Apple

Parts Usually Used

Fruit and bark

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

The apple tree is a small deciduous tree with a dense crown and gray bark. The twigs are downy at first; toothed, elliptical pointed leaves grow with pink-flushed, white flowers on short side twigs. Flowers open with the leaves. Fruits are rounded green apples, depressed at each end, ripens in the fall.

Where Found

Cultivated throughout much of North America and naturalized in eastern United States, on the prairies, in southern Canada and the Pacific states.

Medicinal Properties

Astringent, laxative, diuretic

Biochemical Information

Carbohydrates, sodium, magnesium

Legends, Myths and Stories

Apples are rightly called the King of Fruits. A case is reported of a man who saved apple seeds until he had accumulated a cupful. He then ate the entire amount and died. In the 2nd century, Galen, the famous court physician to the emperors and the gladiators, prescribed apple wine as a cure-all for nearly every ailment. Eating an apple a day and getting proper exercise will change your life from ill health to healthy.

Most people overeat, causing ill health with the over-indulgence. The Chinese word for apple (P. malus) is Lin-ch’in. Apples are thought to originate in Southwest Asia, in the region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The diggings of Stone Age lake dwellers in central Europe show apple usage long before recorded history. The origin of the Trojan War was attributed to “the apple of discord”, a golden apple down in front of an assembly of gods by the goddess of hate, Eris.

Inscribed on the apple were the words (For the Fairest). Hera, wife of Zeus, queen of the gods; Athene, goddess of wisdom; and Aphrodite, goddess of love; all wanted the apple. Paris, son of the King of Troy, was to decide which goddess got the apple. Hera offered him power and riches; Athene offered wisdom and fame; Aphrodite promised to give him the most beautiful woman in the world.

Paris, with Aphrodite’s help, abducted Helen, the wife of a Greek king. His refusal to return her started the Trojan War. Grimm’s Fairy Tales have at least four stories (taken from old folk tales) involving apples, including Snow White. The lives of William Tell and Johnny Appleseed can also be considered in the folk tradition although they involved real people. In Gerard’s time, an ointment made of pulp of apples, swine’s grease and rosewater was sold in shops to beautify face and take away roughness of skin.

The juice of sour apples was rubbed on warts to remove them.

Uses

Historically, herbalists utilized apples to manage digestive complaints, recommending them both as a laxative for constipation and to arrest diarrhea, as well as to counteract the effects of rich foods. Folk traditions also valued the fruit for purifying the blood, maintaining clean teeth, and addressing gout, rheumatism, and gallstones. Peeled and grated apples were administered for flatulence and diarrhea.

Practitioners sometimes distinguished between varieties, suggesting sweet apples when excess stomach acid was suspected and sour apples for insufficient acid. Dried apple peels were brewed into teas intended for rheumatism. A tea prepared from apple tree bark served as a traditional tonic, employed for biliousness, fever, digestive distress, boils, insect stings, and toothache.

Fermented apple preparations have a long history of use; apple wine was recorded as a general remedy by Galen in the second century, while aged hard cider was also produced from the juice.

How Sold

In any supermarket

Bibliography

The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. The Herbalist Almanac , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994 The Nature Doctor: A Manual of Traditional and Complementary Medicine , by Dr. A. , 27 Pine Street (Box 876) New Canaan, CT. 06840-0876. Copyright Verlag A.

, Simon & Schuster/Fireside, Rockefeller Center 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 Chinese Medicinal Herbs , compiled by Shih-Chen Li, Georgetown Press, San Francisco, California, 1973. Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023 An Instant Guide to Medicinal Plants , by Pamela Forey and Ruth Lindsay, Crescent Books (January 27, 1992).

Old Ways Rediscovered , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, published from 1954, print 1988 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. , 1974