Peach

Parts Usually Used

Leaves

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

The peach tree is a well-known fruit tree; the tree may grow as high as 20 to 25 feet, but orchard trees are usually kept shorter. The leaves are thin, serrate, and oblong-elliptic to lanceolate. The flowers are a delicate pink. The tree flowers in spring and harvest of fruits is in the autumn. Another variety: Wild peach (P. andersoni), called Tsanavi by the Paiutes, who make tea from the branches for colds.

Where Found

Widely cultivated in temperate and warm regions all over the world. In the United States, California is the predominant peach-producing state. The peach is indigenous to China.

Medicinal Properties

Diuretic, expectorant, laxative, sedative

Legends, Myths and Stories

Culpeper, and also the Herbalist Almanac, state that if the kernels of peaches are bruised and boiled in vinegar until they are thick, then applied to the head, it make the hair grow again in bald places, or where the hair is too thin. The peach is indigenous to China. The wood is used in fortune telling; the flowers are supposed to have some supernatural power in driving away the demon of ill health; the leaves are regarded as a parasiticide.

Slips of peach wood were used as charms against evil spirits. The slips were worn on the person, attached to the door of the house, or set out in the rooms of the house.

Uses

Historical herbalists utilized peach leaves as a mild sedative and as an agent to stimulate the flow of urine. Traditional practitioners also recommended the leaves for chronic bronchitis, chest congestion, vomiting, and as a laxative. Externally, powdered dried peach leaves were sometimes applied to sores, ulcers, and wounds in folk traditions.

Bibliography

American Folk Medicine , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973 Chinese Medicinal Herbs , compiled by Shih-Chen Li, Georgetown Press, San Francisco, California, 1973. Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs , by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814) The Herbalist Almanac , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.

copyright 1974. Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R. , Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. , West Nyack, NY, 1987. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023