoly with great cruelty, bringing disaster on the islanders. In 1667 the Dutch gave up Manhattan to the English in a treaty that left them the Nutmeg trade.