Spruce Tea for Cancer : Wounds and Ailments of Heart and Lungs
Over 70 cultivated varieties of spruce have been named; Engelmann Spruce is one of the most popular varieties. Engelmann spruce Pinaceae — Pine family. Other varieties: BLACK SPRUCE – (Picea mariana), (P. nigra), Blue Spruce, Picea pungens Engelm, Black Spruce contains less and relative amount of HMR is also lower, WHITE SPRUCE – (P. glauca), , P. canadensis), (P. albertiana), NORWAY SPRUCE – (P. abies), (Pinus picea), (A. pectinata).
Engelmann spruce is one of the seven species of spruce indigenous to the United States. Englemann spruce is found on cool, moist slopes from southwestern Alberta all the way to New Mexico. It is a very cold tolerant tree, surviving temperatures of minus 60 C. As well, they are long-lived at up to 1,000 years old, with one tree found near the Columbia Ice Fields near Jasper over 720 years of age. The record for a White Spruce near Hinton, Alberta is 147 feet tall and 275 years old. One Black Spruce, also found near Hinton, lived to the ripe old age of 362 years. Larger trees are used for telephone poles, as the tree can reach up to 150 feet. The record is one living specimen of 179 feet tall, and a diameter of 92 inches, or nearly eight feet. Other common names are Columbian spruce, mountain spruce, white spruce, silver spruce, and pino real. Engelmann spruce is widely distributed in the western United States and two provinces in Canada. Its range extends from British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, south through all western states to New Mexico and Arizona. In the Pacific Northwest, Engelmann spruce grows along the east slope of the Coast Range from west central British Columbia, south along the crest and east slope of the Cascades through Washington and Oregon to northern California. It is a minor component of these high-elevation forests.
PARTS USED – inner bark, buds, needles, cones, wood, pitch, and galls.
Spruces are popular ornamental trees in horticulture, admired for their evergreen, symmetrical narrow-conic growth habit. For the same reason, some (particularly Picea abies and P. omorika) are also extensively used as Christmas trees. Blue spruce, is an attractive tree often used for Christmas trees or as ornamentals, particularly in the eastern United States and Europe. Blue spruce is finding increasing popularity as a Christmas tree as a result of its symmetrical form and attractive blue foliage. The species has an excellent natural shape and requires little shearing. Additionally, needle retention is among the best for the spruces. Its popularity as an ornamental leads many consumers to use blue spruce as a living Christmas tree, to be planted after the holiday season.
Being common to Northern Europe, the neat pagoda-like appearance of the Norway spruce has inspired the phrase ” all spruced up” and to be widely transplanted in northern North America as an ornamental. The environment being akin to its homeland, Norway Spruce has escaped into the wild in the northeast and it’s even been planted in reforestation and Christmas tree plantations. The species generally reaches a height of 65′ – 115′ at maturity with a diameter of 2′ – 3′. It has a narrow, pyramidal shape and cone-shaped crown. As trees become older, they often take on a more irregular appearance. While blue spruce grows relatively slowly, it is long-lived and may reach ages of 600-800 years. Leaves (needles) are 1″ – 1 1/2″ long on lower branches but somewhat shorter on upper branches. They are 4-sided and have a very sharp point on the end. It is this point which gives the species its name “pungens”, from the Latin word for sharp as in puncture wound. Needles are generally dull bluish-gray to silvery blue and emit a resinous odor when crushed.
Some trees have a more distinct bluish-white or silvery-white foliage. The cultivated variety ‘glauca’ is noted for this type of coloration. Both male and female flowers (strobili) occur in the same tree, although in different locations. Pollination occurs in late spring and cones mature in one season. In the fall, cones are 2″ – 4″ long and turn chestnut brown with stiff, flattened scales. Cones generally persist on the tree for one to two years after seed fall. The bark is thin becoming moderately thick with age. It is somewhat pale gray in small flattened scales when young, then turns reddish brown and furrowed with age.
Blue spruce is moderately shade tolerant and grows best in deep, rich, gravely soils, often along stream banks and other sites with high moisture levels. It usually does not occur in large stands but is found in small groves or in association with Douglas-fir, lodgepole pine, Engelmann spruce or ponderosa pine. A deep penetrating root system makes the species resistant to being blown over. Native Americans in eastern North America once used the thin, pliable roots of some species for weaving baskets and for sewing together pieces of birch bark for canoes. The Koyukon of Alaska call it TS’IBAA. Medicinally and botanically, it is very similar to White Spruce.
Norwegian spruce trees contain a chemical called lignan, which is found in many plant cell walls, most notably flaxseed and soy. Spruce tree lignan gives formulators significant advantage in price, dosage and bioavailability. In 1973 Russian scientists identified a good quantity of carotene ( vitamin A) and chlorophyll in spruce needles. They also found ( as did Canadian scientists in the 1940s ) that the greatest concentration of ascorbic acid and carotene was in third year needles, less in older and younger needles. Less exposure to light also decreased ascorbic acid levels.
The young buds of white spruce in the spring are greatly enjoyed. Pale green and tender, they never fail to delight children who have been introduced to them. They are a great source of vitamins and some starch. It is assumed that black spruce buds would be as good if not better.
Harvested for both pulp and lumber the native white spruce ranges from the Yukon to New England. The smaller black spruce with nearly the same range, is mainly used for pulp. It’s lower branches are able to layer, that is to develop roots when overgrown with mosses or forest litter and thus grow a new tree. In bog environments this is often the only way that black spruce can reproduce itself.
White Spruce in the northeast is commonly 80 feet tall and 2 feet in diameter, occasionally growing to 120 feet by 4 feet. In the Western Rockies it can grow to 150 feet. Meanwhile, in the ground, are shallow roots that Native Peoples used for lacing together the birch bark on canoes and for weaving baskets. They’re gathered, coiled, steamed for an hour in hot wood ashes, removed, split, and then soaked in hot water until used. The wood is harvested for construction purposes, due to its flexibility and relative strength.
Both the Cree and Chipewyan used spruce for traps, snares, meat drying racks, snowshoes, hide stretching frames, or the frame of spruce bark canoes. The rotten wood is used to smoke tanned hides. Splints for broken limbs can also be made from the outer bark. The bark is high in tannin and still used in parts of the world for tanning leather.
The methacrylate ester component of White Spruce is in demand as a copolymer with butadiene for the manufacture of synthetic rubber and transparent plastics with glass like optical properties. Its long fibers, high cellulose content, density, near white colour and low resin content makes Black Spruce a prized pulp tree for producing paper. Paper mill sludge has been found to significantly improve soil, as well as quality and yield, when applied to potato fields. As compost, it reduced the need for inorganic fertilizers, resulting in higher profits for farmers. The knot wood is rich in up to 10% lignans, particularly 7-hydroxy-matairesinol (HMR) as the predominant lignan. The knots are not used in pulp nor lumber. White Spruce contains almost the same amounts of lignans as Norway Spruce, with hydroxymatairesinol comprising 40-80% of the lignans.
Health Benefits
As more people try to find new ways to stay healthy and live longer, spruce tree extract has come to the attention of health-conscious consumers. Many say the tea of white spruce is unpleasant though some others consider it to be not true. This tea is highly valuable to people without access to many fruits and greens.
As a food supplement
The inner bark was even used as a survival food, the thin layers eaten raw, cooked like spaghetti, or dried and later ground into flour. The product called HMRlignan cleared FDA approval as dietary ingredient in May, 2004. At low doses of 10-30 mg/day, the lignan is an effective precursor for enterolactone, similar to flax. The inner bark of spruce is edible raw and can be dried or ground to a flour. It too contains vitamin C.
Several advantages
Medicinally it is similar to pine in that it is useful for all respiratory and throat troubles, such as coughs, bronchitis , mucous congestion, flu, sore throat, pneumonia, and tuberculosis. Made into a tea, the spruce gum is a mild stimulant, a diuretic a mild laxative a digestive aid, and helpful to kidney inflammations. chewing it would give similar results. It is herbally classified as an expectorant, diaphoretic, tonic, calmative, and as a system cleanser, it is also very nutritive. As a decoction, the inner bark has been taken for bowel and stomach complaints, rheumatism, kidney stones and lung and throat troubles.
For Heart Ailments
Diets with high levels of lignans are consistently associated with reductions in risk of cardiovascular disease. Spruce gum, according to Diana Beresford-Kroeger, “when used as a chewing gum, is a cardiotonic and helps the oxygenation of the blood as it circulates, especially during exercise. The gum when used as a tisane is anti-hypertensive and will reduce blood pressure. It is anti-anginal and will help with the circulation within the beating heart as it oxygenates its own musculature and enabling it to act as a more efficient pump. The resin gum of spruce is also anti-arrhythmic and will help the individual myocardial cells with their electronic message system of communication, one area with the other in the different geographic regions of the heart. Enterolactone levels are related to prevention of risk for cardiovascular disease, and hormone related cancers such as breast and prostate. A study in Arch Intern Med 2003 163:9 found an association between coronary heart disease and low 354 serum enterolactone levels. This may be due to enhanced lipid peroxidation. Unlike other lignans, this one is not attached to sugar molecules that need to be cleaved in the intestinal tract. Although the results of prospective cohort studies consistently indicate that diets containing lignan rich foods are associated with significant reductions in cardiovascular disease risk, it is not yet clear whether lignans themselves are cardioprotective.
For Lung complaints
The inner bark is scrapped out and chewed for colds, or dried for later use. The needles contain shikimic acid, the starting point for the production of Tamiflu, a pharmaceutical anti-flu drug. Inhaling the fumes of heated needles is good as a reviver and letting the fumes or smoke fill a room acts as a fumigator. The inner bark and needles of white spruce were boiled for tuberculosis and other lung complaints by many native tribes. The inner bark was even used as a survival . It will cut phlegm in the lungs and help open up the alveoli of the lungs. This same tea can be used for steaming for bronchial or sinus congestion.
For Cancer
The lignan, hydroxy-matairesinol A, is a novel enterolactone precursor with anti-tumor properties. It is specifically aimed at those individuals with increased risk of developing colorectal cancer with the lignan used as a supplement or ingredient in functional foods. The link between lignan intake and circulating enterolactone has been established. Phytoestrogens help manage the health of peri- and postmenopausal women. Research suggests that lignans may be beneficial for breast cancer, prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease, as well as sexual/hormonally based conditions. In one Finnish study of breast cancer patients (68 pre- menopausal and 126 post-menopausal) an inverse association was found between serum enterolactone and the risk of breast cancer in both groups. In another clinical trial, doses of 10-30 mg were sufficient to raise enterolactone to levels that research has shown as beneficial. In another study, the lignan inhibited both tumor growth and reduced tumor formation rates. It was also found enterolactones from HMRlignan restrict the proliferation of human prostate cancer cell lines in vitro. It appears that the anti-proliferative activity is a consequence of altered expression of cell cycle associated genes. Norway Spruce is mentioned in that anti-leukemia compounds have been found in stilbenes, including resveratrol from the bark. Recent work (1997), by Klippel et al, reported in the British Journal of Urology, focused on the use of beta- sitosterols from Picea and Pinus species for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia. In a double-blind, placebo- controlled trial with 133 patients, significant improvement over control was noted using 130 mg. beta sitosterol daily.
For Prostrate Cancer
Lignans promote a weak estrogen-like activity in humans. Spruce lignans contain a compound called 7-hydroxymatairesinol (7-HMR), which converts into a mammalian lignan called enterolactone. Epidemiological studies have linked enterolactone to a reduced risk of certain hormone-related health conditions. Research commissioned by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Linnae, at the University of Insubria, Italy, has shed light on possible mechanisms for stopping the growth of prostate cancer with 7-HMR. Lead researcher Marco Cosentino explained, “Our data supports the notion that 7-HMR and to a greater extent its human metabolite enterolactone, may suppress the growth of prostate cancer cells. In view of its well-established tolerability and bioavailability, 7-HMR represents a viable dietary supplement providing a suitable source for endogenous entrolactone that, in turn, may play a role in the promotion of prostate health.”
For Diabetes
Gaultheria hispidula, Ledum tomentosum and Vaccinium vitis-idaea all showed anti-diabetic potential in same study. Black Spruce extracts contain an insulin sensitizer that exerts effect through PPAR activation. PPAR agonists, such as rosiglitazone, increase the sensitivity of muscle and adipose tissue to insulin.
For Vaginal Discharge
An essence of spruce is made from a decoction of young branches that becomes thick and concentrated as it boils down. This viscid, molasses-like liquid is bitter and astringent in flavour. It is terrific for vaginal discharge, prolapsed uterus, or hemorrhoids; administered as a douche or enema.
For Scurvy
Spruce beer was very popular, and rationed on sailing ships in the 1800′s to prevent scurvy. Spruce beer was used by James Cook on his second Pacific voyage to British Columbia. It is suggested in popular literature that this was a pine, fir, spruce or eastern cedar, and the content of vitamin C helped relieve scurvy for his ill crew in 1536.
The Abenaki infused the green cones and gum resin to treat frequent urination. Tinctures of the gum are a useful diuretic and stimulant.
For sore throat
The female cones can be decocted and water used for mouthwash for canker sores, gumboils, infections and toothaches. The small immature cones were chewed by the Cree for sore throats, while the tender young tips are peeled and eaten to prevent shortness of breath, or held in the mouth to treat hypertension, or heart problems. The Chipewyan boiled the young cones, NAJULI, for mouth infections, sore throats, tooth ache or to clear mucus from the throat.
For Skin
The Saulteaux boiled the cones and drank the liquid for dry, scaly skin. Hot water extracts of black spruce bark show benefit against psoratic keratinocytes, suggestive of psoriasis relief, in a study of numerous native Quebec trees by Garcia-Perez et al, J Ethnopharm 132:1 251-8.
For Wounds, Burns, etc.
It is a good medicine, for infected wounds, stomach-aches, etc. When boiled with spruce cones, water and lard, the mixture turns pink and when cooled makes an ointment the Cree call PIKIM. This is used to draw infection from cysts or to soothe various skin rashes including chicken pox. The powdered gum is sprinkled on old infected open sores and ulcers to heal them. It was also made into a stimulating ointment and salve. Externally a needle tea has been used in a poultice for limb injuries or ailments and in a liniment for stiff joints and bruises or aching limbs. Externally it has been applied as a poultice for wounds, cuts, swellings, burns, skin ulcers, boils and abscesses. A tea of the needles is good for healing wounds and ulcers, and according to Jethro Kloss, good for stones in the kidney and gravel in the bladder. The pitch or sap can be used on burns and sores and is most effective as part of an ointment, tincture or salve. Spruce gum can be applied directly to wounds, or decocted for a stomach-ache. A salve for more severe wounds or burns requires a teaspoon of spruce gum with 50 grams each of sumac and St. John’s Wort flowers and 100 ml of vegetable oil, slowly simmered for a half hour; strained and cooled. A strong brew poured into a bath has good calming qualities. A vapour bath of the young shoots would be a good help for bronchitis.
As an anti-microbial
Research conducted in British Columbia by Ritch- Krc, Turner and Towers, found white spruce pitch to possess anti-microbial activity against E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans, and Aspergillus fumigatus. White spruce leaves and stems have been studied as both water and ethanol extracts. Activity against gram-positive bacteria, and mycobacterium has been observed. Conifer bark infusions are anti-fungal, and can be used for treating yeast infections. Norway Spruce salves show activity against MRSA and VRE (vancomycin resistant enterococcus) bacteria.
For Youthful Sexual function
Because enterolactone inhibits the enzyme that is responsible for converting testosterone into estradiol (a potent estrogen), men can reduce excess estrogen while simultaneously increasing beneficial free testosterone. Lignans may help prevent the binding of sex hormone-binding globulin to testosterone. Free testosterone becomes available for more youthful sexual function.
For Stress
The incense was burned to cleanse and protect against disrupting influence, and for inner peace. In the past and in the present time, spruce gum has been used as an aboriginal endurance medicine for running or other tasks that physically stress the physiology of the body.
Against Snow Blindness
Spruce is known to have been used for snow blindness. The upper shoots of black spruce saplings are split open by a fire, and the resinous liquid that oozes out is collected. This is then applied to the eyeball with a bird quill. It is said to be effective, but needs scientific confirmation.
As a beverage
Today, in Quebec, a carbonated drink called Bière d’epinette, is widely available in supermarkets. One of the most favourite drinks of forest and native peoples has been spruce beer.
For Immunity
Durzan suggests that arginine, and guanidino compounds may be even more important in helping restore balance to the immune system.
For Weight Loss
Norway Spruce shows lipase inhibition associated with weight loss and other digestive issues.
For PMS
The product at 50 mg daily dramatically reduces the incidence of hot flashes in menopausal women, in a study by Medicus Research.
For After-Birth Pains
The Dene decocted a fomentation from the boughs, and wrapped it around a mother’s waist to ease afterbirth pain, speed up delivery and loosen retained placenta.
As a Baby Powder
The dried, rotted spruce wood was finely ground and used as a baby powder.
Preparation
Spruce tea can be made from the needles of all of the spruces. Spruce buds, and tender new shoots, can be gathered in early spring and made into a brisk herbal tea. The early needles have a somewhat pleasant lemon citrus taste. A water tight gum for caulking canoes and Birch bark pails is made by boiling the gum in a wide mesh bag which retained the bits of wood and bark but allowed the gum to pass into the water. It is then skimmed from the surface and stored until a convenient time when it is mixed with cedar charcoal before applying. Spruce tea can be made by steeping fresh evergreen needles in water, that will be as potent with the both preventive & curative ascorbic acids as the ordinary orange juice. You can get it even more directly by chewing the tender new Spruce needles, whose starchy green tips are particularly pleasant to eat in the spring. Powerfully ascorbic spruce beer is made by boiling young twigs and cones of black or red spruce in water, with either maple syrup honey or molasses added then allowing it to ferment. A few teaspoons of needles brew into a tea that is as full of preventatives and curative ascorbic acid ( Vitamin C) as a fresh orange juice, when a cupful of boiling water is poured over them and allowed to steep for five minutes.
Category: HERBAL TEAS
