Barberry, Strong Medicine from Nature

 

When walking through one of my open woodlands or along the hedgerow I often am caught up by a thorny bush that can just be a pain.  I carefully take the time to remove my tangled clothing or hair or skin from these grasping plants, trying not to harm either myself or the plants.  These little thorny bushes are barberry, a wonderful healing plant and even a bit of a wild edible.

Barberry is actually a family name and there are several different kinds of barberry plants out there.  Some are small trees, some are large bushes and here in Wisconsin they are small bushes that can take over a semi-open space in record time.  For the most part we have the ornamental Japanese barberry that has "gone wild", so to speak.  Birds have eaten the berries off of bushes that were planted in people's yards for their beautiful foliage and deposited the seeds in them in places where they may not be as welcome.  It is considered to be an invasive species that, once established, can shade out native plants and compete with them for nutrients and sunshine.  Not something we want a whole lot of in our area.

What can we do about this?  Well, for me I feel that for a long time we humans harvested these more aggressive plants that could take over an area.  This helped control them so they didn't spread as fast.  Now, however, we have stepped away from our role as protector of the wild places.  We no longer dig up the roots, pick the berries, and use the plants enough to keep them from taking over.  Here in Wisconsin, barberry is a prime example of this.  By harvesting the berries both as a medicinal and as a wild edible we would keep the birds from spreading the seeds contained in them.  By digging up the roots for their amazing medicinal qualities we would cull many of the already established plants.  Humans have play many roles in nature, some which would fall into the "not good" category.  Here is one easy one that would not only help ourselves, but the natural world itself.

 

Okay, so what do we use barberry for?  Let's start with the berry.  Barberry bushes produce hundreds of berries each season and can be quite easy to pick.  There is one thing though, those grabby thorns.  If we have good leather gloves we can just strip the berries off the canes into a bucket.  If not then the berries can be carefully picked between the thorn and it is still a pretty quick harvest just because there are so many of them.  The berries as a medicinal are good for building red blood cells.  If an injury occurs or after a surgery, it can take up to 120 day to replace any red blood cells that were lost.  Barberry tincture can help speed up this process.

I also use it as a winter tonic.  Most people have heard of spring tonics where we drink some of the early spring greens such as chickweed or bed straw.  These are diuretics that are used to help cleanse the body of eating all the heavy winter food.  Well, the body often has a hard time switching from the mostly green diet of summer to the more root and meat based diet that stores so well in the winter months.   Barberry tincture seems to help the body prepare itself for that change in diet.

Don't like taking your barberry berries in alcohol?  It's okay, there is a bit more labor intensive way of preparing it that makes your medicine much more delicious.  Barberry berry jelly is pretty easy to make and makes a nice spreadable way of preparing your body for winter's changes.  You'll need:

4 cups crushed ripe barberries 2 whole oranges, chopped 2 cups water 1½ cups sugar 1 pkg pectin

Simmer berries and orange pieces in the water for 20 minutes or till tender. Strain the juice through a jelly bag. Combine juice and the sugar. Bring to a rolling boil, then add the pectin. Bring to a boil and boil 1 full minute or according to package directions. Pour into hot, sterile jars and seal. Process in hot-water bath for 15 minutes.

I personally like this way of taking my medicine.  lol

 

Then there is the root of the barberry.  This is where the real medicine is.  Barberry root contains the same medicine that is in goldenseal, golden root, golden thread, or Oregon grape root.  It is an alkaloid called berberine, which gives it a bright yellow color.  It also gives it a VERY bitter taste.  And there's no disguising this taste either.  This is medicine that, when you need it, you plug your nose and take it, period.  Long before pharmaceutical companies began to add sugary flavors to their medicines to make people take more of it, most powerful medicines were of the "plug your nose and swallow fast" variety.  I figure there is a very good reason for this.  We shouldn't just will-nilly take strong medicine like we do today.  It is for those times when we really need it enough to be willing to shudder as it goes down.  Barberry root medicine is that kind of medicine.

 

What the berberine in barberry root is good for is as a living antibiotic.  And it is one of the best.  Berberine has been shown to kill off staff infections in petri dishes.  Made into a salve and it can not only block bacteria from getting into a wound but kill off any that might already be in the wound.  Taken internally it can help cure many bacterial infections of the body.  And unlike some of the other plants that also contain this powerful alkaloid, barberry is not in danger of being over harvested.  In fact as an invasive you could harvest every bit of it and not do any harm.  Birds would probably bring you more in a couple of years anyway.

Now living antibiotics are different than antibiotics made in a lab.  The main thing is that, as all living things do, it changes each year.  Some years it is stronger than others, some years it may be slightly different than others.  This means that there is no "one dose fits all" kind of usage.  Every year it is made, we have to experiment with it to see what works.  This can be frustrating to those who are use to the cookie cutter approach of lab made antibiotics, with each pill having the exact same dosage as the next.  Take the recommended amount of medicine and more than likely your infection will go away. 

But there's a problem with that.  We are finding that the more we use these cookie cutter antibiotics, the less effective they are.  This is because the bacteria "learn" how to fight against the antibiotic precisely because it is the same over and over and over again.  Because there is no diversity in the antibiotic, and because the living bacteria is always changing (as life does) eventually the lab antibiotic will no longer be effective against the bacteria.  THIS is why living antibiotics, like berberine, can be so much more affective for curing infections.  Because barberry is a living being that will change with each seed it plants, with each flood or each drought, with the changes of the season, it keeps the bacteria from "learning" how to fight it.  While it may be a pain to figure out the right dose every time a person uses it, it still has an advantage because of its living status.

Barberry root can be dried carefully in a dark place and stored in the same.  The dried root will last about six months and is taken by boiling the dried root in water for 15 to 20 minutes, strain out the plant material, and drink as soon as it is cool enough to do so.  Most people simply can't do this though.  It is VERY bitter medicine and our bodies are designed to fight against in taking bitter.  This is because many poisons are also bitter.  The best way to process barberry root is in tincture form.  Put it into a jar and cover with the highest proof alcohol you can get.  If you can get Everclear or a good, high proof moonshine, this is best.  Let set for a couple of months or even longer.  You want this medicine to be strong so you don't have to take it in large doses.  Twenty-five drops in a glass of water to start with.  If you aren't seeing at least a slight improvement after 3 days make the does a bit stronger.  Keep doing this until you either get an upset stomach (you've killed off all your good bacteria at this point and obviously the berberine is working, just not on the bad bacteria), or until you see an improvement.

Now this is strong medicine.  It is not to be taken because you "feel like it" or because you want to try it.  In fact, if that's the way you take your medicine, it's best to go to an MD.  They went to school for this stuff and they love to hand out medicines.  Barberry root should be taken with care and also with a good pro biotic to help replace the good flora that keeps you in balance.  I don't really worry too much about that though, because the medicine tastes so bad that most people don't take it for a lark.  It comes from a time when we listen to our mothers and when they told us to take our medicine we did, no arguing.  We gagged, coughed, and cried, but we took it.  Not out of fear, but out of respect and love for our parent's knowledge. 

 

The invasive barberry can be seen as a nuisance that must be abolished, which is an uphill battle at best, or it can be control with human intervention through the harvest.  The first means we spend long hours cutting the canes and putting poisons on the roots.  The second gives both nature and us a little something for our troubles.  I personally think we would get farther with the second choice.  ;-)