White Walnut
Parts Usually Used
Inner bark, nuts, nut oil, and leaves
Description of Plant(s) and Culture
Butternut is a native North American tree that grows to a height of 50-75 feet. Its branches spread wide from the trunk and are covered with smooth, gray bark. The leaves are alternate, large, and pinnate, with 7-8 pairs of serrate, oblong-lanceolate leaflets. Male and female flowers grow in separate catkins. The rough, deeply furrowed, fruit is an edible, pleasant-tasting, egg-shaped, kernel in a hard, dark nutshell.
Where Found
Found from New Brunswick to Georgia, westwards to the Dakotas and Arkansas. In rich woods.
Medicinal Properties
Anthelmintic, cathartic, fruit is tonic, leaves are alterative, bark is laxative, husks of nuts are vermifuge
Biochemical Information
Juglon (also called nucin or juglandic acid), essential fatty acids
Legends, Myths and Stories
The unripe, half formed fruits of Butternut, make fine pickles, so the old herbalists claim. The sap makes a fine sugar; the leaves, bark and unripe fruit make a dye that is chocolate-brown and was used by the South during the Civil War as a dye for soldiers’ uniforms. Often referred to as the butternut uniforms of the Confederacy.
Uses
Historically, herbalists utilized butternut as a laxative, particularly for chronic constipation, and employed the bark or unripe nuts in efforts to expel intestinal worms and parasites. Traditional practitioners also administered preparations of the bark for feverish colds, flu, dysentery, diarrhea, and liver congestion. The leaves or green husks of the nuts were brewed into teas intended for eczema and other skin conditions.
Native American traditions made use of the bark for headaches, toothaches, joint pain, and applied it to wounds with the aim of checking bleeding and encouraging healing. Additionally, oil extracted from the nuts was traditionally used against tapeworms.
Bibliography
American Folk Medicine , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973 The Complete Medicinal Herbal , by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993 Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A. , Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 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. , 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. , Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, 1973 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. , Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. , Copyright 1988, published 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. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023 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