Poison Ivy Oak and Sumac

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Poison Ivy Oak and Sumac

JoAnn Guest

Oct 14, 2004 15:30 PDT

 

Poison Ivy Oak and Sumac

 

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Poison Ivy, Poison Oak and Poison Sumac

http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/41/94.cfm

 

I'm about to confess to one of the reasons that I went into botany.

One time, long ago when I was a kid, I was playing in a vacant lot

on Mordecai Drive in Raleigh, North Carolina, and unknowingly used

poison ivy as toilet paper. I got a bad rash in a bad spot, and it

tormented me for more than a week. To avoid a repeat of that

experience, I figured it would serve me well to learn how to

recognize poisonous plants. Well, one thing led to another, and I

wound up as a botanist.

 

Although I never repeated that particular mistake, I still have a

fairly close, although mostly rash-free, relationship with poison

ivy. A big patch of it has practically surrounded the mailbox at my

Herbal

Vineyard. If I don't thin it periodically, it becomes a problem for

my neighbor, whose mailbox is next to mine and who is extremely

sensitive to the plant.

 

So when the poison ivy grows into a sizable clump, I go out and grab

a bunch of jewelweed, a succulent, orange-flowered annual that grows

in moist meadows on my land. I crush a ball of it in my hands and

rub myself down with its juice. Then I spend 15 or 20 minutes

pulling up the poison ivy, rubbing myself with jewelweed juice

periodically.

The result?

My neighbor is happy, and I never get a poison ivy rash.

 

Most but not all Americans are sensitive to the irritating oil,

urushiol, that's found in plants like poison ivy, poison oak and

poison sumac. Those who are sensitive develop a nasty, persistent,

blistering rash after contact. It's not clear why some people are

relatively or even completely immune to these oils.

 

While it's estimated that some 350,000 Americans experience an

episode

of poison-plant rash each year, I suspect that figure is low. Many

people never call their doctors, so it's hard to get a decent

estimate.

 

Green Pharmacy for Poison Ivy, Poison Oak

and Poison Sumac

 

The traditional drugstore remedy for reactions to poisonous plants

is calamine lotion. It cools the hot rash and relieves some of the

itching. But personally, I think several herbal approaches work even

better.

 

Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis). I'm not the only fan of jewelweed

for preventing the unpleasant symptoms that develop following

exposure to poisonous plants. Increasingly, at workshops where I

mention it,

participants chime in with their own jewelweed stories. I'm well

aware that these stories, and my own, are what scientists call

anecdotes and therefore are open to scientific skepticism. But

seeing is believing.

Pile up all the anecdotes, and they make a pretty convincing case.

 

Of course, experimental evidence is even better. That's why,

whenever I teach a three-day class on medicinal herbs, I treat my

students to a

dramatic little demonstration. I find a poisonous plant, usually

poison ivy. I apply its juice to the sensitive undersides of both of

my wrists. A minute or two later, I wipe one wrist with a ball of

crushed jewelweed leaves and stems.

 

Three days later, the wrist that I didn't treat with jewelweed shows

the typical itchy, blistery poison-plant rash. The wrist rubbed with

jewelweed invariably shows much less of a rash, and

sometimes none at all.

 

My friend Robert Rosen, Ph.D., a chemist at Rutgers University in

New

Brunswick, New Jersey, is a whiz at isolating chemical substances

from plants. He may have come up with an explanation for jewelweed's

effectiveness.

 

Urushiol does its dirty work by binding to skin cells and triggering

the

rash-producing irritation. A mere one-billionth of a gram of

urushiol is enough to affect those who are highly sensitive.

 

Dr. Rosen has identified the active ingredient in jewelweed as a

chemical called lawsone. This substance binds to the same molecular

sites on the skin as urushiol. If applied quickly after contact with

a

poison plant, lawsone beats the urushiol to those sites, in effect

locking it out. The simple result is that you don't get the rash.

 

The greatest concentrations of lawsone are not necessarily found in

jewelweed leaves. Although the leaves have some lawsone, there may

be

more in the reddish protuberances that resemble little prop-roots

extending out from the lower stem near ground level. Apply the juice

from the crushed red knobs, and you'll probably get better

protection.

 

Aloe (Aloe vera). The gel inside leathery aloe leaves has been shown

again and again to help heal burns and other skin problems.

Herbalists

also recommend using it to help soothe and heal the rash that

follows contact with poisonous plants.

 

If I got a rash that I suspected came from a poisonous

plant, I'd slit open a fresh aloe leaf and wipe the gel on the

affected area.

 

Plantain (Plantago, various species). The prestigious New England

Journal of Medicine reported that poultices made from plantain

leaves can help control the itching of poison ivy.

 

Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis). Doctors used to recommend that as

soon as you realize you've been exposed to a poisonous plant, you

should vigorously wash the area with soap and water to get rid of

the urushiol.

If you're outdoors without ready access to soap, you can try the

juice of the soapwort plant to wash yourself.

 

I'm singling out soapwort here, but I believe that any of

the " soapy " plants that contain compounds known as saponins might

work better than soap and water in minimizing the irritating effects

of urushiol.

 

Other plants high in saponins include horse chestnut, licorice,

seneca snakeroot, soapbark, rose leaves and gotu kola. (Remember,

I'm calling for external use of these plants. Horse chestnut and

seneca snakeroot are inedible.)

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

DietaryTi-

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