Lomatium dissectum historic herbal 'big medicine" for the 1917-18 Flu pandemic.
Dr. Krebs Uses Lomatium for Influenza Epidemic
The following is verbatim from: Bulletin of the Nevada State Board
of Health , No. 1 , Carson City, Nevada , January, 1920
AN INDIAN REMEDY FOR INFLUENZA
In publishing this paper the State Board of Health does not give its
endorsement to the remedy until it has had further trial. We merely
present the facts as stated by Dr. Krebs, with the idea of giving the
matter publicity and encouraging others to give it a trial.
During the fall of 1918 when the influenza epidemic visited this section
of Nevada, the Washoe Indian used a root in the treatment of their sick
which was gathered along the foot-hills of this slope of the Sierra. The
plant proved to be a rare species of the parsley family (Leptotaemia
dissecta*), according to a report from the University of California.
The Indians gather this root in the late fall, November being considered
the proper month for gathering. The root is used in the fresh or dry
state. It is cut up and a decoction is made by boiling the root in
water, skimming off the top and giving large doses of the broth. A pound
of root is considered about the proper dose to treat a case of fever for
three days, which is the longest time needed to break up a fever due to
influenza or a pulmonary disease, although the Washoes used it as a
panacea. Whether a
coincidence or not, there was not a single death in the Washoe tribe
from influenza or its complications, although Indians living in other
parts of the State where the root did not grow died in numbers. It was
such a remarkable coincidence that the root was investigated by a
practicing physician who saw apparently hopeless cases recover without
any other medication or care of any kind.
A preparation was prepared and employed in a great many cases among the
whites, from the mildest to the most virulent types of influenza, and it
proved, among other things, that it is the nearest approach we have
today to a specific in epidemic influenza and the accompanying
pneumonia. Where used early it proved itself to be a reliable agent in
preventing pulmonary complications. Other physicians were induced to
give it a trial, with the same results. It is beyond the experimental
stage, as its therapeutic action in this direction is established and
beyond any doubt. The cases in which it has been used run into the
hundreds. There is probably no therapeutic agent so valuable in the
treatment of influenzal pneumonia and, as far as being tried, in
ordinary lobar pneumonia if started early. Its action on coughs is more
certain than the opiate expectorants and its benefit is lasting. It acts
as a powerful tonic to the respiratory mucous membranes. It is a
bronchial, intestinal and urinary antiseptic and is excreted by these
organs. It seems to stimulate the pneogastries (sic) and causes a slow
pulse with increased volume and reduced tension. It is a pronounced
diaphoretic and somewhat diuretic, and it is a stimulating and sedative
expectorant. In large doses it is a laxative, and in extreme doses
emetic.
To make a therapeutically active preparation, the proper variety of the
root must be selected in the late fall and properly cured out of the
sun. Its active principles must be extracted with as little as possible
of the objectionable constituents. The active principles of the root are
decidedly complex. It contains a glucoside (as its solutions precipitate
copper from Fehling's solution). It contains one or more alkaloids and
an acid analogous to benzoic acid, one or more volatile and fixed oils,
a resin and a gum. It can be seen from this that it resembles a balsam
from the fact that it contains an oleogumresin and an acid besides
alkaloids and glucosides. One can at once appreciate the fact that a
reliable pharmaceutical preparation representing the action of the root
is not readily made. The volatile oil, which is one of the principal
therapeutic agents, is lost in making a decoction.
This particular variety of Leptotaemia* is not as common as believed as
some, and it is this particular variety that has medicinal or
therapeutic virtues. It grows in dry sandy soil, as a rule, under or
between tall sagebrush or greasewood. The plant grows from two to four
feet high and has a blossom similar to wild parsnip and leaves like a
carrot. It is a perennial, and the older roots frequently weigh from two
to six pounds. It sprouts early in April, blooms in May, seeds in June,
and withers in July. A number of trials in transplanting the root have
been made, but none were successful.
Leptotaemia dissecta * is destined to become one of the most useful if
not the most important addition to our vegetable materia medica.
ERNST T. KREBS, M.D. Carson City, Nevada.
* The botanical name
was changed in 1942 by Matthias and Constance, from Leptotaenia dissecta
to Lomatium dissectum.
Reprinted from the Lomatium website: http://www.lomatium.com/history.htm
Comments by contemporary herbalist: Paul Bergner
Paul Bergner wrote:
Notice the preparation: About a pound of the root for a three day course of
treatment. A long decoction, with the "scum" scooped repeatedly off the
top, like clarified butter. I talked to a lomatium merchant-practitioner
who has never heard of the famous lomatium rash with a decoction, but has
definitely heard of it with both the powdered root and the tincture. I've
seen really bad cases with the freeze-dried root in the NCNM community in the
80s. I suspect that rash is not a symptom of microbial die-off as some
speculate, but I
> speculate that it is a reaction to whatever was scooped off in the scum,
resins? furanocoumarins?
I did hear Dr Bastyr say in the 1980s that he had used lomatium in
tincture form for many decades in both influenza and viral pneumonia. He said if
the rash appears, lower the dose. A note on the rash: it's fine if you want to
wait it out, but a repeated phenomenon among patients is freak-out (the rash
covers every patch of skin from the soles of the feet to the crown of the head).
They then go to the ER, where the doctors give them steroids for the rash. The
steroids don't have any effect at all, because it is not an inflammatory rash.
Then they decide to keep the patient in the hospital overnight for observation.
You end up being a not very popular person with the patient, the doctors, or
possibly the legal authorities. Violence can erupt. I witnessed an ND almost
punch out the company owner who had sold him the lomatium after almost all his
patients developed the rash and he found out that the company owner knew about
the rash but didn'tinform his customers. Imagine how the ND felt when a group of
hispatient ended up in the ER with a rash.
On mechanism of action: researchers in British Columbia tested a group of about
100 local plants against 6 viruses in-vitro. Lomatium had no activity against 5
of the 6, including parainfluenza. Perhaps in a person it stimulates host
resistance, but it's constituents are unlikely to hunt down an kill the
influenza virus. Its broad-spectrum host-resistance stimulation would seem
supported by traditional use as a panacea. The traditional preparation is a
distinct expectorant, which enhances IgA resistance at the surface, and it may
be specific for respiratory viruses or bacterial infections rather than a
general anti-viral against say herpes or west Nile virus. Its specific effects
in influenza might be to prevent the downward progression to viral pneunomia
through the combined expectorant and host resistance effect-- most influenza
deaths are due to the complications of pneumonia. As a smudge, the aromatic
components may make an aerosolized disinfectant for the air and the respiratory
passages.
My thoughts . . .
Paul Bergner
Further:
The terms anti-viral and anti-bacterial are complex. They imply that plants
constituents enter into the system and kill organisms within the body. This is
usually claimed on the basis that they kill critters in the lab dish. The two
are not the same. There is the question of dose, concentration, alteration by
the digestive tract and liver, and so on. On the other hand, the human host
resistance is the strongest anti-viral and anti-bacterial force available to the
human being. I think most herbs that work -clinically- for viral infection do so
by strengthening the host response. This need not be directly through immune
stimulation. Any expectorant, for instance, will keeps the mucous membranes
moist. Mucous itself is laden with IgA antibodies, which can tag and eventually
lead to the immobilization of infectious agents on or in the membranes. So any
expectorant is antiviral. The old emetic therapy is antiviral, in that after
emesis, copious fresh mucous -- again, loaded with antibodies -- floods the
membranes. Same with Thomson's steam inhalations. Many diaphoretics, which
increase circulation to the surface, should also be considered antiviral, or
immune enhancing, in that the increased circulation increases resistance at the
surface. Osha, for instance, works empirically for viral as well as bacterial
infections in the respiratory tract. It is a stimulating expectorant and also
diaphoretic. I can't find the slightest evidence that it is specifically
antiviral, however. Not the plant or any of its constituents. Unless by
antiviral you mean "used empirically for respiratory viral infection" which of
course it is useful for. In this area, the vitalist approach to the organism as
an ecology, and trying to strengthen all factors of that ecology and its
resistance, makes more sense than the magic bullet plant-constituent
virus-killer model. So for lomatium, it is proven to -not- kill 5 of 6 viruses
tested in the lab dish. But it works empirically for influenza and well as
numerous other respiratory illnesses, whether viral or bacterial, at least
according to Native usage.
Paul
North American Institute of
Medical Herbalism http://naimh.com
Medical
> Herbalism Journal http://medherb.com