Oats

Botanical Name: Avena sativa L.

Family: Poaceae (Grass family)

Other Names: Oatstraw · Milky Oats · Oat Tops · Common Oat · Groats

Parts Used: Three parts, each with its own use: the fresh green seed heads in their milky stage (Milky Oats), the dried green stalk (Oatstraw), and the ripe grain (oatmeal).

Quick Look

Oats are the common grain of the breakfast table, and one of the best restoratives for worn-out nerves. They do not sedate. They feed and rebuild, slowly, over weeks. Reach for Milky Oats when someone is frazzled, burned out or grieving, for Oatstraw as a daily mineral tea, for oatmeal when the stomach needs gentle food, and for an oat bath when the skin itches.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Worn-out nerves. The great use. The old physicians ranked Oats among the most important restoratives for nervous exhaustion, and gave them to overworked ministers, physicians and lawyers, and for the exhaustion that comes from great anxiety and worry. Herbalists give Milky Oats today for burnout, for grief, and for mothers depleted after a birth, and Oatstraw to calm frazzled nerves.

Sleep & mood. Used for the anxiety, low spirits and poor sleep that come with exhaustion.

Getting well. Given after long fevers and wasting illness to bring back strength. Oatmeal gruel is an easily digested food for those getting over an exhausting illness.

Breaking a habit. Oats were widely praised for helping people give up tobacco, alcohol and opium. The old physicians did not agree that it worked, but herbalists still use Milky Oats to steady the nerves through a withdrawal.

Heart. Given for a weak, fluttering heart that goes with nervous exhaustion.

Vitality. An old remedy for lost sexual vigor in the worn-out and overworked.

Bones, hair & nails. Oatstraw is rich in calcium, magnesium and silica, and is drunk daily to build bones, hair, teeth and nails.

Stomach & bowels. Oatmeal gruel soothes an irritated stomach and bowels. Oatmeal browned and brewed like coffee was a drink to settle nausea and stop vomiting, and was given in diarrhea.

Skin. An oat bath soothes itchy, irritated skin, as in poison ivy and chickenpox.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Tincture · Tea · Bath

• Milky Oats tincture: Made from the fresh green tops, 1:2 in 75% alcohol. Take ½ to 1 teaspoon, two or three times a day. Herbalists count dried Milky Oats far weaker.
• An old tip: Taken in hot water by day it acts quickly. Taken in cold water at bedtime its effect lasts longer.
• Oatstraw infusion: Put 1 ounce of dried Oatstraw in a quart jar and fill it with boiling water. Cover and let it stand four hours or overnight. Strain, and drink 1 to 4 cups a day.
• Quick Oatstraw tea: 1–3 teaspoons to a cup of boiling water, steeped 15 minutes.
• Oat bath: Tie oats in a muslin bag or a clean sock and hang it under the running tap, then squeeze the milky water over the skin. Or pour in a half gallon of Oatstraw infusion.
• Gruel: Boil 1 ounce of oatmeal in 3 pints of water until it is reduced to a quart, and strain.
• Give it time. Some feel Milky Oats within days, but the deeper change is often noticed at about six weeks. Oatstraw is taken for months.

Cautions

• Herbalists count Oats safe for everyone, from babies to pregnant and nursing mothers to the elderly.
• The exception is celiac disease. Oats are often processed alongside wheat and may carry its gluten, and the oat's own protein troubles some who are sensitive to gluten. Those who must avoid gluten should use certified gluten-free oats or leave them alone.
• A few people are allergic to oats.
• Deep exhaustion or a low mood that does not lift needs medical attention.

Know the Plant

Oats are an annual grass, two to four feet tall, with smooth, hollow stems, long rough leaves, and loose, nodding heads of dangling seeds. For about a week after flowering the green seeds are in the "milky" stage, when a squeezed seed gives a drop of white sap. That is when the tops are gathered for medicine.

Oats are grown in nearly all the northern temperate lands. The Wild Oat (Avena fatua) is used in the same way.

A Little History

Oats are thought to have come from the Fertile Crescent and to have been first farmed in Bronze Age Europe, and the ancient Greeks are said to have been the first to make a porridge of them. Their fame as a nerve medicine is American. Finley Ellingwood counted the tincture a stimulant, a sedative and a nourishing tonic that restored worn nerves, and noted that it formed no habit. It was much heralded as a help in breaking the morphine habit, though Harvey Felter judged in 1922 that the claim had not held up. The herbalist Henriette Kress still gives Milky Oats to the overworked, with a reminder that "graveyards are filled with indispensable people."

Oregano

Botanical Name: Origanum vulgare L.

Family: Lamiaceae (Mint family)

Other Names: Wild Marjoram · Common Marjoram · Origanum · Winter Sweet · Joy of the Mountain

Parts Used: Leaves and flowering tops

Quick Look

Oregano is the hot, fragrant herb of the pizza and the pasta pot, and the old herbals knew it as Wild Marjoram. It is a warming, drying herb that fights infection. Reach for it when a cold settles in with chills and a stuffed head or chest, when the stomach is gassy and slow, and as a wash or rinse for the skin and mouth. The dried herb in the kitchen jar is medicine enough for most homes.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Stomach & gas. Taken for bloating, belching, cramping and food that sits heavy. An old English herbal said it strengthens the stomach and is good for habitual colic.

Colds, coughs & chest. Herbalists give it for colds, flu, bronchitis and asthma. The hot tea is sipped and the steam breathed in to open a stuffed head and loosen the chest. The old physicians gave the infusion for chronic cough.

Fevers. A warm infusion brings on a sweat. At the start of measles it was given to bring on a gentle sweat and bring out the rash.

Infection & skin. The tea is used as a wash for infected cuts and slow-healing wounds, and an ointment of the herb is used for ringworm and athlete's foot.

Mouth & throat. The tea is a gargle for a sore throat and a rinse for sore, infected gums. For toothache, a drop of the oil on a bit of cotton was pressed into the hollow tooth.

Headache. A tea of the fresh plant was given for nervous headache, and Oregano is rubbed into the temples for a tension headache.

Women's cycles. Used to bring on a period that is late, especially one held back by a chill, and to ease cramps.

Aches & swellings. The dried herb was heated in cloth bags and laid on swellings, rheumatic joints and a colicky belly. The oil went into liniments for sprains and bruises.

Kitchen. It seasons sauces, soups and stews, especially those made with tomatoes.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Tea · Tincture · Steam · Gargle · Oil Infusion · Fomentation

• Tea: 1–2 teaspoons dried herb to a cup of boiling water. Cover and steep 10–15 minutes. Drink it hot, up to three times a day. Honey helps the taste.
• Tincture: 1:4 in 40% alcohol, ½ to ¾ teaspoon, three times a day.
• Steam: Put 1–3 tablespoons of herb in a bowl with 4–6 cups of boiling water. Let it cool a little, tent a towel over the head, and breathe the steam.
• Gargle or mouth rinse: Make the tea, let it cool to warm, and use it several times a day.
• Infused oil: Put 4 tablespoons of well-dried Oregano in a clean, dry jar and cover with 1 cup of olive oil. Keep it in a warm place for two to four weeks, shaking it every day or two, then strain. It keeps about six months. Rub it on the chest, the temples or sore muscles, or use it in food.
• Hot bag: Fill a small cloth bag with the dried herb, heat it, and lay it on the aching part.

Cautions

• As a kitchen herb, Oregano is very safe.
• This page is about the herb. Oregano essential oil is a different thing and far stronger. It can burn the skin and the mouth, and herbalists do not take it by mouth except under a practitioner's care. Store-bought "oil of oregano" is concentrated too, and herbalists keep it to short use.
• Avoid medicinal amounts in pregnancy, because Oregano has long been used to bring on the menses. The amounts used in cooking are fine.
• While nursing, the amounts used in cooking are considered safe. The safety of larger amounts has not been established. Talk with a knowledgeable herbalist or care provider first.
• Large amounts can upset the stomach.
• Those allergic to plants of the mint family may react to it.
• Herbalists advise care alongside blood thinners and medicine for blood sugar. It may hinder the uptake of iron, so take the two a couple of hours apart.
• An infection that spreads, or a cough or fever that hangs on, needs medical attention.

Know the Plant

Oregano is a bushy perennial of the mint family, one to two feet tall, with creeping roots and square, hairy, purplish stems. The leaves grow in pairs, broadly oval, about an inch long and dotted with tiny oil glands. From June to October it bears crowded clusters of small flowers, purplish-pink or white, set among purple bracts.

It is native to Europe, the Mediterranean hills and western Asia, and grows on dry banks and limy ground. In America it grows along roadsides and in dry fields. In the garden it wants sun and dry, well-drained soil, and it is spiciest where summers are hot and dry. Gather it just as it comes into flower.

Several plants share the name. Sweet Marjoram (Origanum majorana) is a milder, sweeter cousin kept for cooking. Greek Oregano is a hotter kind of the same plant. Mexican Oregano is a different plant altogether, a Lippia.

A Little History

The name comes from two Greek words, oros, mountain, and ganos, joy: the joy of the mountain. The Greeks used it inside and out, and laid it on hot as a fomentation. In England the dried herb hung in Kentish cottages for Marjoram tea, its flowering tops dyed wool purple, and before hops came in it flavored and kept the ale. John Hill wrote in 1812 that it well deserved a place in the garden. The "oil of origanum" of the old drug shops was mostly made from thyme. Americans are said to have taken to it as a seasoning after the Second World War, when soldiers came home from Italy. A cousin that grows on the walls and rocks of the Holy Land is thought by some Bible scholars to be the hyssop of Scripture: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean" (Psalm 51:7).

Oregon Grape

Botanical Name: Berberis aquifolium Pursh (also called Mahonia aquifolium)

Family: Berberidaceae (Barberry family)

Other Names: Oregon Grape Root · Mountain Grape · Holly-leaved Barberry · Mahonia

Parts Used: The root, and the yellow bark of the root and lower stem. The berries are a food.

Quick Look

Oregon Grape is the holly-leaved evergreen of the Northwest woods, with a bright yellow, very bitter root. It is a cooling, drying bitter for the stomach and liver, and the old doctors' favorite for stubborn skin trouble. Reach for it when digestion is slow and the liver sluggish, for scaly or pimply skin, and as a gargle or wash. Herbalists use it in place of Goldenseal, which is scarce.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Stomach & digestion. An excellent bitter and tonic for the stomach. It is taken for poor appetite, a coated tongue and bad breath, bloating after meals and trouble digesting fats. A few drops of tincture before meals help digestion.

Liver & bowels. Used to wake a sluggish liver and start the flow of bile. With it the bowels tend to become regular, and the old physicians paired it with Cascara for constipation.

Skin. Its best-known use. The old physicians gave it by mouth, patiently, for psoriasis, eczema and other scaly or weeping skin trouble, and it was said to clear persistent acne with nothing put on the skin at all. Herbalists still use it this way, and put a cream or wash of the root on the skin as well.

Infections of the gut. Given for infectious diarrhea and for infections of the stomach.

Mouth & throat. A strong decoction is gargled for a sore throat and used as a rinse for sore mouths and infected gums.

Sinuses & mucous membranes. The old books give it for long-standing mucous complaints, and herbalists use it for stubborn sinus trouble.

Bladder. Included in herbal blends for bladder infections.

Wounds. The cooled decoction is used to bathe wounds, boils and itchy skin.

The berries. Sour and edible. They are sweetened and made into jam, jelly, pie and wine.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Decoction · Tincture · Gargle · Wash

• Decoction: Simmer 1 teaspoon of dried root in a cup of water for 15 minutes and strain. Take ¼ to ½ cup, three times a day. It is very bitter.
• Tincture: 1:5 in 60% alcohol, ¼ to ½ teaspoon, three times a day.
• As a bitter: A few drops of tincture on the tongue before meals.
• Gargle or mouth rinse: A strong decoction, or a little tincture in water, several times a day.
• Wash: Make the decoction stronger, let it cool, and bathe the skin with it.
• How long: Herbalists generally take it for two or three weeks at a time and then take a break, because it is very drying.
• Buying: Good root is bright yellow. Root that has faded to cream is weak.

Cautions

• Avoid it in pregnancy. Its alkaloids are said to stimulate the womb, and its berberine may worsen jaundice in a newborn.
• While nursing, use it only with the guidance of a knowledgeable herbalist or care provider.
• It is not for long-term use, and it is too cooling and drying for someone who is cold and depleted.
• Large doses may cause nausea, loose bowels or an upset stomach.
• Herbalists do not give it where a bile duct is blocked or gallstones are lodged, and they use care in liver disease.
• It may add to the effect of medicines for blood sugar and blood pressure, and berberine can change how the body handles a number of other medicines. Check with a pharmacist if you take prescription medicine.
• On the skin it causes a rash or burning in a few people.
• A spreading infection, or yellowing of the skin or eyes, needs medical attention.

Know the Plant

Oregon Grape is an evergreen shrub, three to six feet tall, with leathery, glossy leaves made up of five to nine holly-like leaflets edged with spines. Clusters of bright yellow flowers open in early spring, followed by dusty blue-purple berries in bunches like small grapes. The root and the inner bark are bright yellow. It is not a holly and not a grape.

It is native from British Columbia to northern California and east to Idaho and Montana, where it grows under open conifer forest. It is hardy and widely planted in gardens.

Several kinds are used alike, among them the low Creeping Oregon Grape (Berberis repens). Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) is its Old World cousin, a bitter yellow root used in much the same way. Goldenseal is no relation, but shares the yellow alkaloid berberine.

Oregon Grape is on the United Plant Savers "to watch" list. Buy root that was grown or carefully gathered, and if you dig your own, take only a few side roots and leave the plant.

A Little History

Native peoples of the Northwest ate the sour berries, used the plant as medicine, and dyed baskets, wool and porcupine quills yellow with the roots and bark. Botanists named it Mahonia for Bernard McMahon, a Philadelphia nurseryman, and it was carried to England in 1823. Western miners used the low-growing kinds as blood purifiers. It came into general notice in the late 1800s, helped by the many papers of Dr. J. H. Bundy of Colusa, California, and King's American Dispensatory (1898) praised it as an alterative and tonic. Its first fame was as a remedy for syphilis, though Felter doubted it acted on the disease directly. Ellingwood assured his readers, "It is not a poisonous agent." In 1899 Oregon made it the state flower.