For the retiring week , my family has been make good on a resolution to take a class walking each day . It ’s backbreaking to ideate finding anything useful as an herbal music still arise in the winter landscape , but we come up surprises when we expand our usual definition of a redress .
The one thing in the landscape that is still green and delicate are our pines . I make it a point to visit them every day just to find out the air current shush through their needles . It ’s one of my best-loved smear on our belongings , and as I searched my mind for what to write about this hebdomad , I found myself star out the back patio doors at those tree .
I think many of us neglect the true pine tree ( Pinusspp . ) when wait for healing — some people overlook trees in general . The pine tree ’s leaves are n’t the traditional shape for an “ herbaceous plant . ” Nevertheless , it ’s a medicinal plant with a long history .
Pine , known for its volatile oil , is most often used as an all-important oil for outside applications , though Hippocrates and Pliny write of using pine needles for many ailments . You may find them helpful for arthritis and gouty arthritis , and a fistful of the leaves add up to a bathroom might be just the thing to help sooth sore muscles or still cold congestion .
Turpentine and Pine
For years , as I ’ve stand behind our farmers ’ market table , I ’ve discover the great unwashed tell me that their previous kinsfolk members routinely used turps as a medicine . I puzzled over this until I decided to track down turpentine ’s blood . It turn out it ’s a pine - tree merchandise and is n’t as dangerous as it sounds . This is an example of why we should never discount folk music medicine . At the floor of many of these honest-to-god medicine slipway is a bit of science waiting to be identify .
oil of turpentine is a solvent used in pigment and varnish , hence my premise that it was a chemic product . The truth is that it ’s more like an essential vegetable oil , extracted through steam distillation of pine rosin . The resulting product is slightly different than the essential vegetable oil , which is a tad less saturated . Turpentine has been used topically in folkloric medical specialty for lice , baseball swing and over-crowding . It has even been used internally for louse , though interior utilisation is no longer common . There ’s also a farseeing history of using turpentine to treat tender juncture and chest over-crowding in both humans and animals .
Using Our Pine Needles
My husband is have with a afflictive shoulder , so it ’s no coincidence that that tree caught my eye this calendar week . I ’m going to pelt a spicy bath for him tonight and fill up a muslin bag ( an sometime , clear sock works , as well ) with a few healthy handfuls of pine needle . I think I ’ll tell him he ’s going to take a turpentine bath … that ought to gross out him out .
