Herbal Compress

In the hay fever article - part I, I promised to tell you how to make an herbal compress. This information for a basic compress is a revised excerpt from my book, "Herbal Medicine From the Heart of the Earth" on p. 371-372 where I explain how to make a simple compress as well as alternating hot and cold compresses and herbal oil compresses.

What a compress is, and how to make it 

A compress or fomentation is simple to make and use. It is a cloth soaked in hot or cold water, or other fluids such as herb tea, herbal vinegar or herbal oil and applied to the skin. It is truly as simple as that.  Medicated pads used for hemorrhoids are a commonly used type of compress that is available pre-made and sold in pharmacies. To make a simple herbal tea compress, use a strong herbal infusion or decoction.  Make enough tea to soak the cloth thoroughly. To learn how to make a proper herbal infusion or decoction visit "Making Herbal Tea" and for additional information, "Herbal Tea Making Tips"

How to use it

The compress is applied to the affected area. If a compress is to be used hot, place a hot water bottle over the compress, once it is in place. Then place a towel or blanket over the entire area. Plastic or towels can be used as a protective barrier between the compress and clothes or bedding. Sometimes a compress is used cool or cold such as in the case of congested, irritated eyes that accompany hay fever. In this case, you need to cool the tea down before using it.

What a compress can do

The heat from a hot compress relaxes tight muscles and vasodilates the blood vessels in the skin, drawing blood externally to the skin. This can decrease internal congestion and ease the pain of sore muscles, as well as benefit the skin locally. Since cold compresses act to constrict blood vessels in the skin and shunt the blood internally, they are useful for acute burns, bruises and inflammation.  An herbal vinegar is sometimes used as an alternative to a tea. Diluted apple cider vinegar is astringing and can be used as an astringent compress in some conditions. The addition of astringent herbs, such as oak, witch hazel or geranium, to a vinegar will create a wonderful compress to use to treat bug bites, stings, hives or poison oak rashes.

Using alternating hot and cold compresses will significantly increase the circulation to the area where the compresses are applied. The hot water increases vasodilation, bringing blood to the area, while the cold water increases vasoconstriction, shunting blood away. An analogy to this action is soaking a sponge in water and then squeezing the water from the sponge. The area is bathed in new blood, bringing in new nutrients, while the old blood and lymph are shunted away, carrying waste products with them. See page 372 of the book "Herbal Medicine From the Heart of the Earth" for directions on alternating hot and cold compresses.

A cold compress made with an astringent herb is often used for inflamed eyes accompanying hay fever. As I mentioned in the previous blog, one of my favorite astringent herbs is geranium root. Any astringent herb can be used as long as it will not cause irritation to the sensitive skin around the eyes .

Herbal Constituent Kills Hospital Acquired Candida and It's Biofilm State

In the last post, I mentioned that western medicine is waking up to the realization that herbs may be the answer to the antibiotic resistant infectious diseases we created. Today, I will share a new research study with you that examines an herbal constituent called berberine. 

Berberine is found in Goldenseal - Hydrastis canadensis, Oregon grape and other species of Berberis  Phellodendron amurense, Gold thread - Coptis chinensis. Many of the antimicrobial, antifungal, antiparasitic actions of these herbs have been attributed to this one constituent. However, as I mentioned in the previous article, the whole herb is still necessary. We discussed how Berberis has a metabolite called 5-methoxyhydnocarpin-D (5'-MHC) that is needed for berberine to be more fully effective . 5'-MHC is a natural plant inhibitor of multidrug resistant pumps.  Although 5'-MHC has no antimicrobial activity of its own, the constituent berberine is much more effective when given in conjunction with the substance. 

So, this new research looks at the antifungal activity of berberine in fluconazole-resistant pathogenic yeasts. They specifically were looking at candida that is acquired in the hospital. This was really nasty hard to treat candida. Fluconazole is a fairly strong antifungal drug that use to work on candida but now there is the fluconazole-resistant candida that hospitals have bred and is living on equipment and various devises used in surgical procedures.

Basically, the study found that berberine not only killed the free floating candida planktonic yeast cells but also the biofilm forming cells. Since many biofilms are resistant to conventional antifungal agents this is exciting news to the researchers.

The Brief Details

This study exposed the candida to berberine and found it  caused loss of cellular membrane integrity resulting in cell membrane permeability and decreased the number of viable cells.

According to the data obtained in this study, berberine causes the death of fluconazole-resistant Candida spp. cells by apoptosis (cell suicide).

The results of this study showed that the berberine concentration necessary to inhibit both planktonic cells and preformed biofilm cells is similar. This indicates that berberine may reduce the growth of planktonic cells and inhibit the viability of cells in preformed biofilms at concentrations of 8 μg/ml and 37.5 μg/ml, respectively. This finding is relevant because biofilms are frequently associated with reduced sensitivity to conventional antifungal agents.

Hopefully, when used internally, they will know enough to use berberine in a whole plant base of Berberis spp.