The Medicinal Herb Info site was created to help educate visitors about the often forgotten wisdom of the old ways of treating illnesses. Many of today's drugs and medicines were originally derived from natural ingredients, combinations of plants and other items found in nature.

We are not suggesting that you ignore the help of trained medical professionals, simply that you have additional options available for treating illnesses. Often the most effective treatment involves a responsible blend of both modern and traditional treatments.

We wish you peace and health!

Grape

Scientific Names

Grape vine

  • Vitex vinifera L.
  • Vitaceae
  • Grape family

Common Names

  • Dark grape
  • Fox grape

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Parts Usually Used

Fruits and leaves
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Grape flowers

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Everyone is familiar with the grape vine. The following information pertains to the dark grape species.

Grapevines supported on old-fashioned arbors and grown with special pruning methods produce more fruit than those grown on conventional wire training trellises. The top-area is exposed to more sunlight and the pruning secret is to take out some of the hard stems, and to pick off from a third to a half of the small bunches of grapes before they use up too much of the available plant food. Experts have found that more foliage means bigger, better-flavored grapes.

Another variety: the fox grape (Vitis labrusca) is a high-climbing liana vine. Leaves rounded in outline, heart-shaped at base; 3-lobed, toothed, with dense whitish to reddish felt beneath. Fruits about 20 purple-black (or amber white) grapes in a cluster around September to October.
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Where Found

Found in thickets, woods; southern Maine to Georgia; Tennessee to Michigan. Widely cultivated.
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Medicinal Properties

Nutritive, diuretic
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Biochemical Information

Vitamins A, B, C, dextrose, fructose, pectin, tartaric and malic acids, mineral salts, tannin, flavone, glycosides and pigment, magnesium, potassium, iron, niacin, riboflavin, carbohydrates
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Legends, Myths and Stories

In the reference book, 50 Years Anthology; The Herbalist Almanac, written by Clarence Meyer, edited by David C. Meyer, in memory of Joseph E. Meyer, “the Herb Doctor”, there is a small paragraph that seems apt here. This quote is reported to have come from the 1585 edition of Dodoens’ A Nievve Herball or Historie of Plantes.

Quote: “I will touch onely the particular properties of wine it selfe, both as it is medicinable and nourishing, for taken moderately, and by them that are of a middle age, or well stept in yeares, or are of a cold and dry disposition and (not very young, and so their blood too hot for to abide wine) it encreaseth blood and nourisheth much: it procureth an appetite, and helpeth to digest being taken at meate (meals)–it expelleth feares, cares, and heavinesse, and breedeth alacrity, mirth and bodily pleasure–causeth quiet rest and sleepe, both to the sound and sicke that lacke it–on the contrary side, the excess thereof breedeth a distraction in the sense, the Appoplexie, and Lethargy or drowsie evill, the trembling of the joynts, the palsie, and the dropsie.”
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Uses

Treats blood and energy deficiency, night sweats, thirst, palpitations, rheumatic pains, difficult urination, edema, dry cough.

Wild or cultivated whole grape leaves were put in the bottom of crocks to preserve the color of beans that were stored. Grape leaves also used to wrap fresh-made butter. Said to help preserve butter. Cultivated grape leaves considered best.

Vitis labrusca (fox grape) was used by the Native Americans as leaf tea for diarrhea, hepatitis, stomachaches, thrush. Externally, they poulticed wilted leaves for sore breasts, rheumatism, headaches, fevers. Other Vitis species have been used similarly. Vines, when cut in the summer, yield potable water, possibly purer than today’s acid-rain water.
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Formulas or Dosages

Drink the fresh juice of the fruit.

According to one reference if grape juice is taken four times each day; 1 oz. in plain water and 3 oz. grape juice, taken 1/2 hour before each meal and upon retiring, then the matter of dieting will take care of itself. The only restrictions as far as diet is concerned, should be sweets, chocolate; great quantities of sugars, pastries. But all other foods, vegetables, and meats, provided they are not fats, may be taken according to the appetite; but the appetite will change a great deal. Obesity will regulate itself when this is done regularly.
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Nutrient Content

Magnesium, potassium, iron, niacin, riboflavin, vitamins A, B, C, dextrose, fructose

Grapes nutrients

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How Sold

Supermarket
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Warning

Do not confuse the fox grape vine with Canada Moonseed (Menispermum canadense), which is considered toxic.
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Resource Links

LiveStrong.com: What Are the Benefits of Red Wine Extract?

MayoClinic.com: Red wine and Resveratrol: Good for Your Heart?

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: Resveratrol

Linus Pauling Institute: Resveratrol

Drugs.com: Resveratrol

Drugs.com: Health Secrets of Red Wine Uncovered

“Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology”; Resveratrol Impaired the Morphological Transition of Candida Albicans Under Various Hyphae-Inducing Conditions; Kazuko Okamoto-Shibayama, et al; March 2010

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Bibliography

Buy It! American Folk Medicine, by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973

Buy It! Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants, by Steven Foster and James A. Duke., Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000

Buy It! The Herbalist Almanac, by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994

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

Buy It! The Magic of Herbs in Daily Living, by Richard Lucas, Parker Publishing Co. (1988).

Buy It! How Indians Use Wild Plants for Food, Medicine & Crafts, by Frances Densmore, Dover Publications, Inc., 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, first printed by the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, in 1928, this Dover edition 1974

Buy It! Indian Uses of Native Plants, by Edith Van Allen Murphey, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1958, print 1990

Buy It! Old Ways Rediscovered, by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, published from 1954, print 1988

Buy It! 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

Buy It! The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine, by Dr. David Frawley & Dr. Vasant Lad, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, Second edition, 1988.

Buy It! 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

Buy It! The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book), edited by William H. Hylton, Rodale Press, Inc. Emmaus, PA, 18049., 1974

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