English Walnut

Scientific Names

• Juglans regia L.
• Juglandaceae
• Walnut family

Common Names

• Walnut
• Caucasion walnut
• Circassian walnut
• Persian walnut

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Parts Usually Used

Leaves, outer hulls and bark
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture

The English walnut tree is widely cultivated for its wide-spreading branches. It grows to about 80 feet high and has gray bark and oblong-ovate, entire leaflets that are sticky when young but glabrous later. Blooming in May, the male flowers appear in axillary catkins, the female in terminal spikes. The fruit is the common walnut.
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Where Found

Cultivated
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Medicinal Properties

Astringent, tonic, nutritive, demulcent, laxative (bark), stomachic. Juglone is believed to have an antifungal property; the hulls and leaves are highly astringent and contain tannin as well as juglandin, a bitter principle.
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Biochemical Information

Juglone, isojuglone, essential oil, inositol, phytin, phytosterols, oxidase, vitamins A, B, C, and E, and ellagic, laric, myristic, arachic, linoleic, linolenic, isolinolenic, and oleic acids
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Uses

Leaf tea is a tonic to the stomach and promotes good appetite; used for catarrhal enteritis. The decoction used externally as a wash or bath additive for rheumatism, gout, glandular swelling, gum problems, scrofula, sweaty feet, acne, dandruff, skin problems, and excessive milk flow after the child has been weaned. A decoction of the green shell surrounding the walnut has been recommended for failing virility. Use the infusion as a rinse for hair loss.
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Formulas or Dosages

Decoction: use 4 tsp. leaves or chopped green shells with 1 cup water. Take 1 cup a day, a mouthful at a time.

Bath Additive: boil 1 lb. dried leaves in 1 1/2 qt. water for 45 minutes, and add the liquid to the bath water. For a footbath, reduce the amounts proportionately.
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Nutrient Content

Vitamins A, B, C, and E.
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Resource Links

Mayo Clinic – Cholesterol: Top 5 foods to lower your numbers

PubMed.gov: Walnut polyphenols prevent liver damage induced by carbon tetrachloride and d-galactosamine: hepatoprotective hydrolyzable tannins in the kernel pellicles of walnut.

PubMed.gov: Suppression of implanted MDA-MB 231 human breast cancer growth in nude mice by dietary walnut.

PubMed.gov: Olive oil and walnut breakfasts reduce the postprandial inflammatory response in mononuclear cells compared with a butter breakfast in healthy men.

PubMed.gov: The effect of a calorie controlled diet containing walnuts on substrate oxidation during 8-hours in a room calorimeter.

PubMed.gov: Antihypertriglyceridemic effect of walnut oil.

PubMed.gov: Blood cholesterol and walnut consumption: a cross-sectional survey in France.

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Bibliography

The Complete Medicinal Herbal, by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993

The Herb Book, by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974.

The Nature Doctor: A Manual of Traditional and Complementary Medicine, by Dr. H.C.A. Vogel; Keats Publishing, Inc., 27 Pine Street (Box 876) New Canaan, CT. 06840-0876. Copyright Verlag A. Vogel, Teufen (AR) Switzerland 1952, 1991

Planetary Herbology, by Michael Tierra, C.A., N.D., O.M.D., Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. WI 53181., Copyright 1988, published 1992

Webster’s New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, Victoria Neufeldt, Editor in Chief, New World Dictionaries: A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023

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