ADAPTOGENS AND OTHER IMMUNE BOOSTING HERBS & ANTI-VIRAL FORMULAS

Adaptogens are herbs that ‘enhance non-specific resistance to stress’ Here is a readily available introduction for those who did not attend my cabin fever event on the topic: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3991026/

The Chinese have been successfully confronting pandemics for several thousand years using medicinal herbs and, I’m not sure if this is making on to the news or not, are coping very successfully with covid19. A number of the formulas in use in China for prevention and treatment of the virus are available on line and we have been busy preparing them as tinctures. Here is a preliminary list of what is available:

Jade Screen: This is the basic Chinese formula for boosting immunity, consisting of three herbs including Astragalus. This formula is one component of most of the more complex formulas listed below.

Pneumonia prevention formula: This is being successfully used in Chinese hospitals. Here is a link to an excellent youtube video about this and the other formulas the Chinese are using:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGcsFzKLdTI This is a little hard to follow if you’re not used to the way the Chinese talk about physiology and herbs but it’s worth the effort. We are prepared to make all of the formulas discussed if needed.

Shuanghuanglian is an important formula of three antiviral herbs: honeysuckle, forsythia and Scutellaria – some of you may recognize honeysuckle & Forsythia as the basis of the well-known anti-cold/flu formula Yinqiao (or Coldsnap, among other names), which we also have available. Here is a link about shuanghuanglian:

http://www.itmonline.org/arts/shuang.htm This is the primary formula recommended by Stephen Buhner, author of Herbal Antivirals, an excellent book about treating all of the emerging viral diseases. Buhner’s report on covid19 is quite helpful:

https://www.stephenharrodbuhner.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/coronavirus.txt.pdf

All of the formulas and individual herbs mentioned here are available from us although in limited quantity, several of the key herbs are sold out everywhere. The good news is that we can collect or grow some of them.

Stephen Buhner’s ‘top seven anti-viral herbs’:

Chinese skullcap – sold out everywhere. We can grow this but it’s several years to harvest and I’m not sure even seeds are still available (it’s Scutellaria baicalensis if you want to search). We have a small supply onhand.
Elder – we can collect this. Buhner recommends using decocted leaf and bark.
Ginger – buy at grocery store and can be grown from those roots
Houttynia – an important Chines medicinal (and edible) herb. Easily grown, somewhat invasive. Leaf is used so you could get a harvest this year. Plants will be available soon from us and hopefully at TTT.
Isatis aka ‘woad’ – an important antiviral biennial herb, easily grown. We have a limited amount of seed – shouldn’t be too hard to find online.
Licorice – we can grow this but several years to harvest and germination is a little tricky.
Lomatium – probably not; a Pacific NW native, challenging to grow and several years to harvest – we do have tincture on hand.

If anyone is still under the illusion that brilliant western science is on the verge of eliminating infectious diseases, covid 19 should be an overdue wakeup call. Just go searching online for ‘emerging (viral) diseases’. SARS, MERS, West Nile, Jap encephalitis there are new ones almost every year and don’t forget we are still in the middle of the influenza pandemic which infected a third of the population on earth and killed 20% of those, and flu is now immune to almost all antibiotics (we completely wasted antibiotics by saturating the environment with them, mostly to get a little extra weight gain in meat animals). Buhner’s book, or probably any of the others on emerging viral diseases explains that viruses are extremely competent at developing resistance to pharmaceutical drugs, but not medicinal herbs. They can dodge the pharmaceutical ‘silver bullet’ but not the ‘herbal shotgun’ (any herb being a ‘drug cocktail’).
Buhner recommends three immune-boosting formulas to be taken with the shuanghuanglian formula – all of which we can supply.

Astragalus Immunity formula – This is an excellent formula from Subhuti Dharmananda / Seven Forests / ITMonline which we have available as a tincture.

Pueraria (Kudzu) formula – another widely used formula for colds & flu

Defense energy (Cinnamon twig) – as above

Immunity three – Astragalus, Reishi and Cordyceps. Astragalus is easily grown (we have seeds) but several years to harvest. We will be able to collect Reishi in early June (grows on trees including hemlock)

We can also put together a cocktail of Stephen Buhner’s three favorite immune boosters: Astragalus, Cordyceps and Rhodiola (unfortunately we cannot grow or gather Cordyceps or Rhodiola).

There are some other important anti-viral herbs which we can gather in our area: Kudzu root, Japanese knotweed root, redroot (Ceanothus) – these should be gathered immediately as they are best before growth commences in spring; boneset, Japanese honeysuckle flower buds, Ampelopsis, elderberry leaf and bark. All of these are discussed in the Herbal Antivirals book. Japanese honeysuckle is perhaps the most important antibiotic / antiviral herb used in Chinese medicine; this is the common, weedy, fragrant yellow & white flowered honeysuckle. The part used is the flower buds which obviously will be tedious to collect but many of us do have time on our hands and children would be great at this. Boneset is fairly common in moist to wet locations usually lightly shaded (E.g. roadside ditches) It’s easily recognized by the perfoliate leaf (look at pictures on line); the flowering herb is wanted, around midsummer. Elderberry is widespread. I have seen Ampelopsis around Asheville, don’t know of a location nearer by. It’s an invasive weedy vine with attractive pink changing to porcelain blue berries.

And there are antivirals we can grow:

Woad (Isatis tinctorial) a well known blue dye plant. It’s a biennial in the mustard family, easy to grow. Seeds are readily available, I have some extra. Regular garden conditions are fine.
Houttynia cordata – this is a popular culinary herb / vegetable in S. China and SE Asia; like cilantro, whose taste it resembles, people either like it or hate it. But even if you don’t want to eat it you can grow it for its antivral properties. It prefers moist soil and light shade but is quite tolerant. It is very invasive and almost impossible to get rid of once established, so think carefully where you put it or grow in a container. Planting material is available from Mountain Gardens.
Ginger – You can buy a nice plump root at the grocery store and plant it in rich soil and light shade. Each of the knobs on the root can make a new plant, plant them an inch or two deep and wait, comes up quicker in warm soil.
Licorice – A perennial legume with long running roots, also difficult to eradicate once established. Challenging but not impossible to get it going from seed; apparently can be propagated from root cuttings (I’ll try again this year). Likes sun and well-drained soil, not too acid.
Chinese skullcap (Scutellaria baicalensis) – This is a very important antiviral and so is sold out everywhere. Not to difficult to grow from seed if you can find it. An attractive rock garden type perennial liking sun and well-drained soil. The roots are used and should be 3 years old