Wild Medicinal Plant - Wintergreen

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Mitch, Mitchell, Alone, History, Channel, Survival, Nativesurvival.

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Video Transcription

its mission is survival and today we're talking about the medicinal aspects of wintergreen all right so what you're looking for it's a very small growing plant that likes to grow on the forest floor has a very waxy appearance to it very shiny leaves not to stat all a little bit of red with a leaf joins the stem and it's also a red berry that commonly grows underneath as well plants completely edible and completely medicinal now it has methyl salicylic acid in it which is basically aspirin which is why we're doing this video today all right this is what it looks like on the forest floor growing with the red berry and you'll usually see you know maybe one in every three plants or so that have the berry in the colony okay so just give you an idea we have one right here here right here it's one with the berry going beside it two more beside that a purple one with a very sometimes the leaves will be purple you should go to that direction they start green then they turn purple with age a few more right there some more right here again with berries I just pan over a couple feet see some more with berries as well and up here another one and a few feet over some more again with berries okay so it has a good example to choose from it has nice green leaves here I find that the purple are a bit more bitter and I find that the green have a little more winter green flavor in them so they taste better it's a little stronger and this one also has many many leaves on it has four leaves on it plus a berry so if I take a leaf from here I'm not going to stop this one particular sprout

from continuing to grow and again this is another reason why I like to choose this plan as a medicinal that's because it does grow in such large numbers when you do find it another one there that it's worth knowing you know I really don't want to learn medicinal plants that I'm never going to find the plant you know I only want to learn plants that are common enough and grow in a large enough number so I can actually utilize them and I'm not hurting their numbers and I'm not gonna have trouble finding them in the first place alright so now let's pull out our book and my notes okay so let's go to my notes first so we have wintergreen also known as teaberry medicinal and we have methyl cell sitted which is basically aspirin to wear aspirin comes from salicylic acid cells light it's found in quite a few plants that's found in willow bark it's found in birch bark it's also found on ebay or wintergreen ok now you can use the berries or you can use the leaves which is basically the whole plan and if eat them raw or as an infusion it's the same and again it's like aspirin so it's going to be good for headaches inflammation which would you obviously you know it's really broad range inflammation you know that again that could be headaches that could be back pain like sciatica pain muscle pain joint pain it's good for fever and it's also good for dealing with bacteria or a sort of infection and it's also good for diarrhea okay now the reason why it's good for these things as well as because of the properties it has so that's raw and infusion same way okay it's good for these things and that's what the berries what with the leaves okay so it's a very easy plant to use because you can either make an infusion out of it or you can eat it raw it's up to you and basically it's just like aspirin but does a few extra things in addition to its aspirin properties so let's go to properties now so it is pain relieving its anti-inflammatory antibacterial calming and anti gas so you can see why these things would work for these common ailments you know like diarrhea would be anti gas fever calming would help with fever pain relieving in general we'll just you know is kind of goes with the anti-inflammatories a lot of pain is caused by inflammation so let's get antibacterial again you know that helps with diarrhea and and all these problems as well so now let's go to the book and we'll see what the podcast will say okay so if you turn to page believe it's 30 you're fine with the green tea berry and he's the pic of it right up top oval glossy flowers waxy dripping bells dry bread fruit okay now you can see that has a methyl salicylate in it produced by the compound methyl salicylate salicylic acid these for colds headaches stomachaches fevers kidney ailments external wash sore muscles a lot of things that we were just speaking of now again I like to underline things I think are things that stand out that are important okay so it has anti-inflammatory like i mentioned pain-killing activities okay it also enables plants to communicate with one another which I find very interesting okay so its analgesic cognitive anti-inflammatory antiseptic okay analgesic is a pain reliever chromatus means that it removes gas in the digestive tract of the stomach which is why I be actually good for diarrhea and it's also antiseptic which would be good for diarrhea and anti-inflammatory which is obviously why it's good for all those other reasons now knowing the properties is incredibly important because if you know that then you can be flexible with your treatment you know I mean if I know that it's good for pain relieving and its anti-inflammatory I don't only have to use of a headaches businesses headaches say I twist my knee or I roll an ankle and my knee or ankle blows up and gets all swollen it gets all inflamed it's in a lot of pain I can't put a lot of weight on it this is a great plan to not only take internally to deal with the inflammation the end to deal with the pain but it's also good one to make a poultice out of so then I would poultice that knee or poultice my ankle because I know that it's going to help with that situation where it's going to reduce my me it's going to reduce my my swelling of my joint and it's going to help with the pain there it's kind of like you know auntie pain auntie swelling rub in that point again if I had a headache I don't only eat the plant but I could also make a poultice and put it on my temples and that would really help as well so by knowing the properties it really allows you to use the plants abilities to its fullest okay so it's a good dose I have a good tablespoon or so of leaves i also have about maybe a teaspoon worth of the berries i'm going to go with raw on this one okay just the smell yeah hmm

make sure you shut up really well tastes great really does taste just like wintergreen obviously just bite ringing up well you're releasing all of the all the essential oil that's inside the leaves are inside the plant parts now where you can ingest it more so it's not trapped in the leaf matter now actually methyl salicylic acid isn't isn't aspirin just yet and you eat it it's actually processed and synthesized and extracted and you liver so has to go through some processes in your body so that's why you want to make sure you chew it up well move it all around your mouth there's a lot of membranes in your mouth that absorb things absorb different chemicals

wash it down some berries really do love this plant it makes absolutely fantastic tea it smells amazing really helps you get centered again and you know if you have a headache you're starting to feel you know a little down you know it's a it's a great pickup you know I love getting a couple handfuls of this stuff and I find it very often on the trail and it's really all around and keep looking at well I'm talking here right now I'm in a very dense oak woodland and I found it underneath pints of fondant underneath oak as well so it really doesn't mind different soils and different different plants parent plants over which is nice because it's more variable to be in more places all rights been mentioned ADA survival appreciate your views your common sense port thanks for joining me today for medicinal wintergreen I'll see in the next one take care