Juniper

Juniper

Native to: Europe, Middle East, Asia / India, North America, South America

Uses: General Tonic

The story of juniper is filled with history. In Europe 200 years ago, juniper was thought to be extremely strengthening to the body: it was administered to the sick to restore, and to the well to maintain good health.

Juniper’s most common usage was in a liqueur called junivere, made from juniper berries. People found that when the berries were collected and floated in alcohol, the health agent in the berries was transferred to the liquid, which is more readily consumed than the berries. They’re actually more like pine cones (the juniper is a relation of the pine tree) than what we usually associate with the word "berry." Their flavor is quite similar to that of a pine cone, and about as palatable – you don’t just pick them off the tree and have a good chew.

The best junivere was said to be made by the Dutch. The liqueur was one of the most popular tonics in Europe at the time Europeans began colonizing the world, and as they traveled the globe, it came with them. As nasty as it was for the white man to move into other people’s countries and take over for financial exploitation, the native diseases they encountered there were almost as bad, and administered a little justice. Death rates were phenomenal, folks became extremely health- or, more importantly, staying-well-conscious, and junivere was but one of the many tonics or restoratives which became popular in the colonies.

The various Bombay gins now sold trace their origins back to India and the time when juniper and tonic water were taken on a daily basis to avoid coming down with malaria.

The gin and tonic dates to this era. As the British plundered India, they fell subject to malaria. The preventative medicine of the day was a combination of juniper berries in the form of gin, the British equivalent of the Dutch junivere, and water flavored with quinine, the leading anti-malarial agent. Though the beverage has become a country club favorite, its roots are purely medicinal. The various Bombay gins now sold trace their origins back to India and the time when juniper and tonic water were taken on a daily basis to avoid coming down with malaria.

Today, the berries used as the flavoring agent in gin come from the European juniper bush, Juniperus communis, but the juniper family has a number of relations worldwide, and many of these have been recognized for their power to heal. The ancient Israelites are said to have known the juniper, as it grows in the mountains all over the Near East, and the Arabs of today use the oil of the plant to treat liver afflictions and as a general tonic.

The people of India were already quite familiar with the plant long before the British arrived; they believe the berries to be a tonic, stimulating, and especially good for the kidneys. They also toss them into the curry pot for health and flavor.

In North America, the Micmac and Malecite Indians, native to the maritime provinces of Canada, used Juniperus communis for sprains, wounds, tuberculosis, ulcers both internal and external, consumption, and rheumatism. Their general belief was that the juniper hardened the body and made it better at fighting off illness. Less universally accepted, but perhaps more intriguing is the use to which juniper berries are put by practitioners of hoodoo in the Louisiana bayou. St. Joseph’s mixture, which also includes buds from the garden of Gilead (poplar buds), berries of fish (bayberries), wishing beans (tonka beans), Japanese scented lucky beans (jequirity beans), and star anise, features the pinecone-like fruits. Of course, as witch doctors tend to be cagey people, it’s hard to track down the exact purpose of the ointment and the nature of its various ingredients, but all of them are aromatic, and the potion is used in conjuring - a before-magic bath splash, if you will.

In South America, a different juniper is used for various conditions and as a general tonic. The notion of making booze with juniper berries is obviously a popular one – the South Americans brew up a cocktail called ade, which they take for staying well. Whereas the European gin is merely flavored with juniper berries, the South American version is actually fermented from juniper berries mixed with sugar and, in some countries, aloe vera. The berries are also made into jams and marmalades, an objectionable notion if you ask me. Imagine a blob of sweetened pine cones smeared on your breakfast toast. To each his own.

In case you should ever find yourself in a situation where you are being attacked by parasitic catfish, juniper may help you out. It seems that the Cuna Indians have a fretful time with a variety of fish that swim up and attach themselves to the genitals to suck blood. When you’re out for a bath, this can mean the end of the party, and so the Cuna smear themselves with the berries to repel the nasty varmints. Between piranhas, these catfish, and boa constrictors, I think on my next trip to South America I’ll stick to the hotel pool.

The South Americans, along with the rest of the world, use ground berries and other parts of the juniper as what is essentially a local antibiotic to treat wounds and sores. There is some scientific basis to this as the phenol contained in the plant is actually a bacteria killer which would indeed keep a wound safe from infection.

Despite the fact that eating juniper berries is like chewing pine-flavored gum, they have been used for food at various points in history. The Native Americans preferred the California juniper (Juniperus californica), the Utah juniper (Juniperus utahensis), and the check-barked or alligator juniper (Juniperus pachyphlaea). When I say food, I should add that the berries were not eaten the way we eat strawberries. Instead, they were dried, ground into a pine-scented meal, then shaped into patties, and fried. This gets the bonus yuck rating in my book. Apparently, though, the cakes would keep the body and soul together, they were easy to digest, and the Native Americans found that these juniper fritters stimulated the flow of urine in a big way.

Apart from its use as a food and a tonic, the Native Americans used juniper for gynecological health. The Zunis made a tea from the toasted branches to relax a woman’s muscles before childbirth and to speed her recovery from the delivery. The Tewa Indians burned the branches in the dwelling of a woman who had just given birth. The Spanish Americans, who learned of the native plant from various indigenous tribes, advised that women drink a cup or so of the tea a month before their babies were due to assure a safe delivery. In addition, the same Southwesterners used the tea to treat an inflamed stomach and relieve muscle spasms.

Not to get personal or anything, but did you ever notice that a good gin and tonic sends you to the rest room more than usual? I know that bathroom talk is a no-no in Western society since none of us do that. However, in the interest of science, I raise the topic. Juniper is, in fact, a fairly powerful diuretic. The berries and the liquors flavored with them flush out the kidneys, which is generally a good thing to have happen in our toxic-ridden world. Some herbalists feel that juniper berries will further irritate existing kidney problems, so if you have kidney troubles, you may want to avoid this one.

Speaking of tidying up our interiors, juniper also acts as an intestinal antiseptic. As Europeans colonized the world, they came into contact with what we now call Montezuma’s Revenge. The root cause of this condition, unpleasant enough with modern facilities and a nightmare in more rustic days, is having unfamiliar beasts take up residence in the intestinal tract. The colonists were right on when they drank gin every day, as were the Spanish Americans who drank juniper tea for stomach spasms – it would have indeed killed anything down the pipes that had no business being there.

Modern gin is relatively low in juniper content – the extract is usually somewhere around .01 percent and the juniper oil content somewhere around .006 percent. If you want to make a beverage that is higher in juniper content, and thus in medicinal power, float a cup of juniper berries in some commercial gin for a few months. Still and all, alcohol is hell on the liver, and despite the fact that the old-time healers preferred their juniper with "fire water," there are healthier ways to take it.

For our tonic, we will be using juniper berries, fresh or dried. They’re easy to come by – pick some up at the grocery store spice shelf, or plant a juniper tree for a ready source. As with all our ingredients, the fresher, the better, and what could be fresher than berries from your own tree? Run to the garden center and ask for a Juniperus communis tree, plant according to instructions, and within a year or two, go out with your bowl and pick away.