Looking for iinfo on jewel weed

[Dallasbeek]

Does anybody know anything about jewel weed?  It was the active ingredient in Burt's Bees Poison Ivy Soap, which was very good for treating not only poison ivy, but bee stings.  Burt's Bees quit making it and I understand the jewel weed can't be cultivated.  The last bar of the soap I heard about sold on Amazon for about $60.  I don't know how you'd go about using the weed to treat these things, but it would be worth some experimenting because it was excellent.

[paus]

Several sources on a google search.  Upon further searching several internet sources, Jewelweed is potentially a very useful plant for anyone living close to nature. It was an ingredient in Burt's bee balm, but I think it has been removed.  One thing that intrigued me was the Native Americans used it for any kind of skin malady, including Poison Ivy and any kind of insect sting.  Of less interest to me is that it is still used for diuretic and stomach problems.  It may be a source of nectar, if planted in wet shady places where no other nectar plant grow.  ?.

[GSF]

A big question is how did they process it? Did they pick it and let it dry or was it processed green? We studied jewelweed in the medicinal herb class I attend. I took physical notes (and will try to look them up) but little mental notes. I am one of those blessed few who can walk up to a poison ivy vine, grab it bare handed, and get rid of it. It's never bothered me.

My mentor (Darryl Patton) was once extremely allergic to poison ivy. His mentor told him how to address it. Being very careful/mindful not to come in contact with any skin when you do this; Take a piece of light bread, flatten it, then with tweezers pinch a piece of poison ivy off about the size of a mouse's ear. Fold the bread up around it very tightly. Then with some water to chase behind it, swallow the bread. It's the same principal as taking honey for allergies. All you're doing is inoculating yourself. If you mess up and get the oil on you - you'll know it. This must be done several times, the best time is in the spring but anytime will work. Contraindications; One person in a hundred or so will develop rectal itching. He is still allergic to it but it doesn't eat him up like it once did.

Another treatment is to remove the oil from the skin..,(I don't remember this part) with something dry, milk will make it spread over your skin. Then treat the outbreak with green acorns smashed into a paste. Acorns are very, very astringent and will cause the eruptions to dry up.

I'm not a doctor but I play one on Beemaster   

[The15thMember]

Jewelweed is the go to poison ivy treatment here in the Smoky Mountains.  The stuff grows wild all over the place here, along roadsides and streams, anywhere that is in the shade and damp.  Around here, you can buy jewelweed soap from local people at farmers markets and flea markets and places like that.  As you said, it's very hard to cultivate for some reason.  Last year my mom took a bunch of seeds from some plants in the park and tried to plant them near our garage, but they didn't take hold.  Then lo and behold, just a couple weeks ago, my sister was cleaning out some weeds on the other side of the garage, and there was some just growing there by itself.     Poison ivy doesn't bother me that much, but in my family we use the soap to clean off after we've been working in the woods (we're trying to clear the brush and reclaim some of the woodland for ourselves on our property), and as long as you wash with the jewelweed soon after you've come in contact with the ivy, it really seems to help, and sometimes we don't have any reaction at all.  We had a fence put up on our property, and my mom asked the workmen what they did about the poison, and they said they just find some jewelweed along the road on the way to a job and rub it all over themselves and they hardly ever get any.  I've never used it on stings, maybe I'll try it next time I get stung and see how it goes. 

[Dallasbeek]

Thanks for the info, guys.  Looks like it doesn't necessarily require a lot of processing to be useful.  Now to find some jewel weed.  A friend ordered some seeds, though I doubt if they will be much help, since it's difficult to cultivate, but we'll try.

[GSF]

I've started making St John's Wort (Hypericum Perforatum) as a pain ointment. So now I go buy a bunch of seeds to plant. The germination rate is 0.5 to 1.0 percent - on a good that that's only 1 out of a hundred. It didn't say it'd survive, just germinate. Another thing is some plants require a double dormancy to germinate. If you ever see a plant in nature that has a lot of seed you can just about bet the germination rate will be real low.

[blackforest beekeeper]

I've started making St John's Wort (Hypericum Perforatum) as a pain ointment. So now I go buy a bunch of seeds to plant. The germination rate is 0.5 to 1.0 percent - on a good that that's only 1 out of a hundred. It didn't say it'd survive, just germinate. Another thing is some plants require a double dormancy to germinate. If you ever see a plant in nature that has a lot of seed you can just about bet the germination rate will be real low.

That stuff is great. I make an oil ("red oil") and sometimes a ... tincture? wild around here: dry places, along gravelroads in the forest, sunny. dont cultivate it any more.

[GSF]

We just hit on it this year in our herbal classes. A friend of mine was in the class and he had rotator cup surgery a year ago. He was telling me that he didn't hardly sleep the night before because of the pain. He rubbed it in and true to form in about 5 minutes or so the pain was reduced by about 80-90 percent. I had a pulled muscle for about 2-3 days and finally I ask my wife to rub some in. That stuff is almost a miracle happening before your eyes.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

GSF{I'm not a doctor but I play one on Beemaster}. That is hilarious.

Hawahawa very good, a good laugh.  Most will not remember Dr. Ben Casey on TV back in the days of black and white.

For those to young, I will explain.  Dr Ben Casey was an actor with the TV show call {Dr. Ben Casey}, a hit series back in the 60?s.  The show was simple, in comes a sickly person to the ER, close to death and Dr. Casey faced with life and death medical procedures always saved the fella.

So one day on a TV aspirin commercial, there is Dr. Casey, an actor, with his still famous line: {I am not a doctor but I play one on TV.}. And he recommended Bayer aspirin, SERIOUSLY.  The whole country raved and the line became famous,,,, to this day.

Good one GSF, keep treating those bee stings.
Blessings

A bit off subject, so I have no problem if administrators delete this text.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

I studied a bit on the science of jewelweed.  Apparently jewelweed contains natural soaps called saponins{make foam}.  Weather the jewelweed soap neutralizes or washes off the oils of poison ivy, I do not know.  I hope this info is useful.
Blessings

[AmandaKY]

There are a lot of states and countries where recreational marijuana is legalized and each of these states had to fight at the beginning with problems like overdoses. I am sure that people who died from overdoses were smoking marijuana and before its legalization, so it was only a matter of time when they would die from an overdose. I am living in Canada, where weed and CBD oils became legal 2 years ago, at the beginning we also had cases of overdoses and deaths caused by the weed, but lately, the percent of crimes caused by anger or such problems as anxiety and depression had seriously decreased and all this because of legal weed. People like me started to order weed from different sites like Online Weed Shop Canada, and smoke weed in order to relax. There aren't only negative effects of legal marijuana, but also positive ones.

[Ben Framed]

?

[BeeMaster2]

Amanda,
When have you ever heard of a case of marijuana over dose killing users? I?m a first responder and I have never heard of one.
Jim Altmiller

[Bill Murray]

The only info I have on it is that it is hard to eradicate. you can come harvest as much as you want out of my backyard, back by the swamp. Just let me know Ill quit mowing. kill 2 birds with one stone.

[FloridaGardener]

On the poison ivy remedy, my friend's dad with lotsa kids in south Georgia looked for the first new leaves of poison ivy each year. 

He'd make the kids each swallow a small leaf to get innoculated. 

My friend doesn't eat poison leaves  since leaving the farm, but still has only low-grade reactions to to poison ivy.

[Ben Framed]

On the poison ivy remedy, my friend's dad with lotsa kids in south Georgia looked for the first new leaves of poison ivy each year. 

He'd make the kids each swallow a small leaf to get innoculated. 

My friend doesn't eat poison leaves  since leaving the farm, but still has only low-grade reactions to to poison ivy.

I would not recommend that method.


https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/poison_ivy.htm


Poison ivy - ScienceDailywww.sciencedaily.com ? terms ? poison_ivy
If poison ivy is eaten, the digestive tract and airways will be affected, in some cases causing death. Urushiol oil can remain viable on dead poison ivy plants and other surfaces for up to 5 years and will cause the same effect.

[BeeMaster2]

We discussed this a few years ago here on BeeMaster. The way to eat it is to wrap the tiny leaf inside of a piece of bread and swallow it like a pill.
That protects your mouth and esophagus.
The other thing we talked about is to drink milk from cows or goats that eat poison ivy.
Poison ivy is a favorite of my cows. The only places that have poison ivy on my farm are areas that the cows cannot reach like up high in trees and out side their fence.
Jim Altmiller

[Ben Framed]

I?ll pass lol 😊

[Beeboy01]

I've heard that goats love poison ivy and will clean out a patch quickly. Not sure about drinking the milk, last time I had some goats milk I hated it.  Back when I was a kid living in Rhode Island I remember seeing patches of poison ivy covering a couple of hundred square feet of ground and standing about 15 feet high. Had a cousin who dived into one of those patches saying he didn't get it and ended up in the hospital for about a week. I always give poison ivy and skunks a wide berth when I see them.

[BeeMaster2]

If you drink the milk from a goat that eats poison ivy, you can become immune to poison ivy.
Jim Altmiller