Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)
Lemon balm is a tender, aromatic herb that contains citral, caryophyllene oxide, linalool, citronellal, flavonoids, triterpenes, and polyphenols. A tea of lemon balm is taken to lift the spirits, as well as to relieve anxiety, depression, headaches, restlessness, irritability, indigestion, nausea, and bloating. Lemon balm can be chewed to relieve a toothache and cold sores. It also has an antithyroid effect, useful for people with an overactive thyroid. A salve of lemon balm can be massaged into the skin to relieve pain. In spiritual medicine lemon balm tea is taken to attract love and dispel melancholy. A satchel of lemon balm under the pillow promotes sleep.
Nzinzingrolo (Solenostemon monostachyus)
This African native plant is known as magero in Guinea-Bissau, jewubue in Sierra Leone, ka mai tonto and te-te-vua in Liberia, and nzinzingrolo in Ivory Coast, and has numerous medicinal uses.15 The leaf sap is sedative and is used to treat fever, cough, headache, convulsions, colic, and sterility. The plant is applied externally to address eyesight troubles, foot infections, and snakebite. An extract of the herb is highly effective against panic attacks and anxiety, addressing both the physiological and spiritual dimensions of the distress.
Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium)
Similar to its cousins in the mint family, pennyroyal is an aromatic herb that aids digestion and soothes skin conditions. It is rich in pulegone, menthol, and terpenoids. A tea of pennyroyal stimulates digestive juices, relieves gas, and kills intestinal worms. It is a good remedy for headaches and reduces fever and congestions. An infusion of pennyroyal can be applied externally for the treatment of itchiness, eczema, and gout. In spiritual medicine, pennyroyal is carried to protect the traveler. A bath of pennyroyal for a recently deceased person aids in passage to the afterlife. The herb brings peace to humans and nature, averting quarreling and calming stormy seas. In Louisiana Voodoo pennyroyal is a guardian plant used to protect people from enemies. Caution: Essential oil of pennyroyal is highly toxic.
Peppermint (Mentha × piperita)
The mint family (Lamiaceae) has over 6,000 species, of which several are native to Africa including Mentha longifolia (wild mint) and M. aquatica (wild water mint).16 Mint contains menthol, methone, luteolin, menthoside, phenolic acids, and triterpenes. An infusion of mint increases the flow of digestive juices, reduces cramps and gas, soothes the lining and muscles of the colon, and relieves constipation. As Dr. George Washington Carver wrote in his herbal medicine catalog, “This plant is familiar to almost everyone as a specific for weak stomachs, diarrhea and as a stimulant.” Applied to the skin, peppermint relieves pain. It can be inhaled to relieve headaches and improve respiratory function. In spiritual medicine mint is taken to revive hope and restore energy. A mint tea supports healthy grieving.
Rue (Ruta graveolens)
Rue is a powerfully aromatic herb rich in volatile oils, flavonoids, furanocoumarins, and rutin. It is useful for strengthening the inner lining of blood vessels and reducing blood pressure. It stimulates the muscles of the uterus to promote menstrual blood flow. Rue tea has also been used to treat mental illness, epilepsy, vertigo, colic, intestinal worms, poisoning, multiple sclerosis, Bell’s palsy, and eye problems. An infusion used as eyewash brings relief to strained and tired eyes, and improves eyesight. Recalling times on the plantation, elder Sam Rawls shared, “When anybody got sick, the old folks made hot teas from herbs that they got out of the woods. One was a bitter herb called rue. They give it to the children, and to the grown ups, too.”17 In spiritual medicine rue is known as the mother of herbs and has sacred utility in Christianity, Islam, Santeria, and indigenous European traditions. A tea of rue is used to consecrate sacred objects, to wash the eyes to develop “second sight,” and for purification and protection. Caution: Rue is poisonous when taken in excess. Never consume during pregnancy.
Sage (Salvia officinalis) is a sacred, purifying plant in both Indigenous and Black traditions. Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.
Sage (Salvia officinalis)
Sage is a powerfully curative plant containing thujone, diterpene bitters, flavonoids, phenolic acids, and tannins. Its antiseptic and astringent qualities make it useful as a gargle for sore throats and a rinse for canker sores and irritated gums. Taken as tea, sage cures mild diarrhea, calms the nervous system, dries up milk flow, and stimulates digestion. It also reduces hot flashes during menopause and helps the body adapt to hormonal change. The dried leaves are smoked to treat asthma. In spiritual medicine sage is burned to cleanse and purify spaces and taken as tea to enhance wisdom. Burned during funeral rituals, sage supports healthy grieving. A sachet of sage beneath the pillow is said to drive away nightmares. Caution: Do not take therapeutic doses during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.
Sorrel (Hibiscus sabdariffa or H. acetosella)
African rosemallow, false roselle, and sorrel are some of the names for this Angola-native plant, which is rich in plant acids, including citric acid, malic acid, tartaric acid, and allo-hydroxycitric acid lactone. The flower tea of sorrel has been shown to reduce cholesterol and blood pressure in clinical studies. It is also useful for treating loss of appetite, respiratory infections, inflammation, stomach irritation, poor circulation, and constipation. In spiritual medicine sorrel is an aphrodisiac, used to attract love and incite passion. The flower can also be floated in water to aid divination rituals.
Spilanthes or African Power Cress (Spilanthes filicaulis)
Native to West Africa, this plant is known to help make one’s speech persuasive, smooth, and well received. Local leaders chew on the yellow button flowers before important meetings. African power cress contains spilanthol, a mild analgesic that produces a tingling sensation on the tongue. In Brazil the plant is known as Wolikpekpe. The flowering herb sometimes known as toothache plant (Acmella oleracea) also contains spilanthol and is a temperate substitute for this tropical species.
Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
Thyme is central to Haitian cooking and powerfully medicinal, containing thymol, methyl chavicol, cineole, borneol, flavonoids, and tannins. Harvest the fresh aerial parts in late summer or early fall. A tea or syrup of thyme can be taken as an expectorant; to relieve the symptoms of colds, flu, asthma, and bronchitis; and to counter the effects of aging. Externally, the essential oil can be used on the skin to relieve insect bites, athlete’s foot, infections, muscle spasms, and parasites. A tincture can be used to treat vaginal yeast infections. The fresh leaves may be chewed to relieve sore throats. In spiritual medicine an herbal bath is used after winter to restore vibrancy. The herb bundles are hung around the home to attract love and financial prosperity.
Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum)
While smoking tobacco cigarettes is highly correlated with cancer and lung disease, organic tobacco without additives has been shown to heal ulcerative colitis, sarcoidosis, endometrial cancer, uterine fibroids, and breast cancer among women who carry the BRCA gene. In spiritual medicine tobacco smoke is blown over the fields before planting, over lovers before sex, between parties in peace negotiations, and into warrior’s faces before battle. The smoke is believed to carry blessings, protection, and purification. In Lukumi tobacco is offered to the orisa to bring blessings.
Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium and A. afra)
Wormwood is an aromatic bitter native to Southern and Eastern Africa that contains sesquiterpene lactones, thujone, azulenes, flavonoids, phenolic acids, and lignans. Wormwood tea and tincture increase stomach acid and bile production, enhance the absorption of nutrients, clear up bronchial disease, relieve anemia, gas, constipation, and bloating, and restore vitality after a long illness. The tincture is moderately effective for eliminating worms. Applied topically, wormwood is a good insect repellent and insecticide, and can heal skin infections. Caution: Use only in small doses and for no more than four consecutive weeks.
UPLIFT
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman was a master herbalist and wildcrafter who used her
knowledge of plants to heal Black and white soldiers in the Union army during the Civil War and to keep her passengers safe on the Underground Railroad.19 She famously cured a soldier who was near death from dysentery by digging up some water lilies and cranesbill to make him a medicinal infusion. Tubman used paregorics to quiet babies on the journey north, as well as other herbs that were taught to her by her grandmother.20
Enslaved Africans kept their herbal traditions alive at great personal risk. Because enslavers were fearful of being poisoned by the people they enslaved, they forbade the practice of herbal medicine. African herbalists knew how to use plants to cause maladies that mimicked common diseases, like dysentery, making the transgression easy to conceal. By the mid-18th century both Virginia and South Carolina made it a capital offense for enslaved people to teach or learn about herbal medicine and prohibited us from working in apothecaries. Further, European Americans borrowed from African medicinal knowledge, then erased the stories of the originators over time. For example, in the 1863 edition of Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, the entry on boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) includes, “This plant is extensively employed among the negroes on the plantations in South Carolina as a tonic and diaphoretic on colds and fevers, and in the typhoid pneumonia so prevalent among them.”21 By the time the Peterson Field Guide was published in 1990, boneset was merely described as a “common home remedy of 19th-century America, extensively employed by American Indians and early settlers.”22 The Black herbalists were erased. Similarly, Cesar (b. 1682) was an accomplished Black herbalist who developed a cure for enslavers who believed they were poisoned, using plantain and horehound as the active ingredients. In a rare act, the South Carolina legislature of 1749 awarded Cesar his freedom and an annual stipend in exchange for his recipe and commitment to continue developing medicine. They published his cure-all poison remedy in the May 1750 issue of the South Carolina Gazette. Yet in 1887 the book American Medicinal Plants simply said of plantain, “Prominent folk cancer remedy in Latin America. Used widely in folk medicine throughout the world. Confirmed antimicrobial; stimulates healing process,” again omitting the contribution of Black herbalists.23
Enslaved herbalists had intimate knowledge of hundreds of native and naturalized plants, including snakeroot, mayapple, red pepper, boneset, pine needles, comfrey, pokeweed, sassafras, goldenseal, belladonna, lobelia, sage, henna, rhubarb, bloodroot, wild cherry, jimsonweed, peppermint, saffron, pleurisy, horehound, elecampane, skunk cabbage, spikenard root, Alexandria senna, catnip, High John root, pennyroyal, and red oak bark. Black herbalists understood the physical healing properties of these plants as well as their spiritual dimension. In addition to preparing teas and poultices, these healers carried on the string- and knot-tying traditions of West and Central Africa. Strings of leather or vines were infused with plant essence, then tied to various parts of the body, including the neck, ankle, wrist, and waist, to bring spiritual power and strength. This practice originated in Kongo, Gabon, Ghana, and elsewhere on the mother continent and persisted in an unbroken chain through slavery and into northern Black urban communities after emancipation.24
While many herbalists in our communities were forgotten by history, at least one enslaved herbalist, Willie Elfe, published his own prescription book. Further, the legacy of Dr. James Still (b. 1812), likely America’s most famous 19th-century root doctor, known to New Jersey locals as “Dr. James of Pine Barrens,” lives on. His contemporary “Dr. Buzzard,” Stepheney Robinson of St. Helena Island, South Carolina, was the best-known conjurer of the time and is still lifted up by practitioners today.
Species Accounts of Wildcrafted Plant Allies
In her brilliant book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Potawatomi scientist and healer Robin Wall Kimmerer summarizes the sacred law of wild foraging for plants.
Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them. Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life.
Ask permission before taking. Abide by the answer.
Never take the first. Never take the last.
Take only what you need.
Take only that which is given.
Never take more than half. Leave some for others.
Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.
Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken.
Share.
Give thanks for what you have been given.
Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken.
Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.18
This is the law. The rest is commentary.
When wildcrafting, ecological conservation and personal safety come first. While Robin Wall Kimmerer explains that we must take less than half, our practice is to take no more than one-third of any plant population. Never harvest any plant that is rare or endangered, and avoid harvesting in protected wilderness areas. Our wild nonhuman cousins rely on these plants for their survival.
Developing a relationship with plants takes time. Many plants are easiest to identify when they are not edible, so you may need to identify where they are growing in one year and return to harvest them the following year. It can be helpful to learn some basic botany terms, so that you know the difference between a compound and a simple leaf, and between a regular and an irregular flower, for example. It is essential to positively identify a species, so bring along a few references and cross-check to be sure you don’t have a poisonous look-alike in front of you. The wildcrafter’s pack needs to be stocked with snacks, water, plant identification guides, offerings of tobacco or corn for the earth, a magnifying lens, and an emergency whistle. Pack plastic bags to gather the herbs and rigid containers for berries. The colors beige, green, and white repel ticks and biting insects and are the best colors to wear for wildcrafting. Take care to only harvest in areas free of pesticide spray, as many public parks, road edges, railroads, farms, and homeowners spray their properties with poison. Even when you are relatively certain of the cleanliness of the property, rinse your harvest before consuming.
Here are some plant allies we harvest at Soul Fire Farm that also have a rich history in the Black community:
Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)
The berries are high in vitamin C and can be eaten raw, dried, jellied, or juiced. Collect the inner bark of the tree in the fall, when the amygdalin level is highest. The tea is highly effective at suppressing coughs and also works as a sedative, decongestant, expectorant, disinfectant, fever reducer, and gargle for sore throats. Enslaved Africans additionally simmered the bark as a remedy for malaria. A poultice of the bark can be applied to wounds and burns as an external disinfectant and astringent. In spiritual medicine the tea is taken to promote long life. Caution: Partially wilted cherry leaves produce cyanide, which can cause breathing difficulty, spasms, coma, and death in humans and livestock.25
Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)
The leaves and flowers of boneset contain sesquiterpene lactones, polysaccharides, flavonoids, diterpenes, and sterols, the last of which are immunostimulants. An infusion of boneset is used to treat colds, fever, arthritis, and “break-bone fever” (dengue fever). In the 18th century enslaved Africans commonly used the plant as a fever reducer.26 The plant stimulates resistance to viral and bacterial infections and stimulates sweating. In spiritual medicine dried boneset leaves or boneset tea can be used to wash the body and remove negative energy and illness. When using dried leaves for spiritual medicine, burn them outdoors after rubbing over the skin. Caution: There are concerns about pyrrolizidine alkaloid toxicity with boneset. Avoid the internal use of boneset during pregnancy and nursing, in children under 12, and in those with liver disease. Others should limit internal dosage to once per week.
Burdock (Articum spp.)
Collect burdock root at any time during the first year of its biennial cycle. The root has a mild, nutty, sweet flavor and can be u
sed in sauces, soups, and sautés. It is delicious prepared with sesame oil, tamari sauce, and ginger. In the second year, collect the flower stalk (cardone) for its tender celerylike core that tastes like artichoke heart. The cardone can be boiled or fried. Burdock root contains vitamins B1, B6, B12, C, E, biotin, potassium, sulfur, silica, and manganese. It provides inulin, which helps regulate the metabolism. A tea or tincture of the root is used for liver dysfunction, urinary tract disorders, weight loss, immune support, colds, eczema, psoriasis, and acne. A poultice of burdock leaf or seeds cleanses the skin and heals bruises.27 In spiritual medicine burdock is worn as a protective amulet, infused to make a purifying wash for the home, or made into an oil to rub on the genitals to restore potency.
Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
Collect dandelion leaves in the early spring and late fall after the frost, when they are least bitter. As Dr. George Washington Carver affirmed, “Never a spring came that we didn’t have our wild greens. They were a part of our regular diet … They did indeed have distinct medicinal value. Our medicines before we learned how to make so many artificial products came from plants largely.”28 The greens and young crown are delicious in salads, sautéed with alliums, or steamed. The yellow portion of the dandelion flower can be picked or battered and fried. The leaves contain more beta-carotene than carrots, as well as vitamins C, B1, B2, B5, B6, B12, C, E, P, and D, biotin, inositol, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and zinc. The taproot is also edible in soup. The root contains inulin, a prebiotic fiber, as well as the detoxifying chemical tarazin, which cleanses and reduces inflammation in the liver and gallbladder. The roots and leaf tea also act on the kidneys as a gentle diuretic, without leaching potassium the way pharmaceutical diuretics do. Dandelion’s diuretic properties are what give it the Haitian Kreyol name pisanli or “urinate in bed.” Dandelion tea is recommended to combat stress, sluggishness, diabetes, obesity, and indigestion. The leaf’s white, milky sap removes pimples, warts, and sores. In spiritual medicine the root tea is taken before divination to strengthen communication with ancestors and spirits.
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