Slippery Elm

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Slippery elm tree was known as medical tree; Native American used the mucilage as medicine.Washington brewed the sap for food for army's survival.

"Drink Slippery Elm bark tea to heal your ailments" was a philosophy used by Native Americans, pioneers, and is still believed to be true in this modern day. It could be called the Wonder Tree or the Magic Tree or the Medical Tree. As far back as records show the Native Americans and the pioneers used the inner bark of the Slippery Elm Tree for food to survive and for a medicine to heal. DO not use Slippery Elm Tree products until talking to your doctor.

The Slippery Elm Tree, a native of North America, grows abundantly in southern Canada, all the way south to Florida and west to Texas and the Dakotas of the United States. The Slippery Elm trees have been known to grow 60 to 80 feet tall. They grow in poor soil in open and elevated areas and can be found in wooded regions near creeks and rivers.

Michigan leads the states in producing the bark for the Slippery Elm products. Only the tough and fine fibrous texture of the inner bark can be used. The mucilaginous from this flexible inner bark tastes from pleasant to flat.

This inner bark produces large mucilage cells or gummy substance surrounding the fibers that do not dissolve in water, but when exposed to the air and water they swell up into thick jelly-like substances. A coarse powder and a fine powder are manufactured from the dried inner bark of the Slippery Elm Tree.

The mucilage contains valuable strengthening and healing properties. Wherever this mucilage is applied to the body, inward or outward, it begins to soothe and cure.

When the Pilgrims arrived in America, they found the Native American Indians using Slippery Elm for both food and healing power. The Indians used a salve made from the elm externally to treat skin problems, like burns, wounds, and chapped lips.

The settlers learned from the Indian medicine men how to make brews to treat kidney disorders, diarrhea, constipation, and other internal pains. Midwives used slippery elm sap as a lubricant to ease labor in childbirth.

Two hundred years ago, Washington and his army faced defeat due to the need of food for the survival of his troops. Slippery Elm fed the starving troops. They stayed alive by making and eating a Slippery Elm Gruel. Gruel is kind of porridge made from pounding the inner bark of the tree into a powder then mixing it with water.

General Washington needed medicine for the soldiers. He mixed the powder with a little water to make poultices and salves to heal the soldiers' gunshot wounds.

Slippery Elm gruel makes excellent food for infants, invalids, those with stomach ulcers, laryngitis, and bronchitis. A tea brewed from the bark has nutritional value and is good for ill babies, adults, and invalids. A little cinnamon or nutmeg is added to flavor.

Natives and old timers had no special time when to harvest the bark. They cut the bark when they had a need for it.

Today, research has found the slippery elm to have soothing power to the mucous membranes and skin softening properties to be the same that folk medicine ascribed to it.

Suzi

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

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