HERB - woad musings and echinacea

[Sheron Buchele/Curtis Rowland]

Yeah, I sorta licked my finger just to see and wow!  Astringent!  But the
young leaf is pretty tasty in a mustardy sort of way. 

Wonder how this woad is hallucinogenic got started.  I am not trying to
make anyone feel bad about repeating what they have read.  I make a living
as an herbalist and I try to check everything to see if what is written
about an herb is true in my experience so I guess I am kind of a pain that
way.  

I did have something that I was kind of skeptical about actually happen to
me, tho.  I had read that people with hayfever should be careful of using
echinacea.  I have hideous hayfever and have used echinacea for year.  I
actually grow it but can't bear to dig it up, so I buy root capsules.  I
had never had any problem with one brand of echinacea root caps and have
had it stave off many a cold.  I ran out of capsules and since it is a
mail-order brand, I went down to the local healthfood store and got another
brand of root capsule.  I took my usual 3 per hour and after the second
dose, my right eye started to itch so bad and swell shut (one of my primary
symptoms).  I stuffed up (another one of my primary symptoms) and was
throughly miserable for 3 days.  I am still amazed.  I always thought that
hayfever had to do with pollen being inhaled.  Now, I am suspicious that
the root capsule actually contained arial parts, but it will be a while
until I am ready to try any echinacea again.

I am taking astragalus and quircitin to head things off before they get to
the pass.  :-)

Anyway, if anybody has the primary source on woad, I'd be somewhat
interested.  

So many herbals are completely derivative.  I understand in a lot of ways.
It can take a lifetime to just understand a small handful of herbs and that
isn't enough to make a book.  So you borrow info from somebody who you
read, and so on.  So a lot of nonsense passes on through the ages.

I see it in aromatherapy and in cooking, too.  But don't get me started on
either one of these topics....

Oh well,
Leonora

At 01:07 AM 3/23/01 -0400, you wrote:
>  I have grown woad the last couple of years and have not felt any drug like
>effects from close contact (skin contact/absorbed through skin).  It is very
>astringent though and will dry out and crack your skin.  Now I wear rubber
>gloves when processing it.
>  Sheepstealer
>http://members.nbci.com/wendysweb/SCA/woad/
>
>
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>

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