Adventure in the Smokies

Guide to Western North Carolina
PO Drawer 129
Waynesville, NC 28786
August, 2001
‘Our Lady of the Forest’ teaches properties of medicinal plants From back aches to stomach aches, nature has a cure.
By NANCIE WILSON
Special to Adventure in the Smokies

Recently, Hatter was featured in a program on healing roots and herbs of the Appalachian woodlands sponsored by the Yellow Creek Botanical Institute and the Tuckasegee Community Alliance. She shared her knowledge of the folk wisdom and oldtime remedies of the Appalachian mountain people and the Native Americans indigenous to the land sometimes called the “womb of the earth.”

This pleasant, soft-spoken, middle-aged woman clearly revels in talking about the old times, telling old stories, passing along to her audience just a small portion of what she has learned in more than 25 years of researching and seeking out medicinal herbs and plants.

Her husband, Jerry Coleman, proudly tells the audience that his wife is self-taught, that she has “no formal education in the field.” He said that both she and he have been informally “adopted” by a tribal elder of the Cherokee nation from whom both have learned so much about the land, plants and trees that grow on it, as well as the legends and stories passed down to each generation by the elders, the “wise ones” of the tribe.

Hatter opened her slideshow presentation with the ramp, whose pungent odor is stronger than that of garlic or onions. The ramp has recently been “discovered” by some New York chefs, according to Hatter. These chefs posted queries on several Internet sites this spring, asking for people to gather ramps and send them up North where they would be used in the preparation of various culinary delights.

The “most famous root ever gathered in North America,” the ginseng, is also the plant that brings the most profit, according to Hatter. She noted that legend has it that if you study a plant long enough, it will be marked in some way that correlates to the human body. The ginseng root is shaped like the human body, “so it’s good for all of man’s ills,” Hatter said. A permit is needed to dig wild ginseng on national forest lands. Permits are not required to harvest ginseng on private property. The root is sold to commercial buyers.

“Look closely at the fiddlehead fern,” invites Hatter, pointing to the slide on the screen, and you’ll see what resembles a coiled up worm at the end of the stem. This suggests that the root of this fern is used to rid the body of parasites.

Just about every Indian tribe across North America knew about a certain fern species that could be used for this purpose. She said that studies have found that about 75 percent of ferns studied scientifically contain certain chemical compounds that work just for what folklore said it would.

For a back ache, stomach ache, stomach ulcers, mouth ulcers, bladder problems, just boil up some yellow root. Hatter describes the tea made from this colorful root as “bitter,” but it has been found to contain berberine, which is an antibacterial also found in goldenseal. Hatter quoted recent medical studies that showed that stomach ulcers were caused by bacteria, which may explain why yellow root tea is helpful in the treatment of the disorder.

“You know, before modern medicine, it was thought that ‘something’ entered the body that had to be expelled,” explained Hatter. “So if the body made itself inhospitable, that ‘something’ would leave. So that’s why bitter medicines were always good to take, according to folklore.”

Yellow root also is a plant from which you can get a “wonderful yellow dye,” Hatter said. Native Americans used yellow root to dye basket material and yarn.

Folklore touts blood root as useful to treat blood disorders and inflamed tissue, Hatter noted, but it has been found to be toxic, and can only be used in miniscule amounts. Blood root derives its name from the orange-red juice that spills out when the root of the plant is cut. Native Americans also used blood root for war paint and drawing on animal hides. It was commonly traded among Indian tribes.

Another interesting fact about blood root is that it was found to prevent dental caries. Hatter reminded her audience of Viadent, a toothpaste and mouthwash advertised by news commentator Paul Harvey. Viadent contained sanguinaria, which comes from the blood root plant. Hatter contacted the Colgate Company, manufacturers of Viadent, and told them she was going to feature bloodroot in a video she was making and was going to be mentioning their product. A Colgate spokesman told her that Viadent had recently been taken off the market due to a drop in sales and would be replaced with a new product. The new product would not contain sanguinaria because the company “has found a new chemical that works just as well,” Hatter was told.

A new use for blood root has been discovered, which according to Hatter, may put the plant in danger of extermination. Bloodroot will be used to replace antibiotics in meat production in Europe. The people at Yellow Creek Botanical Institute is encouraging persons interested in growing bloodroot to sell to call them at 828-479-4733.
September, 2001
Medicinal plants can aid a variety of ailments
By NANCIE WILSON Special to Adventure in the Smokies

Identification, location and multiplication. Those are the three principles of foraging followed by true wildcrafters, individuals who collect food and medicinal plants to sell. Graham County resident Ila Hatter knows first-hand the importance of those three rules. Hatter is a well-known naturalist, teacher and wildcrafter whose search for knowledge about medicinal plants has taken her to South America, the Caribbean, Spain and all across the Southeastern United States.
Recently Hatter was featured in a program on healing roots and herbs of the Appalachian woodlands sponsored by the Yellow Creek Botanical Institute and the Tuckasegee Community Alliance. She shared her knowledge of the folk wisdom and old-time remedies of the Appalachian mountain people and the Native Americans indigenous to the land sometimes called the “womb of the earth.”

May apple, a very abundant plant in the Spring, has a fruit whose texture and flavor is similar to an apple. The indigenous people of Appalachia who ate that fruit, or made marmalade from it, knew that the rest of the plant was toxic. Hatter said that the toxic portion of the plant had apparently been used somewhere, by some medicine people, for cancer treatment. It was studied as a possible cancer drug, according to Hatter, and “low and behold,” podophyllum, a tumor-shrinking drug, was discovered, which comes from the May apple. Hatter said that if one will study the fruit of the May apple, it can be seen to resemble a tumor, which again points up the need to examine a plant closely in order to determine its correlation to the human body.

Red clover is another plant used in cancer therapy. Hatter said that originally the red flowers were dried and then used as a “blood cleanser which probably contained anti-oxidants.” She said they were originally given to people undergoing cancer chemotherapy to help the body endure the ravages of that treatment. She said that it has been found that any of the plants that contain genestines, which red clover does, inhibit the growth of the blood vessels that nourishes the tumor. “So if the tumor is starved, it shrinks,” she concluded.

There are companies in the mountains, Hatter noted, that purchase plants from wildcrafters for sale to pharmaceutical companies. Wildcrafters can obtain lists from these companies to see which plants and plant by-products are currently being sought by pharmaceutical manufacturers. “There are a lot of our prescriptions, a lot of our medicines, that are still from the plants themselves,” said Hatter, “And they may not ever be able to change that.”

Ginger, used by the Cherokee Indians as a heart medicine and to increase circulation, grows plentifully in the Appalachians. Ginger can be used for culinary purposes, as well as medicinally, she said.

“The same as you would Oriental ginger,” she explained. “It warms you from the core of the body out, which is why those who like to hike or backpack in the Winter should take along some candied ginger. It can warm you up real quick and will keep the core of the body warm, which prevents hypothermia.”

“Mountain grannies would take the roots of ginger, boil them in sugar syrup, roll them in sugar, dry them and keep them in a tin. That was used for any kind of nausea or stomach upset. You could either boil them into a tea, or simply eat the candied ginger. This is one of the few medicines that tasted good,” she said.

There was another reason for making ginger this way, Hatter explained.

“When Christmas came, if you hadn’t used it all up, you had Christmas candy to put in the children’s stockings.”

Ginger has always been used for motion sickness, according to Hatter, and she pointed to physicians, who even today, prescribe ginger ale for an upset stomach. Hatter said she tells families who have children who get car-sick on our twisting mountain roads to carry a bag of ginger snap cookies for the children to eat to prevent motion sickness. ‘A cheap substitute for Dramamine,” Hatter noted.

A compote comprised of fresh pears with ginger leaves, sweetened with honey or sugar, and added cloves or spicebush berries, cooked together, is ‘absolutely divine,” Hatter said. “Our native American ginger is a much more pleasant taste than the Oriental ginger, which is hot,” said Hatter. Ginger plants are available through native plant nurseries and make an attractive ground cover, she noted.

Lobelia can cause nausea in too strong a quantity, but in proper doses, can quell nausea, she said. It has also been found that lobeline is picked up in the brain by the same receptors that take in nicotine from tobacco, so lobeline has been used for years in smoking-cessation products, said Hatter.

The wild geranium has been used in the treatment of hemorrhoids for years by mountain families. Hatter said that the leaves are boiled in water, then the affected individual sits in the water like a sitz bath. She said that wild geranium are on the list of plants that will be purchased by pharmaceutical companies.

The moccasin flower, also known as yellow lady slipper, is no longer seen in large quantities in the wild, according to Hatter.

It has been heavily, almost over-collected, for the first women’s medicine called “Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound For Women,” Hatter explained. The root of the lady slipper is a “nervine,” Hatter said, in that it acts on the nerves. It was the first medicine on the market for PMS, Hatter said, “which some doctors thought was just women’s hysteria.”

It was also used for cramps and any other type of menstrual disorder, as well as infertility. Hatter said the product is still on the market today, but no longer contains the yellow lady slipper as the plant is now considered endangered and is protected in most areas. She points to over-collection as the reason that we don’t have a lot of the plants today that were available years ago.