Weeping Willow

Tall Grass Prairie and Eastern Deciduous Forest

Weeping Willow

Morton Arboretum

http://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?&id=JN.fHOTxrURjOh1jZLTVegqzQ&w=300&h=300&c=0&pid=1.9&rs=0&p=0

Habitat: temperate regions, forests

Seasons: Year round

Active Chemical Ingredient: salicylic acid

Chemical Structure:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salicylic_acid

Uses of Specimen: 

• anti inflammatory
• toothache
• snakebite
• frostbite(pain)
• astringent
• pain reliever
• fever reducer 
• Willow bark acts a lot like aspirin, so it is used for pain,
• Willow bark’s pain relieving potential has been recognized throughout history. Willow bark was commonly used during the time of Hippocrates, when people were advised to chew on the bark to relieve pain and fever.
•  Used in treating feverish diseases, chills, ague, pain, inflammations, neuralgia, headaches, gout, and rheumatic ailments, arthritic joints.
• Taken for chronic diarrhea and edema. It may also be taken as a bitter tonic in small doses before meals, to hasten convalescence from acute diseases.
• The tea made from the leaves or buds is good in gangrene, cancer, and eczema.
  Wash is used for corns, cuts, ulcers, poison-ivy rash. Experimentally, delays cataract formation and risk of heart disease in males.

Procedure:

Formulas or Dosages

The tea drug is peeled in spring from moderately large branches and dried. 

Decoction: soak 1 to 3 tsp. of bark in a cup of cold water for 3-4 hours and then bring the water to a boil. Take a mouthful at a time of the unsweetened decoction, to a total of about 1 cup per day.
Cold extract: soak 1 tbsp. bark in cold water for 8-10 hours and strain.
Powder: take 1 to 1 1/2 tsp. 3 times per day. Resources:

   Foster, Steven, (2014). Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants and Herbs. Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin

Willow - Medicinal Herb Info. (n.d.). Retrieved September 10, 2015, from http://medicinalherbinfo.org/herbs/Willow.html