2.) Pine Medicine
During our medicine walk, Dennis pointed out a few different pine trees and gave us the download on the myriad uses that this forest dweller has to offer.
The pitch:
Scraping off a bit of the sticky ooze from the bark, he explained that this delicious smelling pine pitch has powerful antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. Dennis often uses this as quick wilderness first aid for cuts, slivers, and burns.
The bark:
The inner bark can be eaten as a survival food in times of severe hardship or if you are lost in the woods for an extended period of time. It can also be used as an expectorant to lubricate the respiratory tract and ease a bad cough.
The needles:
But the most cherished part of the pine, at least by Dennis, is the needle. He explained that the young pine needles are a great source of vitamin C, A, E, and a host of B vitamins. They also have strong antimutagenic, antioxidant and antiproliferative properties, which help in preventing the growth of cancer cells.
Dennis told us a few stories of western explorers who were bedridden on ships, dying of scurvy, who were saved by indigenous healers with spruce needles. He also said that during the Spanish influenza the folks who ate pine needles didn’t become ill, and the ones who didn’t did.
Dennis shared a ton of forest medicine wisdom that day, but as we were investigating a wild tobacco plant he said something off-hand that reassured me that he wasn’t giving away too much of his sacred ancestral wisdom.
Staring up into the trees, Dennis said, “There are certain plants obviously that can’t be shared with the masses, but these are not them. If they were, I wouldn’t be talking about them. They may be exploited and they’re that valuable. They’re both culturally valuable and commercially valuable – a combination that can lead to bad things.”
He told us that for a westerner to ever gain access to those types of secrets, they need to spend a lifetime building trust with the tribes again. A trust that was violated too many times to be given back lightly.
The oak and the pine. Two trees that most of us think we know, but perhaps we’ve only scratched the surface.
Stay curious,
Nick Polizzi
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