Prickly Ash
Parts Usually Used
Bark, fruit, berries, seed
Description of Plant(s) and Culture
Prickly ash is a native North American shrub or tree, growing from 10-25 feet high; as the name indicates, the branchlets bear prickles up to 1/2 inch long. The leaves are alternate and odd-pinnate, with 5-11 ovate or elliptic leaflets that are softly hairy beneath. Small, yellowish-green flowers grow in axillary clusters during April and May, before the leaves appear. The fruit is a small, berry-like capsule containing one or more black seeds.
The oval capsule varies from green to red and blue-black in color, and grows in clusters on the top of the branches. The taste is pungent, causing salivation, and there is little odor when the tree is cut.
Where Found
Found in damp soils, rocky woods, on river banks from Canada to Virginia and Nebraska. Much less common in the south.
Medicinal Properties
Anodyne, diaphoretic, irritant, stimulant, alterative, analgesic, astringent, anthelmintic, antiseptic, carminative
Biochemical Information
Volatile oil, fat, sugar, gum acrid resin, a bitter alkaloid which may be berberine and a xanthoxylin
Legends, Myths and Stories
Gerard and Pliny believed that snakes had such an antipathy for the ash tree, that if a snake was encompassed with ash tree leaves, the snake would sooner run through fire than through the leaves. According to Culpeper he personally observed this to not be the truth. According to Chestnut’s book Plants Used by Indians of Mendocino County, “Straight pipes are made…out of a section of a limb (of the ash tree) a foot long and two inches thick.
The bowl is dug out with a knife, and a red-hot wire is forced through the pith. ”
Uses
Historically, Native Americans and Europeans utilized prickly ash bark as a traditional remedy for toothaches. Some Native American traditions also involved boiling the inner bark to prepare a wash for itching skin. Traditional herbalists employed both the bark and the fruit for complaints such as rheumatism, chronic arthritis, flatulence, and poor digestion. An infusion of the powdered bark was historically used as an external wash for old wounds, sores, and skin conditions such as psoriasis.
Folk traditions also recorded the use of the plant for colic, digestive complaints including diarrhea, respiratory issues such as coughs and colds, sore throats, lumbago, and snakebites, as well as employing it as a general blood purifier.
Bibliography
, Loma Linda, CA 92354, Original copyright 1939, revised edition 1994 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. 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) Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A.
, Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. , Copyright 1988, published 1992 The Complete Medicinal Herbal , by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993 Indian Uses of Native Plants , by Edith Van Allen Murphey, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1958, print 1990 The Herbalist Almanac , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994 Prairie Smoke , by Melvin R.
Gilmore, Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul, Minnesota 55101, copyright 1987. , 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, first printed by the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, in 1928, this Dover edition 1974 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).
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. 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