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Cranesbill |
Cranesbill Scientific Name: Geranium maculatum Part Used: Root In a word: Dries up diarrhea Uses: Diarrhea It’s hard to be on the run when you have them. In most cities, it’s a challenge to find a public toilet, let alone one that you would want to use! When you’ve got diarrhea, you want a medicine that will stop the problem as quickly as possible. While it may not be pleasant, diarrhea is not necessarily a bad thing. There are two kinds of diarrhea: chronic and occasional. Chronic diarrhea is obviously a problem, for reasons I’ve already mentioned. However, in the case of occasional diarrhea, we need to change our attitude. Generally speaking, when you have a case of the runs, your body is desperately trying to get rid of something that has made its way into the gut that has no business being there. This could be a bacteria, either from an airborne source, as in what we call an "intestinal flu," or from a food source, as in food poisoning. In either case, diarrhea is the body’s way of getting the offending items out of the GUT. Sometimes the body goes overboard in achieving this aim, but understand that diarrhea is the body’s attempt to do you a favor. Diarrhea is a symptom, not an illness. It indicates something is amiss, and you ought to take notice. There is also, of course, what is known as nervous diarrhea, and people suffering from this affliction know exactly what it is. Some stressful situation occurs, and before you know it, you find yourself locked in a bathroom for hours on end. I suppose that this is one way of hiding out, literally, from whatever is getting on your nerves. Our second sort, occasional diarrhea, is a horse of a different color, though the symptom is the same. Tannins dry out the Gastro-Intestinal Tract and also destroy bacteria, and if your diarrhea is caused by bacteria, using cranesbill has the added benefit of getting rid of the source of your problem. In the case of occasional diarrhea, the unspeakable condition is potentially dangerous, particularly in children. As the body evacuates the bowels of whatever nasty creature has moved in and set up shop, it also junks everything else down there, nutrients and fluids alike, and children especially don’t have that much to spare. The body can’t selectively purge – it all has to go. If the condition persists for more than 24 hours, you need to consult a healthcare provider to find out exactly what is going on. The plant we will be using for both chronic and occasional diarrhea is called American cranesbill, Geranium maculatum. As the scientific name reveals, cranesbill is a member of the geranium family, a family that includes the potted plant found in front of houses around the world. If you are now eyeing your potted geranium as an emergency source of diarrhea medication, don’t event think about it. Not all geraniums are good for diarrhea, and the one decorating your stoop is definitely in the ornamental class. Cranesbill was initially used by the Native Americans for the treatment of diarrhea, and when Europeans colonized North America, they soon discovered it and added it to their medicine bags. In dramatic recreations of life in colonial America, one of the many day-to-day realities left off the silver screen is chronic diarrhea. In the New World, Europeans came across all kinds of bacteria strange to their intestinal tracts, and they suffered terribly. One of the leading killers among colonials as they moved around the globe was dysentery, the long-play version of the affliction, and cranesbill’s ability to stop diarrhea saved many colonists’ lives. American cranesbill has a thick, tough perennial root and erect, greenish-gray stems. The plant grows from one to two feet high and is quite tolerant of the cold, unlike its fashionable relation. The spreading, hairy leaves have deeply cleft lobes, and the large flowers are usually purple and grow mostly in pairs. Less showy than those of the garden variety, the flowers are nevertheless attractive. There are several varieties of cranesbill, though they all have the similar medicinal properties: they stop diarrhea from annoying the owner of the bowels in question. The woodland plant was transported from North America to Europe, where it was received with great favor. People were forever returning to capital cities such as London from colonies in Africa and Asia with life-threatening cases of the runs. The plant got its name from the resemblance of the long, narrow seedpod to the bill on a crane, and European doctors considered it a very snappy treatment. If you were to peruse an herbal medical text from the past century, you would find that the doctors of the day loved cranesbill for its ability to stop the trots. In the eye-catching 1895 title A Compendium of Botanic Materia Medica for Use of Students of Medicine and Pharmacy, Dr Samuel Waggaman writes: "The rhizome of the geranium has some tonic properties, but its main virtues lie in its powerful astringent properties, and it is highly recommended in diarrhea and dysentery." If that isn’t riveting enough for you, here’s more along the same lines, from another medical text dating to 1920, which called cranesbill: "A powerful astringent, and one of the best remedies for diarrhea, chronic dysentery, cholera infantum, hemorrhage, etc. The decoction is made from the underground stem. It improves the appetite and digestion, and promotes nutrition." This business about cranesbill’s improving the digestion, which we can assume to mean the overall condition of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as curing the diarrhea, is a widely held notion and should be of some interest to the person suffering from chronic diarrhea. Sad to say, you have to rip the plant out of its happy soil home and kill it to harvest the medicinal portion, which is its rhizome or root. These rhizomes contain gallic acid and tannins, which act as an astringent on the mucous membrane of the lower intestine. The chemicals contained in cranesbill literally dry up the mucous membranes that manufacture the diarrhea. Tannins, as I mentioned in the section on chamomile, act chemically by binding protean cells closer together than they would naturally be. Not only do they dry out the GIT, they also destroy bacteria, and if your diarrhea is caused by bacteria, using cranesbill has the added benefit of getting rid of the source of your problem. Dr. Waggaman gave the following prescription for diarrhea in 1895: "The decoction is made by adding to one pint and a half of boiling water one ounce of the coarsely powdered root and boiling down to one pint, the dose of which is one wine glassful three times per day." Modern herbalists use the same prescription, and it has been proven safe over the course of history. Safe it is, a taste treat it is not. If you were contemplating softening the blow by adding a little milk to your cranesbill tea, think again. Milk is a protein, and this means that the tannins will bind with it and thus be rendered useless to the intestinal tract. I’m afraid this one needs to be taken straight. The physicians of the past century felt that cranesbill was equally appropriate in the case of chronic or occasional diarrhea. As Dr John Fyfe noted in 1904: "It is employed chiefly in chronic and subacute bowel disorders, diarrhea, dysentery, and cholera infantum, when the discharges are profuse and debilitating. In dysentery and infusion of geranium is employed, which is made by infusing one ounce of the crushed root in one pint of boiling water." In other words, when diarrhea is the problem, cranesbill is the answer. Practitioners’ Advice When you find yourself with diarrhea, cranesbill, taken three times a day, will solve the problem more often than not. Remember, though, that if diarrhea is not normally a part of your life and it lasts for more than two days, you must see a health-care practitioner to find out what is causing it. There are some pretty nasty food-poisoning bugs out there, and you don’t want to let any of them hang around too long. Use your common sense; if you are not getting any better with the cranesbill, get professional help.
QUICK REVIEW History: Ancient European treatment for diarrhea Science: Contains tannins that dry up digestive secretions Practitioners opinion: Very mild and suitable for adults and children Directions: Tincture (1:5, 25% alcohol): 4ml 3 times daily |
