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Thickleaf yerba santa
(Eriodictyon crassifolium)
Ezekiel 47:12 "And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine."
Nicknames: Thickleaf yerba santa;[1] The name "Yerba Santa" means "holy herb" and is derived from Spanish.[2] I've always had a thing for the meaning of names. Even YOUR name has a meaning, feel free to look that up. More nicknames include: Bears weed, Consumptives weed, Eriodictyon, Eriodictyon californicum, Gum Bush, Gum Plant, Herbe des Montagnes, Holy weed, Tarweed, Wigandia californicum, Mountain Balm.[2]
Ethnobotany: Native Americans used leaves of this plant to make tea and syrups with.[2] You can make your own syrups easy by allowing the tea to evaporate until it gets to a syrupy consistency, and then make gummies or medicinal candies with it(DIY).[2] It's used by Native Americans to treat cold cough and fever.[2] It's also used in the treatment of alzheimers disease.[2] It has been proven in the lab for its potential antioxidant and anti-cancer benefits.[2] The Kawaiisu, a native American tribe used tea of Thickleaf yerba santa to treat ghonnarea.[2] Native Americans also used its leave for treating asthma, and phenomenia.[2] The whole plant is used for medicinal purposes, leaves, flowers, and stems.[2] The Luiseno people (indigenous people of California) used this species for medicinal purposes.[2] The Chumash(Native American tribe of California) also used Yerba Santa for lung related ailments, much like Mullein or Lobelia.[2]
Classification: Perennial;
Warnings: When seeking to identify this plant for human consumption, it is important to accurately distinguish the plant from the toxic E. parryi.[1] A case of mistaken identity can cost one their life. The cultures who utilized these plants as medicine knew them very well.
Plant Family: Boraginaceae;[1] Genus: Eriodictyon;[1] Species: E. crassifolium[1]
Natural Habitat: North America; It was used by the Native Americans, so it grows in the US. Thickleaf yerba santa is found in southern California up to 4000 feet in elevation.[2] It is easily found in California, Northern New Mexico.[2] It grows near and on chaparral, inland hills, and mountains.[2]
Mixes well with: Try it with Mullein, and Echinacea
OG Observations: This plant reminds me a lot of Mullein. I notice which plants share the same properties, and have over ten years of studying about them from scholarly sources, books, and the like. It's been a really cool learning experience, a lot of fun, and even almost got me into some serious trouble. I haven't read anything about any potential toxcitity with this plant, so it appears to be generally recognized as safe.
Related Ethnobotanicals: Mullein, Coltsfoot, Lobelia, Mints
Phytochemicals:
It produces and contiains flavonoids, tannins, and volatile oils, along with flavanones sterubin, homoeriodictyol and eriodictyol.[2] E. crassifolium produces a flavanone phytochemical, called sterubin. This pharmacological chemical is used as a neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory agent.[2] Eriodictyol and homoeriodictyol also produced by E. crassifolium.[2] I seek to drive home a significant point on this website, and that is that all medicine can be traced by to the garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve first got high off of a plant. We eventually figured out as a species that drugs grow from the earth, thus the birth of Chemistry and pharmacology began. One of the authoritative academic sources that I pulled facts from to write this blog even confirms it for us, stating that: "Yerba Santa is also used for in the drug manufacturing process."[2] Yerba Santa consists of: flavonoids which is 80% of mass, flavanones, flavones, tannins and small fraction of volatile oils.[2] The following flavanones are listed: Homoeriodictyol, Cirsimaritin, Chrysoeriol, Hispidulin, Eriodictyol (5%), 5,7,4-trihydroxy-6,3-dimethoxy flavanone, 5,4dihyroxy-6,7-dimethoxyflavanone, Naringenin 4’methyl ether, Sakuranetin, Pinocembrin, 3’-methyl-4’isobutyryleriodictyol, Chrysin, Methyl flavanones, Sterubin, Eeriodictyonine (6%).[2] Other compounds are found in smaller quantities like: Luteolin, Nepetin, Apigenin, Jaceosidin, Kaempferol 3-O-glucosides, Quercitin 3-O-glucoside.[2] Eriodictyol gives antibacterial, anti-inflammatory as well as expectorant activities[2]It would take me all day to sit here and pull up scholarly facts on each individual phytochemical listed above that's produced by Thickleaf Yerba Santa(Eriodictyon crassifolium).. The science of how these ethnobotanicals work as medicine, is astronomically astounding in its complexity. The depth is beyond the deep end, and the time required to extensively study each one, is great in length. You can pull each one of them up on PubChem, a public academic database that's filled with scholarly information published by researchers from Universities across the globe. Google scholar is great as well ( scholar.google.com ). Each individual phytochemical component, has its own wide range of pharmacological properties, making each chemical an individual medicine all on its own. That means that plants like this contain not a single medicine, but an entire pharmacy. People don't know about this stuff. I'm bringing it to the mainstream. The best medicine on earth is being hoarded by the occult, and kept from the masses. Check out my blog on how modern medicine was birthed from the occult.
What is Phytochemistry? What are Phytochemicals?
Phytochemistry is a branch of chemistry that focuses specifically on the pharmacology of plants, by isolating and studying the complex natural medicines that they produce. A chemical that's been isolated from a plant is referred to as an isolate. They're gems in terms of medicine, and there must be hundreds of thousands of them that are not being provided to the public. Pharmacognosy, ethnobotany, and phytochemistry are all related fields that tie into one another, and provide each other with the building blocks for further academic investigations.Pharmacological / Medicinal Properties:
This plant has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial as well as expectorant properties.[2] Several species of it have been proven to have anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective activities.[2] Academic sources state that its chemical constituents are responsible for loosening of mucus in the chest(sounds like Mullein), and its effects for stimulating urination.[2]Buy Thickleaf yerba santa
Academic citations:
[2] Singh, A., Verma, K., Deep, P., Srivastava, V., & Dwivedi, J. Pharmacognostic and Pharmacological Properties of Eriodictyon crassifolium Benth: A Review.
[?] Food of the Gods: Schults, Hoffman
Encyclopedia Sources:
[1] Wikipedia contributors. (2024, January 2). Eriodictyon crassifolium. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:59, December 7, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eriodictyon_crassifolium
Other resources:
M.A.P.S. Ethnobotanical Studies By Scholars
PubChem - pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov