Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Bitters

[00:00:00] Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. As promised we're going to get into a brand new book today. We're going to start on my book, The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Bitter Herbs. It's my largest work of all actually. It's quite big, it's quite comprehensive. Bitters are really important medicinally. People ask me what's the one thing I could take that would really improve my health, just really change my health.

[00:00:30] And I always give them a bitters formula. Whether it's usually not just an individual herb, I usually recommend the Swedish bitters, but if someone doesn't have access to that, cocktail bitters such as Agnes Jura bitters or Peixote, there's another one that's fairly popular, it's not coming to me right now, does work.

[00:00:53] And what bitters do, just from a taste perspective, is they stimulate the bile. They help the liver. They stimulate the stomach acids. They stimulate saliva. Well, that just helps all around with digestion. It also helps with blood sugar, inflammation, allergies, because a lot of our allergies are...

[00:01:16] Well, some are actually triggered by food allergens, of course, but when you're having severe allergies, and a lot of people these days have chronic inflammatory asthma and different things, which is an allergic condition. It can be a skin allergy, it can be anything. Your body starts producing more mast cells and producing more histamines.

[00:01:36] And so, essentially, it starts overreacting to everything. So, even the foods you eat that you're not allergic to, your immune system may perceive as an invading organism and creating an allergic response to something you're really not even allergic to. I learned that. And the bitters really do help with my hereditary asthma. So, we're going to get into bitters. I'm going to start just with an overview.

[00:02:03] But speaking of books, last Wednesday, yesterday, was Ash Wednesday. And last year I did this. I'm doing it again this year. I'm offering this to everybody. So, I want you to share it with your friends, family and loved ones. This is, you know, Lent is a time of prayer, fasting and alms giving.

[00:02:25] Well, my way of giving alms to, you know, not just to the church, but to charity, whatever, but to people in general, my listeners, you that make it possible for me to do my job and make a living doing what I enjoy, is to give away free e-books. All you have to do is check out all my books, right? You can pull them up on Amazon. You can go to southernapolatchenerbs.blogspot.com.

[00:02:52] You can go to judsoncarroll.com. Anywhere you can find my work. And look through the titles. Email me, judson at judsoncarroll.com. That's J-U-D-S-O-N at J-U-D-S-O-N-C-A-R-R-O-L-L.com. And tell me which book you'd like for Lent. And I will send you a PDF, one per person. I don't limit it to one per household. You know, if you've got a couple people in your household and they want two different books.

[00:03:20] My goal is actually to give away as much as possible during Lent. This is my almsgiving. And this is really my time to give back and say thanks to all of y'all who make it possible. And thanks to God who makes it all possible. Makes everything possible. It gives me the talent to do it, the opportunity to do it. It even allowed me to be born in a time when I can do podcasting and self-publishing. And you know, stuff that you couldn't do really until just a few years ago.

[00:03:50] So that's pretty amazing when you think about it. So now let's get into bitters. So remember, free books from now to Easter, one per person. Email me and tell me which one you want. And I'll get back with you as quickly as possible. My laptop is dying. So if there's a little bit of a delay. Yesterday I backed up all my files. Today I got it going just... I'm hoping I can keep it going long enough to do a couple of podcasts.

[00:04:17] So I can put a couple in the can and you know, have them in case... The one I ordered... I ordered one two days ago and there was an issue with shipping. Cancel the order, order another one. And now they're looking at maybe getting to me by Wednesday. And you know how it goes. So say a prayer and keep your fingers crossed that I can get through these. I can do three podcasts today, minimum. So it's going to be a long day and I'm going to have a very tired voice.

[00:04:44] But fortunately I have some Swedish bitters, which are also very good for hoarseness and laryngitis. So let's get started with a brief history of medicinal bitters. As I said, this book is massive. The e-book is like 504 pages long. The print version is well over 800 pages long. When I started putting it together, I knew it was going to be long. And when I talk about how, you know, I really do see sharing herbs and such with people as a mission.

[00:05:14] When somebody buys one of these books from Amazon and it's not a cheap book. It's like $29.99 or something. I mean, it's a big book. I make like a buck. Because it was so big, all the money goes to printing and shipping. So this one, this one took me two years to write and I make like nothing on it. So I love it. Actually, when someone will buy an e-book version of this, you know, I actually make about nine bucks. But I'm more than pleased to give it away for Lent.

[00:05:44] So if you want to go in emailing on this, you'll have a print copy you can reference as we do this podcast. You don't have to take notes or anything. It'll be a real good thing to do. But all the books. I've written 15. I have 12 currently available because one of them I do on daily gospel reflections and those are set on a calendar. So, you know, that gets swapped out every six months. So there are at least, I guess, 13 books right now that I've written that you can request for free.

[00:06:13] So brief history of medicinal bitters. Bitters are one of the most ancient medicines known to man. According to an article that ran in Science News Journal in 2009 entitled An Ancient Remedy Bitter Herbs and Sweet Wine, jars suggest early Egyptians mixed medicinal plants into an alcoholic beverage. This article documents archaeological evidence that the herbs were mixed with wine, likely for medicinal purposes.

[00:06:39] Although not mentioned as being combined with alcohol except for symbolic reference to wormwood and the mixture of myrrh and gall given to those who are about to be crucified as a sedative, bitter herbs are mentioned prominently in the Bible, such as the Passover feast. And it may be assumed that digestive benefits of bitter herbs were recognized beyond their symbolic value. You know, wormwood in the Bible is used as a symbol of bitterness because it's a very bitter herb.

[00:07:07] That leads us to a concoction called theriac. Now, many herbalists and historians point to theriac as the first documented use of medicinal bitters in European literature. Bitters have been used for centuries or so in Chinese medicine, but that's a topic we'll save for another day. A lot of the Chinese herbs you just can't get or grow in your garden unless you live like where I do, where I can actually grow a lot of Chinese herbs. But theriac bears little resemblance to digestive bitters.

[00:07:37] In fact, theriac was intended to be a universal defense against poisons, all poisons. You know, back in ancient days, kings were in constant fear that someone was going to poison them and take their throne. So, according to legends, the history of theriac begins with King Mithrodides V of Pontius. Well, I mean, six, I'm sorry, Pontius.

[00:08:03] And you'll find references to theriac and mithridate for centuries. I mean, pharmacies were carrying mithridate well into the late 1800s, named for King Mithrodides. He experimented with poisons and antidotes on his prisoners. So, it would really, you know, suck to be a prisoner of his.

[00:08:26] His numerous toxicity experiments eventually led him to declare that he had discovered an antidote for every venomous reptile and poisonous substance. He mixed all of the effective antidotes into a single one called mithridate. Mithridate contained opium, myrrh, saffron, ginger, cinnamon, and castor, along with some 40 other ingredients.

[00:08:52] When the Romans defeated him, his medical notes fell into their hands and the Roman Medici began to use them. Emperor Nero's physician Andromachus improved upon Mithridatum by bringing the total number of ingredients to 64, which included viper's flesh. A mass decoction of which was roasted, then aged, fermented, and proved one of the most constant ingredients.

[00:09:17] Likewise, Manishi, however, links the origins of theriac to the ancient Egyptian kyphi, which was a recipe that was also used medicinally. Greek physician Galen devoted a whole book to theriac, or theriac. One of his patients, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, took it on a regular basis. In 667, ambassadors from Rume, would these be the Rumeys, I guess? I don't know,

[00:09:45] presented the Emperor Gao Zong of the Tang Dynasty in China with a theriac. The Chinese observed that it contained the gall of swine and was dark red in color, and the foreigners seemed to respect it greatly. The Tang pharmacist, Su Kung, noted that it proved useful against the hundred ailments. Whether this panacea contained the traditional ingredients, such as opium, myrrh, and hemp is not known.

[00:10:12] Although theriac contained bitter herbs, such as gentian, it seems that the bitters as we know them came into medicinal use by the ancient Greek and Roman physicians via gentius. Gentius, for whom gentian is named. According to tradition, gentian, named for gentius, he was a ruler of the Illyrian kingdom between 181 and 168 BC.

[00:10:39] Deoschorides, the Greek physician, believed that King gentius identified the properties of this plant and used the plant root in at least by 167 BC to help with an instance of plague. And gentian does have some good antiviral properties, and it's good for helping with fevers as well as being a very strong bitter herb. Regardless, by the Middle Ages, medicinal tonic or digestive bitters were commonly used by medical practitioners of the day.

[00:11:09] The use and documentation of medicinal herbs was especially important to the Benedictine order. These Catholic monks and nuns did much to preserve and advance the study of horticulture, botany, and medicine. They maintained large herb gardens, apothecaries, and hospitals for treating the sick. That's actually how Christianity spread throughout Europe was free hospitals, free schools, and orphanages.

[00:11:33] As can be seen after Rome fell, the Benedictines quickly became the monastic masters of herbalism, already being focused on the mission of preserving knowledge. Among other things, they perfected the making of tinctures, suspending the essence of an herb and an alcohol base for medicinal and other purposes. The Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, who ruled from about 742 to 814 AD, so admired the Benedictine gardens and techniques that he ordered all monasteries throughout the empire

[00:12:03] to plant physic gardens to supply the monasteries and empires with healing herbs. Perhaps the most prominent among the medically inclined Benedictines was St. Hildegard von Bingen. Born in 1098, St. Hildegard was a mystic visionary from childhood. She became an abbess, a horticulturalist, an herbalist, a physician, a teacher, an artist, an author, philosopher, musician, and composer of a very large volume of church music.

[00:12:30] I mean, she is remarkably impressive. I mean, amazing, actually. She's considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. Her talents and works are immense and deep. Far too much to get into here, absolutely. She was a great proponent of digestive bitters and introduced the use of hops in beer, both as a bittering agent and a preservative. I've written quite a bit about this subject.

[00:12:58] If you want to get my book, Christian History of Herbal Medicine, you'll learn all about St. Hildegard and the Benedictines. And the next guy I will mention is Fr. Sebastian Nape. Hildegard's influence can be seen by Fr. Nape, born in 1821 in Bavaria. This German priest is remembered for his water cure. It was cold baths to help enhance the immune system. But his cures also included a number of herbal baths, soaks, steams, and various dietary and lifestyle practices.

[00:13:26] And yes, herbal formulas that included medicinal bitters. His nape cure includes aloe, a bitter herb, gentian, buckthorn, bog bean, chamomile, anise, camphor, centurine, cloves, nettles, fennels, fenugreek, grains of paradise, juniper, mint, chicory, valerian, angelica, wormwood, as well as several other bitter herbs. He prescribed combinations of these bitters, both as tinctures and teas,

[00:13:53] as a part of his treatment for a variety of diseases and disorders. The Swedish bitter's name at first seems likely that the ingredients come from the country of Sweden. Well, Swedish bitters, but actually it's not the case. The name derives from the Swedish physician Dr. Kloss Sempst. It wasn't until the 18th century that it was formally labeled Swedish bitters by the Swedish physicians, Dr. Kloss Sampst and I believe his son.

[00:14:21] The mixture with the different medicinal herbs was already known long before in the family of the Swedish healthcare professionals, but had been forgotten. He brought it back. In fact, it may have actually been formulated by the famous physician Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus von Hohenheim. Yeah, he was quite a character and I think... I've done a whole show on him on my Southern Appalachian Herbs show, so if you want to check that out.

[00:14:50] The Samps found the original formula in the 18th century, the 1700s, and started selling it in their pharmacy. And it helped many people with different problems and illnesses. It is believed that the... Well, I just mentioned Theophrastus Pombastus Paracelsus von Hohenheim, who lived in the 16th century. But Dr. Samps died at the age of 104 years old in a riding accident.

[00:15:17] And it is said that his ancestors lived a long life and have reached a biblical age, thanks to the Swedish bitters. So, take that for what you will. The large Swedish bitters, this is the one I use. This is one of the few herbal products I don't make myself. I actually order the dry herbs from a company that specializes in Swedish bitters. They come written German on one side of the bag and English on the other side. They're imported from Germany.

[00:15:45] They cost about $30 for a bag and it lasts me a good six months. So, I think it's well worth it for what it's done for my asthma. Really almost miraculous. Ingredients. Angelica. And we're going to talk about each one of these in depth as we go through the book. But I'm just going to give you an overview here. Aloe vera. Lycopodium. That's actually ground moss. Ground pine. Anyway, we'll get into that. Pimpinella. Carlina aculus. That's a thistle.

[00:16:14] Veronica. Althea. Which is a marshmallow. A mallow. Gintin. Acorus calamus. That's calamus. Cinnamon camphora. This is actually a camphor. And it was very strong in flavor and smell. It's one of the few times we really use camphor internally. And rock candy actually to balance out the camphor because it would just be too strong on its own.

[00:16:40] So, even though it's bitter, it's got a little bit of sugar in it. Not enough that you're really going to notice, but yeah. Viscom album. That's a type of this European mistletoe. So, as we discussed last week when we discussed mistletoe, European mistletoe is actually a very healthful herb. Whereas your American mistletoe is deadly. Poisonous. Toxic. Don't use it. Camphor. That's myrrh. You remember myrrh from the Bible. Juglandaceae.

[00:17:09] That's walnut, essentially. Rhubarb, safflower, senna, ginkgo. Theriaca. Now, Theriaca is named for theriac and it's actually a combination of spices. That's very interesting. Potentilla, artemisium, scintum. That's wormwood. Cucurma zedua.

[00:17:35] That's a relative of turmeric. Yes, it's a relative of turmeric. So, obviously it's quite a list. The theriac, as I said, is a mixture of valerian root, cinnamon, and cardamom. So, one medicinal herb with two spices. Very interesting. Not surprisingly, there's actually a small Swedish bitters that uses only 11 of the 22 ingredients.

[00:18:00] The small Swedish bitters was popularized in the 1980s by Maria Trebin, who based much of her work on St. Hildegard and Fr. Nape and Fr. Kunzel. And, of course, I've done a whole book on Fr. Kunzel. She also includes St. Hildegard's recipe for heart wine, which uses dandelion stems as a bitter in her book, Health Through God's Pharmacy. Now, getting up to somewhat more modern times, the next major event in the history of medicinal bitters came with the discovery of quinine.

[00:18:29] Quinine was used as a musceral accent by the Quechua people, who are indigenous to Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, to halt shivering due to low temperatures and for fever, of course. The Quechua would mix the ground bark of chinchona trees with sweetened water to offset the bark's bitter taste, thus producing something similar to tonic water. Tonic water like you would have in your gin and tonic. It's flavored with quinine and sugar.

[00:18:56] Spanish Jesuit missionaries were the first to bring chinchona to Europe. The Spanish observed the Quechua's use of chinchona and were aware of the medicinal properties of chinchona bark by the 1570s or earlier. Nicholas Minardes, 1571, and Juan Fragroso in 1572 both described a tree which was subsequently identified as a chinchona tree whose bark was used to treat diarrhea.

[00:19:26] Quinine has been used in unextracted form by Europeans ever since, at least from the 17th century. It was first used to treat malaria in Rome in 1631. A popular story of how it was brought to Europe by the Countess of Chinchon was debunked by medical historian Alex Haggis around 1941. During the 17th century, malaria was endemic to the swamps and marshes surrounding the city of Rome.

[00:19:52] It caused the death of several popes, many cardinals, and countless Roman citizens. Most of the Catholic priests trained in Rome had seen malaria victims and were familiar with the shivering brought on by the fever phase of the disease. The Jesuit brother, Agnostino Salimbrino, an apothecary by training, a pharmacist essentially, who lived in Lima, now present-day Peru, observed the Quechua using the bark of the chinchona tree to treat shivering.

[00:20:20] While its effect in treating malaria and malaria-induced shivering was unrelated to its effect in controlling shivers from the fevers, it was a successful medicine against malaria. At the first opportunity, Salimbrino sent a small quantity to Rome for testing as a malaria treatment. In the years that followed chinchona bark, known as the Jesuit's bark or Peruvian bark, became one of the most valuable commodities shipped from Peru to Europe.

[00:20:44] When King Charles II was cured of malaria at the end of the 17th century with quinine, it became popular in London. But they would not call it the Jesuit's bark because by that time, London was Protestant England and they wouldn't buy anything even related to Catholicism and establish their own trade routes to bring chinchona in. And they were the ones that really began to call it quinine.

[00:21:10] Before then, everyone called it Peruvian bark or the Jesuit's bark. But herbalists in the 1600s like Culpeper and Gerard hated Catholics and railed against anything related to Catholicism. So anyway, Culpeper himself was by the Protestants of England accused of witchcraft and almost killed.

[00:21:39] Anyway, it's really interesting history. You know I love the history of herbal medicine. So it's not surprising then that quinine-based tonics and bitters began appearing wherever sailors traveled. And this led to the gin and tonic. The gin and tonic is actually a treatment for malaria and scurvy. Scurvy, you get the vitamin C from the gin which is infused with juniper. And you got the quinine in your tonic.

[00:22:03] By the 19th century, the British practice of adding herbal bitters used as preventative medicines to canary wine had become immensely popular in American colonies. By 1806, American publications referenced the popularity of a new preparation termed a cocktail cocktail which was described as a combination of a stimulating liquor composed of spirits and any kind of sugar, water, and bitters. So all cocktails always used to have bitters in them.

[00:22:32] And that was not so much done anymore. I mean most cocktails now are very sweet and don't have bitters in them. But that's a shame because they should. Because it actually, you know, old-fashioned cocktails are actually really darn tasty in fact. And a lot better for you than all the sugary stuff people drink these days. So there was a great controversy over Angostura. I mispronounced it all every time. Angostura bitters.

[00:23:00] Being a source of quinine-like compounds and a very bitter substance, the bark of the Angostura tree began appearing in various patent bitters. Multiple brands called their bitters Angostura because they contained Angostura as an ingredient. However, the first brand to call itself Angostura has never admitted to using Angostura bark in its recipe.

[00:23:24] It seems that a German physician in Venezuela in 1824 was trying to find a cure for stomach maladies. And he created Angostura bitters, the first patented bitters. The name Angostura was named after the town of Angostura in Venezuela. And they were first used as a cocktail ingredient when they reached England and Trinidad. This led to lawsuits by the Angostura Company that we all know and love.

[00:23:52] I'm a huge fan of Angostura bitters. They're orange-flavored bitters. And one thing you learn as a musician, and if you ever work in food service, is if you have a very drunk customer, give them a shot of Angostura bitters and they'll sober up immediately. It's amazing. It so stimulates the liver. Now, standard disclaimer, that's an anecdotal experience. But yeah, it's pretty amazing actually. So, it went back and forth from one quart to the other.

[00:24:21] And they'd find that they had the rights to the name because they branded their product first. Then another would rule that any formula that contained Angostura could rightfully call itself Angostura. And by the time it was eventually settled, it was essentially a moot point. The bitters' boom in America was grinding to a halt. The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 outlawed patent medicines and any bitters that claimed to treat any medical condition. And you would be amazed at the claims that some of those made. And then Prohibition outlawed the cocktail.

[00:24:52] And, you know, speakeasies and people making stuff in their bathtubs. They didn't have a bunch of fancy aromatic bitters. And people really began drinking their liquor straight more than ever before. Or they had a martini, which of course contains another bitter substance. It contains vermouth. A real martini is dry gin and dry vermouth. Vermouth was actually probably invented by St. Hildegard von Bingen.

[00:25:21] Vermouth is Old German for wormwood. So, everything comes full circle, right? So, after nearly a hundred years of wandering in the desert, thanks to dedicated herbalists and cocktail enthusiasts, bitters are finally making a comeback. We now have craft bitters at bars and liquor stores. And even the much maligned wormwood-based absinthe can be found in most liquor stores, although it's somewhat of a pricey novelty. In recent years, at least four books have been published on bitters.

[00:25:50] Their history, cocktail recipes, and making your own. And herbalists such as myself have renewed interest in bitters. And I think, as you begin to learn the incredible properties of bitter herbs, you're going to have a strong interest in bitters. So, y'all, I'm going to wrap it up there. We got through this one. We got through it. God willing, by next week I'll have a new computer and everything will be easier. My phone just does not work well for recording podcasts, especially if I have to edit them.

[00:26:19] So, this is what I've got to do. So, y'all have a good one. Be sure to get a free book from me. I want to give away as many as possible. And I'll talk to you next time. The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not a doctor. The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and there is no governing body regulating herbalists.

[00:26:47] Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs. I'm not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true. I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience and if I believe in herbs help me. I cannot nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use an herb anyone recommends, you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you.

[00:27:15] You may have an allergy, a sensitivity, an underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog, you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices, and not to blame me for anything ever. Thank you. Thank you.