April 29, 1863, Charleston Mercury
In compliance with the suggestion of the Surgeon General, we begin to-day the publication of extracts from the valuable work of Dr. Porcher. We call the special attention of farmers and planters, of house-wives, gardeners, and all who deal with herbs, to these extracts, in the hope that they will devote themselves with energy to the patriotic task of collecting and preparing medicinal plants for the use of the soldiers in the field and in hospitals. A vast deal of good may be done, and an immense stock of native medicines may be gathered before next winter sets in, if the hints here given are attended to. Of course, a fair price will be paid for all medicines, and a ready sale will be found for them:
Sassafras.–Whilst engaged in active duties as Surgeon to the Holcombe Legion, whenever a soldier suffered from measles, pneumonia, bronchitis, or cold, his companion or nurse was directed to procure the roots and leaves of sassafras, and a tea made with this supplied that of flax seed or gum arabic.
Bene (Sesamum).–The planters and farmers throughout the Confederate States should save and cure all the leaves of the Bene now growing, to be used in camp dysentery, in colds, coughs, etc., among our soldiers, in place of gum arabic or flax seed. One or two leaves in a tumbler of water imparts their mucilaginous properties.
Dogwood (Cornus Florida)–Since the war, the bark has been employed with great advantage in place of quinine–by physicians in Sumter District, S. C., and elsewhere–particularly in cases of low forms of fever, and in dysentery, on the river courses, of a typhoid character. It is given as a substitute for Peruvian bark. In fact, in almost any case where the Cinchona bark was used.
Wild Jalap (Podophyllum Peltatum).–This can be used as a laxative in place of rhubarb or jalap, or whenever a purgative is required. Every planter in the Confederate States can produce the opium, mustard and flax seed that is required, either for the army or home use.
Podophyllum peltatum, L. Wild jalap; May Apple.–We have employed this plant among negros as a substitute for jalap and the ordinary cathartics, and find that it answers every purpose, being easily prepared by the person having charge of them. Thirty grains of the root in substance were given, or an infusion of one ounce in a pint of water, of which a wine glassful three times a day is the dose; employing the Liriodendron tulipifera as a substitute for quinine during the stage of intermission of all mild cases of intermittent fever. We would invite the particular attention of planters to the extensive use of these medicines upon their plantations. We have caused them to be used on one on which upward of a hundred negros resided, and we found that during a period of seven months, including the warm months of summer, they were used in all cases, and apparently fulfilled every indication.
Papaver Sumniferum. Opium Poppy.–”The poppy may become one of the most profitable corps if we have the means of disposing of the seed, or if we knew how to extract the oil. By proper cultivation it may be made to produce from nine to ten bushels of seed per acres, and one bushel yields twenty-four pounds of good oil. This oil, especially the first portion, which is cold pressed, and mixed in the mill with slices of apple, is doubtless the purest kind of oil for the table, and the most agreeable that is known. It is inferior to none, excepting the finest Nice or Lucca oil. It is preferable to the second rate oil of those places, and the peculiar taste of olive oil may be imparted to it by the addition of a small quantity of that oil of superfine quality.” The largest heads which are employed for medical or domestic use, are obtained from the single flowered kind, not only for the purpose of extracting opium, but also on account of the bland, escurent oil that is expressed from the seeds, which are simply emulsive, and contain none of the narcotic principle. For the latter purpose, if no other, its culture in this country is worthy of attention. Certainly, it is an object worthy of public encouragement, as the annual amount of opium imported into the United States is valued at upward of $407,000. If this was true some years since, how much more essential to us is its production now (1862), when gum opium and morphine are so very difficult to obtain? Occupied in researches upon these subjects during the month of June, under the order of the Surgeon-General, I was enabled to collect, in a few days, more than an ounce of gum opium, apparently of very excellent quality, having all the smell and taste of opium (which I have administered to the sick), from specimens of the red poppy found growing in a garden near Stateburgh, S. C. I have little doubt that all we require could be gathered by ladies and children within the Confederate States, if only the slightest attention was paid to cultivating the plants in our gardens. It thrives well and bears abundantly. It is not generally known that the gum which hardens after incising the capsules is then ready for use, and may be prescribed as gum opium, or laudanum and paregoric may be made from it, with alcohol or whisky.
The poppy, it is said, produces better when planted in the fall.
In obtaining gum opium, the capsules are cut longitudinally only through the skin, though some advise that it should be done from below upwards. I find longitudinal incisions the most economical. This is generally done late in the afternoon, the hardened gum being scraped off early next morning. Boys and girls can easily attend to this. If the capsules are cut only on one side, the same operation may be repeated on the other side, and a fresh supply of opium obtained. A knife with three or four edges, cutting about the twelfth or fourteenth part of an inch, is some times used. If the incision is too deep, the juice passes within the poppy head.
Liriodendron tulipifera, L. Tulip tree; white wood; poplar. Grows in swamps; diffused. Collected in St. John’s, Charleston District; Columbia; Newbern. Fl. June.
This plant is tonic diuretic, and diaphoretic, and is generally considered one of the most valuable of the substitutes for Peruvian bark. Dose of bark […..]. It is a stimulant tonic, slightly diaphoretic. The infusion or decoction is made in the proportion of an ounce to a pint of water; dose, one or two fluid ounces.
Aconitum uncinatum, L. Aconite, monkshood, wolfbane. Shady banks of streams among the mountains of Confederate States, and northward.
The tincture of aconite is more manageable, and is useful as an external anesthetic in frontal neuralgia, local pains, etc. No remedy, save chloroform, equals it when applied locally for the relief of pain. The tincture may be combined with oil and chloroform, as a liniment in rheumatism.
Cornus Florida, L. Dogwood. Well known; diffused in rich shady lands; Newbern, Va.
In our present need of astringent and anti-periodics and tonics, the dogwood bark powdered will be found the best substitute for Peruvian. Internally and externally, it can be applied wherever the cinchona barks were found serviceable. The dogwood bark and root, in decoction, or in form of cold infusion, is believed by many to be the most efficient substitute for quinine, also in treating malarial fevers; certainly it might be used in the cases occurring in camp, to prevent the waste of quinine, as it can be easily and abundantly procured.
Dr. Richard Moore, of Sumter District, informs me that he not only finds it efficient in fevers, but particularly useful, with whisky or alcohol, in low forms of fevers, and dysentery occurring near our river swamps.
During convalescence, where an astringent tonic is required, this plant supplies our need. See eupatorium (boneset) and Liriodendfon. These, with the blackberry and chinquapin as astringents, the gentians and pipsissewa as tonics and tonic diuretics, the sweet gum, sassafras and bene for their mucilaginous and aromatic properties, and the wild jalap (podophylum) as a cathartic, supply the surgeon in camp with easily procurable medicinal plants, which are sufficient for almost every purpose. Nitrate and bi. carbonate of potash are most required, and with calomel, may be procured from abroad. Our supply of opium can be easily procured by planting the poppy and incising the capsules. Every planter could raise a full supply of opium, mustard and flax seed. The wood of the dogwood, like the willow, is preferred in making gun powder. See Salin. A tonic compound, as advised by the herbalists, is made with the bark of the root of dogwood, colombo (Frasera), poplar, each six ounces; bark of wild cherry, six ounces; leaves of thoroughwort, four ounces; cayenne pepper, four ounces–sifted and mixed. Dose, a teaspoonful, in warm or cold water, repeated. It is stated in the Newbern Progress “that a ripe dogwood berry taken three times a day, before meals, will cure ague and fever.”
Cucumis pepo, W. Pumpkin. Cultivated very successfully in South Carolina.
The fruit which should have been dried as a winter provision for our army, ahs been converted into brandy, and dried fruit will probably be very scarce. An excellent substitute may be found in the pumpkin. Cut into slips and dried either in the sun or in a dry room, it is said to be little inferior to dried apples.
Ricadus communis. Castor oil plant.
Mode of Culture.–Break up the land with a plough, and lay it off in rows six feet apart, each way. The best time to plant is from the middle of April to the second week in May. Drop three seeds in each hill. Half a bushel of seed will plant ten acres. Treat the plant in the same manner as corn. Be careful in looking after the cut-worm, which gives it the preference to corn. When the plants are six inches high, they should be thinned to one stalk in a hill. New lands, broken up the same season, are not suited. One hand can tend five acres. In a good, dry soil, the yield will be from fifteen to twenty bushels per acres, each bushel yielding seven quarts of pure oil.
Gathering the Seed.–About the middle of August the seeds begin to ripen, and will continue until checked by the frost. A writer in the Western Plough Boy, of 1832, says: “Previous to the ripening of the seeds, the yard for spreading on should be prepared. It should be made on ground of a gradual descent, open to the sun, and made very smooth and firm. The first and second parcels that ripen must stand till the pods on the ear begin to crack, otherwise a part of the bean will be imperfect. Later in the season, when the stalk is more mature, they must be cut, when two or three pods begin to open, or they will waste. They are laid in the yard one layer deep. In warm weather a layer will pop out in three days. When all have opened, the stems are raked off. The hulls are swept off with a broom made with naked switches; which, if carefully done, will not leave more than one bushel of hulls in eight of beans. They may be cleaned with a common wheat fan, with a riddle suited to the size of a bean.”
Mode of Extraction–The oil is obtained both by coction and expression. The former method is performed by tying up the seeds, previously broken and bruised, in a bag, which is suspended in boiling water till the oil is extracted and rises to the surface, when it is skimmed off. This is the usual mode adopted by farmers. The smallest quantity of water, however, remaining in the oil, causes it to become rancid.
I trust our planters will see the necessity of preparing to plant the castor oil bean extensively. The great value of the oil as a purgative is in the mildness and rapidity with which it operates. It is much needed by the brave defenders of our soil. It has saved thousands of lives; and if we cannot obtain it, thousands must perish by our inattention to the production of this necessary medicine. That the profits, under moderate prices, are greater than the production of any other article, I am fully aware.