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Herbal Glossary | Medicinal Glossary | Herbal Preparations | Ayervedic Formulas | Chinese Formulas White Walnut
Scientific Names
Common Names
Parts Usually UsedInner bark, nuts, nut oil, and leaves Description of Plant(s) and CultureButternut is a native North American tree that grows to a height
of 50-75 feet. Its branches spread wide from the trunk and are covered
with smooth, gray bark. The leaves are alternate, large, and pinnate,
with 7-8 pairs of serrate, oblong-lanceolate leaflets. Male and female
flowers grow in separate catkins. The rough, deeply furrowed, fruit
is an edible, pleasant-tasting, egg-shaped, kernel in a hard, dark
nutshell. Where FoundFound from New Brunswick to Georgia, westwards to the Dakotas and
Arkansas. In rich woods. Medicinal PropertiesAnthelmintic, cathartic, fruit is tonic, leaves are alterative, bark
is laxative, husks of nuts are vermifuge Biochemical InformationJuglon (also called nucin or juglandic acid), essential fatty acids Legends, Myths and StoriesThe unripe, half formed fruits of Butternut, make fine pickles, so
the old herbalists claim. The sap makes a fine sugar; the leaves,
bark and unripe fruit make a dye that is chocolate-brown and was used
by the South during the Civil War as a dye for soldiers' uniforms.
Often referred to as the butternut uniforms of the Confederacy. UsesButternut has a soothing, tonic laxative particularly suited to chronic constipation. The bark or the unripe nut will expel worms, parasites, and is used for feverish colds and flu. Used for dysentery, diarrhea, and liver congestion. The leaves or green husks of the nuts taken as a tea is used in the treatment of eczema and other skin diseases. Native Americans used the bark for rheumatism, headaches, toothaches, wounds to stop the bleeding,
promote healing. Oil from the nuts is used for tapeworms, fungal
infections. Juglone, a component, is antiseptic and herbicidal,
some anti-tumor activity has also been reported. The quills or inner
bark are potent laxatives that are safe to use during pregnancies. Formulas or DosagesDecoction: use 1 tsp. bark with 1 cup water. Take 1 cup a day, cold, a mouthful at a time. Syrup: boil 1 lb. of bark in water. Evaporate the solution down to 1 pint. Add a lb. of sugar and boil until the desired consistency is reached. Take 1 tbsp. at a time. Tincture: take 1-15 drops, 3 times a day.
Resource LinksMayo Clinic - Cholesterol: Top 5 foods to lower your numbers PubMed.gov: Antihypertriglyceridemic effect of walnut oil. PubMed.gov: Blood cholesterol and walnut consumption: a cross-sectional survey in France. Bibliography
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Butternut
American Folk Medicine
, by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973
, by Steven Foster and James A. Duke., Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000Copyright © 1996-2010 Lynn DeVries, all rights reserved.